EA Voices – Page 685 – Aggregated enterprise architecture wisdom

Why projects fail? Hint – It’s not technical skills.

March 28, 2013 by Mike Rollings

A large area of concern for many Gartner clients is “How do I get a large organization to do new things, to collaborate effectively, and to improve overall delivery effectiveness?” This area is a huge focus for our Professional Effectiveness research – it not only applies to architects, but also to our entire constituency of […]

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Why projects fail? Hint – It’s not technical skills.

March 28, 2013 by Mike Rollings

The equivalent of wget in PowerShell

March 28, 2013 by Anders Jensen-Waud

Lately I have been using PowerShell on Windows to script and automate a number of system administration tasks. PowerShell is Microsoft’s next generation replacement for good old CMD.EXE and it borrows a lot of powerful concepts from shells and scripting environments such as Ksh, Perl, and Tcl. The probably biggest difference between PowerShell and the …read more

EA Effectiveness Series: Highly Impactful EA Organizations Make Value Driven Decisions

March 28, 2013 by Mike Walker

A big thank you to all the folks that came to my presentation at the Troux World Conference last week. We had a full room of enterprise architects and EA consultants. Thank you for all your support and great questions….

Some Thoughts on Outsourcing

March 27, 2013 by Doug Newdick

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.

7 ways to present your business model

March 26, 2013 by BizzDesign Staff

One of the main challenges for business model innovation and business model implementation is communication. We need to get the message to the right people in a way they understand, that they like and that they can move forward with.We introduced the <a title=”Blog: Business Models: Do the right thing” href=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/blog/business-models-do-the-right-thing/#Do the right thing vs doing the things right”>Business Model Canvas</a> (Osterwalder, 2009) as a useful tool for describing how a business creates, delivers and captures value. We described how to apply it in practice and how analyzing the model helps you answering several questions regarding whether and how your organization is, or will be, viable and valuable. In this posting, we will describe different ways of communicating business models. Several ways of presenting will be described, addressing different goals regarding the communication of your business model.We re-use the case of a coffee-cup company, called Nextpresso that we introduced in aour earlier posting on <a style=”line-height: 19px;” title=”Blog: Business Models: Do the right thing” href=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/blog/business-model-analysis-with-the-business-model-canvas/#Do the right thing vs doing the things right”>Business Model Analysis</a>. We will present several possibilities for presenting business models using the tool <a style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;” title=”Tool for business model canvas creation” href=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/tools/business-model-canvas-module/#Business model canvas software”>BiZZdesign Business Model Canvas Software Tool</a>. Using a tool for Business Modelling is useful since the model is created and stored in a central place, reducing the risk of miscommunication and maximizing the effect of collaboration. Furthermore, communication is made easier through publication functions (html, word, pdf-posters), making the business model better accessible.<h3>Stakeholders, views and viewpoints</h3>There are various questions to ask yourself before you start communicating about a business model. Of course you need to understand your stakeholders, preferably in person, so you know their preferences. If you do not know your intended stakeholder in person, it’s always harder to make an engaging view. Do what you can to understand their role and what is typically in focus for this role. An important challenge is to leave out unnecessary details and make it simple…Obviously, what you present in the business model itself may vary. For instance leave out or add details or use coloring to distinguish AS-IS from TO-BE elements. You may want to select only some elements to show and zoom in on the relations between two or three parts of the business model. Another option is to present certain analyses, as we refer to in our posting on <a style=”font-size: 10.909090995788574px; line-height: 19px;” title=”Blog: Business Models: Do the right thing” href=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/blog/business-model-analysis-with-the-business-model-canvas/#Do the right thing vs doing the things right”>Business Model Analysis</a>.The two most important communication questions of all:- What is my communication goal?- What will make the most sense to my audience? <a style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;” title=”solve complex problems with simple pictures” href=”http://www.thebackofthenapkin.com/”>Dan Roam</a>’s so called <a style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;” title=”back of the napkin the book” href=”http://www.danroam.com/the-back-of-the-napkin/”>SQVID-exercise</a> (click on “5 focusing questions”) is a simple tool that helps you to make decisions on this!Communication to various stakeholders in your organization requires view mechanisms and various presentation options. Most of the 7 ways to present your Business Model, are generated with BiZZdesign software.<h2>7 ways to present your business model </h2><h3>1. Business Model as art</h3>If your idea is great, it has to look great. If you want to go to an Angel Investor or want to convince your first customer, everything you can do to impress them should be done. You never get a second change to make a first impression. Graphical work or drawings are a great way to make more happening then just your content on post-its would have done.ApproachFirst you make a business model and decide what is your goal and target audience. Second your go out and find yourself a great artist with a good sense for business. Her will make a prototype that you test with one person of your target audience. If they like it, you finalize. Make it look exclusive and don’t make too many copies. It’s art! Be aware that aiming for the best looking model can be time consuming.Example <div class=”captionImage left” style=”width: 600px;”><img class=”left” src=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/assets/BlogDocuments-2/Business-model-communication-art.png” alt=”Business Model Canvas Communication” title=”Business Canvas Pepijn Barnard” width=”600″ height=”588″/>Business Model Canvas illustration (by <a style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px; font-weight: normal;” title=”Business Model Canvas” href=”http://www.pepijnbarnard.nl/102838/588757/illustration/business-model-canvas”>Pepijn Barnard</a>)</div> Another graphical approach can be found here (in Dutch). Sketching and drawing also can be a good way to represent your business model. <a title=”Business Model Canvas Nespresso” href=”http://businessmodelsinc.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/nespresso_businnes_model.png”>This drawing</a> looks very similar to our Nextpresso example. <a title=”Business Model Canvas Amazon” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_NS021FqASSU/SoQDzijbZTI/AAAAAAAAAGE/rDqyeTwFVgo/s1600-h/Sellaband_Business_Model.png”>This</a> one is quite busy, but holds a lot of information.<h3>2. Posters</h3>Pdf-posters do very well in hallways and your office. It will be inviting to react on such a poster and it fosters discussions. Posters are very useful in ‘proclaiming the gospel’ and generate ideas on how to create new gospels. <div class=”captionImage left” style=”width: 440px;”><img class=”left” src=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/assets/BlogDocuments-2/Business-model-communication-pdf-poster.png” alt=”Business Model Canvas Communication PDF Poster” title=”Business Canvas Pepijn Barnard” width=”440″ height=”315″/>Communication about your business model canvas by creating a poster</div>ApproachLooks are everything! Presenting your business model in a beautiful design makes it inviting to look at – and react upon. Therefore, make sure to use clear statements, easy-to-read fonts and a high resolution. After looks, speed is a good second. Generating the poster right after the high-energy workshop session keeps everybody enthusiastic. Location is key! Hang the poster close to those that made it, since you might want to explain elements or give some guidance to discussions that pop-up in front of the poster.3. Pitch presentationOutput using dynamic export to .ppt enables you to present your model and take your audience through the story from customer problem, via value proposition and revenue streams to key activities, resources, partners and costs. <div class=”captionImage left” style=”width: 600px;”><img class=”left” src=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/assets/BlogDocuments-2/_resampled/resizedimage600455-business-model-canvas-powerpoint.JPG” alt=”Business model canvas powerpoint” title=”You can export your business model canvas as a Powerpoint format” width=”600″ height=”455″/>Business model canvas exported to Powerpoint</div>ApproachAfter exporting your business model to a PowerPoint-presentation, you can customize the lay-out of your slide-deck. Use the house style of your company (to-be). Try using the endless possibilities in PowerPoint to substantiate your story and the point you want to make. <a title=”Ted talk Simon Sinek” href=”http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.htmll”>Start with why!</a> In the customer problem lies the reason you exist.4. Simple cut and pasteBy inserting a representation in documents or presentation in software like MS office tools, you can present (parts of) your Business Model Canvas in other documentation to clarify your message, substantiate choices or share and generate ideas.ApproachTypically in a business plans a business model is expected. Also in project plans a business model will clarify the context. We advise not to trough the canvas direct in your audience’s face, but build it up, step by step.Example: You know <a style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;” title=”Wikipedia: cut-copy-past” href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut,_copy,_and_paste”>crtl-c, ctrl-v</a>…. we don’t think that this needs an example.5. Intranet pagesOutput in html is suitable for communicating your business model via the public company website, intranet, etc. Via intranet, employees have easy-access to the fundamental aspects of their organization. Partner with whom you collaborate on realizing your business model can als o be a potential target audience. A benefit is that you audience will only see those details, that they are interested in, by simply clicking on the boxes. <div class=”captionImage left” style=”width: 600px;”><div class=”captionImage left” style=”width: 600px;”><img class=”left” src=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/assets/BlogDocuments-2/_resampled/resizedimage600316-Business-model-communication-html-output.png” alt=”Business model canvas in HTML” title=”How you can export your business model canvas as a HTML format” width=”600″ height=”316″/>Business model canvas settings for export to HTML</div></div><div class=”captionImage left” style=”width: 600px;”><img class=”left” src=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/assets/BlogDocuments-2/_resampled/resizedimage600320-business-model-canvas-HTML-report.JPG” alt=”Business model canvas in HTML” title=”You can export your business model canvas as a HTML format” width=”600″ height=”320″/>Business model canvas exported to HTML</div>ApproachBefore generating an HTML-report, think about the goal of your report. What should your report consist of? What will your starting page look like? A cascading stylesheet helps to simply generate a intranet page in your companies house style.6. Word-reportsGenerating an RTF-report for MS Word, to present models that contain a lot of information, in which the documentation of the model is included in the report. Presenting the canvas itself is in most cases sufficient. However, when a lot of documentation is used to substantiate choices, this function is very useful for communicating this rationale behind your business model. <div class=”captionImage left” style=”width: 600px;”><img class=”left” src=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/assets/BlogDocuments-2/_resampled/resizedimage600315-Business-model-communication-link.png” alt=”Business Model Canvas Communication PDF Poster” title=”Business Model Canvas RTF report” width=”600″ height=”315″/>Communication about your business model canvas by creating a RTF report</div>Approach We advise A3 landscape to present canvas models to keep element readable. After generating an RTF report for MS Word, it is important to customize the report. The documentation is reported in tables, intended to improve the readability and analyzability of the business model and it’s documentation. Make sure this will be the case for your model, since big models come with big communication challenges! As for HTML-reporting, several settings can be adjusted in the BiZZdesign Business Model Canvas tool. 7. Implementation view e.g. using ArchiMate 2.0A business model typically is a starting point for implementation. Implementations are about finding the first customer, pivoting the model and eventually get your processes and supporting IT in place. <a title=”Consultancy Enterprise Architecture” href=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/consultancy/enterprise-architecture-management/eam-consultancy/#Do the right thing vs doing the things right”>Enterprise Architecture</a> is a proven instrument to help you in this journey. Transforming the ‘post-its’ in your Business Model Canvas into implementation concepts, e.g. using <a title=”ArchiMate for Enterprise Architecture” href=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/consultancy/enterprise-architecture-management/archimate/#Do the right thing vs doing the things right”>ArchiMate 2.0</a>, will help you translate your value propositions (and the way you intend to deliver these propositions to your customers) into your architecture models. The generated concepts can be added to your architecture repository and used to build roadmaps that will guide you from your AS-IS state, to your TO-BE state. BiZZdesign Business Model Canvas Software offers the possibility to generate architecture models from your business models and keeps track of relations and changes. Typically Enterprise Architects, Business Architects and project managers are interested in these views.ApproachThere is a standard mapping between canvas concepts and architecture concepts. You might want to adjust this by choosing from the concepts that your company has agreed to use, for instance in conventions. You can adjust the ‘implementation concept’ per ‘post-it’. Then you simply generate a set of architecture concepts (processes, applications, business interfaces, actors) that will form the basis for the implementation models.Example: <div class=”captionImage left” style=”width: 600px;”><img class=”left” src=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/assets/BlogDocuments-2/_resampled/resizedimage600442-business-model-canvas-example.png” alt=”Business Model Canvas Communication PDF Poster” title=”Business Model Canvas Example” width=”600″ height=”442″/>Communication about your business model canvas by creating a RTF report</div> <h2>Conclusions and next steps</h2>We described multiple ways to present a Business Model. Presenting your business model can foster discussions and improves the exchange of ideas. It is important to have everybody on the same page, before you go into implementation mode. Referring back to your original idea is of key importance. The artistic approach is great, but time consuming. Tooling is a useful aid in communicating your business model, making all kinds of communication and views easy. Feel free to share in your thoughts and suggestions on alternative presentations from your practice.BiZZdesign organizes<a title=”Training Business Models” href=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/training/business-model-management/#Do the right thing vs doing the things right”> training on Business Model Innovation</a> in London (UK), Brussels (BE) and Amersfoort (NL – <a title=”BiZZdesign the Netherlands” href=”http://www.bizzdesign.nl/training/business-model-management/”>see our Dutch website</a>). More about BiZZdesign’s Business Model Management services and a reference to recent webinars on this subject can be found <a href=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/consultancy/business-model-management/bmm-consultancy/#Do the right thing vs doing the things right”>here</a>.

At Unicom-EA 2013

March 26, 2013 by Tom Graves

Another week, another conference? Yes, I know it does sometimes seem a bit like that, but that’s part of what I do – getting the word out about enterprise-architecture, particularly at the larger whole-enterprise scope. This time it was in…

6 Conditions for Success

March 26, 2013 by Troux Staff

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Ben Geller, VP Marketing, Troux

At our recent customer conference we took a moment to share the common characteristics we see in our most successful customers. Since this was so well received by the conference attendees we thought it would be a good idea to share with a wider audience.

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Start with the end in mind. Seek business value and outcomes that materially impact the top and bottom-line. If delivering business value is not your top priority – it should be. Delivering anything less ensures your effort will be regarded as not being relevant. Ignore an approach that puts business value at it’s heart more than once and you can be sure your Enterprise Architecture (EA) program will be destine to sit on the shelf along with all of the enterprise models and charts that have been created. Our most successful customers always tie their efforts back to answering key questions business stakeholders want to address. Take a look at one of our recent blogs titled ‘Doing the Right Thing vs. Doing Things Right’ – for more details.
Gain the Right Level of Sponsorship. Another common trait we see in our most successful customers is their ability to obtain executive management support for their Enterprise Portfolio Management (EPM)/ EA initiatives. Executive sponsorship is absolutely crucial. Organizational change management is one of the hardest things in business. If you don’t have executive sponsorship, you just aren’t going to get the organization to change its behaviors. For an EPM/EA program to be successful, you need participation from people outside the EA program. The executive sponsor does not need to be an EA expert or even care about the discipline of EA. But he or she must care about the results. To read more about this condition for success see our blog titled ‘How to avoid common mistakes with your EA program – Part I’.
Start Small and Market Internally. A common mistake many EPM/EA teams make is based on a ‘Boil the Ocean’ approach to information gathering. Gathering and assessing data can be quite seductive. But if taken too far it’s the equivalent of modeling the universe, and it’s a recipe for disaster. In fact if we see any problem today in our deployments, it’s that people get so excited they want to gather all their data at once. It is also important to market your success internally. You secured support from the organization by promising something good for them, so make sure you go back and tell them you did it. Then the organization as a whole can share in your success. Read more about these success criteria in our blog titled ‘Just say no to modeling the universe’.
Collaborate Rather Than Dictate. In a recent Wall Street Journal (WSJ) blog¹ Michael Krigsman stated, “Modern CIOs must reconcile the gap between their role as protector of corporate information assets and the need to drive organizational innovation and openness. We all are quite aware that promoting collaboration inside a large organization doesn’t just happen; it requires a thoughtful plan, coordination, and effort. Enterprise Portfolio Management can help CIOs change the unwanted behavior that often is manifested by information hoarding and create a culture of collaboration by giving CIOs the means to shift the conversation from technology to business strategy and innovation. See our blog ‘Lessons Learn from Social Networking’ to read more about EPMs role in institutionalizing collaboration.
Seek Value Early and Often. Instant gratification is something we all have grown accustom. The same holds true for business. Programs and projects that deliver their intended results in short order are often viewed as benchmarks for other efforts to come. Delivering value early and often should become a key part of any EPM/EA project teams battle-cry. Our most successful customers have been able to go from project start-up to delivering quantifiable business results in a few short weeks. Take a look at the case study from Scottish Widows Investment Partnership – a 2012 InfoWorld/Forrester EA Award winner to see how they delivered results in just 12 weeks.
Institutionalize and Embed in Process. We have found that the organizations that achieve “best in class” results from their EPM/EA efforts are those that recognize that it is lifestyle change, not a one-time “crash diet. To make EPM/EA a lifestyle change rather than a crash diet, an organization must commit first to “instrumenting” the business to measure the performance and business value of key enterprise assets such as applications, technology, business capabilities, investments and information. By tying EA/EPM to key processes and initiatives such as application portfolio management, cloud migration, mergers and acquisitions, to name a few, EA/EPM teams will ensure the lifestyle change they deliver will have positive impacts across the enterprise. For more examples of how to embed EPM in key processes read our blog titled ’Application Portfolio Management: Crash Diet or Lifestyle Change’.

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

March 26, 2013 by Open Group

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 →

Case Experiences and Best practices Using ArchiMate® and TOGAF®

March 25, 2013 by BizzDesign Staff

Implementing Enterprise Architecture in any organization requires an effective method and a consistent way of modeling to build architecture models. The Open Group standards <a title=”proven, comprehensive and generic methodology and framework” href=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/consultancy/enterprise-architecture-management/togaf/#The Open Group Architecture Framework”>TOGAF</a>® and <a title=”open modeling language for architects to model and communicate Enterprise Architecture” href=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/consultancy/enterprise-architecture-management/archimate/#Architects need a unified framework to describe enterprise architectures”>ArchiMate</a>® are used worldwide to implement Enterprise Architecture. TOGAF® focuses on the method of implementing and maintaining Enterprise Architecture. ArchiMate® is an Enterprise Architecture modeling language standard. A lot of organizations in various markets worldwide use (a a combination of) these standards.On 28-March-2013 I will present a webinar via <a title=”Leading the development of open, vendor-neutral IT standards and certifications” href=”http://www.opengroup.org”>The Open Group</a> in which I will give an overview of some real-life case experiences in using ArchiMate® and TOGAF® for implementing Enterprise Architecture. The approach, deliverables and examples of the several case studies will be shared. Furthermore, practical do’s and don’ts in adopting ArchiMate® and TOGAF® will be discussed. Attendees of this webinar will benefit from the lessons learned, and will learn which aspects are typically important to consider when implementing Enterprise Architecture in any organization.<a title=”Register for this webinar” href=”https://opengroupevents.webex.com/ec0606l/eventcenter/enroll/join.do?confViewID=1003593497&theAction=detail&confId=1003593497&path=program_detail&siteurl=opengroupevents”>Registration details</a> for this webinar can be found on the Open Group website. <div class=”captionImage left” style=”width: 600px;”><img class=”left” src=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/assets/BlogDocuments-2/_resampled/resizedimage600255-Togaf-archimate-repository-reference-models.png” alt=”Togaf archimate repository reference models” title=”During the webinar Rob Kroese will explain TOGAF and archiMate” width=”600″ height=”255″/>ArchiMate® and TOGAF®</div>

Why Business Needs Platform 3.0

March 25, 2013 by Open Group

The Internet gives businesses access to ever-larger markets, but it also brings more competition. To prosper, they must deliver outstanding products and services. Often, this means processing the ever-greater, and increasingly complex, data that the Internet makes available. The question they now face is, how to do this without spending all their time and effort on information technology. … Continue reading →

The Project Business Sprintlines

March 25, 2013 by Jörgen Dahlberg

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. […]