Why Enterprise Architecture?
Following are the few reasons to start with:
Silo-ed applications
Inconsistent and Islands of data
Rigid technical infrastructure which are very hard to change
Change in business strategy to have competitive advantage
“Enterprise architecture should provide support to the business by providing the fundamental technology and process structure with the help of IT strategy”
Here IT is a responsive asset for modern business strategy.
Highlights of the conference proceedings
SONA as Networking Platform
In a keynote address, CISCO executive expressed his thoughts on today’s IT challenges in following areas:
Empowered Users
Real time information
Borderless Enterprise
Now a days business user’s are exposed to innovative user interfaces (like innovations from Google); and no means IT service company will escape by providing at par solutions which adheres to current user expectations
SONA (Service Oriented Networking Architecture) is open standard, which nicely fits in between Business Architecture and Technology architecture. It provides in built networking services like faster IP routing, data cache, security etc. With the help of SONA enabled applications; with in CISCO, enterprise applications response through-put increased to ~ 40%.
It also observed that, any strategy should be on business centric rather than people or technology centric; to stay competitive in modern business environment.
CISCO adopted TOGAF – ADM as architectural framework while developing SONA.
Managing Change in EA Program
Mr.Ron Baillie of Cathay Pacific shared his practical experience when introducing the Enterprise architecture program with in IT team. Initially there was lots of resistance from internal IT team to understand and adapt new enterprise concepts. Mr.Ron introduced several EA program innovative concepts like;
Having all EA principle (there were 06 principle’s to start with) in a cube.
Arranged many programs to understand such concepts; including his CIO
He highlighted few observations which are come out during EA program execution;
Motivate the people respect to the context (like cost= total no of First class empty seats…)
There must be Centralized architectural artifacts
Identify the key principles in EA program
Create an ownership for each principle
Roadmaps should be created for each EA components
Associate business matter experts for each roadmap
Also he highlighted EA is a journey; not an end point. Following are few principle’s he adopted in Cathay Pacific:
Simplicity
Modularity
Standardization
Measurement
Life Cycle
Etc…
Finally there is very interesting presentation slide; which shows picture were all fishermen rowing the boat in one direction. In an analogy he stated; it is very important in EA program whether all stakeholders are rowing same direction or not.
Introduction to TOGAF
Mr.Vishwanthan of C&CC solutions; Australia (TOGAF certified) gave a nice presentation on TOGAF 8.1. Few things about TOGAF;
1. TOGAF is a framework; not a architecture
2. TOGAF certification is all about checking one’s knowledge about TOGAF; not a check on skills or related implementation. Holds very good acceptance from enterprise architect’s community
3. It’s customer initiative; not from Open group
4. It is defacto industry accepted architectural framework. It can be used in conjunction with many architectural frameworks like Zachman, DoDAF, MDA, FEAF etc
5. Zachman and TOGAF compliment each other. TOGAF shall be used as implementation framework for Zachman.
6. Already there are several mappings exists respect to TOGAF; mainly
a. Zachman
b. MDA
c. DoDAF
d. COBIT
e. ITIL
f. FEAP
TOGAF shall be certified in two ways;
§ Directly taking the exam from Prometric center
§ Or attending the training from Open group authorized training institution.
One can build a business case for TOGAF as EA; providing sufficient strengths like
Ability to chunk-up the whole enterprise architectural program into different ADM phases. Here each ADM phase may run into several iterations; depending on the organization’s business complexity.
Avoid the redundancy in process to building new project
Avoid the silo-ed approach.
TOGAF 8.1 divided into three parts;
ADM (Core implementation phases)
Enterprise Continuum (TRMs, Federated EA’s etc…)
Resource base (Case studies, Glossaries, Templates, Evaluations etc…)
Also he emphasized on ADM and its relative importance in overall EA implementation program.
ADM is an iterative method; consists of totally 8+1 phases. Also there is preliminary phase to start with
Each iteration; there will be new decisions. So each decision should have adequate information on
Overall enterprise coverage
Level of detail to understand the decision
Time horizon to implement the decision etc…
Every phase is validated against the business requirements
Any decision will be based on Competence (business) and resource availability
Jason Uppal from QuickResponse, Canada; gave excellent insight towards TOGAF 8.1 by going through ADM phases. Below are few thoughts:
Business Requirements
These are also called as “Architectural Requirements” are nothing but set of wish lists which enterprise have, but preventing for implementation. So these are actual architectural requirements. It might include wicked problems as well. Wicked problems are one which is very hard to frame.
Architecture Vision
In this phase, EA should attack the wicked problems, apply the SMART objectives and also come up the statement of architectural work. If Architecture vision is set right; then rest of phases more likely to succeed. It is very important that EA must gain confidence from all stake holders.
Business Architecture
While developing business architecture, following are few areas should be considered for effective impact on overall EA program:
Effective business process
Impact of change on people
Implementable business process (think “Realistic” principle of SMART!)
Data architecture
What information is required to make an effective business process?
Application architecture
Cost effective way to deliver information system to make business process efficient
Infrastructure
Hardware, Software, People are required to deliver services to meet required SLA
Opportunities and Solutions
Ideal set of objectives/Initiatives (Technology is limiting factor; people & process change etc are key challenges!)
Migration Planning
Set of initiatives required to deliver architectural vision.
Define Value
Organization learning towards expected benefits from EA program. Also value of exploring current enterprise capabilities
KPI Governance
Define, Measure and Report architectural changes. Also study the corrective action and impact analysis on already defined phases of ADM due to change.
Brief on SMART objectives
All businesses need to set objectives for themselves or for the products or services they are launching. What does your company, product or service hope to achieve? Setting objectives are important. It focuses the company on specific aims over a period of time and can motivate staff to meet the objectives set.
A simple acronym to set the objectives is called SMART objectives.
Specific – Objectives should specify what they want to achieve.Measurable – You should be able to measure whether you are meeting the objectives or not.Achievable - Are the objectives you set, achievable and attainable?Realistic – Can you realistically achieve the objectives with the resources you have?Time – When do you want to achieve the set objectives?
Difference between Zachman and TOGAF
Following are few differences;
TOGAF tells step by step implementation of each step is dependent on other, where in Zachman framework does not have the dependency
Operations feature is not included in TOGAF, but Zachman got detailed information.
Proposed TOGAF 9 focuses on Governance, Portfolio management etc.
Enterprise conceptual model
Mr.Gundars Osvalds from BearingPoint, USA, gave short presentation on conceptual model in EA. Enterprise architecture conceptual model contains following sections; these conceptual model elements are interlinked and will drive each other.
Framework
Architecture
Life History
View
View Point
Abstractions
Framework concept
Select one or more framework (Federated architectural approach!) to arrive EA.
Zachman
TOGAF
Framework
DoDAF
FEAF
Enterprise Architects can be developed
In interesting presentation Jason Uppal from QuickResponse, ITAC level-2; opened up a nice discussion on how to develop an Enterprise architect. Here are few ideas:
Start working with some strategy in mind. Strategy should have direction (like Financial, Customer supplier, Organization objectives etc…)
Perform the litmus test using SMART objectives
Identify the current constraints (Area not to focus on)
Have a Guidelines (Area to focus on)
Develop a programmatic roadmap (Benefits, Costs, Risks, Why you???) for a business strategy. Provide expertise based on leadership to help and execute the roadmap
Study architectural views on People, Process and Technology for Business Architecture, Data Architecture, Application Architecture and Infrastructure Architecture
He advised audience to concentrate on “Wicked Problems” of business
More wicked problems, higher level of effort is needed to come up with realistic EA.
In spot light forum discussions, Mr. Allen Brown, CEO of Open group gave insight towards few standards like;
“Interoperable Enterprise” - Look for white paper from http://www.opengroup.org/cio/iop/index.htm
He also highlighted the current problems in enterprise; mainly Cross functional team culture, new business partners and stove-piped information.
He also stressed on having “Bounderyless Information flow” with in enterprise. Finally he concluded discussion by saying “Requirement defects are very expensive” and worldwide nearly 53% of defects are raised from business requirement.
