 Thank you. I've been involved with IT since 1988, so I'm probably an old relic Compared to a new relics, which is great software anyway Back in the 90s. I implemented facilities maintenance management systems Globally for the federal government and I used to go around to all the embassies high commissions around the world Putting these systems training the staff doing all those things that you had to do The first couple years I spent time going to Kuala Lumpur. Most people probably know as KL for short in Malaysia and It was great. Now since the first time I went there in 1991 I saw the old turf club turning to Patronas towers up there in front of you Now for those of you who aren't aware Patronas is Malaysia's national oil company So it's a it's a large outfit and you You probably may have seen a fellow international formula one racing. They're there advertising use our oil Now the company who developed the software that I specialised in said look next time you're going to Kuala Lumpur Can you go there and spend some time with the vendor and show them how you're using it for looking after? Facilities for building sites and complexes and things like that. I said sure love to that would be great And so it was all arranged. Well, I got to KL for short and I gave meringue and we organised a meeting Then they asked me said, have you got an opportunity to help us out with a presentation for a building complex? Now where the Australian High Commission is it looks right across to Patronas towers And I looked at them and I'm on the phone at the time I said this wouldn't be for Patronas towers by any chance would it and I said no Okay, because that would obviously need a bit more presentation time well, the big day came and we were meeting and I Get picked up and we start driving around the outside road to the other side of the complex And we end up a building on the edge of the construction So you probably set up in the old picture up there at the top of the three o'clock position looking right down on the construction site I said, okay, this is interesting Then we walk into the foyer and the first thing I see is one of those beautiful architecture models of Patronas towers And the next thing I see is the construction managers for Patronas towers and I'm getting a bad feeling about all this thinking Where is this going? well, it so happens that The company and software I specialized in was used for looking after petroleum industry products as well as factories and a whole range of other different sorts of software bits and pieces and So it was common for these guys to try and think in that context of our petroleum Patronas towers that that was it So we go we go in there, and I'm thinking this is they said no, it's all okay So I'm just taking the word on the guest here. So I just do what I'm told anyway We walk into this meeting that's rolling from all day long So they've got a group of consultants to come in to a presentation and then the next one comes in and this is happening all the way along through the through the day So what happens is we enter this meeting and a guy gets up and he starts talking and when the first minute He starts talking about how you're going to use the software for maintaining an oil facility They haven't read it right, and I'm thinking oh, this is not good I'm thinking we're gonna bend this really ugly situation and the other two he's asked me and said at the end of the meeting I'll I'll introduce you and you'll get a chance to speak to them as well and kind of like the last five minutes Now there's one challenge when it comes to talking about petroleum plants as opposed to building facilities and things They're completely different as bill are talking about fishing in the Arctic for tuna versus trout fishing the snowy mountains The only similarities are water hooks and fish and that's about it the rest is completely different So for 20 minutes, so I sat in that meeting and there I Had to not say anything because of all the cultural sensitivities and then the turns for me He says and I have mr. Mundy here from Australia who is going to share a couple words with you What could I say I Stood there and I'm there and I said thank you very much for coming I hope you enjoyed the presentation if you'd like to see demonstration of the of the software Please call the vendors. We'd love to show it to you. They'd love to show it to you What could I do? I was caught in our situation. It was my own personal Apollo 13 experience with a bad ending It really was But I always find it in life There's lots of things to learn and it was a great story to learn out this one And it goes like this. There was number one how the vendor was seeing things Secondly, there was how the specialist that was me was seeing things and how the potential customer was seeing it It was a different view So it's a story of understanding what people people see So the question is how do we view things a? Guy goes on a construction site. He works for a local magazine and He's there and he sees the site supervisor and he's got to do a little talk and presentation and write an article up And he says look I need to interview three people So he says sure just don't take too much time. So he comes this first guy who's willing a concrete a Concrete Barrow full of concrete and he says what are you doing here? He says I'm even concrete Writes a few notes go somewhere else around the round the site comes across a guy He's got a trowel in one hand brick in the other hand. He says So what are you doing here? He says well, I'm building the brick walls. That's what I do. That's my job Goes away. He writes a few notes And he comes to this last guy and this guy's got a different colored heart hat on He's got a paper rolled up. He says so what are you doing here? He says we're building a cathedral Now what we're talking about here is different views and different perspectives and People see things in different ways So there are things just to understand when it comes to view firstly. There's obviously what we what we see Secondly, there's what we think we see and 30. There's what we perceive So in this picture, what do we see? Thomas the tank engine, right? He's sitting on the rails. He's looking at us. We see trees and surrounds around us We understand that we all know that's most probably Thomas the tank engine or a good look alike in that sense What about what we think we see all right, I want everybody to get ready for an exercise This is really important. I want you looking at the screen Don't look to the person left the right of you and what I'm going to do after one two three You're going to yield out the first thing you see you ready looking at the screen three two one Put up your hand if you saw the rabbit first Okay, put up your hand if you saw a duck first Okay, who can now see both Okay It's interesting how our mind can play tricks and on us and to we start slowly observing things Then there's the what we perceive and this is a classic example of well We know icebergs above the water, but it's known It's not until we actually do some study and understand that they are actually a lot bigger underneath the water So what do I mean to this story about views? In our case as wordpress practitioners, we have to understand views and when it comes to technology We really love and hold the things about wordpress We need to make sure that we can understand the view that we're seeing may not be the view that others are seeing as well So to me the wordpress community of people probably falls into three camps. We have Number one builds and maintainers there'll be people like plug-in or theme developers site support services and other additional services on there Thirdly, I call them buyers the second group. Sorry. Secondly the group buyers Buyers is anybody who's taken up that proposition say hey, I'm going to start using this tool and then thirdly are users Those who come to a website order something They come to read a blog make a comment. So there are three groups How we view wordpress is Determined on what camp we've come from and there is nothing wrong with that But there is a challenge for us in this room in particular those who provide wordpress as a solution And I call it attention There's what we know we understand about wordpress and this comes from our personal skills and our knowledge and what we've grown with the product and Secondly, there's what we need to share with our customers about what we know about the product itself So now we have to talk about the customers What are they saying? Well, when a customer has a problem or opportunity and technology involves is usually three things Some see a problem that needs to be fixed Other see something as a means to an end and thirdly some see it as an enabler to solve a problem So what we're dealing here with is a thing called view points How we see things from our point of view and how the customers see things from their point of view Can sometimes be completely different however When it comes to this area of view points There is an enemy and we have to be so careful of this enemy because they can damage the customer and Our reputation and dealing with So who is this enemy? Are you ready for it? Well, it's us and it's me We run the risk of not getting the customers viewpoint correct in helping them understand about what we're offering As our solutions. So we have to be very carefully careful of this. I Remember as a junior design Design draftsman here working in Sydney in Mill Perot for the company that made general electric refrigerators air-conditioning and cooling systems The general manager comes down to us one day and he says to he says boys before you go out on the shop floor Think about your design go out there speak to the people who make the equipment Go back inside do some more designing Then go back take your design to them and they'll tell you whether or work or not So it's an important point there of listening and understanding What the customer has to say and how they see things? So too many times it comes to WordPress we get taught we get wound up in the capabilities and things that offers and it's great I mean, it's one of the best tools out there So we can be our own worst enemy to us and our customers So what's the tool that we can use to sort of overcome this barrier and sort of help guide us in the right area? So that we can make Some really good logical choices and decisions for us and our customers I say it's architecture And you say what architecture now I call it the skill of designing something that is artful Functional manageable serviceable and enduring in other words designing something that looks good Is easy and logical to use Can be easily managed and serviced And it lasts a long time We care about architecture as it allows us to develop logical consistent approaches To deliver your solutions for our customers When you have an architecture it gives you three things number one It's going to provide you with a useful context to developing solutions and making good decisions Secondly, it's going to help you understand the capabilities needed for the future And thirdly, it provides you the best possible solution that will be artful Functional manageable serviceable and enduring so the customer is able to do what they will need to do So how do you get this? Well by creating a target architecture In other words, we need a target to aim at A tool to help us design something that will be able to meet all those goals that we want So what's an example of an architecture? Well at the beginning of July My wife and I decided to come to Sydney by train really it was my choice And the reason being it's the last time I came to Sydney I paid a good seven dollars or whatever it was to sit in the M5 tunnel on the south side And sit in a traffic jam for 40 minutes and I said that's it Well, we arrived at Central Station on our little journey and I think it's an amazing place I grew up in Sydney so we used to come here a lot and And that's why why it is anyway on our way back to Canberra We had to go through the station again. I took some time to take some pictures I looked around and came across some presentation boards So we then went downstairs and and grabbed a grab the coffee And so I'm down there and I had that you know that each day had to be scratched Oh, tell me about this how this all happened And here's what I had what I found out. I had that oh my goodness I couldn't believe this especially when we're talking about architecture here as well So it goes like this if you aren't aware So in the late 1800s a Queensland railway draftsman moved to Sydney to take up a job working for the railways Now he completed his studies in engineering and was soon promoted to engineer Sydney was growing the rail system was overstressed So they need to do something and do something for the future So the engineer submitted his design and came up with a three fold plant. You're going to love this He said number one develop a hub and spoke model. That's my modern talk on it using a central station Secondly he came up this plant develop a railway city circle to service the heart of the city Heart of Sydney And thirdly he said build a bridge across the harbour so trains could service the northern suburbs and allow trains to go to the northern beaches Yes, the beaches Now the guy who architected this was none other than John Bradfield Who was better known for his design of the harbour bridge and you probably have heard his name in that context before But did you know about the other stuff? Can you see the three problems that Bradfield was solving? Well number one he was bringing together a geographically disconnected rail network for easy access Secondly he was providing a platform for wait for it great technology term into operability Across Sydney the harbour bridge motor vehicles trains trams cyclists pedestrian ship all could facilitate and use this service And thirdly he was providing greater access to more places around Sydney So how did he do it? Well? He used existing design patterns And typically the big one was Underground tunnels allow trains to get to get in the not get in the way of above the ground I think mr. Slide the heavy Okay, he used he used existing design patterns And underground tunnels to allow the trains not to get away above ground And secondly he utilised the natural elements Of Sydney's sandstone and the wonderful foundation for building strong and stable tunnels And thirdly he incorporated proven processes There Where people could flow from going underground to get above on top of that the platform So the other thing about what he did too was if you have a look at the design that was put in place It's endured and it looks great and that's how central station is So what is this thing called a target architecture? He was aiming for something. It was going to be built over a long period of time Well having a target architecture for building Wordpress solutions is probably like having a brilliantly designed Sydney rail network designed in the early 1900s over a 50 year period Functional interoperable and usable scalable extensible. That's what they're doing on it now And integrated so that people can flow from all the transport systems of buses trains trams and ferries all into one so A target architecture is a view of a future state or something to be Or being developed So when it comes to wordpress, there is there is no one target architecture Okay, however There are ways to develop a target architecture particular to your needs and your customer's needs So let's look at the foundations for building a target architecture starting with the fundamentals Funnily enough, you might be thinking this is a gee whiz. Wow technology solution, but it's not A target architecture has three leagues vision values and principles and these guide the architecture So by having a vision values and principles around how we develop wordpress solutions What we're doing is we're setting ourselves up for success So how do I do this? Well, you start by doing some detective work about your own desired architecture And then when you've got a few understanding for that you can also start looking at your customer's architecture Now it sounds very meaty, but it's actually a really worthwhile exercise And look, here's what's worked well for me. I'm developing myself a project And eventually allowed to take it to market one day. And here's how I've done it I've worked out what I wanted for the vision for my project that fitted in with my goals And secondly, I've determined the what the requirements are That I need for that and I've put those back that those key activities into a mind map And then I've built a wordpress prototype assessing plugins based on my values and principles You'll see that in a minute So you set a target architecture In its own right So let's see how this is done with the work of a vision All right, like breadfield and his train problem. He was trying to solve You have to have a vision All right, his is a fully graded integrated train network at people called access across the city Now for you, you're going to have to have a vision for what you want to do with your architecture Really important Now for your customers, you're going to have to find out what their vision is And say if it's a greenfield site find out what architecture can help them Or they may already have an architectural model for their business Typical questions that come up when you've trying to find out this vision stuff What is the problem you're trying to solve? What is the problem you're trying to solve? What do you want this thing to do? Whether it's a service or it's an app or whatever or website Saying two to three five years from now The second question is why do you want to do it? You can't ask a what question without a why question and vice versa And the third thing is where do you see your business going over that period of time as well So when you get the answer to these questions, you can start working backwards And start seeing what's needed and look at things in a practical way So what's worked well for me is having a thing called a baseline architecture So that's the base where we start from and then looking forward And helping other people I can then determine what's going to be a target architecture to help them So ask questions about the vision and using your target architecture You're going to see whether WordPress capability can meet that vision So here's a way to assist you there. So here's that point I'll talk about number one Depending if it's you or your customers look at your own organization client or vision Understand the stuff there Secondly from the vision statement put together a high level view of key functions And thirdly assess key components required to achieve the functionality in mind Aligning it with the vision as well So this is all done in conjunction with part of that three-legged stool. I was talking about So this is just one part of it. But while we're moving to the other leg of the stool Let's talk about values Or when it comes to values corpora corporations rely on them to shape how they do things Now values are fundamentally a belief system. It's what the organization believes in I had one of those aha moments as a junior Architect and I went to the boss and said Where do we get the corporate values from and she was so nice. She said to me says have you had a look in the annual report? That'd be a great place to start She knew full world where they where they were but today most corporations organizations have been plastered on their website What they believe in So how do values affect technology architecture? Well, let's go back to the wordpress play back playbook Just so we can understand how they express it Okay, and we have looked at these two key statements in bold. It says we believe Great software should work with a minimum setup So you can focus on sharing your story Secondly, we believe in democratizing publishing and freedoms that come with open source Whenever you see that we believe that's a value statement people are after that information So as a practical example, how could we do that? all right, say that you've gone and put a submission in to nikey you know the sportship people And you've won a job to actually develop a specialized website for them How would you start trying to get and understand what they want in a system and that aligns with their values? And this is really important. Let's have a look at those nikey values First of all, you need to get to know the values Intimately Have a good mind about studying it inside out and get to know we use that to do this all the time with government stuff all the time The second thing is you have to get ready to do some aligning of things like systems qualities like Designability usability security learnability now this architecture thing actually does get messy believe you me And what's going to happen is your role is to turn chaos Into beauty and you need some sort of mapping exercise to do that So what we have to do Is we have our system qualities there the third thing to do which brings in this messiness is we have to do a mapping exercise and bring them all together Now see where they start aligning and picking off different things you can see there Easy to learn master the fundamentals. They're really big on that wanting people to get things early So you're looking and seeing what they expect in their systems. Why do we do this stuff? We think oh, this is just all words and stuff because at the end of the day the shareholders And also in the parliament the senators will come back and say so how did this align with that? It always comes back. So your job or our job is to make sure that we get this stuff, right? All right So to get to the core values, you'll have to dig around and when designing solutions understand how your proposal will align with their values All right, so here's a food for thought. What are your values? And here I put some together which you may want to consider okay You need to understand your own values before you can understand someone else's values Our customers deserve the best platform for solution. That could be one We recommend the best solutions that will endure over time. That could be another one We believe in Australia and recommend Australian services. That could be another one So there's some values to think about But lastly, what about principles? Well We always need a compass to go in the right direction And we all need direction. Now if you don't think you need direction, then you're at the wrong train platform WordPress principles are found in its philosophy And we see there out of the box design for majority decisions not options drive for simplicity deadlines on arbitrary the vocal minority our bill of rights Really important that someone like WordPress has actually put them up there as a good guide for us to think about as well So how do we use principles? Well, let me show you from my experience how I use principles to choose hosting that I use for wordpress Well principles have been a key Factor in me determining from day one how I move forward with wordpress And so well in my journey I started hosting in the us as probably many of you may have done The price was right. Hey the internet was the internet. So why not? Well as my business portfolio grew of customers I was looking after I was also doing work with privacy for data for the federal government and parliament of australia And hosting came up on the radar in terms of keeping information in australia Now my us hosting provider had a really great chat service And they decided to move stuff to this indian subcontinent to keep up with the you know the daylight hours More or less, but there were some challenges became frustrating. It's still a great company But it was a trigger for me to say hmm. I think I might start looking at some other opportunities so Thinking about that too is also saying you know what this is going to be really awkward exercise as well So I started developing my principles And here's what I came up with okay hosting the website had to be in australia had to be 24 by 7 support Support had to be easily contactable. It had to be shared Hosting and potentially dedicated services And I had to have experience in wordpress It wasn't till I came to word camp in 2011 that I met alan harris from from wp hosting And I asked alan why would I host in australia versus why would I host in the us? alan gave me several good reasons and one being that google preferences local hosting so I thought well why not so From there I put my one of my websites as a prototype with wp hosting And then over time I eventually moved to a dedicated service with them So we have some an excellent working relationship and it's great to be helped to talk to someone via help desk or the phone And that has worked really well for my business following that principle That's an infrastructure or a wordpress type principle What about other principles about how you determine what plugging am I going to use? Okay, what about what theme am I going to use? I've gone through all those different things in those different areas making decisions based on principles I sometimes get it wrong. I'll be honest about that I've looked at some sizes up and then all of a sudden well that didn't work very well did it But as long as you have a guiding set of principles, you're going to have a compass to help you in the in the future So to sum up the three-legged stool vision values principles use these as a guide to developing a target architecture for you and your customers Today, we're really scratching the surface of technology architecture however My goal is to show you that building stuff that's going to be valuable For a long time requires three key elements. Number one is you need to see From the customer's perspective what they need to see. Okay The second one is establishing models for building your own target architecture for a baseline Then thirdly Building enduring solutions for customers and yourselves Based on proven tried and tested architectures you have developed WordPress has the ability to solve Many problems and it's up to you how you apply it to the situation hand Use it respect it. It's a really powerful tool But make sure how you use it and how you project it and how you put forward to help someone else's solution Is something that's going to last and endure for a long time Any questions? Thank you very much Chris. I'll um got some mics here if anyone Has any questions? Can you please throw your hand up now and we'll run a mic out to you? Awesome stories. Chris. I really enjoyed your storytelling style. Um, has anyone else got some yep Have you got a template for us about how to pitch for the government projects? Pitching the government contracts is really interesting There's a whole lot of boxes you have to tick off But if you go to os tender, I think they've got a lot of the templates there If you're not familiar with that and they put jobs up there all the time Number of bigger Canberra agencies who do that sort of work and do it all the time and do it very well And are in are in that space. So os tend is a great place to start And you can look at see how you do it there So it's they've got a number of things that have to be done in terms of meeting social obligations as well That's okay. So you just head down that path and They they always always make sure if you're going for a government contract that you answer the questions the way that they've got them there All right, a bit of a black up at once you get the style. It's all I make sense And it's actually quite simple because I know recently you've been helping out some evaluations for the tender for a department And some people just went off and Planet X And they had to answer the question that was there and it would have been easy. So yeah Follow that. There's also a digital Marketplace these days set up by the digital transformation office Yes, where there's a whole bunch of service providers and the government Just comes and picks people off there for pre-approved services Any other questions out there? Throw your hands up. We've got a few minutes before we Break for the afternoon Nothing else. All right. Well, can you please join me in thank you and Chris