Search Results for: archimate

Tools for change: Back to the basics

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Keep it simple. That’s always the challenge. The themes we’re working on with that ‘bucket-list’ of tools for change, it’s all too easy to go running off down the rabbit-hole, making things more complicated and complex than they need to…

The Open Group Amsterdam 2017 – Event Highlights

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The rapid pace of technology innovation in today’s digital economy means that businesses require a level of agility and responsiveness that cannot be delivered by conventional business strategies and operating models.

This event focused on how Enterprise Architecture and the use of standards from The Open Group, such as TOGAF®, ArchiMate® and IT4IT™ (for managing the business of IT), are empowering companies to build better systems by architecting for digital business strategies.

Topics included: EA and Business Transformation; EA in Government; EA in Healthcare; Internet of Things (IoT) and Smart Cities; Risk Management and Cybersecurity; Process Automation; and IT Management.

The Open Group October Event To Take Place in Amsterdam

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The Open Group, the vendor-neutral IT consortium, is hosting its upcoming event in Amsterdam, October 23-26, 2017. The Open Group Amsterdam 2017 will focus on Architecting the Digital Enterprise, bringing together vendors and end-user organizations to discuss how to architect the new digital enterprise.

The event’s focus will be on how Enterprise Architecture and standards such as the TOGAF® framework, ArchiMate® modeling language, and IT4IT™ reference architecture (for managing the business of IT) are empowering companies to build better systems by architecting for digital business strategies.

Challenges of Project Management on an EA-Driven Solution : A Blog Series

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by Allan Borra, MSCS

Sitting as Project Manager AND Enterprise Architect

In a series of blogs, I’m sharing my experiences, challenges and eureka moments related to my dual role as a project manager and an architect to a solution development project driven by Enterprise Architecture.  I’ve managed  software solutions development projects before and have varying levels of applying project management disciplines and I’m usually using the software development lifecycle (SDLC) method. So it was a fun and learning experience for me to alter my usual “success” recipe by using Enterprise Architecture (EA) discipline in the mix. This methodology is similar to what is called Solution Architecture as defined by Gartner1.
It is observable that locally there are varying degree of awareness, compliance and maturity of Enterprise  Architecture work in organizations. I happen to be working for a pioneering and leading  EA consulting company who engaged a solutions development project for a government agency. The government agency has no enterprise architecture or capability  in place and the agency management has no (with some misconceptions even) to little  knowledge about Enterprise Architecture.

IT groups in government agencies, especially the one we are currently engaged in, are very comfortable with  traditional SDLC methodology. It fits nicely with the current government procurement law2. Nevertheless, we had a unique opportunity here to really push for an Enterprise Architecture-driven software development to complement the SDLC methodology (or any software development methodology for that matter), due to the fact that the terms of reference (TOR) explicitly calls out Business/Data/Application/Technology (BDAT) architecture requirements and standard notations such as Archimate.
Challenge 1: Changing Mindsets
Herein lies the first challenge: managing client expectations on project activities and deliverables. I’ve heard of an anecdote that goes “Change Management is easiest without people”. It was a really a concern  for me back then that the client wanted the solution as  soon as possible and that, even as the TOR calls out deliverables on BDAT architectures, these are not “primary” requirements for them. The client is accustomed to the SDLC or traditional methodologies that allow for only a certain level of business and functional requirements elicitation that is just enough for the software design and  implementation.  This meant that a semblance of the software solution could be out in a month or even as soon as  codes  are translated  from the functional requirements.

Figure 1. TOGAF Architecture Development Cycle
Enterprise Architecture, using The Open Group Architecture Framework Architecture Development Methodology (TOGAF ADM)3, entails going through different phases as shown in Figure 1. Critical to the requirements of the Terms of Reference for the project are Phases B, C and D. The method allowed us to view all their process documentations, if available, or elicit and model processes that are undocumented. These process models and artefacts take part in the Business Architecture. We then looked into their data both from a high or conceptual level and from a low or physical level. It took great lengths of mapping these conceptual data models to the business processes, moreso getting the complete business processes, interactions and information flows  documented themselves. Then we looked into their existing applications, modelled and related it to the processes to which these applications serve. We looked at their current infrastructure as well and modelled a target architecture by which the infrastructure can fulfill the requirements of the applications that services the processes that fulfills the intended performance of the solution that complies with the TOR. Needless to say, we considered legacy, third-party data and applications, out of scope processes in the mix of the overall  architecture. Ultimately, all of these need time without outputting a single line of code yet. Three months spent on EA work without a line of code yet for only a year-long project. For sure the client  was very impatient.
It was a painstaking “selling an idea, selling yourself” stint for me as I ventured in winning over the client and have them be on our side for this methodology: EA-driven solution development. What partly worked was communicating the value proposition of doing the EA work. For sure,  there’s tons of references out there that list these: 1. Alignment of technology to business strategies; 2. Aids in achieving business strategies; 3. Managing complexity of the enterprise; 4. Faster design and development of solutions; etc.. At the start of every meeting, I give a few minutes to orient key client stakeholders on the EA framework and the value this provide. The orientations ran for more than a month until we had some considerable artefacts and architectures to show for.  This worked in a way that when there are differences of expectations, it’s always a heavy, difficult conversation with clients, while, if there’s a level of agreement on expectations, conversations are smooth and affable. And we are having these kinds of conversations, already. But I did mention that communication only partly worked, because at the end of the day, there’s still no solution or line of code to show. I just can’t take all of that away from them, for now.

And then, eureka! The architecture surfaced the complexity!  When one can visually breakdown a complex network of interacting components and dimensions of the organization, or in this case, the solution and its  interactions with the organization, managing all of that becomes simple.  In my next blog, I’ll discuss how EA + tool shows the complexity and how it aids the communication: bringing the client to our side. I’ll share as well,  how visualizing the complexity helped me as PM  with decision-making based on these architecture artefacts.



1Gartner IT Glossary: Solution Architecture. Accessed June 2017. Retrieved from

2Government Procurement Policy Board. Republic Act 9184: Government Procurement Reform Act. 2002. Retrieved from http://www.gppb.gov.ph/laws/laws/RA_9184.pdf

3TOGAF® 9.1 Part II: Architecture Development Method (ADM). Introduction to the ADM. 2011. Retrieved from http://pubs.opengroup.org/architecture/togaf9-doc/arch/chap05.html



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Managing the fundamental interconnectedness of things with Enterprise Architecture

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Enterprise Architecture is much more than a list of components. Too often one sees diagrams in slide decks that are either simple lists, a layered view of domains, or a graphical hierarchy. And these are supposed to represent the ‘Architecture’? These visualisations are good to use to inform on the scope and context, but they […]

Everybody Needs PraXtice

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This year marks thirty years since the publishing of Zachman’s seminal paper. And since then there’s been a torrent of publications on architecture. What’s always puzzled me was that despite all that brain power and all that paper, and believe me I’ve got bookcases and filing cabinets full of it, I’ve never come across  a […]