Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise Architecture: Reflections on My Journey of Becoming A Systems Thinking Enterprise Architect

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Although I have been practicing enterprise architecture for more than 10 years, I still find it challenging for me to explain to others what exactly I do.   I am a systems designer and engineer at heart, but not necessarily in the way in whic…

Enterprise Architecture: Reflections on My Journey of Becoming A Systems Thinking Enterprise Architect

by

Although I have been practicing enterprise architecture for more than 10 years, I still find it challenging for me to explain to others what exactly I do.   I am a systems designer and engineer at heart, but not necessarily in the way in which a typical IT function defines “systems.”    I feel what I do…

Patterns of intrapreneurs and great enterprise architects

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Reading Recognize Intrapreneurs Before They Leave – Vijay Govindarajan and Jatin Desai – Harvard Business Review, I was struck by the commonality between the intrapeneurs referenced in the article, and the best enterprise architects I’ve met, worked with.

Quite possibly, it is because really great enterprise architects are forward-thinking, creative, reflective and execution-capable.

The pattern match:

“Pattern #2: Strategic Scanning. Intrapreneurs are constantly thinking about what is next, one step into the future. These passionate change agents are highly engaged, very clear, and visibly consistent in their work and interactions. They are not sitting around waiting for the world to change; they’re figuring out which part of the world is about to change, and they will arrive just in time to leverage their new insights. Learning is like oxygen to them.

Pattern #3: Greenhousing. Intrapreneurs tend to contemplate the seed of an idea for days and weeks between calls, meetings, and conversation. As they shine more light on it, the idea becomes clearer, but they don’t yet share it. They know that others may dismiss it without fully appreciating it — so they tend to ideas in their greenhouse, protecting them for a while from potential naysayers.

Pattern #4: Visual Thinking. Visual thinking is a combination of brainstorming, mind mapping, and design thinking. Only after an exciting insight do intrapreneurs seem able to formulate and visualize a series of solutions in their head—rarely do they formulate just one solution. They do not act impulsively on a solution immediately, keenly aware of the need to honor the discovery phase for the new solution, giving it time to develop and crystallize.”

Models and reasoning-processes in enterprise-architecture

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Just how should we use models and frameworks in enterprise-architectures – particularly in the exploratory phases of architecture-development? What’s the best way to use them? And how do we prevent the frameworks from constraining our options in those processes? These…

On Enterprise Capabilities

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In enterprise change environments – be they driven by architecture, process improvement, supply chain transformation, or any other kind of organisational change – we often focus on capabilities. As an example: “Business capability” is the ability for the organisation to perform a certain function, process, or service in order to serve a particular market, client, …read more

Enterprise-architecture – which way forward?

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Which way forward for enterprise-architecture? It’s common to think of enterprise-architecture (EA) as a discipline that’s mainly about getting the best use of the organisation’s IT. Yet whilst, yes, most job-descriptions for EA these days will still revolve around some…