IT Professionals Might be Looking Elsewhere for Employment

James McGovern’s latest post on Enterprise Architecture discusses how many enterprise architects are favoring contract/consultant work over permanent work because of the better paying opportunities and offers.

Enterprise architecture in general might suffer is some of the more qualified IT professionals are leaving organizations for contract work. Another point that James brings up is that perhaps HR isn’t allowing for much flexibility on salary compensation for enterprise architects. Is your company currently using consultants for its enterprise architecture initiatives?

Hottest IT Jobs

In a recent research study done by Forrester, discussed here at InfoWorld, they released what their analysts believe are the hottest jobs in IT. The hottest of all jobs available were information/data architects and information security experts. Making the extremely hot list was data/content oriented business analyst, business architect, enterprise architect, and vendor management experts.

Of all the jobs on the list, Forrester found that these attributes were most important characteristics in all the jobs listed:

* Local knowledge of the business industry or region.
* Cross-discipline knowledge; understanding both management practices and customer groups.
* Those willing to take on high-risk roles that, if successful, will have a major impact on the business.
* Limited external supply; that is, while an outsourcer may be willing to supply 500 coders, the benefits of finding you a half-dozen enterprise architects is not worth their while.
* Consistency with technology, vendor, or industry direction, meaning rapid changes in technology; an example is how mobile put a higher demand on real experts who have domain-specific knowledge.

Growth of SOA in India

Business Standard mentioned today, in this article, that India is expected to have the “fastest growing SOA market in the Asia-Pacific region”. Springboard Research has predicted that this market will have a compound annual growth rate of 49% from 2006 to 2009. Many organizations are already starting to seize this opportunity. Intelligroup, one company interested in this growth rate, believes that 20% of the “larger SAP customer in India” will be adopting SOA within the year. Liladhar Bagad, practice head of Intelligroup, released this statement as a means to explain this growth:

“As organisations become more global, SOA will become an integral part of their strategy. It is aimed at lowering the total cost of ownership, simplifying integration and customisation. Organisations are increasingly embracing SOA as a means to access and distribute information in real time”

It is cautioned, however, that organizations need to be aware of disappointment that some companies may announce. As Chandika Mendi, director and head of Virtusa Corporation, explained

“The reason for the disappointment will be due to taking a much narrowed approach while defining SOA, which could lead to failure of implementations. Also, the initial investment in SOA is high and will reap benefits slowly as the entire enterprise moves to it, which is a fairly long journey,”

Return on Investment or Return on Information?

Anton Venter’s latest post on the IT Knowledge Exchange argues that the real ROI of EA comes from information and its use. Anton makes another great point that documentation of architecture makes finding information easier and readily available. It also becomes easier to provide outsourcers info on the architecture should they need it to support an organization’s applications. What do you think is the real ROI of enterprise architecture?

Putting the "E" in TOGAF: An EAdirections Webinar

In our attempt to deliver the latest updates and insights within the EA space, we’ve scheduled a series of free webinars that will happen over the next couple of months. The first webinar in the series “Putting the "E" in TOGAF: An EAdirections Webinar,” will be presented by three managing directors of EAdirections: Larry R. DeBoever, George S. Paras, and Tim Westbrock. Register now for the webinar on Thursday, Sep 4, 2008 from 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT to save your webinar seat. Here’s a brief description of the webinar and what you can expect to take out of it by attending:

A number of EA practitioners have concluded that TOGAF is not an effective framework (and ADM is not an effective methodology) for Enterprise(wide) Architecture. TOGAF does not cover aligning long-term corporate strategy with IT, and positions EA as a reactive, rather than proactive, approach. In fairness, many have expressed similar concerns about other EA frameworks and methodologies. This webinar explores the “enterprise-ishness” of TOGAF. We discuss our experiences and practical techniques for extending TOGAF (and other frameworks) to significantly increase its effectiveness across the Enterprise.

If you are a Chief Architect or IT manager evaluating EA frameworks, or if you are struggling to apply TOGAF (or another framework), on an enterprise-wide basis, then this webinar is for you. Topics will include:

What you will learn:

• What are the types of enterprise-wide requirements that users of TOGAF struggle with?
• What are the enterprise-wide architectural activities that EA teams should be performing without a clear ‘Business Requirement’?
• How should an Enterprise Architecture account for the fact that most enterprises do not have an ‘end state’ but rather continually adjust to changing markets and opportunities for innovation?
• Are the artifacts produced by TOGAF effective for communicating with the Board and the Executive Committee? If not, can they be made ‘consumable’?

This webinar is being brought to you by the Enterprise Architectures Conference, don’t forget to take a look at the lineup of speakers we have this year. Click on the link below to register for the free webinar.

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/924415223

Path to Become an Enterprise Architect

Praba Siva, in this blog post, created an excellent chart for the path that an individual should follow to become an enterprise architect. He details what type of positions you should hold, for how long, the skill sets learned from each position, as well as what the next steps and positions should be. (Click on diagram to see a larger version)

Alan Inglis, in this blog post, discusses the above chart. He comments that he would add a business entry point, and would also like to see an entry point from an “information or data perspective”.

What are your thoughts? Is there anything else you would add to build on these two authors viewpoints?

Models and Leadership in Enterprise Architecture

What matters most in enterprise architecture? Is it the business model, or the people who lead the organization? Chris Potts reviews this question in his latest post on CIO. One of the points Chris brings up relates to the Economist’s article "No Size Fits All", which explores whether the business model or the people managing it were responsible for the credit crunch.

According to Chris, replicating a business model within organizations does not guarantee success or failure. Only people, ex: customers, suppliers, partners, and employees are able to make a model work. Chris states that business instead, should start on the right hand side like the Zachman Framework for EA (Who, When, Why), not the left (What, How, Where).

Is your organization more concerned with its structure than management?

Adopting SOA: More than just getting the software

In a recent article at CIO, Ty Anderson discuses how adopting SOA into the business is like buying a total home gym. Buying it doesn’t get the job done, it’s important to use the purchase continually in order to get the benefits the software can offer.

-- It’s important to audit existing applications. See what the processes are for your current business processes. Know what you’ve got so you can start in the right place.

-- Make the services as simple as possible

-- Work with your SOA tools every day. You’ve got to continually work towards the adoption, day in and day out to find out how the software truly works.

-- Keep working – Now that you’ve got SOA, it’s important to keep it current. Learn what’s new in the software and implement additional tools that are beneficial to your company.

And throughout the whole process, have someone there to keep you going in the right direction. A mentor can help you achieve your goals and keep you working towards the benefits of SOA.

The IT and Business Divide

In this article the pIT stop panel was interviewed about the possibility of enterprise architecture in bridging a gap between the IT and business divide. Their answer was

“If I had a polo mint for every time I heard that a technology or approach would provide “alignment” between IT and the business I would walk around with permanently fresh breath.”

While they say there is no easy fix in bridging the divide, they did say that this did not negate the importance of “establishing formal ‘enterprise architecture’” They said that they have seen improvements in IT and business alignment especially in terms of SOA. One piece of advice they gave was to start small. In addition, they mentioned that instead of simply relying on technology or an approach, it is important for organizations to understand the importance of “human factors”.

Types of Enterprise Architecture

In a recent article at Inside Architecture, Nick Malik took time to detail the different enterprise architecture frameworks. He then goes on to pose the question, what would the ideal framework be? What would you take from each of the individual methods below to make your enterprise architecture fit your needs?

- TOGAF - Basic strength: solution architecture. Various models and how to create them. Basic weaknesses: Planning methods and governance framework. Weak on Information Architecture

- FEAF - Basic strength: complete implementation tied to measurement framework. Basic weaknesses: very specific to government, lack of independent process taxonomy keeps processes "in the silo."

- eTOM - Basic strength: excellent process taxonomy with rich details. Strong information architecture. Great for governing external vendors. Basic weaknesses: fairly specific to telecom industry, gaps in governance and enterprise architecture models.

- ITIL - Basic strength: excellent process framework for operations and (now) governance. Basic weaknesses: no architectural methodology to speak of. Sizeable gaps in information or application architecture.

- Enterprise Unified Process - Basic strength: soup-to-nuts coverage of enterprise software development processes, including funding and operations. Basic weaknesses: poor adoption rate and lack of a governing body to allow for growth, minimal architectural methods, no enterprise process or capability framework.

- Zachman - Basic strength: comprehensive taxonomy of architectural artifacts (to let you know when you are done). Basic weaknesses: Lack of published and vetted methods to avoid "boil-the-ocean" exercises and focus on one particular benefit. Very shallow: No detailed process, capability, or solution frameworks for "level 2" detail. Highly proprietary.

Start Small for SOA

This article brings up an interesting point that it may be best to start small when it comes to introducing SOA to an enterprise. While the initial reaction maybe to begin with projects that are high profile, oftentimes without the cooperation from the IT and business departments such projects have the potential to lead to frustration, and ultimately may make individuals feel that SOA failed. To prevent this feeling, it could be beneficial to start on smaller projects where there is plenty of cooperation in order to build “momentum”. With one successful project, it becomes easier to show the benefits in order to gain cooperation on the second, and thereby gaining trust in the usefulness of SOA for organizations.

The Goals of EA

Every organization defines the goals of Enterprise Architecture in their own distinct way. Anton Venter lists six goals of practicing enterprise architecture in his latest post on the IT Knowledge Exchange. Here they are:

1. Successful and timely Business transformation
2. Bringing models and views together by implementing universal compatibility between them (integrating everything and using a common language)
3. Going on-line, e.g. by using a portal
4. Maintaining a balance between strategic enterprise-wide goals and the operational and tactical needs of individual business units or segments
5. Focusing on short- and medium-term Business benefits
6. Focusing on 20% of major threats and opportunities that will have an 80% impact on the Business

What are your company’s goals of practicing EA? Do they differ from Anton’s?

Coordinating information company wide will help SOA

In a recent blog post by Nick Malik at Inside Architecture, he ponders a very common question: Will information in the enterprise ever be able to be coordinated? Many of his readers think it is a nearly impossible task, but Nick believes with a little bit of software and coordination, it can happen. While all information is department specific, there is some overlap that can be coordinated. The value of coordinated communication is not something businesses should look over.

Nick believes that the information can be a powerful asset if shared throughout the company. So the easiest way to do this is to come up with a submission model. This model would be assembled by enterprise architects, then put together in a common repository. They can then assemble the information together in a way that information could run parallel in departments. Nick points out that in the end, we may be closer to having enterprise-wide architecture. There will be criticisms throughout the process, but the productivity in the end will shine brightly for enterprise architecture efforts.

New technology means more responsibility

In a recent post at User Centric Enterprise Architecture, Andy Blumenthal explores the craze that has come with having access to the internet and being connected 24/7. Blumenthal spoke an official at Northwest University Hospital, and found out that he’d treated patients who’d suffered from injuries while texting at least once a day. Now that we have access to all business information at any second, people can be more productive but only when the tools are used properly. It’s important for the enterprise architects of the organizations to teach the users of their technology appropriately. It’s important to focus on the human aspects of the tools of enterprise architecture and pass them along to those using the tools.

Excellence in Enterprise Architecture

In a recent post by Nick Malik, he details how he was asked a question about whether or not Microsoft provides “internal support to create an Enterprsie Architecture program.” Upon reflection, Malik felt that, yes Microsoft does support the EA team. He also remarked on his definition of what constitutes excellence:

Excellent, to me, means that the effort is tailored to the needs of the business. That includes business strategy, business structure, and corporate culture.

His opinion is that this definition of excellence is different for everyone. Do you think there is a common way to define it? And what would you define as attaining excellence for an enterprise architecture program?

Carphone Warehouse sees benefits to SOA

As reported by this article at CIO, Carphone Warehouse, a mobile phone retailer in the UK, moved to SOA in 2005. Even though they saw immediate benefits, there were other things that were still falling behind in their IT system. There were still 53% of new service designs that were failing governance tests the first time and there was still duplication in some of the services performed.

As a result, they adopted HP Systinet. This SOA governance tool helped 95% of new service designs pass the governance test. It has also estimated that this new software will save them £526,000 over the next three years, due to the avoidance of duplicating processes. It also will allow the IT department to deliver new services to the business in the shortest amount of time possible.

Do you think that corporations selling SOA governance tools are starting to respond more to customers needs?

SaaS Trend in Ecommerce

A recent study by Gartner has revealed that 90% of Ecommerce sites will utilize SaaS by 2013 as reported in this article from ebizQ. The results of the study indicate that Ecommerce sites will use at least one of the following services: product reviews, product recommendations, or social sales capabilities. A statement from Gartner to ebizQ announced that:

“The trend toward SaaS applications has affected customer relationship management (CRM) and other applications, and e-commerce isn’t exempt from this trend. E-commerce SaaS solutions enable companies that couldn’t afford e-commerce to have these capabilities and compete online. It provides organizations with live Web sites, and enables e-commerce SaaS service providers to provide individual services, such as product reviews or click to call, that can be incorporated into e-commerce SaaS platforms, as well as on sites that are using licensed software.”

Gene Alvarez, research VP for Garnter, cautions Ecommerce companies to investigate before jumping to use SaaS tools. According to him it is very important for organizations to

“develop a SaaS strategy that accounts for the scoping, evaluation, selection, operation and different architectures or SaaS solutions, as well as determines the organizations comfort level in leveraging externally provided IT applications.”

Enterprise and Architecture: Where Does the Balance Lie?

Chris Potts reminds us in his latest post on CIO where the balance lies between the Enterprise and Architecture.

He begins his explanation with a definition of Enterprise which is used in economics – the ‘animal spirits’ of the entrepreneur. This is where he gets his expression “the tiger and the toolbox”. Futher on Chris explains how companies must not be too focused on being too much toolbox as opposed to tiger. What does this mean? Companies too often end up concentrating more on frameworks, models, techniques instead being out there in the corporate jungle influencing and shaping the enterprise.

The real benefit comes when the enterprise drives the architecture and not vice versa.