The agile approach has never been more important than it is today in the technology space.
That’s why we recently sought out Daniel Lambert, M. Sc., an experienced consultant, entrepreneur in business and enterprise architecture, and most appropriately author of “A Practical Guide to Agile Strategy Execution: Design, Architect, Prioritize, and Deliver your Corporate Future Successfully.”
Lambert, currently VP of Business Architecture at Benchmark Consulting, has worked with organizations from a broad array of industries, like financial services, insurance companies, utilities, pharmaceuticals, transportation, manufacturing, computer software, telecom, and healthcare.
What follows is our brief conversation with the thought leader.
Question: How did you get your start in technology?
Answer: I started in the technology space a while back as a venture capitalist. I was involved in Taleo, which was later sold to Oracle for over $2 billion, among others. My M. Sc. is in finance, but I’ve been surrounded by IT engineers my entire career. When I don’t know, my contacts know.
Q: What is your title and how would you describe what you do today?
A: I’m VP of Business Architecture at Benchmark Consulting, the creators of the software application IRIS Business Architect. In collaboration with our local partners, we assist EA teams within large organizations in playing a more important role within their ecosystem using our very grounded consulting services, which follow:
- Custom-made financial services business and enterprise architecture tutorials,
- Implementation of a more customer-centric and more profitable enterprise architecture practice,
- Adjustment of your project portfolio management based on measured capabilities,
- Rationalization of your application portfolios based on measured capabilities, and/or
- Streamlining your business processes based on capabilities, customer journeys, and value streams.
Our services are usually provided using our easy-to-use browser-based IRIS Business Architect software application hosted either on the cloud or on-premise, that synchronizes easily other EA and/or planning tools.
Q: What was your big break that led to your advancement in the field?
A: I joined the Benchmark Consulting team 6 years ago. At the time, it was a small vendor providing a simple downloadable business architecture tool. It has since grown to become an excellent 100 percent browser-based business and enterprise architecture software application used by enterprise architects and business analysts within large and very large organizations headquartered both in the USA and Europe, which plan, architect, and deliver solutions to very complicated problems.
Q: What are the most pressing issues in the field that might keep you up at night?
A: To be honest, I worry more about my adolescents (one in particular) than my job. At work, what worries me the most is satisfying our customers. I wrote a book entitled “Practical Guide to Agile Strategy Execution: Design, Architect, Prioritize, and Deliver your Corporate Future Successfully”. It’s rated at 4.9 out of 5 on Amazon. This rating makes me sleep well. I’m obsessed to have a similar rating for our software application, which is currently at 4.3 out of 5 on Capterra. I’ll stop worrying when it reaches a minimum of 4.7.
Q: What advice would you give someone, who wanted to have the kind of success that you have had?
A: Be perseverant. Success is the result of many small (and sometimes big) failures. Odds are extremely high that you will not succeed right away. Stay on course, listen carefully to your loyal clients, and be perseverant.
Q: What does the future look like in the architecture space, i.e., what are the kind of developments you’ll be looking for?
A: Most EAs in the past used to work in silos, handling corporate governance and building unrealistic and hermetic models that nobody would consult. Things are changing in many organizations. More and more companies are becoming more agile, iterative, and collaborative. More and more EAs are now getting involved in a significant way in business architecture, participating in the elaboration of capability-based roadmaps, initiatives, and/or portfolio projects, and even in the planning of requirements, agile projects/sprints, epics, and user stories. EAs are becoming more and more an essential ingredient of successful business transformations.
