Articles

Enterprise architecture is a relatively new discipline within IT and even newer within traditional business management paradigms. Studies show that EA wasn’t widely practiced as a formal function by most companies until early 2000 (75 percent of all EA programs are less than six years old¹).

Enterprise architecture is a recognized best practice for growing IT’s efficiency and effectiveness in supporting business. Despite this, the practice of EA itself has not always been efficient and effective. In many organizations, this has led to the EA function being formed, then dissolved, and then reconstituted as CIOs try to find the best way for the organization to get value from it.

Most people would accept that IT’s track record in estimation is not great. So how can we improve estimation? To improve estimation we need to understand the challenges and life cycle of estimates over the course of a project and what information estimates need to be based on.

Anyone who frequents EA-related conferences, webinars, discussion groups, and other open Q&A forums quickly discovers that there are questions that come up over and over again. Those asking the questions say they cannot find short, easy-to-consume, and direct answers to their questions from traditional research sources such as the Internet.

Today’s enterprises are more than ever forced both to react to environmental changes resulting from a staggering globalized economy and to proactively seek new business opportunities. These aspects demand that an enterprise not only has its business—and IT—functions aligned, but also has incorporated management policies that increase overall flexibility and agility.

In Business Capability Modeling: Theory and Practice, we introduced a set of techniques for modeling business capabilities: unique combinations of people, business processes, and physical assets that deliver value to customers or shareholders. The business capability model is a useful abstraction that connects business strategy to the future business architecture.

The point of knowledge (POK) is a real place. POK is where elements of know-how for business operations are developed, applied, assessed, and ultimately retired. In other words, POK is where business rules happen. Knowledge is power, so you can also think about POK as point of empowerment.

Over the past decade, companies, government agencies, and academic institutions around the world have made significant investments in enterprise architecture. This move was largely spurred by two factors. The first was the Year 2000 challenge. Faced with the task of modifying program code that relied on a two-digit year field, many systems managers were shocked to find what a poor understanding they and their people had of their organizations’ existing IT applications and data.

Architects have been successfully (and unsuccessfully) using enterprise architecture (EA) frameworks since 1987 when John Zachman published his Zachman Framework. Frameworks typically consist of an iterative ADM (Architecture Development Methodology) and a reusable set of existing architecture assets. There are many benefits that can be realized by implementing an EA framework.

As technology has advanced in leaps and bounds over the last 30 years, so has the number of information devices—from phones to faxes, pagers to PDAs, desktops to Netbooks—and it goes on and on.