Link: http://www.etc-architect.com/?p=42
From ETC-Architect » Architect Global | Data Architect, Global | Enterprise Architect, Global
Finally the majority of CIOs have understood that it is not possible to drive market innovation with all their assets and instead concentrate on a two speed and often even on more speeds in their IT departments. Since this means that there are parts of the business that will get what want very fast and others that will need to wait nearly forever at lot conflicts will resolve out of it.
However it is not the organisational conflicts or opportunities I want to focus, but rather the impact on architecture. First man architects will be involved on sorting out the deffintions what area will be put in what category as all areas requiring stability are likely to put on the slower lane, however none of the owner will want to see themselves as second class, so this requires a lot of analysis. After the initial cut usually most of architecture is then also associated with one of the two speeds as the challenges are quite different. Enterprise architects and all enterprise wide subject architects will be the hardest hit, as they will have to present at least two different standards in one entity, while still being able to manage the whole. The places that have already implemented this approach to a divided architecture had to come up with their frameworks and artefacts as none of the existing frameworks really offered this dualism needed. The lesson learned was that most architecture functions first started with a normal and a light approach on the existing frameworks. However since this really did not work as the business drivers where completely different they often ended up with not doing certain parts in agile development while still enforcing others according to the different strategic imperatives behind the two speed strategy.
So any architect working at a large enterprise should already think about what this could mean for him and try to network with those in the community that have lived or suffered through this transformation. Additional when an architect is just being asked to develop a roadmap the question whether a two speed IT is considered should at least being asked. Since communication of such a change is unlikely to the architects first usually an option will be build in the roadmap.
