From punch cards to AI in the blink of an eye
…”A punched card (also punch card) is a stiff paper-based medium used to store digital information via the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions.”
…”Punched cards were widely used in the 20th century for data input, data output, and data storage. The IBM 12-row/80-column punched card format came to dominate the industry. Many early digital computers used punched cards as the primary medium for input of both computer programs and data. Punched cards were used for decades before being replaced by magnetic tape data storage.”
…”One convention was to use columns 1 through 72 for data, and columns 73 through 80 to sequentially number the cards. Such numbered cards could be sorted by machine so that if a deck was dropped the sorting machine could be used to arrange it back in order.”
–Wikipedia
When I got to work for Australian Airlines, we could compile code in a matter of minutes from the program file we were working on.
We even had some terminals with FOUR COLOURS! That was just amazing.
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- I stayed with IBM mainframe using CSP (IBM’s 4GL), which I learned at Australian Airlines, when I moved to Brisbane in 1994.
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- I next skilled in Microsoft, learning Visual Basic and ASP;
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- then Java for a project at Queensland University of Technology’ Faculty Of IT;
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- then did some PHP because I started using Joomla CMS and later WordPress;
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- then Ruby On Rails for a start-up I was involved in.
Technology has come and awfully long way! I’ll always benefit for my technical background, but my focus the past fifteen years has been on business processes analysis, design and automation. That also uses my Process Architecture and Business Architecture skills.
I get much enjoyment now days from helping companies with Operational Efficiency and Costumer Service improvement. I tie the Business Architecture back to Business Strategy and that influences the process design, information design and application architecture. This is where I really excel and it can be immensely satisfying when I cut days off a timeline or vastly improve customer communications from a service process.
Looking back from where I am, I realise I have ridden waves of technology change. AI is of course invading the business landscape now and I have in the past year assisted a large company with preparations to use AI; considering processes, data, workflow automation, apps and hyper-automation.
AI Architecture is reliant on good Business Architecture and disciplined Technology Architecture. One day we may look back on the world of coding and apps much like we now do at these punch cards! Composable NO-CODE platforms are rapidly emerging and AI will really help with transitioning from legacy apps to modern NO-CODE composable platforms, workflow automation and hyper-automation with AI featuring as s massive enabler over these facilities.
Take a good look at those punch cards! Take a good look at the programmes your IT team is coding. The future is coming like an express train and both punch cards and reliance on programmers to create business systems will be relegated to the dim, distant past!
See more of my thoughts on business architecture, process improvement, business process design, process automation, CRMs, application architecture, modelling tools and application integration and workflow/business process automation at my blog at https://theprocess.expert.