“By 2008, 40% of enterprise architects will have primary expertise in business strategy or process engineering” 2004 Meta Group, Inc. They get it. Businesses appreciate, accept and now accentuate the role of the architect in their organizations. It took some time, but they get it now. I might generalize and say that most medium size businesses have some sort of architecture function in their midst. I’d go further an say…
The Solution Architect and the Merger & Acquisition
Mergers & acquisitions – Calling All Architect’s – We’ve Got a Merger & Acquisition What are your IT Project Priorities – do you have one of those “Yours, Mine & Ours” situations??? What I mean is that when a business decides to buy another company, or merge with one, often there are multiple perspectives to project priorities. If one business arm decides they need a bigger sales force, and another…
Information Architecture Gets Super-Sized
Hello, Long time no type -I’ve been really busy writing content for my latest courses and this came up during research. Each month I play a game – search Google for the keywords “Information Architecture” and see how many bogus links you find before you get to the real stuff. Today I only got to this Maskery Tom Foolery (sorry – this link is gone – guess they were a…
Enterprise Architecture and Portfolio Management
Ok – so maybe you haven’t heard the buzz about the marriage between EA and Portfolio Management. It’s been going on long enough to get the seven year itch already – so why should I go on about that today? My head hurts – I’ve been knee deep in the weeds building course ware for about three months and I’ve come up for air. It’s probably the first thing I thought of…
What is an IT Architecture Framework
One of the most ambiguous words in the initial understanding of Information Architecture is that of the Framework. The Framework is a generic categorization method for architecture design artifacts. Any good categorization method achieves these EA goals: 1. Simplify information for understanding and communication 2. Clearly focus on independent components for analytical purposes 3. Provide and maintain a disciplined method of depicting relationships between the domains. A Framework is a…
No Crystal Ball for Enterprise Architecture Methodology
Do You Have a Crystal Ball: 3 Future State Architecture Keys to Make them Think So! Documenting the current state architecture is a must to any enterprise or system architecture report, and even though we understand this, it’s the future state that everyone is anxious to see and share. Let’s face it – they are also waiting to critique it. There are components of a future architecture that make or…
Ethics in IT Architecture Skills
I’ve been away building and authoring courses, so writing has gone into something other than frivolous blurbs. Just came back from an evening with a speaker on ethics – it was supposed to have something to do with Ethics in IT and although that’s not what it was about, I was able to draw a few lines and relationships to IT from what the speaker had to say. A few…
Technical Solutions Architect Prepares for Disaster
This week was interesting. The place at which I spend many minutes had a disaster. There was an explosion below the street, causing one unfortunate soul incredible burns, and an entire block the loss of power. Some residents nearby were without heat for over twenty four hours. That’s not good if you live in a winterizes place. The place I spend many minutes were incredibly equipped to deal with the…
IT Architecture Workshops – Picasso or Plumber?
I’ve been asked over and over how I became an I.T. Architect. I always hesitate, and say “well…” More often than not, I get into the long stories about my university degrees and my varying path in life and career. The short answer is “I changed careers multiple times within the field of I.T.”. The long answer is experience. The I.T. Architect is a technologist, a leader, a consultant, a…
Strange Sightings At The Enterprise Architecture Conference
Boo! Did you survive the EAC? I am almost caught up on my sleep – just a two hour time change plus flight plus daylight savings time and I’ve turned into Rip Van Winkle. I’m sure I’ll be caught up by tomorrow, but still have lots of miscellaneous thoughts swirling around in this head. About 18 months ago, I gave a presentation at a Canadian Information Processing Conference, titled “Enterprise…
Message from Zachman — The Midas Touch
Here I am again, bleary eyes but wanting to share all from this year’s Fall EAC. I have so much to share, and tonight will just have to be a summary. I catch the red eye in 6 hours, and suitcases still have to be filled – you know the drill. This year was a little different. More keynotes, but fewer messages. The last one was fabulous, so all is…
Enterprise Architect Training – Let the Games Begin!
This week will be special – I get to spend a week with other architects at the DCI Enterprise Architecture Conference. Ok – I’m weird – I love to talk about this stuff, but this is like sending a Gambling Addict to a Casino – oh wait -that’s where I am! Never mind – I tried those slot machines and any way you slice it – you will lose. Bet…
The Main Issue with Enterprise Architecture
I spend time weekly trying to think of “shareable” things I’ve done I can put up on the www.architectbootcamp.com to spread the wealth in creating more and better I.T. Architects. I sat down the other day with a napkin and a pen, trying to list all of the issues I’ve heard clients mention or express concern about and thought these would be ideal subjects for blogs or newsletters. Issue Number…
Practical Enterprise Architecture – Let Me Count the Ways
I’m sure as many of you do, you reach home after a weary four days of work and are frustrated because your work seems to be one big giant conflict. You spend an hour and a half of a one hour meeting (notice that we only went over by 50%?) going back and forth and back and forth. You might get a turn with the magic white board markers, confident…
Solution Architecture Training Tidbits
What came first – the solution or the data? I’ve spent years in IT and no matter what I do, it keeps coming down to the data. As an Enterprise Architect, selecting a portal for a large financial company was an exercise to plan for technology that would support data in many areas. As the years go by, Data Architects have become responsible for Web Site Content. Sadly, there are…
The Importance of Data to a Systems Architect
Today I’m thinking about how important data design really is to solution design. I often wonder if our roots in Information Technology will always take over our thoughts – I used to work exclusively with data and moved on to Architecture. Now, when I work in the System Architecture space, particularly on design or solution, I revert to data – and often first. We need to understand what the data…