Aggregated enterprise architecture wisdom
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 →
<p>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.</p><p>On <strong>28-March-2013</strong> 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.</p><p><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.</p><p> </p><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″/><p class=”caption”>ArchiMate® and TOGAF®</p></div>
Could companies go to jail? An odd-seeming question, I know, but I’ve been musing somewhat on the deeper implications of that strange legal fiction of ‘corporate person’… What started this off was that I went to the local HMV video-store,…
Really looking forward to this! Join us! The 4th Nordic EA Summer School (12.-16.8.2013) is for researchers, practitioners, industry experts and executives, development managers, and students as well as others interested in the field of enterprise architecture, who want to spend a week together and share and learn more about EA with more 100 experts and […]
In his latest article Ancient Wisdom teaches Business Processes, Keith Swenson reflects on an interesting story told by Jared Diamond. In short, the potato farmers in Peru used to scatter their strips of land. They kept them that way instead of amalgamating them which would seem like the most reasonable thing to do. This turned […]
Have you ever used your fingernail to turn a screw or the heel of your shoe to hammer a nail? I thought so. Didn’t work out so well did it? You used a workaround because, at the time, you didn’t have the right tool for the job. It’s the same thing when certain dynamic processes […]
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We live in “In the Age of the Customer” a time when he world’s leading companies look outward to emphasize a deep understanding of their customers, and what it takes to make their customers successful. They have come to realize that only when their customers are successful, will they be successful. As Sam Walton once […]
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Last week, I helped kick off OpenText’s EIM Days in Washington DC (the first of 22 cities we will visit) with a conversation around OpenText’s Smart Process Applications. Smart Process Applications are near and dear to our heart at OpenText as they encompass not just BPM and DCM technologies, but bring our integrated EIM portfolio (e.g., […]
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Do you remember when computers were hard to use? In fact it’s just nine years since a GM press release asserted that if they developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars that for no reason at all, would crash twice a day, shut down and refuse to restart. Since then Apple has showed Microsoft the way, and we all use smart phones, tablets and PCs that are genuinely easy to use and remarkably resilient.
Using a common business and IT concept permits sensible analysis of whether a service is just a unit of cost, or what the strategic value is now and in the future, and what it adds to the business value chain. Given so many line-of-business managers are thoroughly familiar with the very high technology in their smart phones and other devices, it really is time for IT to treat the business as a mature partner and for the line-of-business manager to take real responsibility for the business service as a whole product.
TEAR 2013 – 8th Trends in Enterprise Architecture Research Workshop The TEAR workshop is organized in conjunction with the 17th IEEE International EDOC Conference (EDOC 2013) 9-13 September 2013, Vancouver, BC, Canada *** Deadline for submissions: April 15, 2013 *** Motivation The international TEAR workshop series brings together Enterprise Architecture (EA) researchers from different research […]
<p><span style=”color: #505050; font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>The last few years have been tough for many organizations, especially in (the aftermath of) the global economic turmoil. Getting to grips with the complexity of doing business is increasingly important. Many of the problems that organizations struggle with have similar characteristics. Consider for example:</span></p><ul><li>Business transformation has major impact on the organization, from work floor up to (top) management, ranging from process, organization structure, data, and IT infrastructure</li><li>Various solution alternatives for business- and IT problems are available and viable. Which alternatives will we pursue?</li><li>Business Units have concerns that do not always align. Both for change projects and for business as usual we see BU’s competing to meet their own targets rather than keeping an eye on common goals</li><li>Etc.</li></ul><p>In these cases it pays off to use Enterprise Architecture methods! On<strong> 21-February-2013</strong> I will present a <a title=”Register if you would like to attent” href=”https://opengroupevents.webex.com/ec0606l/eventcenter/enroll/join.do?confViewID=1003476223&theAction=detail&confId=1003476223&path=program_detail&siteurl=opengroupevents”><strong>webinar </strong></a>in which I will show how <a title=”Specification TOGAF” href=”https://opengroupevents.webex.com/ec0606l/eventcenter/enroll/join.do?confViewID=1003476223&theAction=detail&confId=1003476223&path=program_detail&siteurl=opengroupevents”>TOGAF </a>and <a title=”Specification ArchiMate” href=”https://opengroupevents.webex.com/ec0606l/eventcenter/enroll/join.do?confViewID=1003476223&theAction=detail&confId=1003476223&path=program_detail&siteurl=opengroupevents”>ArchiMate </a>add business value. The combination of these open standards provides organizations with a balanced approach to EA with extensive tool support. <a title=”Register if you would like to attent the webinar” href=”https://opengroupevents.webex.com/cmp0307l/webcomponents/widget/detect.do?siteurl=opengroupevents&LID=1&RID=2&TID=11&rnd=3433236763&DT=60&DL=nl&isDetected=true&backUrl=%2Fec0606l%2Feventcenter%2Fenroll%2Fjoin.do%3FconfViewID%3D1003476223%26theAction%3Ddetail%26confId%3D1003476223%26path%3Dprogram_detail%26siteurl%3Dopengroupevents”>Registration details for this webinar</a> can be found in the Open Group website. If you are interested in the slides, you can download them on the right of this page.</p><p> </p><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/resizedimage600437-Agenda-Webinar-TOGAF-ArchiMate-Delivering-Business-Value.png” alt=”Webinar delivering business value with TOGAF and ArchiMate” title=”During this webinar we’ll teach you how to add value to your business” width=”600″ height=”437″/><p class=”caption”>Webinar Delivering Business Value with Enterprise Architecture Using TOGAF® and ArchiMate®</p></div></div>
A key ingredient to achieving Business and IT alignment is the development of a common lexicon that all parties can use to describe and manage change. This sounds like a fairly simple requirement, but in practice it can often prove to be difficult. Your enterprise has this problem if you hear comments like these:
I’m reminded of the quote from “Cool Hand Luke” in which the Captain says to Luke “What we’ve got here is … failure to communicate.” We do have a failure and if we can’t overcome it then all our efforts are going to be for naught.
Why do we have this problem? Many times those of us in IT exhibit too much “inside out thinking”. We speak of services we deliver to the business. We speak about applications or technologies or architectural domains. This terminology is ours and it is effective when we speak amongst ourselves, but it is ineffective when we need to communicate to business leaders. Our customers are not going to change so in this case we are going to have to “go to the mountain” because the mountain is not going to come to us.
So what language do business leaders understand? At Troux we have found that having a discussion with the business about “portfolios” is much more productive simply because it uses business language. To that end we find that describing the enterprise as a set of interconnected portfolios greatly facilitates business conversations. In fact, an “enterprise portfolio management” approach has direct analogies in to classical investment portfolio management. Investment portfolio Management is defined as “The art and science of making decisions about investment mix and policy, matching investments to objectives, asset allocation for individuals and institutions, and balancing risk against performance.” 1 Likewise, at the end of the day, managing the enterprise is also about making investment decisions to manage risk and improve performance.
Simply put business stakeholders understand what the business does and what the business does can be described in Business Capabilities. Don’t confuse business capabilities with business processes, which are a description of “how” things are done. And don’t think that you are speaking the language of the business when you only speak of organization structure. Organization structure is important but as we all know it is subject to change fairly often whereas business capabilities remain a fairly stable, albeit abstract, description that establishes a commonly understood business context. It’s worth noting that Forrester Research speaks of them as “The Rosetta Stone.” 2
Let’s consider an example — in this case we know for a fact that a set of applications need to modernized as they are implemented on obsolete, unsupported technology and have security risks. One approach would be to propose a project to improve our technology architecture domain that will result in improved business services. Depending on whether or not our customer understands what we said, that project may or may not easily get approved. Now consider a different proposal: “Our business capability for customer provisioning is at risk because we have under invested in our technology portfolio. We propose adding this project to our investment portfolio to reduce risk and improve performance of this key capability.” This is the same proposal but will very likely yield different results, because we changed the nature of the conversation.
In practice, business capabilities can make the complex simple and enable what we at Troux call “fact based conversations.” For a discussion of practical applications of business capabilities, attend our upcoming webinar “Speaking the Language Of The Business”. You can register here.
[1] http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/portfoliomanagement.asp#axzz2Jacaoaej
[1] “Business Capabilities Provide The Rosetta Stone For Business-IT Alignment”, July 06, 2009, By Jeff Scott with Alex Cullen, Mimi An
