Enterprise Architecture

The craft of knowledge-work, the role of theory and the challenge of scale

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If enterprise-architecture is a kind of craft – part art, part science – then how do we get it to scale? Is it even possible to get it to scale? – because if not, the whole enterprise of enterprise-architecture itself…

From Sedimented Principles to Enabling Prejudices

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I have often asserted (on this blog and elsewhere) that principles are over-rated as a driver for intelligent action. However, that doesn’t mean principles are completely worthless. In this post, I wish to explore some of the ways in which principles may have some limited use within enterprise architecture.

I am going to identify four rough categories of principle. There may be other categories, and the categories may overlap.

1. Universal Truths
2. Governance
3. Style Preferences
4. Enabling Prejudices

This is a long post, and I think the final category is the most interesting one, so if you are short of time, please read that one first.

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Control, complex, chaotic

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What exactly is ‘the chaotic’ in enterprise-architectures? How do we work with it, design for it rather than ‘against’ it? Yeah, I know this is a theme I’ve visited often here, but to me it’s a challenge that’s right at the core of…

Some Thoughts on Outsourcing

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Link: http://dougnewdick.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/some-thoughts-on-outsourcing/

From Doug Newdick's Blog

I was discussing outsourcing with a friend the other day. I work in government IT, and outsourcing is used widely in government. He was discussing the tricky nature of being brought in as an independent vendor to the outsourcing vendor. What this brought up was something that is often overlooked in outsourcing deals, especially major ones. That is: any organisation that outsources a function (such as its IT) usually does so in the hope of saving money by shedding large amounts of staff. But, they usually don’t factor in that they will need additional staff with different skills to manage that outsourcer.

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Join us for The Open Group Conference in Sydney – April 15-18

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The Open Group is busy gearing up for the Sydney conference, which will take place on April 15-18, 2013. With over 2,000 Associate of Enterprise Architects (AEA) members in Australia, Sydney is an ideal setting for industry experts from around the world to gather and discuss the evolution of Enterprise Architecture and its role in transforming the enterprise. Be sure to register today! … Continue reading →

The Project Business Sprintlines

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This post is the fifth in a series of ten about real life experiences of using business model thinking as a foundation for planning and delivering change. Writing this post I’ve had the help of a true friend and admirable colleague (Eva Kammerfors) whom I’ve shared many of the referred to business model experiences with. […]

Business Architecture

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Tom Graves recently participated in an Open Group TweetJam on Business Architecture. You can read about the results of this at http://weblog.tetradian.com/2013/03/20/opengroup-on-bizarch/ Unfortunately I didn’t hear about this in time to participate but I thought I’d record my own thoughts here. The questions were: How do you define Business Architecture? What is the role of the business architect? What real world business problems […]

My First 180 Days as a CIO

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Hard to believe that time has gone so quickly in my CIO role.  On March 17, 2013 I have been the Director of Information Technology at the American University of Sharjah in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates for 180 days. It has been a huge change for me especially after spending 20 years at the British Columbia […]

The post My First 180 Days as a CIO appeared first on Enterprise Architecture in Higher Education.

Gaining Greater Cohesion: Bringing Business Analysis and Business Architecture into Focus

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I’m often struck by the common vision driving many members in the audience – a vision of building cohesion in a business, achieving the right balance between competing forces and bringing the business strategy and operations into harmony. However, as with many ambitious visions, the challenge in this case is immense. … Continue reading →