Choosing appropriate metrics to measure EA is challenging. We find that most practitioners, and their management, want to see “absolute” metrics, a measure yielding some sort of generally accepted min/max in the form of a quantity or percentage (e.g. 70% of all projects are reviewed). Instead, we believe metrics are used primarily to tune an … Read more
During the past couple years, we have begun working with clients where the efforts of IT-centric business and information architecture efforts have been sponsored and eventually taken over by representatives of senior leadership outside of the IT organization. While still a minority of the companies we deal with, it is a positive trend, driven by … Read more
The need for an EA charter is debated somewhat due to either the perceived nature of the charter document as a tactical project document or the amount of time that is required to do more than a cursory job of creating an organizational document. Our experience has been that not only is there value in … Read more
In a word, no. There are always exceptions, of course, but it is in the best interests of the organization, and of the EA Team, that the EA Team be free to make objective future state recommendations in the context of a longer-term horizon. The organization’s leadership team should then approve those recommendations through an … Read more
Simply telling a business audience all the wonderful things that EA will do for you is not enough. Light bulbs go on only when you have a chance to show them what it means to them. So, don’t try to “sell” an audience on the academic virtues of EA. Show them. Use relationships among component parts and expose mappings that they always thought existed, but never quite had a chance to see before.
Lately, there has been a lot of focus on business architecture within the EA community. We would like to expand the thinking of business architecture to include the element of information. Traditionally the focus of many IT shops has been in the delivery and enhancement of information systems that automated manual business processes. However, over time, … Read more
In this next podcast in the “EA Rediscovered” series we will address various organizational models for Solutions Architects. Should they report directly to a centralized EA team, provisioned as needed to guide project designs? Should they report directly to development group leaders and be permanently resident in those communities? We are asked this question on an almost daily … Read more
I was recently asked to reflect on the strengths of some of the EA practitioners I have worked with over the years. They have been an inspiring group who collectively and individually were drawn to EA because they aspired to make a difference in their companies. Fulfilling that aspiration isn’t always an easy path.