Thursday evening, April 7, marks the inaugural event for the new IASA Chicago Chapter. The meeting will be from 6:00pm-7:30pm at Illinois Technology Association (ITA), 200 S. Wacker, 15th Floor, Chicago. The new chapter provides a networking and educational forum for IT and Enterprise Architects from across the Chicago area. I will be leading a session on “Changing Architects’ Conversations”, sharing tips and techniques on how architects can create and take advantage of opportunities to engage enterprise leadership in strategic conversations.
In addition to speaking at the event, I am honored to have been asked to serve on the Advisory Board for this new chapter. Please invite your architecture colleagues to come and join us!
“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.
“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.
Although the word “marketing” can elicit negative thoughts in the mind of a technologist, it is a necessary consideration for any EA program in order to maximize its impact on the business and establish an environment for continued contributions. George Paras will present on this topic and lead an interactive discussion at the November meeting of the Western Pennsylvania Enterprise Architects Forum on Monday, November the 9th in Pittsburgh.
Some topics to be in covered include:
Who are your customers and what do they really want? How do they know they are getting just that?
How do define “value delivered” and what kind of measures do you take to prove it? How can you account for short term and longer term value areas that you deliver against?
What is effective communication and how does this relate to the deliverables of an EA program? What kinds of EA artifacts should you use to communicate with your customers in today’s high paced business environment?
Different styles of communication & why this matters?
The WPEAF was created in 2002 to provide opportunities for sharing best practices around the emerging field of Enterprise Architecture. The mission of the group is to foster the sharing of non-competitive architecture processes, concepts, and artifacts in order to support business requirements.
George Paras will join the Winnipeg IT Architects Community’s October 8th meeting to share his experiences and perspectives while leading an interactive discussion on several topics requested by the Community. Topics will include establishing and maturing an EA practice, finding and growing enterprise architects, and key strategies to establishing and operating practical and appropriate governance mechanisms to link planning and the project portfolio with EA. He’ll also discuss his observations on the growing interest in EA by executive leadership and the higher expectations that they place upon their EA groups. As a result he has seen an uptick in new EA programs, the renewal/re-launch of past EA attempts, and increased hiring of enterprise architects.
Contact George Paras if you are interested in more information or in scheduling a similar session for your group.
I am pleased to have been invited to join Ronald Ross, Roger Burlton and many other noted speakers to present at this year’s Business Rules Forum at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. I will be presenting on Monday, November 2 during the all-day Business Alignment Symposium and also participating in a panel discussion with the rest of the Symposium faculty at the end of the day.
Use Special Code 9SPGP when you REGISTER to receive a 10% discount!
Title: “Enterprise Alignment through Enterprise Architecture and Governance”
Achieving ambitious, large scale enterprise transformation demands unique competencies and perspectives, different from those required for day-to-day project execution and operations. It requires an enterprise view of alignment, bridging big-picture strategy consistently into hundreds of smaller scale implementation and operational decisions. Enterprise Architecture (EA) and effective Governance are two of those critical competencies. This session will explore the techniques and approaches that leading organizations use to institutionalize these core management disciplines, reaching beyond the IT department to create a true partnership with business leadership.
How to sort out competing Business, IT and EA priorities
Perspectives: Strategic vs. Tactical, Enterprise vs. Project, Process vs. Content
The Enterprise View – Capabilities, Portfolios and Roadmaps
Alignment deliverables for the executive and models for EA consumer
The human challenge – Culture, People, Persuasion, Roles, Responsibilities
We have a lot of work to do on our relationships! Fully 71% responded that the relationship doesn’t exist or that there is room for improvement. There is some good news though – 57% at least HAVE some sort of relationship that needs improving and 29% consider the state of their relationship to be “healthy”.
Here is an excerpt from an offline comment that I found particularly relevent and insightful:
“I’d say you are spot on with your observations and I think you need to let both groups know that an enterprise architect is fundamentally a differently-skilled person than a project manager. As you point out, an EA is concerned with the future, the long-term strategy and the big picture. A project manager is concerned with the here-and-now, budgets, resources, details and “the little picture”. An EA must be aware of all projects in the organization, and makes decisions regarding how one project can easily affect another – and maybe not in a good way. Project managers are under huge pressure to manage the scope to the budget and the timelines, while EAs are not.
My point is that an EA thinks dramatically different than a PM. Both the EA and the PM need to understand and recognize this and build on the differences and not let those differences destroy the relationship, and certainly to not jeopardize either a project’s goals nor the enterprise IT strategy.”
Well said. The writer asked to let both groups know; consider it done!
Thanks to all again that had interest in this topic. Comments are open if you have any additional ideas.
A few months back, at the recent EA Symposium in Toronto, I gave a presentation on the tensions that exist between project staff, particularly project managers, and the EA Team. The audience was primarily of the architect persuasion. The session was well received in spite of the fact that I was fairly tough on them, challenging them to take responsibility to make sure their relationships with their project communities were healthy and productive. The core message of the session, as well as the overall conference, was about balance – how to live up to the larger role of an enterprise architect in addressing holistic, enterprise-wide, strategic opportunities while also ensuring that today’s challenges and initiatives are supported through their work.
I touched on future state EA content creation, governance, and their coach/assist role. The latter requires rolling up their sleeves and engaging directly with project teams. Recommendations included warnings to not reside in an ivory tower, and advice to actively engage with project and asset communities, to encourage contribution, to communicate and be transparent in their work, and to not act as the architecture police. While these messages aren’t a surprise to those of you who have worked with us, the audience seemed to appreciate hearing them, resulting in 40 minutes of group discussion.
What I enjoyed the most about this discussion was the enthusiasm of the audience. As a fairly typical conference audience, the group was very diverse in experience, representing private and public sectors, large and small organizations, and veterans of EA work (both successful and wounded) plus newbies and wanna-be’s. Many described themselves as being in situations not of their making – stuck being reactive vs. proactive, no time to look forward because they were full time project engineering support resources, they felt they did solid forward-looking strategy but nobody cared, project needs always trumped longer-term objectives, no leadership support, etc. The better news is that, after some discussion, most saw that applying the techniques we discussed could help them be more balanced, improve their situations, and earn the right to be more influential and better leaders.
Coming full circle to the main topic, at the end of the discussion I held an informal poll to find out how many of them thought the relationship between their EA group and their project counterparts was “healthy” vs. “room for improvement” vs. “non-existent”. Despite the fact that the diversity of the audience makes it impossible to draw any statistical conclusion from their answers, and that each likely interpreted the choices differently, the responses were overwhelmingly “healthy” and “room for improvement” with almost no “non-existent”. So for this group, they generally thought they are doing ”OK”.
Being a scientist and an analyst by nature and training, I wanted to get an alternative perspective so I sought to gather data in a different venue. A few weeks ago I presented at the Project World conference in Baltimore, and chose to do a round-table discussion on the same topic. My audience at that occasion was completely different, primarily project managers and business analysts. Not surprisingly, it was a very different discussion. Once we level-set on roles and responsibilities of architecture and the varations from organization to organization it turned into a good discussion. I believe I left them better informed about the nature of the relationship between themselves and the EA community.
At the conclusion, I asked them the same question I asked the EA Symposium audience. Not surprisingly, I got the opposite result. They skewed heavily to the “room for improvement” and “non-existent” side when describing the relationship. The good news is that they admitted that it wasn’t entirely the fault of their EA teams, and as much a result of the pressures they were under to ”eliminate distractions and just get their project done”. Most suggested that they now had a better appreciation for the role of EA and would be more open to listening upon their return. The bad news was that they also said that their EA groups had to do a better job communicating and engaging as well.
So, my advice to the Enterprise Architects out there: Even if you think you are doing well managing the relationship with your project community, you are probably not doing as well as you think you are, at least from their perspective. Take some steps to health-test that relationship, either formally or informally, and put an improvement plan in place. Give us a call – we can help.
Finally, to feed my scientific need for more data, please reply to this thoroughly un-scientific poll. If I get any meaningful data and reach any conclusions, I will let you know in a future post.
In response to several inquiries, we have created a survey to the larger community to understand your needs for high-quality, practical and pragmatic education including conferences, workshops, webinars, roundtables, etc. Please take a few minutes to complete this short survey.
DRAWING – At the end of the survey you will be asked if you would optionally like to enter a drawing for a complimentary one hour Mentoring Teleconferenceto discuss your IT Leadership, EA, Portfolio Management, Governance, IT Strategy, Alignment, Cost Containment or Transformational Initiatives.
Posted by George S. Paras 
IASA “IT Architect Regional Conference” in Austin – George Paras Presenting
January 3, 2010“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.