INTRODUCTION

The first part of this introduction is for the Kirks, Spocks, McCoys, and Scottys. As it gets more technical, the Kirks may want to skip directly to Section 1.3, from which point the content is more business oriented.

To Orchestrate is to organize the harmony and tempo of various instruments into a single impressive musical delivery, such as in Strauss's Blue Danube waltz. If the result is anything but impressive, the orchestration is not worthy of such a name. An Orchestrator differs from an Architect in that the latter designs something static, such as a house, a bridge, or a landscape, that is, something that doesn't vary in time. The Architect designs only the deliverable, not the process used to deliver it. An Orchestrator designs a delivery of music rendered in time, in the harmony and tempo needed to achieve a desired effect.

Orchestration is nothing but a modern metaphor that describes a well-known, but not very well understood, discipline: the automation of business process management. Traditionally, business processes were managed by people. Managers drove the steps that employees – with or without instruments or tools – needed to complete or fulfill a business process. This is analogous to an orchestration being managed by a maestro by keeping tempo, cueing in the different players, managing the intensity of what is being played, and conveying a style to the performance.