Comments on: On Timeless Software: Pace Layering and the SAP Software Architecture

By: On Timeless Software | Too much to do, too little time to do it in

On Timeless Software | Too much to do, too little time to do it in — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:42:52 +0000

[...] blog entries from leading analysts like James Governor of Redmonk. His recent blog entry – "On Timeless Software: Pace Layering and the SAP Software Architecture" intrigued me on three [...]

By: Acquiring, everyone’s doing it – SAP Buying Sybase – Quick Analysis

Acquiring, everyone’s doing it – SAP Buying Sybase – Quick Analysis — Fri, 14 May 2010 01:30:03 +0000

[...] –James Governor on applying Pace Layering to SAP [...]

By: Coté's People Over Process » Acquiring, everyone’s doing it – SAP Buying Sybase – Quick Analysis

Thu, 13 May 2010 20:20:22 +0000

[...] Moving the Giant I would argue that timeless software is an idea whose time has come: keep the base stable but innovate at the edges. The most successful businesses are those that best manage the balance between unstructured and structured process innovation. What is evolution, after all, if not an exercise in pace layering? –James Governor on applying Pace Layering to SAP [...]

By: Design thinking: the next gen apps frontier? | Irregular Enterprise | ZDNet.com

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:51:45 +0000

[...] business, turning it into a virtue. In contrast it is easy to see how SAP is conflicted with its pace layered approach to software development. Meanwhile, the Enterprise 2.0 mavens throw people into the mix reminding us that it is people who [...]

By: SAP TechEd 2009: Open Thinking

SAP TechEd 2009: Open Thinking — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:14:15 +0000

[...] whizzing around the outside and wondering how SAP will square the circle. It’s something James Governor dubs ‘pace layering.’ This year, SAP ‘came out’ on that one with Jim Hagemann Snabe invoking the 15th century [...]

By: The Need for Timely Software – SAP TechEd 2009

The Need for Timely Software – SAP TechEd 2009 — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:07:32 +0000

[...] of things to come and the drawn-out proving of SAP’s notion of “timeless software,” or “pace layering,” as James likes to call [...]

By: People Over Process » The Need for Timely Software – SAP TechEd 2009

People Over Process » The Need for Timely Software – SAP TechEd 2009 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:31:59 +0000

[...] come and the drawn-out proving of SAP’s notion of “timeless software,” or “pace layering,” as James likes to call [...]

By: Miko Matsumura

Miko Matsumura — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:29:39 +0000

I absolutely loved your post, and have very similar thoughts about software time scales.

At Software AG, we have the ADABAS database system that is chunking away doing billions of transactions over decades. So the time scales are very important, the issues related to the “Clock of the long now” become relevant including data formatting and standards over these time scales.

But what strikes me about this discussion is exactly what was raised by Vishal.. the amazing architectural construct of evolvability.

when you look at DNA evolution, you see highly conserved regions but areas of high variability as well. Architecturally speaking it’s important to establish evolvability which I would argue is dependent on interface abstraction “cleaving planes”, which tend to bear weight and collapse over time.

So this means you need reliability, scalability, maintanability but you also need to be strategic. This is reminiscent of the relationshp between SOA, the stable platform of reusable services representing the DNA layer and the more “protean” layers of BPM, Business rules, composite applications, user interfaces, EDA, CEP, Web 2.0, Social networking and utilization patterns–but all on the surface without disrupting the fundamental understructure.

Virtualizing the understructure will be a phenomenally transformative aspect, but the key architectural issues relate to “correct abstraction and virtualization” aka what stays the same and what changes, keeping the hot side hot and the cool side cool

My 2 cents,
Miko

By: Nick Hortovanyi

Nick Hortovanyi — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 11:42:56 +0000

Good blog post James, but what about componentisation of transactions. How does SAP get the price point down?

Wrote a little blog entry here http://blogs.toasttechnology.com.au/roller/hortovanyi/entry/on_timeless_software

By: Vishal Sikka

Vishal Sikka — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:37:09 +0000

James, I was pleasantly surprised to read your thoughts and to see that you immediately got its significance. I have indeed coined the phrase timeless software to refer to our strategy of continuously evolving our software. I believe it addresses the fundamental issue of bringing innovation, including deep technical innovation, in a way that is non-disruptive to customers. With the vast breadth that our solutions cover, without breaking coherence, and given our long-lived relationships with our customers, often decades long, this is a central part of our strategy going forward.

As you observed, we see constant and furious change across all layers of the technology stack: from the fabric of processors, memory and network that grows non-linearly, to the ever accelerating changes that businesses go through, from UI technologies that frequently appear (roughly twice a year) to dazzle end-users, to even programming languages (a major new language shows up every 10 years or so, minor ones more frequently, less time than a mature application lives at a customer), change is the only constant. Timeless Software ensures that we continually bring innovation without disruption. SOA was the first step in doing so, our CRM is showing the way with decoupled UI and mobile experiences on top. BIA is showing elastic data management and more is on the way.”