Enterprise as a … System

Notwithstanding the earnest way some people use the phrase “enterprise-as-a-system”, I don’t see any great significance in regarding an enterprise or organization as a system.

Indeed, given the very broad way people commonly use the word “system”, it is difficult to think of anyway to regard an enterprise other than as some kind of system. A machine or complicated technological assembly is a system; a human activity or social unit is a system; an abstract legal or procedural process is a system. All of the chapters in Gareth Morgan’s book Images of Organization represent organizations as different kinds of system. And even if we don’t regard an enterprise as quite the same as an organization, what could an enterprise possibly be, from anyone’s perspective, other than some kind of system?

And many popular architecture frameworks claim to regard an enterprise as a system. For example

  • TOGAF considers the enterprise as a system (TOGAF9, Chapter 2
  • Enterprise architecture structures the business planning into an integrated framework that regards the enterprise as a system or system of systems. (TOGAF9 Chapter 6)

Elsewhere in TOGAF however, as well as in ArchiMate, we can find reference to systems OR organizations, which suggests that they do not regard the enterprise as a system.

    Some people claim to regard the enterprise as a system, and then offer a layered schema with System Layer near the bottom. This represents a shift in the use of the word “system”.

    However, when people use the phrase “enterprise-as-a-system”, they may well have a particular kind of system in mind. Here are some examples.

    Enterprise as a sociotechnical system

      Enterprise as a socio-cultural—techno-economic system

      Enterprise as a human activity system

        Enterprise as a self-organizing system

          Enterprise as an open or closed system

          Clearly it is the adjective that helps to make this phrase meaningful.

          See also
           
          Alan Hakimi, Addressing the Multi-Dimensionality Challenge on Thinking of The Enterprise as a System (Feb 2013)

          Linked-In Discussion Enterprises *NOT AS* Systems (April 2013 onwards)

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          EA Roadmap for success: Architecture Principles and models

          <p>In this 10th posting we will cover the topic of using <em>architecture principles</em> and <em>architecture models </em>in tandem. Both focus on different aspects of Enterprise Architecture work / documentation and complement each other as we will see shortly.</p><p> </p><div class=”captionImage left” style=”width: 600px;”><img class=”left” src=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/assets/BlogDocuments-2/_resampled/resizedimage600375-Roadmap-for-success-architecture-principles-and-models.png” alt=”Principles and Models Enterprise Architecture” title=”10th posting in the Roadmap for sucess series” width=”600″ height=”375″/><p class=”caption”>The 10th posting in the series Roadmap for success</p></div><p> </p><h2>EA manifestations</h2><p>There are many definitions of architecture around, all focusing on different aspects: ontological definition, process, framework, language and so on. In our opinion, the ANSI/IEC/IEEE 42010 standard does a good job of explaining what architecture really <em>is</em>. In order to <em>know</em> what the architecture (of a system) is, we need to answer two questions:</p><ul><li>What is its fundamental organization?</li><li>What are the principles guiding its design and evolution?</li></ul><p>These questions not only give insight in how to <em>document</em> architecture (models for fundamental organization, principles for principles guiding design and evolution), they also give insight in how the instruments of Enterprise Architecture can be used to add value to the organization: gain insight in the fundamental organization of the enterprise at a high(er) level of abstraction, and develop a road map to help steer the organization to where it wants to be.</p><p>In this posting we zoom in on the two manifestations of Enterprise Architecture: models and principles. There is of course a lot more to be considered in the context of an Enterprise Architecture practice (governance logs, design decisions, exceptions granted, strategies, road maps and so on), but those are outside the scope of this blog post.</p><h2>Models</h2><p>The first type of architecture documentation to be considered is the use of <em>models</em>. A wide range of models have been proposed and used successfully over the last few decades. Some more formal, other informal (PowerPoint still seems to be a popular modeling tool). A lot can be said about the merits of a formal or informal approach. The figure below lists a few:</p><p> </p><div class=”captionImage left” style=”width: 600px;”><img class=”left” src=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/assets/BlogDocuments-2/_resampled/resizedimage600577-Enterprise-architecture-formal-vs-informal.png” alt=”Enterprise architecture models” title=”Formal and informal enterprise architecture models” width=”600″ height=”577″/><p class=”caption”>Enterprise Architecture models: formal and informal models</p></div><p>In our experience, the combination of formal models with flexible visualization mechanisms tends to work best in practice. As such, <a title=”Open modeling language for architects to model and communicate Enterprise Architecture” href=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/consultancy/enterprise-architecture-management/archimate/#ArchiMate”>ArchiMate</a>® is a good candidate as the language was specifically designed to cater for various different stakeholders. Also, with good tool support it is also possible to generate tables, change the graphic shape of concepts and relations and so on: anything to improve the communication about the fundamental organization of a system with various stakeholders.</p><h2>Principles</h2><p>Some claim that architecture (of a system) <em>is</em> a set of principles. While we agree that the use of principles is key to a solid architecture approach, we feel that this may be one step too far.</p><p>Principles in the context of architecture work are <em>normative statements of direction</em>; they guide the design and evolution of a system. As such they tend to take the form of a ‘regulation’, an ‘abstract rule’ which may or may not be SMART. The typical template for principles includes such things as meta-data (who wrote it, when, what was the revision history and so on), a brief statement of the principle itself, a rationale or explanation, and a section that discusses its implications (for architecture designs).</p><p>Various templates have been proposed (e.g., TOGAF™), and many books have been written (we recommend the book by Proper and Greefhorst).</p><p>Regardless of form and template: principles guide the design of an architecture. To see why, consider the situation where two systems are designed that (functionally) solve the same problem, but adhering to a completely different set of principles! For example, a portal solution for an informational problem may adhere to the principle that all systems must be customer facing, whereas a call center solution for the same informational problem may adhere to the principle that customer-contact is always through human interaction.</p><h2>ArchiMate</h2><p>The ArchiMate® language has been around for a while now, and is widely used to model various aspects of (enterprise) architectures. Since its second edition – in which the language is better aligned with the TOGAF™ framework – it also includes a motivation extension which has the <em>principle</em> concept. This concept can be linked to any core concept using the <em>realization relation</em>, to indicate concepts in the architecture where this principle manifests itself. This <em>good practice</em> is highly recommended!</p><h2>Next posting</h2><p>If you’d like to know more, please contact the authors directly at <a title=”E-mail Bas van gils” href=”mailto:b.vangils@bizzdesign.com”>b.vangils@bizzdesign.com</a> / <a title=”E-mail Sven van Dijk” href=”mailto:s.vandijk@bizzdesign.com”>s.vandijk@bizzdesign.com</a>, or leave a comment. The next post in this series is about governing projects. It is scheduled to be posted between 8<sup>th</sup> and 12<sup>th</sup> of April. </p>

          Dave Hornford Addresses Misconceptions Surrounding TOGAF

          I have gotten a surprising (or maybe not so surprising) discussion on the TOGAF Demystification Series. In one of the posts entitled, "TOGAF Demystification Series: TOGAF Sucks, Incomplete And Overly Complex" there were many comments made about this one in…

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          7 ways to present your business model

          <p><span style=”color: #505050; font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>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.</span></p><p>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.</p><p><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>We re-use the case of a coffee-cup company, called Nextpresso  that we introduced in aour earlier posting on </span><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><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>. We will present several possibilities for presenting business models using the tool </span><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><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>. 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.</span></p><h3>Stakeholders, views and viewpoints</h3><p>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…</p><p>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>.</p><p><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>The two most important communication questions of all:</span></p><p>-        <strong><em><span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>What is my communication goal?</span></em></strong></p><p>-        <strong><em><span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>What will make the most sense to my audience? </span></em></strong></p><p><a style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;” title=”solve complex problems with simple pictures” href=”http://www.thebackofthenapkin.com/”>Dan Roam</a><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>’s so called </span><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><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”> (click on “5 focusing questions”) is a simple tool that helps you to make decisions on this!</span></p><p><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>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.</span></p><h2><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>7 ways to present your business model</span><em style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”> </em></h2><h3>1.     Business Model as art</h3><p>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.</p><p><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: underline;”>Approach</span></p><p>First 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.</p><p><strong style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”><span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Example</span></strong></p><p><strong style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”><span style=”text-decoration: underline;”> </span></strong></p><div class=”captionImage left” style=”width: 600px;”><strong style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”><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″/><p class=”caption”>Business Model Canvas illustration <span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px; font-weight: normal;”>(by </span><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><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px; font-weight: normal;”>)</span></p></strong></div><p><strong style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”> </strong></p><p> </p><p>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.</p><h3>2.     Posters</h3><p><em>Pdf-posters</em> 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.</p><p> </p><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″/><p class=”caption”>Communication about your business model canvas by creating a poster</p></div><p><span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Approach</span></p><p>Looks 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.</p><p><span style=”color: #e3004a; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;”>3.     Pitch presentation</span></p><p><em>Output using dynamic export to .ppt</em> 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.</p><p> </p><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″/><p class=”caption”>Business model canvas exported to Powerpoint</p></div><p><span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Approach</span></p><p>After 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.</p><p><span style=”color: #e3004a; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;”>4.     Simple cut and paste</span></p><p>By 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.</p><p><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: underline;”>Approach</span></p><p>Typically 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.</p><p><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: underline;”>Example</span><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>: </span><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>You know </span><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><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>…. we don’t think that this needs an example.</span></p><p><span style=”color: #e3004a; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;”>5.     Intranet pages</span></p><p><em>Output in html</em> 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.</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/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″/><p class=”caption”>Business model canvas settings for export to HTML</p></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″/><p class=”caption”>Business model canvas exported to HTML</p></div><p><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: underline;”>Approach</span></p><p>Before 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.</p><p><span style=”color: #e3004a; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;”>6.     Word-reports</span></p><p><em>Generating an RTF-report for MS Word</em>, 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.</p><p> </p><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″/><p class=”caption”>Communication about your business model canvas by creating a RTF report</p></div><p><span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Approach </span></p><p>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. </p><p><span style=”color: #e3004a; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;”>7.     Implementation view e.g. using ArchiMate 2.0</span></p><p>A 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.</p><p><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: underline;”>Approach</span></p><p>There 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.</p><p><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px; text-decoration: underline;”>Example:</span></p><p> </p><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″/><p class=”caption”>Communication about your business model canvas by creating a RTF report</p></div><p><span style=”color: #e3004a; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 1px; line-height: 15px; word-spacing: 1px;”> </span></p><h2>Conclusions and next steps</h2><p>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.</p><p>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>.</p>

          Categories Uncategorized

          Addressing the Multi-Dimensionality Challenge on Thinking of The Enterprise as a System

          Last week I had the pleasure of attending and presenting at the Open Group conference in Newport Beach, California.  I find these conferences enlightening as I enjoyed the dialog with fellow professions who share similar point of views on the&nbsp…

          Addressing the Multi-Dimensionality Challenge on Thinking of The Enterprise as a System

          Last week I had the pleasure of attending and presenting at the Open Group conference in Newport Beach, California.  I find these conferences enlightening as I enjoyed the dialog with fellow professions who share similar point of views on the discipline of Enterprise Architecture.   I have made the following observations: We have a huge challenge in…

          EA is Strategic Planning

          Enterprise Architecture quite simply is all about Strategic Planning. It helps enterprises shape their future structure and dynamics in the face of the changing environment in which they do business. Its purpose is to understand the ends and means that form the strategies needed. How does an enterprise react to events that do and will […]

          Enterprise Architecture Roadmap for success: Adopting an open approach to Enterprise Architecture

          <p style=”line-height: 18.99147605895996px;”><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>This is the fifth posting in our “EA Roadmap for success” series. In this posting we zoom in on the use of an </span><em style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”>Open</em><span style=”font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px;”> approach to enterprise architecture.</span></p><p style=”line-height: 18.99147605895996px;”> </p><div class=”captionImage left” style=”width: 600px;”><img class=”left” src=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/assets/BlogDocuments-2/_resampled/resizedimage600375-Enterprise-architecture-roadmap.png” alt=”Enterprise Architecture Roadmap” title=”Enterprise Architecture Roadmap” width=”600″ height=”375″/><p class=”caption”>Enterprise Architecture Roadmap</p></div><h2>Frameworks and approaches?</h2><p style=”line-height: 18.99147605895996px;”>One of the key challenges of getting started with enterprise architecture (EA) is to agree on goals for the EA practice, and subsequently to find and agree on a framework / approach / method that helps the organization to realize those goals.</p><p style=”line-height: 18.99147605895996px;”>In the early days of EA (1990’s and the early 2000’s), we saw many organizations growing their own approaches and frameworks. By working with business sponsors, architects experimented with different processes for EA, frameworks to structure EA products, modeling languages and notation and so on.</p><p style=”line-height: 18.99147605895996px;”>While this worked well in the ‘old days’, many best practices have emerged and ultimately led to the major frameworks / approaches / methods we see today: ArchiMate, TOGAF, IAF, Zachman, DYA, and so on.  Some of these are ‘general purpose’, while others (e.g. MODAF/DODAF) appear to be particularly useful in a single branch.</p><h2>Build or Adopt? Open or closed?</h2><p style=”line-height: 18.99147605895996px;”>While organizations in theory face a choice of ‘build or adopt’ where it comes to frameworks, we see that many chose the latter. With all the experiences and best practices that have been developed, most organizations realize that there is little point in re-inventing the wheel all over again.</p><p style=”line-height: 18.99147605895996px;”>The question that remains, then, is this: do we adopt an open approach, or a proprietary / closed approach?</p><p style=”line-height: 18.99147605895996px;”>This question can be answered on many different levels. One could argue that “open vs closed” doesn’t really matter, as long as the selected framework does what it is supposed to do. While this may seem true at first glance, we do believe that there is a lot to be said about principally going for an open approach. The main advantages here are as follows:</p><ul><li>Know what you will get: all details about open frameworks tend to be available in the public domain.</li><li>Choose your partners: because the frameworks are in the public domain, you’ll often be able to select which vendor can help you get started – if needed at all. Along the same lines: if the vendor doesn’t deliver what was requested, switching is easier.</li><li>Get involved: perhaps most importantly, if the framework is lacking in certain areas, organizations can often join and publish their own best practices, furthering the framework for all other users.</li></ul><h2>Adopt as-is, or tailor to specific needs?</h2><p style=”line-height: 18.99147605895996px;”>To conclude this posting: there is one more choice that organizations have to make when adopting a framework, be it an open or a closed/ proprietary one: should we adopt the framework as is, or tailor it to our needs?</p><p style=”line-height: 18.99147605895996px;”> </p><div class=”captionImage left” style=”width: 348px;”><img class=”left” src=”http://www.bizzdesign.com/assets/BlogDocuments-2/Enterprise-architecture-framework.png” alt=”Enterprise Architecture Framework” title=”Enterprise Architecture Framework” width=”348″ height=”400″/><p class=”caption”>Enterprise Architecture Framework</p></div><p style=”line-height: 18.99147605895996px;”>The best practice here is simple: pick and choose! Most approaches explicitly recommend users to tailor the framework to organizational needs. In TOGAF this is being done as part of the <em>preliminary phase</em>.  While TOGAF recommends that certain parts <em>not</em> to be skipped, it is of course entirely up to the individual organization to decide what is useful and what is not!</p><h2>Next posting</h2><p style=”line-height: 18.99147605895996px;”>If you’d like to know more, please contact the authors directly at <a title=”b.vangils@bizzdesign.com” href=”mailto:b.vangils@bizzdesign.com”>b.vangils@bizzdesign.com</a> / <a title=”s.vandijk@bizzdesign.com” href=”mailto:s.vandijk@bizzdesign.com”>s.vandijk@bizzdesign.com</a>, or leave a comment. The next post in this series covers project based implementation of EA. It is scheduled to be posted on January 29. </p>

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