Cutter Consortium: Enterprise Suite

Webinar: Risk and Risk Language

27 Jun 2012 17:13:51 GMT

Pritchard, Carl | Events |

Cutter Senior Consultant Carl Pritchard will take participants on a dynamic excursion through the language of risk, demystifying the practice. Participants will learn the four simple ways to improve their risk management practice without changing the way the organization does business.

http://www.cutter.com/events/multimedia/risk-language.html

Webinar: EA Programs that Work

13 Jun 2012 17:12:09 GMT

Rosen, Mike | Events |

Architecture programs make it possible for enterprises to be flexible and agile; that is, to be truly competitive. Whether your organization is just getting started with Enterprise or Business Architecture, or you have an established program, during this webinar, Senior Consultant Mike Rosen will help you envision the best ways to organize the architecture function in your organization so that it can deliver maximum value.

http://www.cutter.com/events/multimedia/ea-programs-that-work.html

Improve Your Architectural Skills with Critical Thinking

11 Apr 2012 16:54:38 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |

One of the most important skills of an architect (be it a business architect, IT architect, or enterprise architect) is that of “critical thinking.� It has been defined by the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking as: "the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action."

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2012/ea120411.html

Press Release: Stat of the Week -- When your organization develops smartphone apps, how is development done?

10 Apr 2012 16:46:34 GMT

Cutter Consortium |

The data from our smartphone data research suggest that that IT organizations are poised to play a leading role in implementing an effective mobile strategy, according to author Maria Lee. She goes on to assert that IT groups enabling a mobile strategy should consider applying the following four lessons learned.

http://www.cutter.com/press/120410.html

(Finding) Genuine Sponsors: Processes Are Not Their Problem

5 Apr 2012 16:28:38 GMT

Glazer, Hillel | E-Mail Advisors |

Common wisdom in process improvement efforts includes the notion of a "sponsor." The sponsor is a person (sometimes a small group of people) within an organization who buys into -- often literally as much as figuratively -- the improvement effort. This "buying into" essentially allows the improvements to happen. It is said, and widely believed, that having a properly positioned sponsor (i.e., "sponsorship") within the organization is the single most critical enabler of an improvement effort. This is actually true. But, as I'll explain, it's much easier said than done and, what's more, it's a slightly incomplete belief. The sponsor needs to be more than properly positioned; the sponsor must be effectively engaged. A well-positioned but not engaged sponsor is as good as no sponsor. It often feels, to improvement experts, that this is the norm. A truly engaged sponsor is surprisingly rare.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2012/apm120405.html

Inflection Points for Decisions and Profit, Part II

5 Apr 2012 16:23:58 GMT

Charette, Robert N. | E-Mail Advisors |

In my previous Advisor ("Inflection Points for Decisions and Profit, Part I"), I pointed out that all exchanges of goods and services are exchanges of risk and opportunity between the parties of the exchange, and that profit is the payment a supplier of a good or service receives for taking away its customers� risks or problems (or, viewed another way, creating an opportunity for the customer). In this Advisor, I wish to explore the linkage between decisions and profit, and the possibility that we are at the inflection point of a new industry that may potentially and profoundly disrupt both our corporate and our personal lives. Two recent events serve to make the point.

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2012/bit120405.html

The Value Proposition

4 Apr 2012 15:24:17 GMT

Hazra, Tushar; Kumar, Sanjiv | E-Mail Advisors |

As business architecture becomes more mainstream, many large and complex enterprises across the private and public sectors are embracing its primary concepts. For most of these organizations, BA plays a significant role in defining the primary value proposition for the enterprise architecture. As such, a BA practice instills the foundation for building a mature and robust enterprise, since it constitutes a set of processes, principles, and expertise at the enterprise level. Collectively, the processes and principles pave the way for creating a comprehensive, business-centric blueprint or "big picture" model of the enterprise. In this Advisor, we focus on various aspects of these processes and principles -- and the steps to build them. However, we are not undermining the role business architects and other associates involved with the BA practice play (see Table 1 for a representative profile of a business architect). On the contrary, they are responsible for leveraging the processes and principles effectively to develop and establish a business-centric blueprint of the business architecture as a practice.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2012/ea120404.html

Product Vision: The First Agile Planning Activity for Large-Scale Software Delivery

29 Mar 2012 15:05:43 GMT

Smits, Hubert | E-Mail Advisors |

As every golfer knows, getting on the golf course early on Saturday morning doesn't improve your golf game by itself. Improving your game is about thinking ahead, having an idea about what will reduce your handicap the most, and, after determining that it's your swing, working alone and with your trainer to improve your swing. You practice that swing, play a game, and you soon learn that the swing isn't the whole problem; a better grip would lower your handicap even more. So you change your training plan without losing sight of the goal: a handicap below four in the next 12 months.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2012/apm120329.html

Putting Enterprise Architecture and Portfolio Management Together, Part II

29 Mar 2012 15:02:35 GMT

Benson, Bob | E-Mail Advisors |

In my previous Advisor we described enterprise architecture (EA) and portfolio management (PM) ("Putting Enterprise Architecture and Portfolio Management Together, Part I"). We concluded by saying that the challenge is how to put these two together, and that there's always been a tendency for practitioners, depending on their orientation, to separate enterprise architecture and business-driven strategic IT planning exercises. While EA has recently strongly moved into the business domain (e.g., business architecture, business capability), EA-driven planning efforts still tend to be technology focused. At the same time, business-based practitioners tend to look at the strategic business requirements represented by business strategy, and establish investment requirements, initiatives, and programs without considering the architecture aspects.

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2012/bit120329.html

Use Architecture to Support Portfolio Management

28 Mar 2012 19:46:23 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |

As an architect, I find that what architects do is not well understood, and we are frequently challenged to justify the value that we add to the enterprise. So I am always looking for opportunities to add value. One such opportunity exists when we apply architecture to help with portfolio management. Cutter Fellow Bob Benson recently wrote an Advisor on this topic ("Putting Enterprise Architecture and Portfolio Management Together, Part I") as a result of a joint workshop that he and I gave at the Cutter Business & Enterprise Architecture Summit 2012. This Advisor provides a complementary, architectural perspective to his series of Advisors.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2012/ea120328.html

Putting Enterprise Architecture and Portfolio Management Together, Part I

22 Mar 2012 19:31:48 GMT

Benson, Bob | E-Mail Advisors |

Cutter Business & Enterprise Architecture Practice Director Mike Rosen and I recently presented a one-day workshop on enterprise architecture (EA) and portfolio management (PM), and how they work together. Part of Mike's contribution was about technical debt and how it fits into both EA and PM. Planning the workshop created a new awareness of how important both EA and PM are and how, together, they can produce superior insight into delivering value to business and government organizations.

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2012/bit120322.html

Tablets for the Enterprise

21 Mar 2012 19:18:59 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors |

Selecting tablets for enterprise computing currently comes down to three choices: the Apple iPad, Android-based devices from various vendors, and Research In Motion's BlackBerry Playbook. Many would argue that the first two are the only real choices, given that they currently make up the bulk of tablet purchases by end-user organizations -- with the Apple iPad overwhelmingly owning the lion's share of the market. However, sometime this fall, you can expect to start seeing tablets appear running Windows 8 OS. Lately, I've been researching the application of tablets and their role in enterprise computing. Here's where I see the current crop standing in this regard.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2012/ea120321.html

Mind the Gap: Avoiding the Abyss Between Leadership and Management

20 Mar 2012 18:54:35 GMT

Charette, Robert N.; Gentry, Kerry F. | Journals |

Cutter Fellow Robert Charette and coauthor Kerry Gentry take on the differences between management and leadership and tell us some depressing tales of modern leadership failures in business and government. They assert that the failures signal a dearth of leadership and an excess of management. In the end they provide us with a useful model -- the Leadership Wheel -- for assessing leadership traits and emphatically argue that leadership is a science!

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2012/03/itj1203b.html

Evaluating the BPM Hype Cycle

14 Mar 2012 15:10:50 GMT

Teti, Frank | Executive Updates |

With "galactic computing" still off in the distance, there continues to be a significant amount of hype regarding business process management (BPM) and service-oriented architecture (SOA). While these things are not necessarily orthogonal, they are not inextricably, interrelated technologies as some analysts would have you believe. Nevertheless, in the seemingly inexorable world of the technology business, we often witness writers, analysts, and marketers perpetually create demand for new products and services by embellishing the synergies and underlying dependencies, either real or imaginary, in an effort to educate, sell, and promote the general welfare, so to speak.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2012/eau1203.html

Put Big Data in Perspective -- Part II

14 Mar 2012 15:01:06 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |

In my last Advisor ("Put Big Data in Perspective -- Part I"), I discussed the basics of Big Data, what it is, where it comes from, what's it good for, and so on. In this Advisor, I want to put Big Data into the perspective of enterprise information architecture.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2012/ea120314.html

Capabilities, Functions, Value Chains, and Big Business Processes

7 Mar 2012 14:38:05 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors |

There is a lot of discussion these days about business capabilities and their role in business architecture. While any discussion of "what business(es) our business is in" is worthwhile, it is perhaps useful to step back in time and consider an analysis technique that resembles capability modeling (CM): functional decomposition (FD). Back in the 1970s and 1980s, FD, which was part of some form of "structured analysis," was all the vogue. One of the advantages of FD then, like CM now, was that it mirrored the organization chart. Functions like capabilities fit in nicely to the way businesses structured themselves. Moreover, FD (again, like CM) fit a hierarchical analysis model, which is easy to fit into modern automated tools.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2012/ea120307.html

Using Cloud to Rethink the Enterprise IT Portfolio

22 Feb 2012 14:29:29 GMT

Cohen, Beth | E-Mail Advisors |

No matter how disciplined a company is about its IT governance, the average enterprise has many years of legacy applications in its portfolio that need to be rationalized. Over time, even the best-run company will acquire what a coworker affectionately refers to as "glops and legacy linguini." We all know the recipe: start with a couple of semisuccessful enterprise application implementations (where the company is continuing to use both the old and the new systems), throw in a few mergers and acquisitions (include a handful of management regime changes and reorganizations to add spice), then stir in thousands of undocumented patches and temporary fixes that turn permanent. Bake until solidified into an impenetrable morass of siloed functions and tangled application interdependencies. These are the nightmares that keep IT executives awake at night. Enterprise clouds offer a solution that allows IT to take governance control back to where it belongs in the company without stifling business innovation or blocking the organization's ability to meet its objectives.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2012/itj120222.html

Establishing the Business Architecture Practice: A Case Study -- Best Practices, Revisited

22 Feb 2012 14:27:14 GMT

Hazra, Tushar K. | E-Mail Advisors |

Since publication of the Cutter Business Enterprise Architecture Executive Report "Establishing the Business Architecture Practice: A Case Study" (Vol. 15, No. 1) in January, several readers have commented on the stages that Sanjiv Kumar and I presented in the Report regarding the lifecycle of the business architecture (BA) practice. Some readers have experienced similar challenges and issues in building the BA practice. However, most readers who contacted us in response to the Report asked us to elaborate on the best practices cultivated during the case study.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2012/ea120222.html

Business Architecture Body of Knowledge

15 Feb 2012 14:11:36 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |

Readers are probably familiar with the concept of a body of knowledge (BOK). BOK (or BoK) is a term used to represent the set of concepts, terms, and activities that make up a professional domain, as defined by the relevant professional association. The BoK is more than just a document or a collection of terms in that it describes the ontology of a specific domain. Among the BoKs you may be familiar with are Software Engineering BoK (SWEBOK), Project Management BoK (PMBOK), and Data Management BoK (DMBOK).

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2012/ea120215.html

Business Architecture Body of Knowledge

15 Feb 2012 14:11:36 GMT

Two Types of Contra Goals in Architecture

8 Feb 2012 13:27:29 GMT

Mohandoss, Ramaswami | E-Mail Advisors |

In technology architecture, it's easy to spot a wrong solution but almost impossible to design the perfect system. The primary reason for this ever-changing nature of the solution is its evolution toward staying relevant to the changing business use case. A seasoned architect soon realizes that a sound architecture or design is actually a zero-sum game with "contra goals": pairs of two critical design goals (or priorities), where one priority can only exist by compromising (or even eliminating) the other.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2012/ea120208.html

Contra Goals in Architecture

3 Feb 2012 15:33:44 GMT

Mohandoss, Ramaswami |

In technology architecture, it's easy to spot a wrong solution but almost impossible to design the perfect system. The primary reason for this ever-changing nature of the solution is its evolution toward staying relevant to the changing business use case. A seasoned architect soon realizes that a sound architecture or design is actually a zero-sum game with "contra goals": pairs of two critical design goals (or priorities), where one priority can only exist by compromising (or even eliminating) the other.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2012/eau1201.html

Defining Enterprise Performance Architecture

6 Feb 2012 15:10:00 GMT

Rosen, Mike |

Management guru Peter Drucker is famous for saying "You can't manage what you can't measure." From a different perspective and equally guru-like, W. Edward Deming once said, "The most important things cannot be measured." Deming clarified this by explaining that "the issues that are most important, long term, cannot be measured in advance. However, they might be among the factors that an organization is measuring, just not understood as most important at the time." Perhaps many organizations fall in between, where they are neither exactly sure what the most important things are nor how to measure them. Can you answer the question, "How is my enterprises business performance measured?" or the follow-on question, "How do my IT systems contribute to business outcomes?"

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2012/ea120201.html

Establishing the Business Architecture Practice: A Case Study

26 Jan 2012 14:36:25 GMT

Hazra, Tushar K.; Kumar, Sanjiv |

Business and IT professionals are rapidly embracing business architecture (BA) as a mainstream concept to recognize their needs, goals, and vision for business transformation. However, establishing a comprehensive, pragmatic BA practice is still in its primitive stage. In today's adverse economical climate, where businesses try to do more for less, understanding business architecture -- and its related challenges, risks, issues, and concerns -- can go a long way toward successfully achieving business transformation. This Executive Report presents a real-world case study to highlight the realities of establishing a BA practice. Our lessons learned and cultivated best practices will add significant value to establishing your own BA practice.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/reports/2012/01/index.html

BYOD or Enterprise-Supplied Mobile Device?

25 Jan 2012 14:28:38 GMT

Hall, Curt |

Mobility is one of the top priorities for organizations in 2012. When it comes to utilizing mobile devices in the enterprise, organizations basically have two options for supporting employees with smartphones and tablets. One, which is becoming increasingly popular, is the "bring your own device" (BYOD) strategy, in which employees are permitted to use their own personal devices for work. The other is for the company to supply select employees with phones or tablets. Both options have their benefits and drawbacks.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2012/ea120125.html

Applying Architecture to Business Intelligence

18 Jan 2012 19:35:20 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |

As architects, we are constantly challenged to provide value to the business. Much of the value we provide comes from avoiding costs and problems before they occur and is difficult to demonstrate or quantify. But architecture can also deliver value by providing a better, broader, more flexible, and extensible solution to business requirements. I always look for opportunities or projects where an architectural approach will provide a better solution and try to seize these chances when I can.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2012/ea120118.html

Agile EA: Governance Introduction

13 Jan 2012 19:10:34 GMT

Watson, Jim | Executive Reports |

This Executive Report explores processes in enterprise architecture governance to achieve improved agility using technology advancements in Maven and virtualization. The report describes approaches for enterprise situational awareness, agile systems integration, and dependency management, along with technology variants and innovation.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/reports/2011/09/index.html

Cloud Strategy: Some Good Tactics to Implement

11 Jan 2012 18:53:51 GMT

Teti, Frank | Executive Updates |

It appears lately that all business consulting has something to do with cloud computing. For instance, an organization I am currently working with has a mandate in place requiring all forward-engineering projects to be developed using a virtualized cloud environment. This effort is, in this organization's "corporate mind's eye," a way to prepare it to move production applications into the cloud, which is something it has not previously done. The company believes that this tactic will ensure that cloud architects are competent at administering applications hosted in the cloud, since code development within the cloud is relatively transparent from a developer's perspective.

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/updates/2012/bitu1201.html

Growing Data Phenomenon and Shrinking Response Times

10 Jan 2012 18:51:27 GMT

Hate, Sudhanshu | E-Mail Advisors |

Today's unprecedented growth rate of data (structured and unstructured) necessitates faster and cost-effective processing for near-real-time decision making. Over the years, many have viewed high-performance computing (HPC) as a monster too complex and too unaffordable for processing large data. However, that viewpoint is changing rapidly due to open source innovations such as Apache Hadoop, the advent of the cloud, and simple and affordable platforms like Microsoft.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2012/ea120111.html

HPC Steroid for Big Data

9 Jan 2012 18:40:42 GMT

Hate, Sudhanshu | Executive Updates |

Today's unprecedented growth rate of data (structured and unstructured) necessitates faster and cost-effective processing for near-real-time decision making. Over the years, many have viewed high-performance computing (HPC) as a monster too complex and too unaffordable for processing large data. However, that viewpoint is changing rapidly due to open source innovations such as Apache Hadoop, the advent of the cloud, and simple and affordable platforms like Microsoft. In this Executive Update, we examine how various HPC techniques, deployment patterns, and Microsoft technologies are emerging to solve various Big Data problems.

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/updates/2012/biau1201.html

EA New Year's Resolutions, Seventh Edition

4 Jan 2012 18:41:53 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |

Welcome to the seventh-anniversary edition of my enterprise architect's New Year's resolutions. I hope it will give you food for thought and some inspiration for architectural growth in 2012.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2012/ea120104.html

Top 5 Intriguing Business & Enterprise Architecture Articles for 2011

28 Dec 2011 18:31:17 GMT

Coburn, Koren | E-Mail Advisors |

This week, we're taking a look back at five of the most intriguing articles published in Cutter's Business & Enterprise Architecture practice over this past year. As you might imagine, it was no small task to cull the list and pare it down to just five articles. Look for these lists from each of our four practice areas for a compilation of Cutter's 20 most-intriguing articles of the year. Stay tuned for the next issue of this Advisor on 4 January.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea111228.html

A Contrarian View of Scalability

22 Dec 2011 18:22:27 GMT

Gat, Israel | E-Mail Advisors |

In just about every due diligence engagement I carry out, the VC and I spend a lot of time on scalabity of the software architecture. The company whose software architecture we are evaluating usually has a good track record of successfully scaling up on quite a few technology and business dimensions. If we extrapolate the historical growth rate a few years into the future, the company really looks attractive. The concern, however, is that the company might run into a hard barrier for growth. In particular, getting stuck on some rigid architectural constraints is always a concern.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2011/apm111222.html

Unified Portfolio Management: The Basics

9 Jan 2012 17:12:05 GMT

Dooley, Brian J. | E-Mail Advisors | <br/><br/> Enterprise portfolio management has been evolving for the past several years toward a unified vision that incorporates the diverse areas of portfolio concepts, bringing them together through standardized measures and techniques backed by consolidated software solutions. As with other areas in IT, the elimination of silos of information and activity yields benefits in efficiency, reduced overhead, and new synergies. For portfolios, unification also provides the capability for immediate visibility into key areas of enterprise activity. <br/><br/> http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea111221.html

Securing the Client Side With Digital Tokens

20 Dec 2011 16:25:20 GMT

Finetti, Mario | Executive Updates |

This Executive Update describes two security challenges in the design of Web applications and how they can be addressed: the client-side equipment and the network used by users to connect to the Web server.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2011/eau1117.html

Enterprise Patterns: The Key to Effective EA Application as Transformation

19 Dec 2011 15:26:56 GMT

Evernden, Roger | Executive Summaries |

Enterprise architecture is more than IT. It is more than the embodiment of strategy. When it comes to understanding and managing significant enterprise change, enterprise architecture is a crucial discipline; thus, it is now vital to also regard EA as transformation. Business architecture and business capabilities help plan and decide strategic initiatives and priorities. As we'll explore in this Executive Report, embedding new or improved enterprise patterns delivers strategic outcomes by binding them to architectural change.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/summaries/2011/08/index.html

Enterprise BI Architecture Groups: The Key to Effective Agile Data Warehousing Programs

15 Dec 2011 15:55:00 GMT

Hughes, Ralph | Consulting |

Agile data warehousing delivers powerful BI applications in the shortest time frame possible, yet coordinating multiple fast-moving BI teams demands more than simple project management. Organizations need an enterprise business intelligence architecture (EBIA) function to coordinate high-level requirements, designs, and technologies in order to avoid ruinously expensive mistakes and redundancies.

http://www.cutter.com/workshops/enterprise-bi-architecture-groups.html

10 Neuroscience Facts for Architects

14 Dec 2011 15:36:43 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |

In my last Advisor (see "Take a SCARF to Architecture Reviews," 30 November 2011), I wrote about the SCARF model (status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness) and the importance of understanding it to achieve better results in architecture reviews. Based on the positive feedback I received, this week I'm going to discuss some of the other lessons from neuroscience that architects can incorporate into their interaction with others and themselves.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea111214.html

Repurposing the Business Analysis Practice for Greater Value

7 Dec 2011 18:55:19 GMT

McWhorter, Neal | E-Mail Advisors |

The business analysis profession is in the midst of change. Work is underway within organizations and associations to formalize and standardize what it means to be a business analyst (BA). The role has had a long and tortuous existence. A child of necessity, the role evolved to bridge the gap between what those responsible for operating an organization wanted to do and what those responsible for implementing technology were able to deliver. Attempts to eliminate this divide and directly marry the two groups began with COBOL (the Common Business-Oriented Language) and have continued through the creation of new abstractions such as visual development environments. However, these attempts have met with very limited success.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea111207.html

Unified Portfolio Management

6 Dec 2011 18:36:50 GMT

Dooley, Brian J. | Executive Updates |

Enterprise portfolio management has been evolving for the past several years toward a unified vision that incorporates the diverse areas of portfolio concepts, bringing them together through standardized measures and techniques backed by consolidated software solutions. As with other areas in IT, the elimination of silos of information and activity yields benefits in efficiency, reduced overhead, and new synergies. For portfolios, unification also provides the capability for immediate visibility into key areas of enterprise activity, which we'll explore in this Executive Update.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2011/eau1116.html

Take a SCARF to Architecture Reviews

30 Nov 2011 14:02:30 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |

I've been doing architecture for close to 20 years now and have built my practices based on what I've read, studied, and researched, and also from my experience of what works with clients. Every once in a while, some new information comes along that validates that experience, such as the excellent presentation on neuroleadership that Cutter Fellow Lynne Ellyn delivered at the Cutter Consortium CIO Forum in Mexico City a few weeks ago.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea111130.html

Security Is the Name of the Game When It Comes to Mobile Device Management

23 Nov 2011 15:35:08 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors |

Mobility is now one of the top strategic priorities for organizations. In fact, supporting mobility is seen as so important that some organizations are offering employees the option of using their own personal devices. This “bring your own device� concept is seen as a way for companies to reduce costs, but the proliferation of smartphones and tablets in the enterprise means that IT needs to somehow practically manage these devices. And, when most IT people talk about “managing mobile devices,� they primarily mean ensuring that they are used correctly (i.e., according to company polices regarding data access, storage, and transmission) and do not become a “black hole� of a security threat to the company.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea111123.html

The Town Planners of Enterprise Innovation

16 Nov 2011 15:04:14 GMT

McClure, Dan; Villela, Carlos | Journals |

By allowing an organization to analyze and visualize the entire business and apply business blueprints to both strategic transformation initiatives and ongoing business challenges, business architecture becomes an enabler of critical business strategies. This issue of Cutter IT Journal brings these factors to light through five articles by business architecture practitioners. These articles discuss business architecture in the context of strategic planning, requirements analysis, holistic business analysis, strategic transformation, and organizational transformation.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/11/itj1111a.html

Business Architecture in Practice: Lessons from the Trenches

16 Nov 2011 15:00:44 GMT

Ulrich, William | Journals |

By allowing an organization to analyze and visualize the entire business and apply business blueprints to both strategic transformation initiatives and ongoing business challenges, business architecture becomes an enabler of critical business strategies. This issue of Cutter IT Journal brings these factors to light through five articles by business architecture practitioners. These articles discuss business architecture in the context of strategic planning, requirements analysis, holistic business analysis, strategic transformation, and organizational transformation.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/11/index.html

Effective Customer Requirements Definition Using Business Architecture

16 Nov 2011 14:54:14 GMT

Guitarte, Andrew | Journals |

By allowing an organization to analyze and visualize the entire business and apply business blueprints to both strategic transformation initiatives and ongoing business challenges, business architecture becomes an enabler of critical business strategies. This issue of Cutter IT Journal brings these factors to light through five articles by business architecture practitioners. These articles discuss business architecture in the context of strategic planning, requirements analysis, holistic business analysis, strategic transformation, and organizational transformation.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/11/itj1111b.html

A Capability-Based Approach to Strategic Transformational Initiatives

16 Nov 2011 14:29:42 GMT

Krohn, Diana | Journals |

By allowing an organization to analyze and visualize the entire business and apply business blueprints to both strategic transformation initiatives and ongoing business challenges, business architecture becomes an enabler of critical business strategies. This issue of Cutter IT Journal brings these factors to light through five articles by business architecture practitioners. These articles discuss business architecture in the context of strategic planning, requirements analysis, holistic business analysis, strategic transformation, and organizational transformation.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/11/itj1111d.html

The Tale of Two BAs: Why Business Architecture Is the Business Analysis Practice�s Best Friend

16 Nov 2011 14:26:25 GMT

McWhorter, Neal |

By allowing an organization to analyze and visualize the entire business and apply business blueprints to both strategic transformation initiatives and ongoing business challenges, business architecture becomes an enabler of critical business strategies. This issue of Cutter IT Journal brings these factors to light through five articles by business architecture practitioners. These articles discuss business architecture in the context of strategic planning, requirements analysis, holistic business analysis, strategic transformation, and organizational transformation.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/11/itj1111c.html

Creating a New Multidisciplinary Cancer Center Using Business Architecture

16 Nov 2011 14:22:57 GMT

Libutti, Steven; Zahavi, Ron |

By allowing an organization to analyze and visualize the entire business and apply business blueprints to both strategic transformation initiatives and ongoing business challenges, business architecture becomes an enabler of critical business strategies. This issue of Cutter IT Journal brings these factors to light through five articles by business architecture practitioners. These articles discuss business architecture in the context of strategic planning, requirements analysis, holistic business analysis, strategic transformation, and organizational transformation.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/11/itj1111e.html

Considerations for Scalability

16 Nov 2011 16:13:44 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |

I was recently asked by a client to evaluate a product in terms of scalability. The client had invested in a custom case management system that had 100 users and wanted to know whether the current architecture would support scaling to 3,000 users. By today's standards, it's not breaking any new ground to support 3,000 users, but the question is, "What are all of the things that need to be considered to determine the scalability?" To examine this, let's take an example from my weekend's activities.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea111116.html

Business Architecture: Part VI -- Enabling Innovation and Business Model Transformation

15 Nov 2011 16:02:56 GMT

Ulrich, William | Executive Updates |

In Part II of this Executive Update series, we introduced the business-driven transformation roadmap.1 This roadmap differs from a typical project roadmap because it focuses on transforming how organizations deliver stakeholder value and improving underlying business capabilities from a business, versus IT, perspective. Here in Part VI, the final installment of the series, we discuss practice-based approaches to delivering innovative, actionable, and highly effective business solutions.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2011/eau1115.html

Modeling Languages that Support BPM

9 Nov 2011 15:29:47 GMT

Dooley, Brian | E-Mail Advisors |

Business process modeling lies at the core of all attempts to visualize and manage business processes. Process modeling documents the state of current processes, highlights opportunities for improvement and inefficiencies, and serves as the basis for task automation. Increasingly, modeling is required for compliance and for gaining a deeper understanding into operations, as well as for providing visibility to ensure rapid change in operations in pursuit of enterprise agility.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea111109.html

Never Complain, Never Explain: Exception No. 2

2 Nov 2011 18:06:30 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors |

A few weeks back, I wrote an EA Advisor in which I suggested that IT architects and engineers ought to have differing roles: architects should deal with high-level design and engineers with the detail technology ("Architects and Engineers: A New Way to Think About Them," 7 September 2011). Further, I suggested that architects should try, as much as possible, to "hide" extraneous technology details when talking to business users.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea111102.html

Making Architectural Principles Actionable

25 Oct 2011 17:41:20 GMT

Rosen, Michael | E-Mail Advisors |

Architectural principles are a common part of most EA programs, but as with anything, some principles are better defined than others and some EA programs better understand the role of principles and how to use them.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea111026.html

Current Practices in Business Process Modeling

21 Oct 2011 17:03:56 GMT

Dooley, Brian | Executive Updates |

Business process modeling lies at the core of all attempts to visualize and manage business processes. Process modeling documents the state of current processes, highlights opportunities for improvement and inefficiencies, and serves as the basis for task automation. Increasingly, modeling is required for compliance and for gaining a deeper understanding into operations, as well as for providing visibility to ensure rapid change in operations in pursuit of enterprise agility.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2011/eau1114.html

Cloud Computing Marches On, But Issues Remain the Same

18 Oct 2011 19:11:25 GMT

Hall, Curt |

A reader asked me about the state of cloud computing. I responded by saying that advancements in cloud technology and product/service offerings have really taken off and that the number of organizations using cloud offerings also has increased considerably. Today, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who would disagree that cloud computing should be considered a facilitating platform for supporting various on-demand (SaaS) platforms, applications, and services - ranging from operational applications for CRM, ERP, and HR to BI, data management, and analytic offerings. That said, I believe that many of the same key issues that plagued or hindered cloud computing from the start still remain, for the most part, unchanged. http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea111019.html

Zachman Framework V3

11 Oct 2011 18:49:35 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |

In August, John Zachman unveiled the new Version 3.0 of his framework. Now officially called "The Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture: The Enterprise Ontology™" (see www.zachman.com), it represents a continual refinement from previous versions. And like previous refinements, it is a combination of new graphics (shown in Figure 1), improved naming, and other clarifications. To get to the heart of the changes, lets first review the basics of the framework.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea111012.html

Business Architecture: Part V -- Team Building Through Development

11 Oct 2011 18:44:07 GMT

Ulrich, William | Executive Updates |

In Parts I-IV of this Executive Update series, we discussed how business architecture provides the means for shaping and communicating business strategy, transformation roadmaps, and funding models; how to use value streams as a basis for planning and deploying business initiatives; and how capabilities form the foundation for articulating a shared business vocabulary. 1 Here in Part V, we outline how to establish and socialize the business architecture, including introducing a rapid roadmap deployment approach that business architecture teams can use as a template for getting started.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2011/eau1113.html

Never Complain, Never Explain: Exception No. 1

5 Oct 2011 18:35:40 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors |

In my last Business & Enterprise Architecture Advisor ("Architects and Engineers: A New Way to Think About Them" 7 September 2011), I made a number of comments about the somewhat promiscuous use of the term "architect" -- as in "solutions architect" and "technology architect." Some of my readers saw this as something of a cheap shot. Henry Ford famously said, "never complain, never explain," and, by and large, I try to adhere to this advice. There are times, however, when it is important to respond, especially when your readers seem to take something you've said seriously.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea111005.html

Beyond SOA

29 Sep 2011 17:33:07 GMT

Dooley, Brian J. | Executive Updates |

SOA remains an important area for development and enterprise implementation but recent trends in social computing, mobility, user-developed applications, and the cloud have significantly upstaged SOA, as we explore in this Executive Update. Although its principles remain relevant, there is a growing consensus that SOA concepts, definitions, and procedures need to be updated to meet the needs of a new reality. This should hardly be surprising, since the initial concept of SOA fulfilled the purpose in defining a plateau of evolutionary development rather than a radically new technology. Such definitions are subject to change as capabilities, practices, and the surrounding environment move on.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2011/eau1112.html

Principles of Design: Part II

28 Sep 2011 17:22:01 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |

In my last Advisor ("Principles of Design: Part I" 14 September 2011), I introduced the design principles of Dieter Ram, the lead designer at appliance manufacturer Braun for 34 years. To review, Dieter says that good design:

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110928.html

How 21st-Century Enterprises Grow

22 Sep 2011 15:30:02 GMT

Evernden, Roger | Executive Updates |

It's your first briefing from the CIO: First and foremost, we need to keep everything up and running. And we absolutely have to meet mandatory compliance and regulatory deadlines. Then we've got to complete the integration project that kicked off following a big acquisition a couple of years ago, and it had better deliver the planned cost reductions and efficiencies, and on time, because we can't go back on our promises to shareholders. In parallel, we desperately need to transform our business and systems -- cracks are showing and getting bigger, and we're falling far behind competitors in meeting even basic customer expectations.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2011/eau1111.html

Desktop Virtualization: How Three Companies Are Doing It

19 Sep 2011 15:46:42 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 20 September 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

Nearly a year ago, I reported that advancements in virtualization technology have made virtual desktop environments much more practical and that this will facilitate broader mainstream adoption of desktop virtualization by end-user organizations (see "Flex Your VMs: The Benefits of Desktop Virtualization" 14 October 2010).

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110921.html

Business Architecture: Part IV � Building a Robust Foundation for the Future

19 Sep 2011 15:41:19 GMT

Ulrich, William | Executive Updates |

In Part I and Part II of this six-part Executive Update series, we discussed the importance of executive sponsorship and outlined how business architecture provides the means for shaping and communicating business strategy, transformation roadmaps, and funding models. 1 Part III explored using value streams as a basis for planning and deploying various business initiatives. 2 Here in Part IV, we examine how capabilities, introduced in Part I, form the foundation for fusing business and IT through a shared vocabulary, vision, and transformation strategy.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2011/eau1110.html

Principles of Design: Part I

13 Sep 2011 14:54:52 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors |

I happened across a really interesting exhibit on industrial design at the San Francisco MOMA last week. The exhibit features the designs of Dieter Ram, who was the chief designer for the German appliance manufacturer Braun for 25 years, from 1961-1995. The exhibit features hundreds of sleek, innovative, and intuitive household products that set the standards for good design for decades. In fact, Jonathan Ive, the chief designer at Apple, credits Ram with inspiring him and setting a foundation of design principles that can be seen in Apple's products.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110913.html

Enterprise Integration with the Business Architecture

12 Sep 2011 14:51:40 GMT

Whittle, Ralph | Executive Reports |

This Executive Report describes the business architecture (BA) as an element linked to other enterprise elements to collectively form a structure focused on the customer. Several figures illustrate the formal integration with the IT architectures, business processes, and strategy. Built, implemented, and governed as a "reusable asset," the BA enables the enterprise to achieve something new, different, or even great -- something that it cannot achieve in its current state. This is the power of architecture and a key reason for integrating the BA throughout the enterprise.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/reports/2011/07/index.html

Architects and Engineers: A New Way to Think About Them

7 Sep 2011 18:43:29 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors ::

For some time now, I've been looking for a word or a phrase or some way to distinguish among classes of architects. Over the last decade, I've largely worked as an enterprise architect, with an emphasis on "business architecture" -- especially "business process reengineering" and "data architecture." Every so often, I'm finding myself talking to "technical" or "solutions" architects or experts in "business process tools" or "business rule engines," and so on. As much as I'm interested in the higher-level tools that continue to be built and aggressively marketed, I find that there is often a large gap between what I think of as "enterprise architecture" and "technical architecture."

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110907.html

Using Enterprise Architecture for Governance, Alignment, and SOX Compliance

29 Aug 2011 17:45:59 GMT

Finkelstein, Clive | Executive Reports ::

In this Executive Report, I describe a practical approach utilizing enterprise architecture (EA) for rapid compliance with business governance requirements such as the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). Throughout the report, I show how senior management can establish internal controls by using a governance analysis framework (GAF), which is used to align and document the relationships within an enterprise that support financial and other reporting requirements. The framework is based on a comprehensive organizing framework using the Zachman Framework as well as proven EA methods and tools for the documentation and management of a GAF. It also ensures that senior management is able to comply with the internal control reporting requirements of Section 404 of SOX.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/reports/2011/06/index.html

Devops at Advance Internet: How We Got in the Door

25 Aug 2011 14:28:55 GMT

Shamow, Eric | Journals | 25 August 2011 | Business-IT Strategies; Enterprise Architecture; Cutter IT Journal

Only by providing positive results to the business and management can IT reverse its bad reputation and become a reliable partner again. In order to do that, we need to break through blockers in our thought process, and devops invites us to challenge traditional organizational barriers. The days of top-down control are over -- devops is a grass-roots movement similar to other horizontal revolutions, such as Facebook. The role of management is changing: no longer just directive, it is taking a more supportive role, unleashing the power of the people on the floor to achieve awesome results. And that is the focus of this issue of Cutter IT Journal.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/2011/08/itj1108b.html

Business Architecture, Planning, Roadmap Creation, and Budgeting

24 Aug 2011 14:00:13 GMT

Ulrich, William | E-Mail Advisors | 24 August 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

Business architecture provides a basis for transforming how business communicates and collaborates to achieve its goals across business units and product lines. One of the most fundamental benefits, however, is that business architecture enables a more business-focused investment strategy in major initiatives. Most noninfrastructure-focused IT spending is typically aligned to a given set of software applications. This approach limits the business vision to a siloed, technology-centric point of view and leaves critical capabilities not part of an IT solution today off the table, virtually ignoring horizontal views of how to deliver stakeholder value. Positioning investments in terms of business capabilities and value streams allows the business to focus on business value and not on IT centricities.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110824.html

Enterprise, Architecture, Technical Debt, and Technical Analysis

17 Aug 2011 16:22:15 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 17 August 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

Recently, Cutter's Business & Enterprise Architecture Practice Director Mike Rosen published an Advisor entitled "Use Architecture to Reduce Technical Debt" (10 August 2011), which opened the door for a discussion on one of the major problems facing many very large organizations today: technical paralysis. Technical paralysis sets in when it becomes impossible for an organization's information systems to be modified in a timely manner to respond to business, technical, or legal changes. Let me give you a couple examples from my own recent experience.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110817.html

Business Architecture: Part III -- Leveraging Value Streams in Business Transformation

15 Aug 2011 16:16:51 GMT

Ulrich, William | Executive Updates | 15 August 2011 | Enterprise Architecture; Business-IT Strategies

In Part I of this six-part Executive Update series on business architecture, we discussed the importance of executive sponsorship and leadership. 1 In Part II, we outlined how business architecture provides the means for shaping and communicating business strategy, transformation roadmaps, and funding models. 2 Here in Part III, we explore how to use value streams as a basis for deploying various business initiatives ranging from large-scale transformation efforts to near-term, high-payback tactical deployments. We discuss the use of value streams in improving productivity and enhancing the customer experience. Before we get into various case study examples, let's recap the role of the value stream in analyzing business challenges and crafting strategies for addressing those challenges.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2011/eau1109.html

Use Architecture to Reduce Technical Debt

10 Aug 2011 17:25:39 GMT

Rosen, Michael | E-Mail Advisors :: All the talk in the press lately about the US national debt (and the political system's inability to deal with it) got me thinking about another kind of debt near and dear to an architect. That is the "technical debt" that we have in our IT systems.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110810.html

Migration Considerations

3 Aug 2011 17:24:36 GMT

Cohen, Beth | E-Mail Advisors :: The general thinking in the cloud provider community -- public or private -- has been to assume that anyone moving applications into the cloud is creating new servers and building new systems and applications, not migrating existing applications and systems. This scenario is only valid for the typical startup, small, or medium-sized business with little or no investment in IT applications. The migration path is often as simple as moving a small customer database into a new SaaS application, often with more features and functionality. This makes cloud services the obvious first choice for this market segment. The majority of public cloud growth has been driven by new companies with few legacy systems to worry about.
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http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110803.html

Lessons From Egypt

27 Jul 2011 15:24:50 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 27 July 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

I just returned from Cairo, Egypt, where I visited the Pyramids of Giza and other antiquities, as well as experienced some of the protests going on in Tahrir Square. As usual, I find it useful to draw parallels between things in the real world and EA. Here are three lessons that I took away from Egypt:

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110727.html

A Structured Approach to IT Cloud Migration

20 Jul 2011 14:08:34 GMT

Cohen, Beth | Executive Reports | 20 July 2011 | Enterprise Architecture; Enterprise Risk Management & Governance; Business Intelligence

Migrating IT systems and infrastructure to cloud ecosystems cuts costs and improves service delivery. However, moving complex IT infrastructures directly to cloud architectures is not simple or easy. As discussed in this Executive Report, an enterprise needs to look not only at the technical aspects but also at how migration will affect business operations. Taking a structured approach to cloud migration projects bypasses roadblocks and allows for intelligent decisions that will benefit the business.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/reports/2011/05/index.html

Transforming Planning Approaches and Challenges

1 Aug 2011 14:06:44 GMT

Ulrich, William | E-Mail Advisors | 20 July 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

When discussing why executives should leverage business architecture to facilitate strategic planning and transformation, it is useful to examine the challenges facing organizations making large-scale, multiyear IT investments. Planning teams often find it difficult to operationalize high-level policy statements, strategic plans, and new business models across highly segregated businesses. Each division has its own goals and related funding models and generally lacks visibility into what's happening in other business units. As a result, executives often make large spending decisions with little knowledge of how those decisions may help or harm the enterprise as a whole. This in turn stymies best-laid plans and business transformation strategies.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110720.html

Business Architecture: Part II -- Business-Driven Transformation Strategies, Roadmaps, and Funding Models

15 Jul 2011 15:53:30 GMT

Ulrich, William | Executive Updates | 15 July 2011 | Business-IT Strategies; Enterprise Architecture

In Part I of this six-part Executive Update series on business architecture, we took a look at why business executives must sponsor and enable business architecture for the business. 1 We discussed how business architecture supports a wide range of business initiatives, such as improving customer service and reducing customer attrition; enabling merger, acquisition, and divestiture activities; and deploying new business strategies across product lines and business units. The challenge facing many organizations today is that enterprise strategies and executive mandates rarely align to funded initiatives and project deployments. Fragmented, redundant, or even conflicting projects often take organizations in directions that fall far short of strategic goals and executive mandates, in spite of the millions of dollars spent on these efforts. Here in Part II, we'll discuss how organizations can craft business-driven transformation strategies that address these challenges.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2011/eau1108.html

Are You Doing Architecture?

13 Jul 2011 15:16:00 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 13 July 2011 | Business-IT Strategies; Enterprise Architecture

In yet another conversation with a client, I was reviewing the activities that its architects were performing. As you can imagine, those activities included following procedure, organizing meetings, investigating issues or technologies, performing reviews, writing documents, creating models, and so on. As I pointed out in my last Advisor (see "Define Roles and Responsibilities to Avoid Conflict," 29 June 2011), an architect has many different roles. But one question we don't often ask is: Should architects be performing those roles? Or, put another way: What roles should they be performing? This leads to another question: Are we doing architecture?

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110713.html

Sharing Sensor Data on the Web

6 Jul 2011 16:29:01 GMT

Di Maio, Paola | E-Mail Advisors | 06 July 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

Lately, interest has been shifting from the physical layer of the Internet of Things toward a more abstract layer of a Web of Things (WoT), reflecting a stronger emphasis on the knowledge representation aspect. Some interesting examples of sensor Web efforts are listed below:

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110706.html

Aligning Enterprise Architecture, Strategy, and Portfolio Management

5 Jul 2011 15:50:21 GMT

Finkelstein, Clive | Executive Reports | 05 July 2011 | Business-IT Strategies; Enterprise Architecture; Business Intelligence

Success with enterprise architecture depends on strategy, rather than on existing business processes. This leads to the development of a strategic model of the enterprise as a "picture of the business" for management, while also being a high-level enterprise model for IT. This strategic model is analyzed to derive a portfolio of systems based on management priorities. This Executive Report demonstrates methods you can use to derive project plans and project maps from data maps by inspection. These easy-to-apply methods have not previously been used in data modeling and promise to transform portfolio management.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/reports/2011/04/index.html

The Coming Tsunami: In-Memory Databases, Part II

23 Jun 2011 13:52:18 GMT

Kellen, Vince | E-Mail Advisors | 23 June 2011 | Enterprise Architecture; Business Intelligence; Business Technology Trends & Impacts

In last week's Advisor, I began a discussion of SAP's new HANA architecture (see "The Coming Tsunami: In-Memory Databases, Part I," 16 June 2011). SAP's long-term strategy is to use this architecture also as a persistent store of data for its transactional system, hence the inclusion of a row-oriented database. This is a polite way of saying that sometime in the future you won't need another vendor's database system. The HANA architecture uses flash memory as the persistent store, so there will be no spinning disks. SAP's software will be able to replicate its transactions in real time to HANA, without needing nightly or batch-oriented ETL processes to load the system or maintain aggregates. The appliance is able to import data from other systems easily using conventional ODBC/JDBC methods. The architecture also has a real-time replication component that I assume will be used for making copies of the data inside for recovery and performance purposes.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2011/btt110623.html

The Benefits of Business Architecture

22 Jun 2011 13:33:37 GMT

Ulrich, William | E-Mail Advisors | 22 June 2011 | Enterprise Architecture; Business-IT Strategies

Business architecture is gaining recognition as a game-changing discipline that enables businesses to address major challenges in new and unique ways. Simply put, business architecture allows a business to establish a common vocabulary, shared vision, and a degree of transparency that facilitates initiatives ranging from M&As to the reversal of customer attrition. But even as business architecture success stories emerge, the message has been slow to penetrate the executive suite.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110622.html

The Coming Tsunami: In-Memory Databases, Part I

16 Jun 2011 17:10:26 GMT

Kellen, Vince | E-Mail Advisors | 16 June 2011 | Business-IT Strategies; Enterprise Architecture; Business Technology Trends & Impacts

SAP may have dished up a fastball high and inside, just under the chin. The target: its database competitors.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2011/btt110616.html

Classification, Understanding, and Frameworks

15 Jun 2011 16:24:15 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 15 June 2011 | Enterprise Architecture; Business-IT Strategies

In other words, data is a collection of unorganized/uninterrupted facts. When we put those facts in the context of a schema or classification, then we have useful information. When we put that information into the context of experience, then we have knowledge. When we apply that knowledge to add value, then we have wisdom.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110615.html

Business Architecture: Part I -- Why It Matters to Business Executives

14 Jun 2011 16:14:40 GMT

Ulrich, William | Executive Updates | 14 June 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

Business architecture is gaining recognition as a game-changing discipline that enables businesses to address major challenges in new and unique ways. Simply put, business architecture allows a business to establish a common vocabulary, shared vision, and a degree of transparency that facilitates initiatives ranging from M&As to the reversal of customer attrition. But even as business architecture success stories emerge, the message has been slow to penetrate the executive suite. This Executive Update, the first in a series, discusses why business leaders should embrace business architecture as a means of addressing complex business challenges in ways that senior leadership can no longer ignore.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2011/eau1107.html

Capability Mapping Quick Start

10 Jun 2011 15:04:30 GMT

Cutter Consortium | Consulting | Enterprise Architecture

Business capabilities are the core of the business architecture. A business capability defines "what" a business does. This is different than "how" things are done or where they are done. Business capabilities provide a vocabulary for business leaders to communicate and collaborate with each other and with information technology planning and deployment teams. Communication and collaboration is enabled as a result of having a common language for terms and concepts that are often misinterpreted, poorly considered, and dangerously inconsistent. For example, most organizations have poorly defined definitions for simple terms such as customer, agent, product, account, policy, margin, and profit. The capabilities that they possess related to these and numerous other topics are equally ill-defined and misconstrued. Capability mapping sorts this out -- for once and for all for the business as a whole.

http://www.cutter.com/consulting-and-training/capability-mapping-quick-start.html

Risk Management = Testing

8 Jun 2011 14:32:08 GMT

Estes, Don | E-Mail Advisors | 08 June 2011 | Enterprise Architecture; Business-IT Strategies

If we create a suitably accurate and comprehensive set of tests at the outset of the project -- tests for both performance and business functionality, the two primary reasons for project failure -- and apply those tests continually throughout the project, then the project can never fail on either basis. In effect, I recommend applying a large-scale version of test-driven development, a key feature of agile programming methodologies.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110608.html

Architecting Sustainable IT: Use Your Green Thumb

1 May 2011 15:18:56 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 01 June 2011 | Enterprise Architecture; Business-IT Strategies

This week, in recognition of International Green IT Awareness Week, Cutter is addressing the topic of green or sustainable IT. The question I'll explore is how to take an architectural approach to going green. First, let me propose the following definitions.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110601.html

Business Architecture Quick Start

31 May 2011 15:13:29 GMT

Ulrich, William M. | Consulting | Enterprise Architecture

Business architecture is not just one more approach or technique; it is a shift in philosophy. In organizations where business architecture is embraced, the role of strategic visioning, issue analysis and transformation planning is shifted to the business. When the business takes ownership of the business vocabulary and accompanying views, the organization can break free of the silo-oriented shackles that curtail strategic planning, visioning, and funding, and obstruct initiative deployment.

http://www.cutter.com/consulting-and-training/business-architecture-quick-start.html

Providing the Architecture for Progressive Modernization

25 May 2011 14:40:53 GMT

Simmons, Scott | E-Mail Advisors | 25 May 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

A key tenet for modernizing core systems is to assess the current solution and to define the context for the to-be solution. While working with a large customer in Europe, my colleagues and I focused an eight-week effort on assessing the current environment and the readiness to renew core systems. The assessment revealed issues about product currency in operational environments and resulted in our recommendation to correct these infrastructure matters before embarking on a renewal. These tasks are ongoing as part of broader development initiatives.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110525.html

Chromebooks Will Shake Up Enterprise Computing

18 May 2011 14:43:37 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 18 May 2011 | Enterprise Architecture; Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Sourcing & Vendor Relationships; Enterprise Risk Management & Governance; Business Intelligence

Google's introduction of the Chromebook has serious implications for cloud computing and IT -- and threatens to shake up enterprise computing. Google is hoping that companies will find Chromebook's reduced maintenance and lower cost of ownership too good to resist. But Google does not expect companies to embrace Chromebook overnight. Rather, the company is betting that Chromebook adoption will gain momentum as organizations warm up to the concept -- just as has been the case with cloud computing, in general.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110518.html

Understand Application Layers and Tiers

11 May 2011 19:05:46 GMT

Rosen, Michael | E-Mail Advisors | 11 May 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

In my last Advisor, I discussed the characteristics that you should expect from an enterprise application architecture (see "Are You Ready for New Media?" 27 April 2011). This week, I'll explore two fundamental concepts of the application architecture: layers and tiers. Figure 1 shows the relationship between these two concepts with respect to the application architecture.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110511.html

What Should and Should Not Be Moved to the Cloud: How Enterprise Architecture Settles the Question Webinar

11 May 2011 19:02:41 GMT

Rosen, Mike | Webinars/Multimedia | 11 May 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

Everyone is talking about the cloud, but from many different perspectives. Some think it means virtualization, others think it means scalable infrastructure, and still others think it means software-as-a-service. Sometimes, the business has a different and dangerous perspective, thinking that the cloud provides a new way to source IT solutions without having to go through the IT department. At the same time, there are many other issues relating to the cloud and affecting its adoption such as integration, security, data integrity, reliability, accountability and responsibility.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/webinar/2011/moving-to-the-cloud.html

Business Architecture: A Comprehensive Deployment Roadmap

9 May 2011 17:23:31 GMT

Ulrich, William M. | Consulting | Enterprise Architecture

Length: 2.5 days Course Delivery: Onsite Content Provided: Training Material Hardcopy and PDF Format Course Objectives: Understand the vital impacts of poorly aligned business architectures Provide a total view on how to establish a business architecture team and program Learn how to create basic business architecture blueprints such as the capability map Build an understanding on how to establish the business architecture knowledgebase Learn how to establish or solidify your business architecture team Understand the basics of business architecture / IT architecture mapping and alignment Gain experience with engagement models required to deploy business architecture roadmaps Walk through various scenarios, case studies and exercises for deploying business architecture Deliver a set of "getting started" guidelines for business architecture

http://www.cutter.com/workshops/business-architecture-roadmap.html

Webinar: What Should and Should Not Be Moved to the Cloud: How Enterprise Architecture Settles the Question

11 May 2011 14:17:43 GMT

Rosen, Mike | Events | 11 May 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

Everyone is talking about the cloud, but from many different perspectives. Some think it means virtualization, others think it means scalable infrastructure, and still others think it means software-as-a-service. Sometimes, the business has a different and dangerous perspective, thinking that the cloud provides a new way to source IT solutions without having to go through the IT department. At the same time, there are many other issues relating to the cloud and affecting its adoption such as integration, security, data integrity, reliability, accountability and responsibility.

http://www.cutter.com/events/multimedia/moving-to-the-cloud.html

How Cloud 2.0 Offers a Way Out of Silicon's Limits

5 May 2011 14:13:55 GMT

Kellen, Vince | E-Mail Advisors | 05 May 2011 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Business Intelligence; Business-IT Strategies; Enterprise Architecture

Let's face it. We are at the end of Moore's Law. The common version of this law says computing power doubles every 18 to 24 months. Advances in silicon engineering have made this possible. But this natural law of silicon is driven by the fundamentals of materials science and the laws of physics. Unless we find a way to change the gravitational constant of the universe or surpass the speed of light, we are likely to face another four decades of computing unlike the past four decades.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2011/btt110505.html

Webinar: What Should and Should Not Be Moved to the Cloud: How Enterprise Architecture Settles the Question

11 May 2011 14:52:24 GMT

Are You Ready for New Media?

27 Apr 2011 18:55:43 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 27 April 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

This week I bring you another internationally inspired Advisor from my trip to Rome, where I'm teaching two seminars on enterprise architecture. For this trip, I decided to modernize and leave my trusty old paper Italian phrasebook at home in lieu of a modern, talking, iPhone app. Although there were quite a few to choose from, I started with the free app.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110427.html

Webinar: What Should and Should Not Be Moved to the Cloud: How Enterprise Architecture Settles the Question

11 May 2011 15:49:07 GMT

Cloud Standards Ramp Up, Gain Key Advocates

20 Apr 2011 15:12:37 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 20 April 2011 | Enterprise Architecture; Business-IT Strategies; Business Intelligence

Cloud computing has emerged as an attractive alternative to on-premise IT, offering organizations cost savings and greater flexibility in how they license, develop, and manage applications and how they store and manage data. But the big "however" with cloud computing remains a lack of open -- and generally accepted -- set of standards, benchmarks, methodologies, and best practices. This absence is standing in the way of more widespread adoption of clouds by end-user organizations.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110420.html

Successful Application Modernization and Rationalization: Part II -- Long-Term Strategic Approaches

18 Apr 2011 14:48:08 GMT

Estes, Don | Executive Summaries | 18 April 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

In Part II of this two-part Executive Report series on modernization, author Don Estes focuses on strategies that deliver the greatest business value, examining both conventional and promising unconventional approaches in depth, with their respective pros and cons. Since conventionally modernized applications will inevitably become "legacy" again, the author also analyzes how rationalization approaches can avoid this fate. The report concludes with an outline methodology for selecting an optimal project strategy.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/summaries/2011/03/index.html

Successful Application Modernization and Rationalization: Part II -- Long-Term Strategic Approaches

18 Apr 2011 14:42:28 GMT

Estes, Don | Executive Reports | 18 April 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

In Part II of this two-part Executive Report series on modernization, author Don Estes focuses on strategies that deliver the greatest business value, examining both conventional and promising unconventional approaches in depth, with their respective pros and cons. Since conventionally modernized applications will inevitably become "legacy" again, the author also analyzes how rationalization approaches can avoid this fate. The report concludes with an outline methodology for selecting an optimal project strategy.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/reports/2011/03/index.html

Webinar: What Should and Should Not Be Moved to the Cloud: How Enterprise Architecture Settles the Question

11 May 2011 15:09:53 GMT

Lessons from La Tour d'Eiffel

13 Apr 2011 14:23:17 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 13 April 2011 | Enterprise Architecture; Agile Project Management; Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

Last week, I was visiting Paris and got the chance to marvel at the Tour d'Eiffel, one of the world's most well-known and instantly recognizable structures. I also took the opportunity to learn a bit more about its fascinating history. For example, I learned that the Eiffel Tower is the world's most visited paid tourist attraction, reaching its 200,000,000th visitor in 2002, and having more than 2.6 million visitors in 2010 alone.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110413.html

Reuse Maturity Model: Establishing a Software Vocabulary

6 Apr 2011 14:46:39 GMT

Sharma, Nikhil; Mutha, Mohit; Upasani, Vinay; Marsh, Lawrence | E-Mail Advisors | 06 April 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

Software development has been full of fast-paced advancements, with a focus on increasing efficiency and reducing cost/efforts for stakeholders. Applying these changes forms a crucial part of the reusability concern that has been at the forefront of new business initiatives or development. Reuse has been central to many of the development models as have such tenets as "don't reinvent the wheel" and "don't repeat yourself."

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110406.html

About the Enterprise Architecture Practice

30 Mar 2011 19:24:47 GMT

Cutter Consortium | 30 March 2011 |

Cutter's EA Practice offers a rich menu of services that are designed to help your organization create and deploy an enterprise architecture that increases business opportunities, supports agility, and delivers value. From clarifying your strategic architectural approach to maximizing the benefits of the various EA frameworks, Cutter offers the consulting, training and research you need to make enterprise architecture a source of strategic competitive advantage.

http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/resource-centers/enterprise-architecture.html

Users' Conference Spurs Impressions, Questions, and Answers

29 Mar 2011 18:38:56 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 30 March 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

I attended a users' conference last week for an enterprise architecture tool. Keeping with Cutter's vendor-neutrality policy, I won't go into detail about the product, but I do want to report on my overall impressions and answer some of the common questions that I heard there.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110330.html

The Total Solution for Integrating Architecture and Agile Teams

23 Mar 2011 18:27:59 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 23 March 2011 | Enterprise Architecture; Business-IT Strategies; Agile Project Management

Agile software development and agile project management have shown considerable success in helping organizations develop better software and better manage development projects in the face of changing requirements and evolving technologies. In one sense, agile is about managing rapidly changing project factors and requirements.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110323.html

"Out Sight, Out of Mind"? Not a Solution for Aging IT Infrastructure

17 Mar 2011 18:16:29 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 17 March 2011 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Enterprise Risk Management & Governance; Business-IT Strategies; Enterprise Architecture

In the US and in industrial countries around the world, the recent economic crisis has triggered the first serious consideration of national spending priorities for more than a decade. Supposedly, every option is being explored and unfortunately, in many cases deficits are being balanced out by reduction in long-term investments in existing infrastructure. There are a few bright spots, however. For example, in the US, President Obama has included new money for high-speed rail.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2011/btt110317.html

Total Agile Management

16 Mar 2011 17:36:45 GMT

Gat, Israel; Rosen, Mike; Glazer, Hillel | Consulting | Agile Project Management; Enterprise Architecture

Agile software development and Agile project management have shown considerable success in helping organizations develop better software and better manage development projects in the face of changing requirements and evolving technologies. In the largest sense, Agile is about managing for change.

http://www.cutter.com/consulting-and-training/total-agile-management.html

Short-Term Tactical Approaches to Application Modernization and Rationalization, Part II: Solutions

16 Mar 2011 17:19:26 GMT

Estes, Don | E-Mail Advisors | 16 March 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

In last week's Advisor (see "Short-Term Tactical Approaches to Application Modernization and Rationalization, Part I," 9 March 2011), I provided some background about the problems associated with many legacy modernization projects. So what are the solutions offered to deal with these problems? The performance problem we attack by building a performance model of the proposed solution that we can subject to stress tests before committing to that particular design. Simple, but very rarely done.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110316.html

Performing "Heart Surgery During Marathons": Core Banking System Modernization -- Part II

16 Mar 2011 17:01:58 GMT

Simmons, Scott | Executive Updates | 16 March 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

In Part I of this Executive Update series,1 we discussed modernizing core banking systems through the analogy of heart surgery as well as the approaches I have seen as banking IT strategies evolve in this era of change in the financial industry. In particular, we covered "putting shunts" in the "patient" through application transformation and integration. In this concluding part, we look at "heart bypass" and "valve replacement" -- that is, business process management (BPM) and master data management (MDM) -- compared with the traditional (and risky) "rip and replace" approaches to modernizing core banking. So let's start the lessons on "surgery."

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2011/eau1105.html

Webinar: Overcoming the Enterprise Risk Management Paradox

16 Mar 2011 16:57:25 GMT

Charette, Robert N. | Events | 16 March 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

It has been nearly twenty years since the title "Chief Risk Officer" was coined by James Lam, which itself reflected over a decade's worth of extensive thinking into how to make a holistic enterprise view of risk management practical.

http://www.cutter.com/events/multimedia/risk-paradox.html

Webinar: Overcoming the Enterprise Risk Management Paradox

16 Mar 2011 19:09:33 GMT

Short-Term Tactical Approaches to Application Modernization and Rationalization, Part I

9 Mar 2011 19:04:14 GMT

Estes, Don | E-Mail Advisors | 09 March 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

Do you have a new development project in planning that will replace an existing application? If so, then it is likely that you are planning a legacy modernization. According to a conversation with Capers Jones, 70% of "new" application development is to replace a legacy system. The first client-server applications are more than 25 years old, and we see an increasing number of projects that have nothing to do with COBOL or mainframes, though that is still the largest category because of history and cost. We've even seen five-year-old Java systems branded "legacy."

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110309.html

Reuse Maturity Model: Establishing a Software Reuse Vocabulary

4 Mar 2011 18:57:39 GMT

Sharma, Nikhil; Mutha, Mohit; Upasani, Vinay; Marsh, Lawrence | Executive Updates | 04 March 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

This Executive Update is mainly targeted for business executives, architects, and program managers. It provides an overview about how the most commonly debated concern about reuse benefits can be planned, measured, and quantified. The Update establishes a vocabulary that can be used by various stakeholders to report/request the reuse benefits for any development initiative or software project. It also helps architects and designers plan up front for components that can be candidates for a particular reuse.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2011/eau1104.html

Reshaping Architecture: New Organizations to Watch

2 Mar 2011 16:30:46 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 02 March 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

Two recently formed organizations have come to my attention lately that are (or should be) of interest to architects. The first is the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations (FEAPO), and the second is the Business Architecture Guild (BAG).

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110302.html

Performing "Heart Surgery During Marathons": Core Banking System Modernization -- Part I

24 Feb 2011 14:12:45 GMT

Simmons, Scott | Executive Updates | 24 February 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

The subject of this Executive Update may seem odd. I am borrowing an analogy that one of my banking clients uses to describe the requirements for transforming the company's core banking systems. They are the "cardiovascular" IT system for banks -- providing solutions that drive revenue-generating operations, such as account management, deposits, loans, and credit cards. The current core systems are largely product-oriented applications that are 20-plus years old and mainframe-based. Most lack the flexibility and impede the ability for IT to respond to new business requirements. In short, based on my numerous engagements with banking clients worldwide, we are witnessing a sustained, concerted movement for modernizing the core system. This involves the process of transforming and/or replacing these key applications. As per the title of this Update, "heart surgery" refers to the need to maintain and manage the current core banking solutions while working to transform the core system functionality.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2011/eau1103.html

Developing a Useful Direction for Cloud Computing

23 Feb 2011 18:47:46 GMT

Baudoin, Claude R. | E-Mail Advisors | 23 February 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

For every vendor presentation claiming that cloud computing is an unprecedented revolution, there is an analyst paper denouncing the hyperbole. Every new example of IT goes through this phase, just as surely as a child goes through the "terrible twos" -- and at about the same age.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110223.html

Press Release: Stat of the Week -- Which EA framework does your organization use?

22 Feb 2011 18:42:51 GMT

Cutter Consortium | 22 February 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

EA Practice Director Mike Rosen wasn't surprised to see that many organizations use a combination of frameworks for EA. He writes, "As a general characterization of the top three frameworks, TOGAF is strong in architectural process, Zachman is strong in providing a conceptual model for thinking about the enterprise, and DoDAF/MoDAF is strong in the specification of explicit architectural deliverables (models) based on an underlying metamodel. So perhaps it not surprising that 29% of organizations have adopted a hybrid approach that combines the strength of two or three of these frameworks together."

http://www.cutter.com/press/110222.html

Webinar: Overcoming the Enterprise Risk Management Paradox

16 Mar 2011 18:40:45 GMT

Too Many Applications to Deploy to Your Project? Automate Them

16 Feb 2011 18:15:55 GMT

Teti, Frank | E-Mail Advisors | 16 February 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

While IT people have a propensity to make projects out of anything, not perceiving features of an application environment in more detail, and in enough implementation detail, is a flaw in the planning process -- a rookie mistake. In many ways, technologists are obsessed with automating certain features of an application environment, but when it comes to deployment, all brainstorming seems to cease. This isn't a very enterprise-wide or Gestalt view of the world, where the "essence or shape of an entity's complete form" is understood by the application designers. In other words, an understanding of the project's coding effort, including deployment automation, should be viewed as a stiff requirement.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110216.html

Webinar: Overcoming the Enterprise Risk Management Paradox

11 Feb 2011 18:21:20 GMT

Information Requirements: The Missing Link Between Business and Data Architectures

10 Feb 2011 17:43:30 GMT

Rau, Ken | Executive Updates | 10 February 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

If you ask a "process owner" without prompting what specific information is required to properly execute the activities of the process for which he or she is responsible, then the process owner will rattle off a slew of items. However, any attempt to assume these items are attributes of the data architecture and assign them to entities will prove frustrating. Consider my recent interview about process modeling with a pharmaceutical marketing director responsible for consumer education and publicity about the subprocess (activity) Conduct Trade Shows:

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2011/eau1102.html

Ken Olsen: Remembering a Pioneer

9 Feb 2011 17:23:27 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 09 February 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

I was saddened to hear that computer industry pioneer Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), died on Sunday, a few weeks shy of his 85th birthday.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110209.html

Successful Application Modernization and Rationalization: Part I -- Short-Term Tactical Approaches

1 Jan 2011 19:27:44 GMT

Estes, Don | Executive Summaries | 01 January 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

Part I of this two-part Executive Report series by Don Estes provides a blueprint for guaranteed success in legacy modernization. The first stage of a project must reproduce the business functionality of the legacy application and pass rigorous acceptance testing validated against the legacy system. Then a second stage can provide enhanced functionality by refactoring the results of the first stage. A variety of conventional and unconventional approaches are discussed in depth with their respective pros and cons. http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/reports/2011/01/index.html

C-Suite and Sour: Innovation Myth-Busting

3 Feb 2011 19:08:05 GMT

May, Thornton | E-Mail Advisors | 03 February 2011 | Innovation; Business-IT Strategies

In a series of workshops conducted in 12 US and three European cities as well as one in Asia, I asked more than 1,500 CIOs to answer the following question: When you, your CEO, and your CFO hear the word "innovation," what is the first thing that leaps to mind?

http://www.cutter.com/content/innovation/fulltext/advisor/2011/iea110203.html

To Cohere or Adhere: Objects, Relationships, and Architectures

2 Feb 2011 19:05:47 GMT

Rau, Kenneth | E-Mail Advisors | 02 February 2011 | Enterprise Architecture; Business-IT Strategies

In designing and documenting architectures, be they business, data, application, or technology architectures, enterprise architects are prone to focus first and foremost on the objects that compose the architecture in question. This is both human nature (nouns before verbs) and a logical approach to design.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110202.html

The Decision for Goodwill (and its Many Happy Returns)

26 Jan 2011 18:37:54 GMT

Pritchard, Carl | E-Mail Advisors | 26 January 2011 | Business-IT Strategies

"And therefore ... though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!" (Charles Dickens) Although it may seem out of season, the quote above (from A Christmas Carol) captures the spirit of a very effective decision-making process. For those unfamiliar with the tale, the quote is made by Fred Holywell (Ebenezer Scrooge's nephew) as an impassioned plea for the charitable spirit of the holiday. But I would contend that Fred's assessment of his charity is grossly in error. In fact, I would suggest that his contention that "[t]here are many things from which I might have derived good, but by which I have not profited" is a failure to recognize a powerful business concept: the return on goodwill.

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2011/bit110126.html

Some Steps Toward Designing Architectural Views

26 Jan 2011 18:28:29 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 26 January 2011 | Enterprise Architecture; Business-IT Strategies

In my last Advisor (see "Understand the Value Equation," 12 January 2011), I talked about the architecture value equation and the role of architectural views in creating value. To refresh your memory, the equation says that if you make it easier for someone to do their job using architecture, then they’ll use it. To achieve that requires the appropriate view. First, we need to understand what outcomes we are trying to achieve with architecture. Next, we need to understand what processes are involved (such as portfolio management, strategic planning, analysis and design, implementation) and what roles (people) are responsible for performing them. Then, we need to understand what perspective and skills the people with these roles have, and what the individual steps in the process are. Last but not least, we need to determine the steps in the process where architecture has the most leverage and opportunity to influence the outcome. Finally, we design an architectural view that supports those process steps, maximizes the leverage, and is meaningful to the person performing the process.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110126.html

Webinar: Overcoming the Enterprise Risk Management Paradox

16 Mar 2011 19:49:07 GMT

Charette, Robert N. | Events | 16 March 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

In this webinar, we will take an in-depth look at where enterprise risk management has been, where it is today, and where it needs to go if it wishes to become relevant to organizations today, and more importantly, tomorrow.

http://www.cutter.com/events/multimedia/risk-paradox.html

[Untitled]

26 Jan 2011 19:34:12 GMT

Green Business Process Management

20 Jan 2011 19:29:31 GMT

Unhelkar, Bhuvan | E-Mail Advisors | 20 January 2011 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts Business process management (BPM) is a well-established industry practice encompassing process modeling, reengineering, and optimization of processes -- their measurements as well as their mergers and elimination. Green business process management (Green BPM) encompasses all of the aforementioned aspects of BPM that includes both internal and external processes of an organization from a green perspective. The premise and the promise of Green BPM is that considerable carbon savings can be achieved if an organization changes the way it does things. Such an approach does not undermine the other major carbon-reduction initiatives, such as virtualization of data servers and engendering attitude change in employees. However, similar to the lean approach to business optimization (I outlined this in one of my earlier Advisors1), the greening effort in an organization benefits highly by rearranging and reengineering the processes that include organizational activities, tasks, their sequencing, and their utility to business goals. http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2011/btt110120.html

Theories Help Us Understand How Software Teams Are Complex Adaptive Systems

20 Jan 2011 19:25:11 GMT

Appelo, Jurgen | E-Mail Advisors | 20 January 2011 | Agile Project Management; Enterprise Risk Management & Governance A complex system is a system composed of interconnected parts that as a whole exhibit one or more properties (behaviors) not obvious from the properties of the individual parts. We call a complex system adaptive when its behavior changes as a result of experience. http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2011/apm110120.html

Thinking About Systems, Not Programs; Databases, Not Objects

19 Jan 2011 17:19:12 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 19 January 2011 | Enterprise Architecture; Business-IT Strategies; Business Intelligence Happy New Year. The last decade was certainly an interesting one, but one that I wouldn't want to relive -- too much conflict, too much hype, too little real dialog, too little data .... You get my point. My holidays were unusually busy, including a lot of travel, a lot of family, and a lot of time to think and some time to read and collect my thoughts. What I've been thinking about increasingly is that we have forgotten about the distinction between systems and programs. http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110119.html

Is There Something Happening Here? (Yes, and It’s About Control)

13 Jan 2011 18:32:19 GMT

Kellen, Vince | E-Mail Advisors | 13 January 2011 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Business-IT Strategies; Enterprise Architecture; Business Intelligence

The last decade of bubble-induced growth was book-ended by the twin events of 9/11 and the great recession. This next decade, with this recession as one of its very own bookends, looks like it might unleash demons all its own. Where this will lead isn't exactly clear.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2011/btt110113.html

Intelligent Application Deployment: The Last Automation Frontier

13 Jan 2011 18:23:34 GMT

Teti, Frank | Executive Updates | 13 January 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

All lifecycle methodologies initiate themselves with some concept of requirement. That is true whether they are waterfall-like, OO (e.g., RUP), or even the parsimonious agile methodology. In business applications, forward engineering usually involves further automating some back-office or mission-critical application, and the requirements for the system may be satisfied, so to speak, with a custom or package solution. In either case, the development team is usually challenged with trying to establish an understanding of the business model and how the new application will integrate with existing or other satellite applications.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2011/eau1101.html

An Executive Guide to Information Systems Transformation Webinar

14 Jan 2011 18:22:17 GMT

Ulrich, William M. | Webinars/Multimedia | 13 January 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

Do you consider information systems transformation as tactical, limited to helping enterprises achieve incremental IT productivity gains? If this is the case, your organization is likely to be missing out on a wide range of powerful business-IT transformation opportunities. Information systems transformation is delivering more strategic value than ever.

Information Systems Transformation concepts offer organizations the ability to transform complex IT architectures to achieve critical business requirements. As traditional Greenfield, middleware and off-the-shelf solutions hit the wall, information systems transformation concepts have become essential to achieving synchronized and sustainable business-IT alignment. Organizations are using these concepts to enable the move to a customer centric business model, streamlining merger and acquisition deployment, and moving to more streamlined, transparent business deployments. Join us at this important webinar as William Ulrich outlines practical approaches to business-driven, IT architecture transformation using real world case studies and examples.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/webinar/2011/is-transformation.html

Understand the Value Equation

12 Jan 2011 18:16:35 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 12 January 2011 | Enterprise Architecture; Business-IT Strategies

Architects face many challenges in their jobs. Among them are creating architecture and applying architecture. I've said many times that creating architecture alone does not create value. Rather, the value from architecture comes when it is applied. In other words, value is delivered when architecture is used to influence the outcome of decision making, analysis, design, or implementation. Yet another challenge is that architects are often not the people who are responsible for doing the applying. So we face a conundrum: we don't create value until someone else uses the architecture. That begs the obvious question of how to get other people to use the architecture.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110112.html

EA New Year's Resolutions, Sixth Edition

5 Jan 2011 18:04:09 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 05 January 2011 | Enterprise Architecture; Business Technology Trends & Impacts

Welcome to the sixth anniversary edition of my Enterprise Architect's "New Year's Resolutions." I hope this Advisor will give you food for thought and some inspiration for architectural growth in 2011.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2011/ea110105.html

EA for Business Analysts: Making the Right Connections

17 Dec 2010 15:10:14 GMT

Allen, Paul | Executive Updates | 17 December 2010 | Enterprise Architecture

Organizations are increasingly coming to recognize the contribution that an effective business analysis function can make to their operations. In a global environment that seems to be in a constant state of fast-moving change, business analysts have the potential to assess environmental issues and develop effective responses. An effective business architecture is required to frame these responses as part of a well-formed overall enterprise architecture (EA). At the same time, while business architecture brings much-needed structure to the party, the reality is that it often becomes decoupled from the practicalities of business analysis. It must enable business analysts with much more practical and relevant guidance than is commonly the case. For example, the business architecture needs to encourage business analysts to pay much greater attention to such factors as the organization's operating model, core context strategy, and impact analysis. This Executive Update presents some overall techniques for doing just that, helping business analysts make the right connections at the EA level.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2010/eau1023.html

Enterprise Architecture 2010: Part II -- EA Effectiveness

9 Dec 2010 15:09:15 GMT

Rosen, Michael | Executive Updates | 09 December 2010 | Enterprise Architecture

This is the second in a series of Executive Updates that examines enterprise architecture (EA). Part I addressed questions about the practices of EA organizations.1 This Update focuses on the perceived effectiveness of EA. Part III will look at EA programs and organization. Each is based on data from a Cutter Consortium survey conducted in the summer of 2010.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2010/eau1022.html

Achieving Real Value-Add From Your Business-Driven Enterprise Architecture: Realizing the Void

1 Jul 2010 14:46:02 GMT

Boettger, Skip | Executive Reports | 01 July 2010 | Enterprise Architecture

In astrophysics, dark matter is responsible for the universe not flying apart, thus encouraging the growth and stability of the universe's cohesiveness and structure. In the business-driven enterprise architecture (BDEA), the "dark matter" of the BDEA is what is ultimately responsible to ensure complete integrity and cohesiveness of a true overall integrated enterprise architecture that is completely known. The dark matter of the BDEA comprises proper identification and clarification of value chains and value streams. As we explore in this Executive Report by Skip Boettger, the lack of proper attention to this dark matter creates a "void," compromising the integrity of the BDEA and making it impossible to achieve true accountable integration in the business-driven enterprise.

http://www.cutter.com/architecture/fulltext/reports/2010/07/index.html

Security Architecture: Another Very Bad Week (or Two) for Secrets; An Even Worse Week for the Internet

15 Dec 2010 19:28:44 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 15 December 2010 | Enterprise Architecture; Business Technology Trends & Impacts

An old boss of mine used to say, "If you don't want your worst enemy to read it, don't write it down." I've thought of that quote often over the last week or so as the WikiLeaks fiasco has played out. A great deal of what has been leaked is venal, but not really secret. From a foreign policy standpoint, it is a bad idea to belittle counterparties with great power, but writing that stuff down is the root of all of the problems.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2010/ea101215.html

The New Pork Belly: Buying, Selling Commodity Computing Units

9 Dec 2010 19:20:51 GMT

Kellen, Vince | E-Mail Advisors | 09 December 2010 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Business Intelligence; Enterprise Architecture

Imagine, if you will, that all owners of data centers and agents representing buyers of computing cycles get together daily and buy and sell commodity computing units (we'll call them containers) in an open exchange. Now imagine another group of buyers and sellers who are not just exchanging those containers, but buying and selling options on the containers -- the right to buy or sell those containers at a future date. This exchange would be trading the 21st-century equivalent to the pork belly. Pork bellies were introduced as a commodity in the early 1960s in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in tradable units of 40,000 pounds.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2010/btt101209.html

Basic Rules Unlock Keys to Event Analysis

8 Dec 2010 19:18:05 GMT

Rau, Kenneth | E-Mail Advisors | 08 December 2010 | Enterprise Architecture

Event analysis is a counterintuitive but "easy to understand and use" approach for designing or redesigning processes and systems. If used consistently and extensively, it simplifies architectures, increases structural parallelism, identifies needed controls, and expedites the eventual enhancements of applications, middleware, and operating systems. Event analysis strongly complements rules-based systems, business modeling, data design, and structured analysis. In short, if you are not using event analysis in conjunction with enterprise, business, application, and technical architectures, you're doing it the hard way.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2010/ea101208.html

Webinar: Information Systems Transformation

6 Dec 2010 17:02:54 GMT

Ulrich, William M. | Events | 13 January 2011 | Enterprise Architecture

Join William Ulrich to explore practical approaches to business-driven, IT architecture transformation using real world case studies and examples.

http://www.cutter.com/events/multimedia/is-transformation.html

Empire of Air: Making Levels of Abstraction More Concrete

1 Dec 2010 16:58:34 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 01 December 2010 | Enterprise Architecture

Recently, I was working with some clients to create conceptual architectural models, and the discussion turned to the common levels of abstraction that we reference in architecture; namely, conceptual, logical, and physical. In the discussion, it turned out that we were skirting around a typical confusion associated with this model, and also that it would make a good topic for an Advisor.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2010/ea101201.html

Why Bring Agile and SOA Together?

24 Nov 2010 16:37:03 GMT

Dooley, Brian J. | E-Mail Advisors | 24 November 2010 | Enterprise Architecture

Agile and service-oriented architecture (SOA) share similar goals, and both represent the current end point of lengthy processes of evolution. SOA and its concepts are derived from innumerable attempts through the years to develop reusable code and to segment individual software development projects into modules through OO programming. Agile's heritage is in innumerable attempts to make development more efficient and more likely to reach a successful business conclusion, an evolution that began in the 1970s with The Mythical Man Month.1 Agile incorporates techniques that shorten the development cycle (sprints), always produces working code, and provides aids to collaboration and transparency in operations to ensure that everyone is moving in the same direction and is able to proceed.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2010/ea101124.html

An EA Way of Thinking

22 Nov 2010 16:33:02 GMT

Konkol, Sebastian | Executive Updates | 22 November 2010 | Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise architecture (EA) is a way of thinking about the IT assets that a company possesses. It consists of various tools and is built on concepts that can be used in many ways, but the "EA way of thinking" should be applied consistently and appropriately. In a recent project, my colleagues and I applied available EA tools to assure success in the implementation and rollout of a major information system.

With this Executive Update, I will share some insights about our approach -- applying an "EA way of thinking." As we all know, reality has its own plans and customs, and they usually are a bit different from ours; we will always have something to learn.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2010/eau1021.html

Event Analysis: The Right Way to Design Processes and Systems

19 Nov 2010 18:13:50 GMT

Rau, Kenneth | Executive Updates | 19 November 2010 | Enterprise Architecture

Event analysis is a counterintuitive but "easy to understand and use" approach for designing or redesigning processes and systems. If used consistently and extensively, it simplifies architectures, increases structural parallelism, identifies needed controls, and expedites the eventual enhancements of applications, middleware, and operating systems. Event analysis strongly complements rules-based systems, business modeling, data design, and structured analysis. In short, if you are not using event analysis in conjunction with enterprise, business, application, and technical architectures, you're doing it the hard way.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/updates/2010/eau1020.html

How to Measure Success: Use EA to Define Architecture

17 Nov 2010 18:07:10 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 17 November 2010 | Enterprise Architecture

This summer, Cutter conducted a survey of EA programs with the subscribers to our Enterprise Architecture practice. Among other issues, we looked into the perceived effectiveness of EA programs. Unfortunately, the results were a little disappointing.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2010/ea101117.html