Aggregated enterprise architecture wisdom
Open Group At our Scottsdale event in January this year, we launched the newest profession within The Open Professions Program, the Open Certified Data Scientist (Open CDS). Seven months later, we are very pleased to announce that we have certified the first group of certified Data Scientists – including seven certified at Master level.
Before describing the future Enterprise Architect, we will reflect on the current Enterprise Architect, one of their customers – a current line of business leader – and the strained relationship between them. For the sake of personalization, we will call the current Enterprise Architect ‘Archie’, and current line of business leader ‘Loretta’.
In the future state of Enterprise Architecture, the relationship between the two evolves towards one that is more productive and trusted. We describe what a future Enterprise Architect might look like and summarize the salient differences.
What an exciting event in the city of Denver, Colorado the week of July 22, 2019! If you were at this conference you would probably have noticed the breadth and depth of work happening in The Open Group and, as well, noticed the impact it is having throughout various industries. A lot of really great stuff is going on thanks to those members working on real issues best addressed through collaboration! Kudos to the Members!!
One of the things I heard from some Members, expressed as a “potential” issue, was work being done that might be considered overlapping. Specifically referenced was TOGAF® Architecture Development Method, the Digital Practitioner Body of Knowledge™ (DPBok) Standard, and Snapshot of The Open Group Agile Architecture Framework™ Standard. After giving this some thought I felt compelled to present the optimistic view of this based on my experience with The Open Group over three decades!
The Open Group hosted its latest event in the beautiful Mile High City of Denver, Colorado, at the Four Seasons Hotel, July 22 – July 25, welcoming approximately 300 attendees from 14 countries including Australia, South Africa, Brazil, Netherlands, India, UAE, and Denmark. The event’s theme, ‘Agile Architecture’, explored the intersection of Agile methodologies and Enterprise Architecture.
As organizations around the world pursue more agile ways of working to innovate, attract and retain customers, drive best-in-class operating efficiencies, and respond quickly to changing economic and regulatory conditions, the architecture profession must evolve to support and drive such outcomes.
In continuing over 30 years of publishing award-winning leading practice standards for IT, The Open Group presents the Agile Architecture Framework™ (AAF), a comprehensive revision of core architecture practices – updated to compliment modern, digital operating models and agile development methods.
Finally – A Body of Knowledge and Standard for Digital Practitioners! No, I’m not talking about practitioners of Digital Marketing; “Digital Experts,” “Digital Directors,” “Digital Marketing Managers”, “Digital Brand Managers,” etc. have been around for a couple of decades now…
I applaud the choice in the book “Managing Digital, Concepts and Practices” by Charles T. Betz “to NOT include dedicated chapters on “Project Management” and “Process Management.” Instead, more general chapter titles of “Coordination” and “Investment and Planning” were chosen. I like this because the more general terms get to what must be done and get away from the legacy disciplines that have been assumed to be the right and only way to get them done. In other words, I think we have lost the reason for employing legacy disciplines and they have become embedded, maybe even institutionalized, without accountability for adding value – especially through answering questions to support decisions. On the other hand, I do not feel that one should simply dismiss the goodness of legacy disciplines lest we throw the baby out with the bathwater!
The agile transformation of the enterprise is becoming a pre-requisite of an effective digital transformation project. This requires organizations to adopt a product-centric, outside-in perspective, evolving product and service portfolios – as well as business and operational models – to deliver value faster than ever before. All this, whilst being closely aligned to the businesses needs and objectives.
We spoke with Frédéric Lé, Technology Strategist, Corporate Technology Office at DXC Technology, in advance of The Open Group Denver 2019 event to learn more about how digital leaders and their teams can steer transformation, something he has coined ‘DigitAgile’.
So you’ve heard of us (who hasn’t?!), and you might even work with us, but do you really knowThe Open Group? We are a compact but passionate team who tirelessly work together and with our Members to achieve our goal of developing technology standards and creating Boundaryless Information Flow™.
So, to go back to basics, who are we and what do we do? Well, in short…
The Professional Petroleum Data Expo was held April in Houston by the Professional Petroleum Data Management Association (PPDM). This conference is one of several events this spring where The Open Group Open Subsurface Data Universe™ (OSDU) Forum unveiled a new standard in development that will facilitate movement of oil and gas company exploration, production, and wells data from in-house IT systems to cloud services.
The Open Group was a sponsor of the event, and had a presence in the exhibition hall. There was a steady stream of attendees with questions about the Open Subsurface Data Universe Forum, and about the emerging standard.
The Open Group hosted its latest event in Croke Park in the vibrant city of Dublin, April 29 – May 2, welcoming attendees that included decision-makers, Enterprise Architects, engineers, technologists and end-users representing many businesses and governments. The theme of this event and a topic which ran through many of the speaker sessions was ‘Digital in Practice’, covering not only the emerging digital technologies but also the standards, architectures and business frameworks that support and enable the transition to, and implementation of, the modern Digital Enterprise.
The number of individuals certified in the TOGAF® Certification Program as of April 2019 has reached almost 88,000, with certified individuals from 144 countries. This represents approximately 10,000 new certifications in the past twelve-month period since the latest TOGAF Standard, Version 9.2 was introduced, and certifications in five additional countries.