Top-Performing EA Teams – A Panel Discussion

I had the opportunity last week to moderate two panels at the Troux Worldwide Conference. The first panel included EAdirections’ Tim Westbrock along with Mike Walker from Microsoft, Aleks Buterman from SenseAgility and Paul Preiss from IASA. The theme of the panel was a general discussion on characteristics of top-performing EA Teams. To begin the conversation, I asked each panelist to describe what a top-performing EA team meant to them. What I had originally believed to be a softball question that would show the breadth of issues and perspectives on EA turned out to be more controversial than I had expected.

The panel became caught up in the role of EA and the role of IT architects. Unfortunately, the conversations became focused on the differences in the roles instead of how they work together, diving too far into a differentiation of the “primary” roles and skills of each. It revealed some of the confusion around EA and shone a light on many of the issues that practicing enterprise architects must deal with on a daily basis. What I had hoped would be a conversation addressing how the EA function must be multi-purposed, strategic and tactical, business and IT-oriented, and with an eye to both short and long-term value delivery became overly focused on narrower perspectives. We had a few rough spots as we worked our way through the session, but luckily we ended well. We landed at the recognition that while the roles are different they share some common skills and, after all, they should be collectively working to achieve positive results for their organizations. Individuals in both of these roles will inevitably be working closely with each other.

Personally, I believe that the biggest part of being a top-performing EA team is learning to strike the right balance across the perspectives listed above. It isn’t about doing just one thing or having a “primary” concern as much as it is about how well the EA leaders cover the bases, shifting emphasis from strategic, business-oriented concerns, to helping certain initiatives head down the right path, and then back again as dictated by the situation. It is about breadth, and reach, and longevity.

In future posts Tim or I will examine several of the questions asked by the audience, some answered by the panel and others that we didn’t have time to address.

IASA “IT Architect Regional Conference” in Austin – George Paras Presenting

“Enterprise Architecture (EA) is an immature discipline and possibly getting even more immature.  As the scope of EA extends beyond the areas that IT-centric efforts are prepared for (data, app, infrastructure), the competency, credibility and effectiveness of an EA team may decrease.  However, there are a variety of ways to increase these characteristics for EA teams, regardless of the stage of maturity in which you may find yourself. “

That is the theme of a presentation, entitled “EA Profession: What’s Changing and What’s Not?”,  I will deliver at the upcoming IASA ITARC event in Austin on Thursday, February 4.   The discussion will feature a lively discussion about my assessment on the state of the EA profession, what I see going on in the industry that helps and hinders the evolution of the EA profession, and what else to expect in the future.

If you are in Austin and plan to attend, please let me know.  I’m always interested in talking with other enterprise architects, those that aspire to the role, and IT Leaders interested in having an EA function in their organization.   There will be plenty of opportunities for discussion and Q&A, including at an evening reception.

The International Association of Software Architects (IASA) is the premier association focused on the architecture profession through the advancement of best practices and education while delivering programs and services to IT architects of all levels around the world.  The IT Architect Regional Conference is the first event in Minnesota to address the pressing needs of IT architects today. There are 12 seminars and two tracks separated by specialty: Enterprise and Fundamentals. Architects of all levels can take their skills to the next level.

IASA “IT Architect Regional Conference” in Minneapolis – George Paras to deliver Keynote

“Enterprise Architecture (EA) is an immature discipline and possibly getting even more immature.  As the scope of EA extends beyond the areas that IT-centric efforts are prepared for (data, app, infrastructure), the competency, credibility and effectiveness of an EA team may decrease.  However, there are a variety of ways to increase these characteristics for EA teams, regardless of the stage of maturity in which you may find yourself. “

That is the theme of a keynote presentation, entitled “EA Profession: What’s Changing and What’s Not?”,  to be delivered by George Paras at the upcoming IASA ITARC event in Minneapolis on Friday, November 13.   The discussion will feature a lively discussion about his assessment on the state of the EA profession, what he sees going on in the industry that helps and hinders the evolution of the EA profession, and what else to expect in the future.

The International Association of Software Architects (IASA) is the premier association focused on the architecture profession through the advancement of best practices and education while delivering programs and services to IT architects of all levels around the world.  The IT Architect Regional Conference is the first event in Minnesota to address the pressing needs of IT architects today. There are 12 seminars and two tracks separated by specialty: Enterprise and Fundamentals. Architects of all levels can take their skills to the next level.

Future of EA as a Profession – Tim in Calgary and Michigan

I recently presented at an AOGEA chapter meeting in Michigan.  The topic they asked me to present involved my view points on the profession of Enterprise Architect.   I will also be presenting on this topic at the CEAF Meeting in Calgary on October 20, 2009.

Title:  “EA Profession:  What’s Changing and What’s Not?”

 

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is an immature discipline and possibly getting even more immature.   As the scope of EA extends beyond the areas that IT-centric efforts are prepared for (data, app, infrastructure), the competency, credibility and effectiveness of an EA team may decrease.  However, there are a variety of ways to increase these characteristics for EA teams, regardless of the stage of maturity in which you may find yourself.  Join Tim Westbrock for a lively discussion about his assessment on the state of the EA profession, what he sees going on in the industry that helps and hinders the evolution of the EA profession, and what else to expect in the future.

 

Click here to go to the EAdirections Presentation page to download this presentation.

EA-Certified: To Be or Not To Be?

We have been getting a lot of questions on the value of Enterprise Architecture (EA) certifications in the last 6 months. There seems to have been an increase in the offerings of EA certifications. Like many elements associated with EA, such as tools, frameworks, methods, continued maturation is evident. However, EAdirections generally cautions its clients about EA certifications because of the lack of accepted standards across the globe regarding the definition, scope, role and responsibilities of an Enterprise Architect. An organization needs to be clear on the intent and purpose of a particular provider’s EA certificate and associated process and testing for achieving their certification.

EA Certification providers generally include a mix of staff and guest/expert instructors. They all teach different things with different emphasis, have different qualifications required to receive certification, and, in short, do not provide anything approaching a standard, common certification across providers. Some have varying levels of dependency/sponsorship of tool and/or consulting vendors.

Commonly known providers include:

The Federated Enterprise Architecture Certification (FEAC) Institute offers training and an EA certification program.

The Enterprise Architecture Center of Excellence (EACOE) offers certification to its members, with four distinct grades based on workshop completion, years of experience as a practicing architect, reviewed performance on an EA development, and number of recommendations from peers. The EACOE is lead by Sam Holcman, also chairman of the Pinnacle Business Group and formerly President of the Zachman Institute for Framework Advancement (ZIFA), which no longer exists. )

IBM and Carnegie Mellon University offers certification to those who compete three courses in fundamental, applied and advanced concepts of EA. The curriculum was developed by CMU’s Institute for Software Research (ISR), including input from Dr. Scott A. Bernard, the author of “An Introduction to Enterprise Architecture.” The applied course includes hands-on modeling activities using IBM’s Telelogic System Architect tool.

The Open Group offers an IT Architect Certification Program (ITAC) with three levels of certification (Certified, Master and Distinguished) and is separate from, but complementary to, TOGAF certification. ITAC is publicized as being agnostic to method and focused on the skills and experience that should be evident at each level of IT Architect.)

The Global Enterprise Architect Organization (GEAO) has merged into the Association of Open Group Enterprise Architects (AOGEA) and we suspect that their certification program has been replaced with the Open Group offerings. This is supported by the fact that TOGAF or ITAC certification is a membership requirement for AOGEA.
We are interested in your experiences with EA Certification programs and the impact they have had on your EA Program.

Directions: Understand the intent and origins of the EA certification options you are considering before you apply. While all of the certification programs have valuable educational components, they vary widely by content, concept and emphasis.