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Mike Walker wrote and interesting post on a discussion he had on “Making Sense of Architecture Standards" which resulted in the following image:

 

 

• Taxonomy and Ontology: Such as IEEE 1471, “. . .an architecture is a conception of a system. There may be many conceptions of a system… What this provides to the enterprise architect, solutions architect or domain architect is a way to have a constant set of terms for describing what it is they are building. This should be at the core to your architecture activities.”
• Information Model and Decision Support: Decision support help us to "..focus more on … What are the right questions  … How do I organize those questions … What do those answers mean … Meaning what is the process in which I get the information, consume it, process it and ultimately make it actionable."
• Process Framework: "… when talking about decision support, there is a need for a process to wrap how we make our decisions…. Having this higher level process framework is essential to architects. There are a series of benefits for the organization … Constancy in how solutions are created … The right people are selected for the right job … Proper metrics can be obtained to gauge health of the EA process … Predictability of results which lends to being able to apply some level of risk management to decisions"
• Actors: These are people with the appropriate skills and competencies.
• Manage: The ability to effectively execute strategy and tactics "…This aspect covers PMO based processes, service management and IT Governance aspects. In the service management area specifically we are seeing closer alignment with EA. The latest version of ITIL has alignment with EA practices."

This is a great overview of the enterprise architecture standards and how they relate and interact.

 

Technorati Tags: EA, Enterprise Architecture, Framework, Standards, ITIL, TOGAF, IAF, Zachman, IEEE 1457, PMO, Process

Photo by marj k

 

"You should treat decisions as an enterprise asset. You should make even the most high-volume, operational decisions as though they are enterprise decisions." - Smart (Enough) Systems

Enterprise architecture is really all about effective decision making….! At its core enterprise architecture is a tool that informs and guides decision-making…

• Planning decisions
• Investment decisions
• Solution decisions

Enterprise architecture is a tool that consists of frameworks, principles, standards, processes, reference models - anything that can help us make better decisions! What’s unique about an enterprise architecture, is that it’s built upon the a core belief that an holistic or enterprise perspective is produces better decisions than taking a silo view of the problem. A high-level holistic perspective the enables decision-making from an overall systems perspective.

 

Creating architecture, although required, produces no value. Value only comes from applying architecture to influence projects. This is best supported by a decision making approach as:

• Decisions move us from the “as-is” to the “to-be”, one step at a time.
• A focus on decisions makes enterprise architecture practical and action-oriented …rather than theoretical.
• Focuses enterprise architecture on helping to foster decision-making, rather than on the frameworks and the processes. Focusing on ends, rather than means.
• Ensures that enterprise architecture addresses stakeholder decision-making needs, as they make decisions at different levels of abstraction

 

Technorati Tags: Decisions, Architecture, Enterprise Architecture, System, Management, Practical

Andy Willmot writes on his view of enterprise architecture and he believes that enterprise architecture is best described as a set of principles, as follows:

• Framework driven - "….The important lesson is one of ensuring conformity to a framework, whatever that framework be. All organisations are different, and it’s up to the EA community to identify, base upon or create a fresh the most appropriate framework to use. Without a framework driving EA activity, the deliverables are often inconsistent and have little understanding beyond the EA community."
• Abstractional and Dimensional - "Our current thinking on an organisation generally leads us to perceive in two main ways. Firstly, in differing levels of abstraction. That is, the level of depth viewed of an organisation. E.g. a CTO’s level of abstraction is far different to that of a Developer.
  Secondly, by dimension. This is the vertical facet of the organisation we’re wanting to perceive. This could be information, people, function, etc. This will be very much dependent on the objectives of the EA activity."
• Vertically and horizontally interdependent - "Interdependency is key to EA. Without it EA activities become individual, siloed analysis streams that cannot relate to one another. One of the clear benefits of EA is to align these activities across an enterprise and produce architectural insight that benefits the development of the organisation."
• Purposeful - "Many EA activities today do not have clear purpose…… It’s therefore very important we remember to set clear objectives for any EA tasks and ensure we stick to them throughout."
• Measureable - "There aren’t many projects within major business today that don’t have a business case to back up the benefits of completing the project…. It’s important though to think of any EA activity as we would any other project and ensure we measure benefits to the organisation throughout."

A great list of the attributes of enterprise architecture. What attributes do you feel are missing from this list?

 

Michael Roberto a professor of management at Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island, has an interesting post on his blog, "The Power of Integrative Thinking" where he discusses an article in the June issue of Harvard Business Review, on how successful leaders are integrative thinkers. By that, he means that they attack problems in the following manner:

• They examine problems as a whole, with careful consideration of how different parts of a situation fit together, rather than analyzing different elements in isolation.
• They consider multiple avenues of causation for a problem, as well as possible nonlinear relationships between cause and effect, rather than thinking of terms of simple linear relationships between a single cause and effect.
• They embrace the tension between opposing ideas, and they use that conflict to generate creative new alternatives, rather than making simple either-or decisions.

Integrated thinking is a critical mode of thinking which architects need to learn to master. Integrated thinking is essential if architects are to "address the enterprise as a whole". One of the challenges faced by integrated thinkers and architects in particular is cognitive overload. Michael Roberto makes the following suggestion, on how to move forward when experiencing cognitive overwhelm, based on Karl Weick’s famous 1984 article entitled "Small Wins":

"…large, complex problems can sometimes be cognitively overwhelming. Thus, he argued that decision-makers should break complex problems into parts, and seek a series of ’small wins’ as a means of generating solutions to complicated issues. …seek small wins while working through the organizational decision-making process required to solve the problem."

In my architectural and strategy work, I have often experienced cognitive overwhelm when attempting to solve complex problems. I have found that by just starting, by simply writing down your initial thoughts and ideas generates the small wins required, provides a foundation for discussion and helps to move the whole process forward.

How do you deal with cognitive overwhelm in your architectural work?

 

Technorati Tags: Complexity, Problem, Integrative Thinking, Architecture, EA, Enterprise Architecture, Thinking, Decision-Making, Paradox

 

“Time after time, we have found that in the midst of profound and complex change, more than one significant aspect of the enterprise is changing at once. Often key leaders or team members don’t see the whole system in the same way - each sees a different portion of the overall picture. They generally do not agree on the range of forces affecting their business or on their importance. They often do not have shared views on the key strategies the business should use to respond to these forces, what the business must become, where they currently stand, or how they will go about the change or development that is needed to survive in the changing environment. Even when different members see parts of the system from a common perspective, key elements in the system are often “invisible” to any particular group, and their disagreements often lie in just these invisible areas. Conflicts arise because not everyone is on the same page regarding the key elements of the enterprise as a whole.” - Friedman & Gyr “The Dynamic Enterprise”

Silo-based systems are developed due to a lack of seeing the whole or the big picture. Seeing the whole is a collaborative rather than individual effort as each stakeholder helps us to gain an important insight into the whole. This can be likened to the parable of the "Blind Men and the Elephant", where, “Knowing in part may make a fine tale, but wisdom comes from seeing the whole.” See the whole is analogy to effort of blind men and the elephant: In a sense, each individual is blind to the invisible big picture.

The capability to address the enterprise as a whole, distinguishes the enterprise architecture paradigm from the others. Enterprise architecture is about “seeing the whole”, as such there can only be one enterprise view of the organisation….

 

 

The value of enterprise architecture is it’s role in identifying the big picture of the enterprise and to provide the enterprise definition for each architectural domain, so architects can design the IT architecture from an enterprise consideration. Enterprise architecture can be distinguished from other styles of architecture by it’s enterprise perspective. Enterprise architecture is the discipline of seeing the whole, of seeing the big picture.

 

"The enterprise architecture is the organizing logic for business processes and IT infrastructure, reflecting the integration and standardization requirements of the company’s operating model (where the operating model is defined as the necessary level of business process integration and standardization for delivering goods and services to customers). The enterprise architecture provides a long-term view of a company’s processes, systems, and technologies so that individual projects can build capabilities - not just fulfill immediate needs." - Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, David C. Robertson, Enterprise Architecture As Strategy, Harvard Business School Press, 2006.

 

Technorati Tags: EA, Enterprise Architecture, Definition, Architecture

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