Mike Walker's Blog

Its not about Complexity its about Simplicity

2012-02-06T18:11:39-08:00

Mike Walker

What can Enterprise Architects Learn from Steve Jobs?

2012-02-06T18:06:35-08:00

I was at the Architecture Summit this weekend and we spun up a roundtable topic based on Steve Jobs. I quickly stepped back and reflected more precisely on the topic of what we as Enterprise Architects can learn from Steve Jobs.

I think the learnings are less about his actions or lack there of, but more to his core in his principles and values. Like many CIO’s their demeanor and tenacity isn’t for the faint of heart.

Below are the key principles that I think EA’s can learn from Steve Jobs:

Focus and clarity – Know your business and focus on what is important. Job's established rules that there will be a core focus and spent hours declining projects because they didn’t align to the priority areas. It’s so easy for EA’s to be randomized by things that frankly don’t matter to the business of EA. In an EA program or an engagement/project determine what architecture models, descriptions or even meetings align to your business goals and objectives.
Purposefulness – Uniquely, Jobs was able to get to the root of “why” or the purpose behind all things he did. Likewise with EA we must make sure we always get to the root of our purpose and how to fulfill it.
Simplicity – We all know that Apple products are simple but this is a real art to take something complex and make it really intuitive and easy to use. I always fall back to, "Everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler" by Albert Einstein.
Results Driven – By combining the focus, clarity and purposefulness with performance based and intuitiveness Jobs really stood out. EA’s could leverage this principle to go back and make sure they are producing results and not just pontificating.
Discipline – Jobs and the overall apple team is known for their extreme rigor and discipline. This shows in their products as the quality is extremely high. The overall EA industry is maturity but there are still well adopted practices that we as EA’s could be more rigorous in our delivery. This comes down to predictable and repeatable results that generates high business value. Discipline + the others we build on make a powerful combination as it ensure we create things of high quality and they matter.
Big Bets – Go big or go home! This principle is all about knowing what to bet big on and executing on it without backing down. Obviously we don’t pull this card often but when we need to we should. This is especially true when we see how disruptive technologies will enable our business.
No Compromise – When it came to quality and meeting the vision there was no compromise. EA’s could use this principle to protect the business such as regulatory compliance, non-functional and functional requirements. This one needs careful balance though, EA’s don’t want to be viewed as stonewalling the organization either. However, you could also argue that if our business model of EA was perfected and we had better traceability to what the business wants we could execute on this principle more?
Emotional Attachment – Jobs had it with his products we as EA’s have it with the designs we create and the relationships we build. For me this really boils down to emotional intelligence. It’s all about having an emotional connection with the businesses we serve.

Technorati Tags: Steve Jobs,Enterprise Architecture

Recap: Penn State Enterprise Architecture Education Research Initiative

2012-02-05T21:57:24-08:00

In this session at the Open Group Conference, Dr. Brian Cameron walked us through Penn State Enterprise Architecture Initiative at the College of ISTEA IST. I have blogged about this program before (Enterprise Architecture Goes To College, EA Becoming Academically Recognized and Offered) where I provide a listing of the other college institutions that offer EA in some form or another.

I learned a few additional interesting facts about the program. Specifically some of the key areas that Dr. Cameron is planning on expanding:

Launch of online Professional Masters in EA
Launch of undergraduate focus in EA
Growth of the research portfolio
Expansion of the Center for Enterprise Architecture

Below is the recap of the session.

Overview

The holistic nature of research endeavors aimed at understanding and improving the craft and practice of EA would mean that a number of disciplines will be implicated in defining the problem domain as well as contribute perspectives, approaches and techniques that will be valuable for addressing EA research concerns. Research on EA can benefit from these perspectives contributed by a number of allied disciplines.

Enterprise Architecture Advisory Board, over seventy organizations from seven countries
First Advisory Board Meeting conducted September 2009
Creation of an undergraduate EA degree focus
Creation of an online Professional Masters Program
Creation of a professional development portfolio
Creation of an EA Research Center

Dr. Cameron also established the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations (FEAPO) that is an association of professional organizations whose members have an active interest in the practice and professionalism of Enterprise Architecture.

FEAPO provides a forum to facilitate collaboration and coordination of activities of among Enterprise Architecture (EA) related professional organizations, to work toward a better integrated community and “one face”for the advancement of the profession of Enterprise Architecture. The advent of FEAPO has been welcomed the world over because there is a strong desire among practitioners and organizations in many countries to professionalize and advance the field of enterprise architecture.

This group consists of the following members:

Data Management International
International Association of Software Architects
International Council on Systems Engineering
International Standards Organization (ISO)
The Association for Enterprise Information
The Association for Enterprise Architects
The Association of Business Process Management Professionals International
The British Computer Society
The Business Architecture Guild
The Business Architects Association
The Center for the Advancement of the EA Profession
The EA Shared Interest Group from the Industry Advisory Council
The Integration Consortium
The Object Management Group
The Open Group
The National Association of State CIOs

Four Main Areas of the Program

Undergraduate Education committee

Defining the competencies that an undergraduate student graduating with a focus in Enterprise Architecture should possess.

Masters Education committee

Defining what competencies should be built into the new online Enterprise Architecture Professional Masters Program.

Professional Development committee

Defining what type of continuing education offering should be developed in the area of enterprise architecture. Offerings could include certificate programs, executive education, and customized programs for specific organizations.

Research committee

Defining what research streams should be developed and enhanced in relation to Enterprise Architecture.
Helped develop a straw man participation model for the new EA Center.

Key Research Areas

EA career path development
EA framework development and usage
EA maturity assessments
EA Stakeholder analysis & engagement
Understanding EA styles
Value measurement frameworks for EA
Application of EA to areas outside of IT (e.g.: supply chain)

Organizations Involved

Alfabet, Germany

Applied Research Lab/ Penn State

Air Force Research Laboratory

Armstrong Process Group

Assoc. of Enterprise Architects (AEA)

Association for Enterprise Information

BAE Systems Inc

Bllue Cross Blue Shield Association

Boeing

Booz Allen Hamilton

Business Architecture Guild

Center for the Advancement of the Enterprise Architecture

Profession (CAEAP)

CIGNA

Computer Aid Inc. (CAI)

Computer Sciences Corporation

Cutter Consortium

DAGH,LLC

Department of Homeland Security

Data Management International (DAMA International)

Defense Intelligence Agency

Deloitte Consulting

EMC Corporation

Ernst & Young

FEMA

Forrester Research

Gartner

GEICO

IBM

Innoveer Solutions

Integration Consortium

Iteraplan, Germany

International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

Johnson & Johnson

Kaiser Permanente

Kingdee Research Institute, China

LMI

Lockheed Martin

Mathet Consulting, Inc.

Meraka Institute, South Africa

NetApp

Northrop Grumman

Object Management Group (OMG)

Oracle

PA. State System of Higher Education (PASSHE)

Pfizer

Pinnacle Business Group

PNC Financial Services Group

PricewaterhouseCoopers

Progressive Insurance

Raytheon

Smartsphere PPM and EAM Solutions

State Farm Insurance Company

TATA Consultancy Services , India

The Confiance Group

The Enterprise Architecture Shared

Interest Group from the

Industry Advisory Council

The National Defense University

The MITRE Corporation

The Open Group

TONEX

Trout Technologies

Unisys Corporation

U.S. Department of Defense

U.S. Department of Interior

U.S. General Services Administration

(GSA)

U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

U.S. Air Force, Chief, Enterprise Architecture Division,

Office of Warfighting Integration and CIO

Verizon Telecom -Information Systems

Virginia Information Technologies Agency

Wipro Technologies

ArchiMate 2.0 Highlights

2012-02-04T23:04:57-08:00

I am really excited about the new release of ArchiMate. The reason I am so excited is that for the first time ArchiMate complements TOGAF with a compelling, versatile and unambiguous visual modeling language that covers the end to end enterprise architecture development method and not just solution architecture. Not only do we have the next evolution of the standard but it also comes backed with the training and certification aspects as well that makes this a very real and implementable standard.

This post is centered around some of the key highlights distilled from the my previous two posts (The Open Group Releases ArchiMate 2.0 , ArchiMate 2.0 Certification Released) and some additional analysis of the recent release of ArchiMate.

In general, the ArchiMate 2.0 aids in the following ways:

Helps model the enterprise architecture
Works in a manner aligned with TOGAF
Supports the preparation and management of:

Business change
Application rationalization
Program and portfolio management
Outsourcing scenarios

Improves business and IT alignment
Performs cost analysis and business case calculations

Additionally, there are six key aspect you should know about the new Archimate 2.0 specification.

#1 Improved and Expanded

Based on many years of practical experience of modeling and analysis of Enterprise Architecture by a world-wide user base
ArchiMate 2.0 now enables the creation of fully integrated models of the organization’s enterprise architecture, the motivation for it, and the programs, projects and migration paths to implement it

#2 Now fully aligned with TOGAF

With ArchiMate 2.0, it’s the first fully integrated version with TOGAF. With the updates of TOGAF 9.1 (clean up of the spec) and ArchiMate 2.0 we finally have a real modeling notation for EA. It promises to provide a vendor-independent set of concepts, that helps to create a consistent, integrated model “below the waterline”, which can be depicted in the form of TOGAF views.

Integrated, consistent and coherent modeling in various phases
Specifically designed for enterprise architecture
Full support for viewpoints (predefined and user-defined) that supports generation of compelling views for various stakeholders from a central repository
Not just the ‘boxes’, but also their interrelationships
Explicit support for the service paradigm that defines business, application and infrastructure services with concrete, visible results for various stakeholders can be generated from a repository
Impact-of-change, gap analysis, etc.
Easy reuse of models, maintained in shared repository

#3 Improved TOGAF ADM alignment

The language structure of the ArchiMate Core corresponds with the three main architectures as addressed in phases B, C & D in the TOGAF ADM
The extensions to the Core closely correspond with the main aspects to be addressed in the Preliminary phase, Phase A and the Central Requirements management repository, as well as Phases E, F, G and H

The largest alignment area is the Architecture Metamodel as shown below:

However, there are great examples for each phase are shown below:

Preliminary Phase

Team Organization

Building Architecture Principles

A – Vision

Stakeholder Analysis

Business Goals

Architecture Vision

B – Business Architecture

Business Architecture

Realization of Requirements

C – Information Systems Architecture

Baseline / Current State Architecture

Target / Future State Architecture

Gap Analysis

Process Application Support

Information Structure View

Data Dissemination Diagram

D – Technology Architecture

Baseline Technology Architecture Model

Target Technology Architecture

Technology Architecture Gap Analysis

Platform Decomposition Diagram

Application / Technology Support Map

E – Opportunities and Solutions

Transition Architectures

F – Migration Planning

Projects for the Transitions between Plateaus

H & RM – Architecture Change Management & Requirements Management

Traceability Model

#4 ArchiMate 2.0 improves collaboration

By promoting a growth in shared understanding across multiple information roles including business executives, enterprise architects, systems analysts, software engineers, business process consultants and infrastructure engineers

#5 New Core extensions

The Motivation extension to model stakeholders, drivers for change, business goals, principles and requirements
The Implementation & Migration extension to support project portfolio management, gap analysis and transition and migration planning

#6 Inconsistencies have been removed

Examples have been improved
Additional text has been inserted
Certain aspects clarified

Technorati Tags: ArchiMate,Open Group,Modeling,Enterprise Architecture

ArchiMate 2.0 Certification Released

2012-02-04T21:27:59-08:00

Along side the release of the ArchiMate 2.0 specification, a new certification for the ArchiMate has been released this week.

ArchiMate, an Open Group Standard, is an open and independent modelling language for enterprise architecture that is supported by different tool vendors and consulting firms. ArchiMate provides instruments to enable enterprise architects to describe, analyze and visualize the relationships among business domains in an unambiguous way.

The ArchiMate Certification Program provides certification for people, training courses and for tools that meet The Open Group standards:

The ArchiMate 2 Certification for People Program is a market-driven education and certification program to support ArchiMate 2, and ensures that individuals are knowledgeable about ArchiMate.
The ArchiMate 2 Tool Certification Program ensures that a tool meets the mandatory requirements to support the ArchiMate modeling language.
The ArchiMate 2 Accredited Training Course Program provides an assurance mark for training courses including an assessment both of the course and also the personnel and organization. In addition, all accredited training course include in their course fee the examination.

Resources

This section contains links to the key program documentation, including Datasheets, Policies and Conformance Requirements for each aspect of the certification program, together with the CSQ templates where applicable

Program Datasheets

The following datasheets are available describing the ArchiMate 2 for People Certification program.

Certification for Individuals

Accreditation of ArchiMate 2 Training Courses

Archimate Tool Support Certification

Source: http://www3.opengroup.org/certifications/archimate/

Technorati Tags: ArchiMate,Open Group,Enterprise Architecture,Modeling

Open Group Conference PresentationWhy EAs Must Drive Cloud Strategy and Planning

2012-02-02T19:17:51-08:00

First and foremost, a big thank you to the attendees of my session. We filled the room! All the interaction and questions were top notch. I really enjoyed presenting to all of you.

In my session, Why EA's Must Drive Cloud Strategy and Planning I drove the core message around why the EA should lead Cloud Strategy efforts but then quickly diving into how EA’s can drive this. I use a real world example and show a framework and method I created to provide a repeatable and predictable set of outcomes.

For those that would like to view my presentation you can find it below:

Why EA's must drive cloud strategy

View more presentations from Mike Walker.

I will continue to provide more detail in future posts.

Technorati Tags: Cloud,Enterprise Architecture,Open Group Conference,Open Group,TOGAF

The Open Group Releases ArchiMate 2.0

2012-01-31T12:59:35-08:00

The Open Group released ArchiMate 2.0, the latest version of the organization’s open and independent modeling language for enterprise architecture. The updated version is now aligned with TOGAF, enabling enterprise architects using the language to improve the way key business and IT stakeholders collaborate and adapt to change. New certification programs for the standard will also be available for those interested in becoming certified in ArchiMate 2.0.

ArchiMate 2.0 will include the following features and benefits:

Improved business and IT alignment through enterprise architecture modeling aligned with the TOGAF ADM
Ability to better support the preparation and management of business change, application rationalization, program and portfolio management and outsourcing scenarios
Ability to perform cost analysis and business case calculations
A Motivation extension to model stakeholders, drivers for change, business goals, principles and requirements
Implementation and Migration extensions to support project portfolio management, gap analysis and transition and migration planning
Improved consistency and examples, as well as additional clarification updates from the previous version

Additional Resources and More Detail

BP Business Architecture Session Recap

2012-01-31T12:32:29-08:00

Shatender Singh and Madhav Madaboosi, BP Plc., US

Abstract: The Open Group has determined that Business Architecture is a critical input into the decision making for an Enterprise. This presentation will outline BP’s Business Architecture methodology and will also provide a case study. BP’s varied and global business processes required the convergence of siloed business architectures to meet a simplification agenda.

I sat in the BP Business Architecture Session Recap this afternoon. While there wasn’t a great level of detail on tangible business architecture concepts, approaches, models and tools I didn't find there was some useful nuggets for organizations to think about when trying to build a business driven EA organization. This session turned out to be more of a case study / reflection of the BP organization.

BP started this journey as a result of a business led change or mandate for IT to support a transformation strategy. BP architects made two smart decisions as a result:

Leverage an existing standard – TOGAF
Once a method was chosen BP chose to put a heavy emphasis on business architecture approaches with a flavor of portfolio management

Their Approach includes:

TOGAF adoption
Enterprise Activity Model
Strategic directions of the business unit
Architecture vision and principles
Benchmarking
Long tern business requirements
All projects go through the same governance model to align to the business direction
Harmonized the same data model across the company
Segmented portfolio by flagging solutions as strategic
Leverages principles from TOGAF heavily
Design based on principles

As a result they produce:

Non strategic requirements
Process maps
Rethink the inflight projects and align them to the short term and long term business roadmap
This in turn influenced the overall architecture views such as information, application and technology aspects.

Steps for alignment

EAM Alignment
Common Processes
Data
Application / Technical

Lessons learned from BP

Balancing geographic and localized requirements – This was very difficult with the geographies alone but when you add legacy software with constraints and specialized information.
Make architecture community driven and introduce social
Process alignment is important for other dependencies to work
Design authority over deployed assets is a critical element of the overall strategy
TOGAF helps structure the evolution of the target architecture

Open Group Conference San Francisco Day 1 Keynotes

2012-01-30T10:45:09-08:00

Day 1 of the Open Group Conference was kicked off with a bang. Jeanne Ross, whom I refer to as our EA Rock Star started the day with some fresh thinking about how we approach EA.

For al the presentations we had a set of key themes:

Pragmatic and realistic approaches
Business centric
Value focused

What a great set of speakers!

The Enterprise Architect: Architecting Business Success

Jeanne W. Ross, Director & Principal Research Scientist, MIT Center for Information Systems Research

Session: Enterprise architecture has typically been the domain of IT groups, but the impact of enterprise architecture is felt enterprise-wide. Research at MIT Center for Information Systems Research has shown that adoption of enterprise architecture leads to greater efficiencies and business agility But how can enterprise architects work with senior leaders to envision and lead successful business transformations. This talk describes how enterprise architecture has contributed to the success of firms like Campbell Soup, Southwest Airlines, and USAA. We’ll also discuss how enterprise architects have helped lead the way.

Highlights

The days of Enterprise Architects trying communicate it’s value is over. EA has been widely accepted
However, now we need to pull it off the promise of EA
We have to make sure we don’t blow it and deliver on our promise
The traditional IT Architecture method of Plan, Build, Operate is broken because it doesn’t allow organization to capitalize on their own capabilities.
A new model is needed, a business value cycle, NOT a value chain
Architects must consider reality in their value

A New Model is Needed

Below is the Exploit, Commit, Build, Run model that is adapted from Jeanne Ross’s presentation.

This model is a change of thinking and how we operate as Enterprise Architects. The goal of this model is to facilitate the shift of focus to capability thinking. The challenges highlighted were:

Company capabilities are under utilized
Company capabilities are often overlooked
EA is not always business value driven
New capabilities developed

Start with Exploit to direct us. Exploit doesn’t eliminate planning but makes it more effective.

Companies are doing similar things today and referenced in the presentation:

Aetna
Protection 1
USAA
Pepsi
Commonwealth of Australia

How does this change?

Information is key.
Get it in the hands of the everyone.

USAA was used as an example of a company that has embraced this:

Shifted their products around life events for their customers
Enterprise strategy was put outside IT
EA’s shift to advisors to the business

The role of EA’s in business value is to:

Help senior execs clarify their business goals. EA’s should provide strategy to CIO’s as an advisory services.
Identify architectural capability that can be readily exploited
Present options and their implications for business goals
Build capabilities incrementally

How Enterprise Architecture is Helping NISSAN IT Transformation

Celso Guiotoko, Corporate Vice President and CIO, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.

In 2005, Nissan Global IS Dev developed "BEST" as an IT mid-term plan which significantly improved the efficiency of its information systems. This was followed in 2009 with the development of the "Change" program, which provided the basis for further advances by changing "people", "technology" and "process". And, in 2011, the next IT mid-term plan "VITESSE" was launched, designed to bring direct profit in the company by IT Dev.

Nissan focused on a core set or principles. They have some really good ones.

Nissan Principles

Business Value
Information is an asset
Reduce complexity
Independent from physical
Business driven
Change
Reuse
Competitive advantage
Best Practice

A program they established to make the transformation is called the BEST program.

BEST Program Elements

Business Alignment
Enterprise Architecture
Selective sourcing
Technology Simplification

Some of the tools used by Nissan to deliver on BEST are:

Business Process Reference Model
Business Process is defined use
Information Architecture – Entity modeling and
Linking business architecture to information architecture
Information data map
Platform rationalization model

Business Process Reference Model

As a result of these EA efforts Nissan has a :

Reduced cost per user from 1.09 to .63
230k return with 404 applications reduced
The solution deployment time has been improved
Significantly reduced hardware costs

The Transformed Enterprise

Andy Mulholland, Global Chief Technology Officer, Capgemini

If it is different to the well understood enterprise of today with its enterprise IT model what is different and why is it an advantage? These are basic questions which need to be addressed, and understood, before attempting to consider how business processes and resulting technology architectures will need to change.

Andy Mulholland author of three books since 2005 defining using the Web for business, changing to a collaborative working model and using clouds for enterprise business uses his experience to bring a cohesive answer to the questions

Highlights

Inside Out vs. Outside In

IT is Inside Out, focusing on the activities and problems within the 4 walls of the company wheras the business looks at problems Outside In.
Two very different models
The assertion is that we need to understand both of these forces
The Outside In focus must be given a great deal more thought

Conway's Law - Enterprises cannot change beyond the constraints of their communications
Recommendation by Andy- "Seizing the Whitespace" by Johnson - for business model innovation
Andy highlights the Gartner Nexus model of Cloud, Social, Information and Mobile as the transformation catalyst
Social networks work better in fast environs to share knowledge efficiently than email
Cloud forces down a transformation path
TOGAF has to accept a new way of exposing value from the traditional inside out to a TOGAF focused on a Outside In model

The Transformed Enterprise

Making Business Drive IT Transformation Through Enterprise Architecture

Lauren C. States, Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Cloud Computing and Growth Initiatives, IBM Corp

Todays business demands and pressures have accelerated the pace of change. This focus on growing the business, entering new markets, enabling new, faster, better and less expensive services to customers creates challenges. While enterprise systems that may address these challenges are emerging:

How is an enterprise to choose which IT systems to utilize?
What strategies should they employ for short-term realization and longer term value of IT investments?
How does the CIO ensure that business and IT infrastructures cohesively evolve while keeping pace with economic challenges and associated uncertain business implications

The Reality of the Forces on IT

Customer – Unlimited real-time access to ever changing information and expertise
Partners – Acting as an extension of the enterprise
Employees– Engaging externally in ways that are outside the traditional scope of work
Competitors – Entering new spaces quickly

Highlights

We are the beginning of the next major shift
IBM has reduced their application portfolio by 2/3 with cloud transformation
Technology is changing the way the CMO is doing there job. Most are not ready because they go through a noisy set of data and a lose of control over brand
Highlights the CIO survey http://www-935.ibm.com/services/c-suite/cio/study.html

IBM’s Cloud Transformation Model

Macro method used by IBM

Technorati Tags: Enterprise Architecture,Open Group Conference,Open Group

Come see me present Why EAs Must Drive Cloud Strategy and Planning at the Open Group Conference

2012-01-19T09:49:22-08:00

For those that are attending the Open Group conference in San Francisco here in the next few weeks from now I wanted to let you know that I will be presenting. My presentation is within the Cloud Strategy and SOA Governance track entitled “Why EA’s Must Drive Cloud Strategy and Planning” .

If this is a topic of interest to you or your organization, please stop by. It would be great to see you there and answer any questions you may have.

Additionally, if you are at the conference or in the San Francisco area and would like to get together please let me know.

More

My Session and Others: http://www3.opengroup.org/events/timetable/628
Conference Home Page: http://www3.opengroup.org/sanfrancisco2012

Technorati Tags: Cloud,Strategy,Enterprise Architecture,EA,TOGAF,Open Group Conference,Open Group