In an exclusive interview, Architecture & Governance Magazine interviewed Terry Blevins, a Fellow of The Open Group, about how enterprise architects can become strategic advisors to a business. Part one appeared last week and part two appears this week. We’re also excerpting another part of the interview, “The Roadmap,” for the pages of the quarterly magazine.
By way of background, The Open Group is a vendor-and technology-neutral IT consortium that enables the achievement of business objectives through developing IT standards. It has more than 500-member organizations.
Last week, Blevins answered the question about “why should Enterprise Architects consider becoming more of a strategic advisor to a business?”
This week we are exploring two more questions.
First, when the transition is made, what are the byproducts, or what does it look like?
“First, I must disclose that I don’t believe we have made this transition – there’s a long way to go. Sure, there are scenarios where this has happened to some extent, but I think it atypical. I also don’t believe that the byproduct of this are ‘complete Enterprise Architecture models’ with hundreds upon hundreds of boxes and lines that make business leaders’ eyes cross.
“Rather, I envision enterprises having access to trusted analytic service providers in an organization called something like ‘Strategic Enterprise Services.’ I see this organization continuously providing actionable reports to decision-makers based on clear understanding of business impact. I see this organization providing on-demand advice to business leaders based on objective data. I see this organization using Enterprise Architecture models that are founded on certified reference models, maintained through live feeds from operations, and that can be used to identify impact of changes in any of people, process, policy, and/or technology.
“But most importantly I envision the byproduct being more successful enterprises.”
Second, are there resources that can guide the EA down this path, what or who are they
“Certainly, Architecture & Governance Magazine provides its readership with guidance. Also there is a great deal of useful guidance in the TOGAF® Library at https://publications.opengroup.org/togaf-library.
“As I mentioned before much has to be done to take this scenario from the atypical to the typical. I believe in my heart and brain that The Open Group is a place where Enterprise Architects share their successes and failures, challenges and practices, all that can assist and help guide folk toward this path. I also believe The Open Group Architecture Forum will be the right place to improve standards in the methods and practices necessary to make this a reality. Finally, I see the Association of Enterprise Architects® as a place where one can seek, and provide, mentorship.”
