Aggregated enterprise architecture wisdom
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’.
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.
Over the last ten years I have focused on cloud computing and seen increased adoption of cloud in enterprises. Companies large and small have adopted Software as a Service (SaaS) and traditional private/public PaaS/IaaS cloud services to expand their digital footprint. In doing so they depend increasingly on an ever-larger supplier community to obtain the digital support required to run their business.
Two years ago, a group of companies from seemingly disparate industries met in San Francisco to discuss the possibility of creating an open standard for process automation. With 30 different companies in attendance at that first meeting, the group quickly recognized the commonalities among them and the need for more flexible manufacturing solutions. Soon after, they launched the Open Process Automation™ Forum (OPAF) under the auspices of The Open Group® to begin work toward developing a standard that would address the common pain points manufacturers in process automation face today.
By Loren K. Baynes, Director, Global Marketing Communications, The Open Group The Open Group hosted its latest event in the Scottsdale Plaza Hotel, Arizona, January
For many of us, each new year is an occasion to look back at the previous year’s accomplishments, as well as look forward to what’s to come over the course of the next year. For the past three years since I took over the reins as CEO of The Open Group, I’ve made it a tradition to take advantage of the new year to do just this, as I’m sure many of you do both in your professional and personal lives.
With the passing of each year, I’m always struck not only by how quickly it goes by, but how many new opportunities arise throughout the year for The Open Group that none of us ever could have predicted. What’s nice for me, from where I sit, is that there is no shortage of new opportunities for us as an organization to do what we’ve always done—to help organizations come together to solve their business problems through open standards.
The Open Group, the vendor-neutral technology standards consortium, is hosting its upcoming event in Scottsdale, Arizona, January 28-31, 2019. The Open Group Scottsdale 2019 will bring together vendors and end user organizations to discuss ’Digital in Practice and the Supply Chain’. Hundreds of attendees are expected including, Enterprise Architects, engineers, technologists, and end-users representing many businesses and governments.
Practicing Enterprise Architects believe TOGAF®, a standard of The Open Group, continues to be well-suited to helping organizations develop the business and IT infrastructures they need to align their business strategies, organizational structures, and capabilities. However, TOGAF users are increasingly looking for additional guidance and industry specific use cases regarding how to use the standard in conjunction with new IT trends—such as Agile development and artificial intelligence—and to address digital and business transformation efforts.
In the past four years, the acceptance and uptake of Enterprise Architecture as an integrated and holistic approach to better citizen services and Digital Transformation in the Government and the public sector has been notable and significant.
Last month, Digital India had a significant milestone. The India Enterprise Architecture Framework, aptly called IndEA, was formally notified by the Government of India as a national standard. Needless to mention, for me the journey from development to notification has been challenging and extremely fulfilling at the same time, both at a professional and personal level. Ever since the success of ePragati in Andhra Pradesh, many Ministries, States, Departments, and other public sector entities have shown growing interest in enterprise architecture. The elevation and notification of IndEA as a national standard is absolutely a move in the right direction to accentuate and accelerate such activities.
Tuesday, October 39, the second day of The Open Group Singapore event, started with a discussion between Steve Nunn, President and CEO of The Open Group, and Dave Hornford, Managing Partner, Conexiam based on the Seven Levers of Digital Transformation White Paper which was published in 2017.