Mike The Architect

Penn State University Center for EA and FEAPO Presentation Available

2012-05-23T10:33:34-07:00

This week I invited Dr. Brian Cameron to an internal Microsoft Architecture Summit for internal Microsoft IT Enterprise Architects and our Microsoft Services Enterprise Strategy and Architecture organizations. He was our featured keynote speaker about his efforts in the Enterprise Architecture community. I wanted him to discuss where he sees the industry going along with how he his programs can help not only Microsoft but its customers that are trying to solve these very large and complex EA challenges.

Brian is such a great speaker who really tugged at the heart strings of our architects. Discussing the common challenges in the EA industry along with his five year vision on what he hopes to achieve. This is all supported by academic research and strong commercial industry ties to ensure it is grounded in reality. Pragmatism in IT has been a common issue in academic institutions for a very long time, as humbly admitted by Dr. Cameron with many examples of MIS programs around the country.

Penn State EA Center and FEAPO Overview - Brian Cameron

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You may of noticed I am a real fan of what Dr. Cameron is trying to accomplish. I summed up the opportunity well in one of my later posts about his programs, Penn State Professional Masters Program for Enterprise Architecture Approved by Trustees.

There are a few really good reasons as enterprise architects why we should all be excited about this:

A learning path for aspiring architects - today there are limited to no options for EA's who want to get a professional education for a reputable education institution. Now individuals can start their career in the architecture field rit away with training while before it was a role that was achieved through other roles and lengthy experiences in IT.
EA profession is real - with worldwide EA academic programs springing up continuously it is showing that there is not only steady demand for EA but we are at a tipping point of where this discipline is has enough demand and sustainability that an academic base is needed.
New perspectives - The EA industry has been dominated by analysts, large vendors, consultancies and some standards bodies to date. With the ground swell of academic institutions participation in this field there is another important perspective that brings with it necessary rigor, repeatability and research principles.

After listening to him speak and diving into his program deeper I still feel this way. This is something I think the industry should continue to embrace. While the organizations below have supported FEAPO and the Center for EA in it’s establishment phase, it is critical that they continue to develop and make this a sustainable possibility for our industry.

This is particularly true for standards setting organizations like OMG and The Open Group. It is critical that we have this very necessary feedback loop to ensure high quality and scaled thought leadership.

Thank you to Dr. Brian Cameron for accepting my invite to our summit and allowing me to share his presentation publicly. I look forward to many more collaboration opportunities.

About Dr. Brian Cameron

Brian Cameron is Executive Director of the Center for Enterprise Architecture in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at the Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Cameron is also the Program Director for the new Master of Professional Studies in Enterprise Architecture. Within the College of Information Sciences and Technology, he works with a wide portfolio of companies on a variety of consulting engagements, ranging from systems integration projects to enterprise architecture planning and design. Through his academic work, Cameron has consulted with organizations such as Accenture, AT&T Wireless, Avaya, Boeing, EMC Corp, Lockheed Martin, NSA, Oracle, Raytheon, U.S. Marine Corps, and many others.

His primary research and consulting interests include enterprise architecture value measurement, hybrid enterprise architecture framework development, enterprise integration, information management and storage, and the use of simulations and gaming in education. The main focus areas for his teaching efforts are on graduate and senior-level capstone enterprise architecture, enterprise integration, and information technology consulting & information architecture courses. Dr. Cameron is currently developing new curricular materials for enterprise integration (through funding from NSF) including a textbook to be published by Wiley & Sons Publishing. He has also designed and taught executive education sessions for senior IT executives. Session topics include Strategic Alignment of IT & Business Strategies, Enterprise Architecture Value Measurement, Adaptive Enterprise Architecture, IT Governance, IT Portfolio Management, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), and Business Process Management (BPM).

Dr. Cameron is TOGAF and Zachman certified and has developed an extensive background in the DoDAF, FEAF, and Gartner frameworks. He is an EACOE certified enterprise architect and serves on the boards and working committees of a number of international professional organizations and journals. He is a member of the Professional Education Standards Committee of the International Professional Practice Partnership (IP3), a member of the Board of Trustees for the Center for the Advancement of the Enterprise Architecture Profession and Business Architecture Guild, the founding president of the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations, a Co-chair of the Academic Alliance Committee for the Special Interest Group on Enterprise Architecture for the Industry Advisory Council of the US Federal Government, and a member of the editorial review boards for the Journal of Enterprise Architecture, the International Journal on Cyber Behavior, Psychology, and Learning, the Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Management, the Journal of Information Systems Education, and the International Journal on E-Learning.

Dr. Cameron was awarded the NPA Career Achievement Award in 2011 for efforts related to the founding of the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations, the building of the Center for Enterprise Architecture, and associated service to the enterprise architecture profession.

Dr. Cameron currently leads corporately funded research efforts in the following areas: enterprise architecture maturity analysis, enterprise architecture value measurement, risk analysis and management of enterprise systems integration projects, and service oriented architecture implementation best practices. Additional information can be found at: http://ea.ist.psu.edu/cameron.php.

Understanding Which Investments Should go to the Cloud

2012-05-10T16:10:41-07:00

In my last post in this series, “CIO Priorities for the Next 3 Years”, we examined the future of Corporate IT, and made some predictions on what CIO priorities for the next three years might be. According to research from IDC, IBM, and Gartner, the three areas that CIOs are expected to invest most heavily in will be data, mobility, and the cloud.

Today, we will take a closer look at the most recent and most aggressively growing of these three niches: The cloud. Our friends at Gartner estimate that, over the next five years, enterprises will likely spend about $112 billion cumulatively (no pun intended) on cloud services. Another example comes from a new survey of 600 large companies by Tata Consultancy Services. The Tata survey points out that companies in all regions expect their cloud usage to grow dramatically by 2014. For example, U.S. companies expect that 34 percent of their total applications will be cloud-based in two years. European respondents said they expect cloud applications to hit 25 percent in that period.

Clearly, the cloud is here to stay, so let’s talk about the power of the cloud. Specifically, what game changing elements does the cloud bring to businesses in the future?

Below is how I think about it from a Strategy and an Enterprise Architecture oriented way. This should resonate with most CIOs:

Convergence - The cloud is the ultimate power networker, bringing together the essential elements that enable both legacy and emerging technologies. The analyst community bears this out, positioning the cloud as the nerve center of the IT of the future. Gartner calls it the “CSMI Nexus,” and describes it as a junction of cloud, social, mobility and information. I agree with Gartner’s position that the future will be more integrated and connected when it comes to these four technologies, but the cloud will always be at the center, enabling all of this to occur.
A New Financial Model – Because the cloud requires no upfront investment for hardware and software, it enables a shift from capital expenditures to operational expenditures, wherein the bulk of the costs are absorbed into a utility model, with low monthly fees for applications and services. The challenge with this is that often, the implementation time and costs significantly reduce the value of the capital expenditure, and the investment is nearly depreciated before the value can be extracted. This can cause a bit of CFO angst.
Agility and Scalability - An agile, scalable enterprise is needed to support the rhythm of modern business—not all business cycles, after all, are static. Take for example the banking industry, which has a peak transaction volume between Thanksgiving and January 1; or healthcare and insurance, which are driven respectively by staggered enrollment periods and policy renewals. On-premises systems present a high barrier for agility, as they require sophisticated virtualization software, and significant investment in hardware and data communication equipment. Conversely, the cloud offers much greater flexibility via an on-demand environment that makes it easy to add more capacity as businesses evolve.
Streamlined IT – From deployment and management through administration and support, the cloud may deliver the biggest gifts to IT departments. Getting up and running is almost a no-brainer, often requiring nothing more than a standard internet connection. Standardizing PC environments and managing system and desktop updates are all made easier using the cloud. Cloud-based management also help drive down the cost of support. With a cloud-based system, it’s easier to proactively detect and manage issues to reduce help-desk calls, and to ensure that all managed PCs have the latest security updates using online distribution and management.
Productivity – The gains in productivity that can be garnered with the cloud are invaluable, given that more and more organizations have global workforces these days. Using the cloud to give users all the latest productivity tools is only the beginning. When employees have access to office desktops, files, and applications any time, from any location, they can get more done, faster—and even physically dispersed teams can collaborate more easily.

So what does this all mean for traditional, on-premises systems? The IBM Tech Trends Survey reports that 91% of IT professionals are anticipating that cloud will completely overtake on-premises computing in the next 5 years. Essentially, the challenge for on-premises systems with the advent of the cloud is their essential lack of innovation in the market. When faced with the explosive growth in the cloud paradigm that offers businesses more choice, extended capabilities, and exciting new emerging technologies, on-premises simply can’t compete.

The Financial Transition to the Cloud

From a financial aspect, it seems like a straightforward move: Operating primarily with a “pay-to-play” model, the cloud appears to be both cutting edge and cost-effective. But is it really that simple?

The truth is, most companies significantly underestimate the scope of change required to establish cloud services until it’s too late. In the traditional model, companies buy technology from a vendor as a capital investment, and continue to invest in maintaining and servicing it over time. With the cloud being a service, however, the financial model should be treated more like a utility, requiring the reallocation of budget from capital expenses into operating expenses.

We also have to consider that this monetization model could change over time. A recent in the Harvard Business Review Blog Network entitled, “The Truth About Cloud Economics” it talks about a potential and very valid shift in the way cloud providers will monetize their services. Below is the conclusion that Drue Reeves and Daryl Plummer make about this shift:

So, to combat this kind of risk, cloud providers will enter into what are called "enterprise agreements," where the two parties can define the parameters of the relationship based on mutual risk sharing. Essentially, this ensures that each party has a vested interest in the financial success of the other party. There's risk, but there's also reward for better service.

In the end, providers that deliver better service and better guarantees will ask for — and get — more money. Consumers, on the other hand, will get the flexibility of "pay-as-you-go." As long as they can figure out a way to pay for it.

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/04/the_truth_about_cloud_economic.html

What I think this means is that we should consider the value and risk for cloud providers as well as ourselves when making these decisions. The future financial viability for our cloud providers are important in this equation as well. Simply put, if they are not making money in the cloud business, there is no reason to have a cloud business.

From a CFO perspective, they will have a bone to pick, pointing out that this shift can present challenges when a company must still also pay to maintain legacy infrastructure. And if the new cloud services aren’t replacing existing services, new lines of expenditure must be created, which is rarely a smooth process.

Governance is also an issue to consider. With the ease of cloud deployment, it’s important to consider the ramifications of being able to add services quickly as a company grows and needs change. Having a predictable cloud requisition/governance strategy in place can go a long way toward making future service acquisitions easy.

Making the right choice

So now that we have identified some of the significant financial issues around the cloud, how do you determine what’s right for your organization?

Rationalize your strategy. Understand where your business wants to go, what is important, and why. In this process, you need to distill the business and IT strategies to identify cloud-ready capabilities that align to strategy, and provide the maximum amount of value with minimal risk to the business.
Get clear on capabilities. Understand what business capabilities will be a good fit for the cloud through a valuation process. This way, you’ll understand what investments should go to the cloud through a rigorous evaluation of the prioritized set of opportunities identified through strategy rationalization. Through this valuation an assessment of the business and technology capabilities will uncover the value and risk that each capability would bring the company if ported to the cloud.
Make a plan. Create a business transformation plan that will prioritize investment opportunities, balanced across the enterprise and integrated into a transformation roadmap.

Below is a simple three phased approach to making a top down, business value driven decision on which investments to port to the cloud. It’s important that we take this value driven approach to ensure that we don’t make the mistakes we made with other very large technology initiatives such as SOA, CRM or ERP. We should focus on the value add capabilities first to realize value sooner, more reliably and predictably.

We want to take a top-down business value driven approach to process, analyze and refine. This in turn will allow us to describe the business capabilities and to match those with cloud technologies enabling maps to the business-driven strategy that cloud services support. Entering into cloud assessments at a lower level can diminish the level of business impact—and the amount of value—that an organization will realize with the cloud, as seen below.

This picture tells is that the lower in the “stack” we go the lower the overall business value we will realize. This is critical for decision makers to understand as we make decision to go to the cloud.

By respecting both the business and IT dimensions of an organization, and balancing value and risk to identify cloud opportunities while mitigating threats, companies can be assured that the cloud solutions chosen will be flexible, adaptable, and reusable—and just the right fit for their needs.

So that’s it for today. Next time, I’m going to dig a little bit deeper, and talk about how we can balance value and risk through effective cloud strategy.

Additional Resources

White Paper: Building Return on Investment from Cloud Computing (also as a PDF)
White Paper: Strengthening your Business Case for Using Cloud (also as a PDF)
White Paper: Cloud Buyers’ Decision Tree (also as a PDF)
White Paper: Cloud Buyers’ Requirements Questionnaire (also as a PDF)

Technorati Tags: Cloud,Strategy,Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise Architecture Certifications Distilled Presentation Available

2012-05-03T18:29:00-07:00

For those that attended my webcast entitled, Open Group Webcast - Enterprise Architecture Certifications Distilled yesterday, I have have published the presentation here. The recording will come soon. If you have comments, questions or want more detail please let me know.

Enterprise Architecture Certifications Distilled

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CIO Priorities for the Next 3 Years

2012-05-01T10:56:12-07:00

In my last post, I was examining The Evolution of Today’s CIO and What kind of CIO’s will transform businesses?, and how it has morphed into a more strategic, business-driven role than ever before—one that directly affects top-line business goals. Today, I want to dig deeper into what this means for the future of corporate IT. Regardless of CIO Profile (i.e., Optimizer, Transformative or Innovative), what will CIO’s priorities be over the next three years?

My prediction is that by 2015, there will be a groundswell of CIOs that will have morphed into “strategy athletes;” that is, a stronger/faster/savvier version of today's CIO. We’ll see more CIOs who are entrepreneurial, adapting to and initiating major business shifts, and carrying equal responsibility with the CEO. These executives will no longer be measured primarily by the scope of their innovation; they will also be held responsible for the same financial metrics of the other C-level execs. That isn’t to say that all will suddenly convert over into a Transformative CIO or even that it required for all either. But I do think that there will be a majority that will move into this space. Not because of desire but out of need.

Converging Priorities

When we look at this there are two angles we need to come from. First the higher level strategic themes and objectives. This is where you will see soft or intangible goals that are meant to span across the entire enterprise and to last for more than one year. The second type of priority is the actionable tactical priorities and much more tangible goals and objectives. These tend to occur within a fiscal year and have very concrete success criteria.

Looking at the strategic priorities I see a convergence of IT and business strategy that means both the growth and innovation will be at the forefront of business decision making—but will the CEO and CIO be on the same page? According to IBM’s CIO study, The Essential CIO, it’s highly likely.

The IBM report, based on face-to-face conversations with more than 3,000 CIOs worldwide, found that the three key business issues that will be top-of-mind for both the CEO and the CIO in the coming years will be data (BI and analytics), people skills to manage growing organizational complexity, and client relationships.

As far for the second level of tactical priorities, there is variability in what I see as far as percentages on the predictions however the themes still stay the same. I would suspect that this is due in part by specific industry segments, their market needs and regulation.

So for these yearly priorities how do these joint CEO/CIO business priorities sync with CIO technology priorities? Will the core CIO agenda go out the window? Hardly. According to Gartner’s 2012 CIO Survey, CIOs have reported that they expect to spent 46% more over last year, and 61% plan to improve their companies’ mobile functions. The top technology priority, BI and analytics, is right in line with the business priorities, and mobile and virtualization (cloud) rank 2^nd and 3^rd, respectively.

The respondents to a 2012 IDG CIO survey had a slightly more focused take: Nearly 40% indicated that cloud services would take top priority moving forward. And the IBM group? They put data, mobility, and the cloud at the top of their lists.

CIO Priority Projection

So what does this mean for the prioritization of IT spend between now and 2015? Well there is a lot of data out there with different priorities and subsequent rankings. There are three priorities that do surface to the top every time though. Those common priorities include:

Cloud – The cloud has finally emerged from the 2011 purgatory of supplier propaganda, and is now being taken seriously—very seriously—by CIOs around the globe. It’s proven to be a game-changer, making competitive advantage more easily attainable for organizations regardless of size.
Information – Once a very stale topic, BI is now going through a resurgence thanks to new technology innovation like cloud and social. We are seeing the legacy reporting and analytics morph into Big Data and Collaborative BI. These new trends are helping companies build better customer relationships, and drive new business. According to Gartner fellow Dave Aron, “It is about more data, faster data, and the ability to crunch it in faster time.” These new technology enablers are allowing this to occur.
Mobility – In order to maintain a growth trajectory regardless of economic climate, more and more businesses have realized that having an employee base that can work from anywhere is key. Laptops, smart phones, and tablet devices have become the new standard equipment for organizations focusing on growth and innovation.

And since we’re on the subject, it seems like just about everybody is thinking about the cloud to some extent these days. It started out as a rather enigmatic concept, and was a catalyst for many a heated discussion in the industry as it emerged in the late 1990s. Now that the technology is becoming more ubiquitous, the benefits of economy, scalability, and administration are more clear and concrete. And as we’ve seen from the research, it’s garnered a position of top priority with technical decision makers.

With more and more CIOs now ready, willing, and able to invest in the cloud, my next post will look at the strategies around cloud implementation, and how to make true value-driven investments in the cloud to support strategic business goals.

Technorati Tags: CIO,Cloud,Enterprise Architecture,Predictions

What kind of CIOs will transform businesses?

2012-04-17T22:39:23-07:00

In a previous post entitled, The Evolution of Today’s CIO, I discussed the increasing pressure on CIOs to deliver beyond traditional roles, and become more of a strategic asset for CEOs. Due in part to the market conditions I outlined in that post, today we see CIOs evolving well beyond the domain of strategic information systems.

More and more strategic business decisions these days are being made based upon direct input from CIOs. CIOs are being asked to think beyond IT value and TCO, and contribute directly to creating competitive advantage, strategic innovation, expansion of services, and bottom-line metrics.

This is not just speculation, or an isolated phenomenon. According to a report on CIOUpdate.com, 47% of CIOs indicated they have broadened their roles to absorb some form of business responsibility. Interestingly enough, 35% of those responding indicated that they come from a business background. This shows a fascinating trend that says CIOs are coming in with a business background, instead of trying to learn it on the job. That is certainly one strategy to acquire business acumen in IT. I would suspect that trend will continue.

With regards to how broad organization-wide decisions are made, we are seeing changes as well. Gartner states that 16% of CIOs are sitting on Boards of Directors. And McKinsey reports that nearly three-quarters of IT and business executives feel that IT should be tightly integrated with business strategy—but only 27% saw it happening in their own organizations.

As you can see in the following image, there are a number of elements supporting this hypothesis. In the middle of the image, you see that CIOs will continue to manage demands from an IT perspective, but that strategy, value drivers, and the operational and delivery models will be driven from a business perspective. Business demands will not replace the IT demands, but rather they will balance them. Certain characteristics (tiled across the top of the diagram) will manifest and drive the behavior of the CIO with respect to the business and IT demands. This evidence is borne out by industry analysis we see from sources like CIO Executive Counsel, IBM, Gartner, Corporate Executive Board, and McKinsey.

As shown above, this shows us that the CIO is now at the core of nearly everything that drives business. Clearly, the opportunity here is significant.

What kind of CIO do you want to be?

Based on market research, industry trends, and my own experiences with the Microsoft Enterprise Strategy program, I see that some common patterns are emerging. IT customers are expecting—not hoping—for more business acumen in IT.

Upon distilling information from a variety of sources, I came up with a set of common profiles that can be applied to current and future CIO aspirations. There are three main types of CIO, and the strategic goals of each are very different.

Which one are you? Below are the three core profiles that start emerge:

The Optimizer

Business and IT Alignment – Focusing on alignment of IT priorities to business priorities
Operational Excellence – Determining what architectures will enable effective IT Services.
Reduce Complexity and Simplify – Implement/eliminate IT solutions that allows for reduction of unnecessary cost overruns
Reduction of Cost per Solution per User – Bring solutions and services to customers at a lower cost
Risk Management and Security Controls – Ensures proper controls are in place

The Transformer

Business Partner – Advancing the business relationship to a true partnership.
Trusted Partner – The business will look at the CIO as an enabler and trusted with fundamental IT services.
Expert of Industry Solutions– Understand, rationalize and recommend industry solutions that meet the demands of the business.
Optimize Business Processes & Value Chain– Transform the business through optimizing the business process through the lens of the needs to the customer.

The Innovator

Innovation Center of Excellence – Incubate, recommend and deliver innovative solutions to real business problems.
Understand Business Models – Understand how competition affects the company and find new sources of revenue through an innovative IT lens.
Strategic Big Bets – Understand, rationalize and recommend solutions based on emerging technologies that are directly in line with the business goals.
Transform Business Products & Services – Taking existing products & services innovate.

Looking at the Bigger Picture

So with the rapid evolution of traditional CIO roles to include more all-up business strategy, what kind of CIOs will make their marks in transforming businesses in the future? By nature, a CIO brings a specific set of skills to the boardroom, and to ensure that the high-level business decisions they are now fueling are the in the best interest of the overall strategy, a CIO must broaden their scope. But how best to accomplish this?

The challenge for CIOs that fit within the Optimizer profile is that it's very much business as usual. It's all about operational efficiency of the servers, networks, and applications. While this is still very important to all parties, the evidence shows that this isn't enough.

CIOs can only drive real change by thinking very differently in terms of overall strategic goals and business value. Moving forward, the CIOs that will make the most impact, which I call the Transformers, will be the ones who actively adapt the mindset of a CEO.

Building on being a Transformer, the next stage is the Innovator. This is the natural next stage after a successful partnership—actually being able to own key aspects of a company's strategy. Technology is only getting more ingrained into the daily lives of consumers and enterprises, and the need for strategies to be built by experts in this space will be critical for differentiation.

Does this mean that the CIO will replace the CEO? No. It does mean, however, that there is more opportunity for the CIO to be a pivotal role for companies in the digital information age. And after all, who else would be better to do it? Certainly not the CFO or CMO!

This will, of course, mean some fundamental changes in the hardwiring of the CIO. It means looking beyond the existing business relationship, and advancing it to a true partnership. With this model, the CIO must understand their new role as a business enabler, and be able to understand, rationalize, and promote solutions that meet the strategic goals of the business.

Key things to consider

Another critical shift for the CIO will be to transfer the focus from implementation to agility and time-to-market. While the traditional CIO is primarily interested in solutions that are “built to last”; the Transformative CIO must focus on establishing a business foundation that is able to scale and flex. This concept of “designed to change” will enable the Transformative CIO to see beyond static resources, and explore the outcomes that would be possible if these resources were deployed in alternative ways.

Finally, the CIO will also need to become more customer-centric, re-orienting business process to provide better value to the customer. This involves more than just optimizing customer service; Transformative CIOs must think about tailoring all business streams, from supply chain to demand generation, to focus on the cost, benefits, and value for the customer.

A Change in Headspace

There are a couple of primary ways that CIOs can start to get their heads into the CEO mindset:

#1 – By redefining how they think about IT

· A complete overhaul of the IT strategy may be an overwhelming thought, but in the near-term, a number of incremental shifts can ease the transition for a Transformative CIO:

Embracing enterprise architecture – EA is one of the most important and effective tools a CIO can leverage to provide a business-centric, efficient environment

Basing IT operations on a utility model – By simplifying processes and streamlining costs, IT can better meet organizational expectations

Investing in cloud/mobile computing – Demand for availability, access, and interactivity with customers is high, and growing steadily; being prepared with strategies for virtualization, app development, and hand-held and tablet devices is critical

#2 – By aligning with the CEO

A recent Gartner survey found that innovation and organizational flexibility are big concerns for today’s CEOs, and securing a seat in the boardroom will require literacy in a number of issues:

Maintaining existing customers, and attracting new ones
Drawing and retaining highly-skilled employees
Building a responsive, flexible, and efficient organization
Streamlining costs
Fostering innovation
Promoting collaboration and interactivity with customers
Designing both long-and short-term strategies

As I stated earlier, the opportunity here for the CIO is significant. Once the agenda of the CIO becomes better aligned with that of the CEO, the advances in innovation, growth, and strategy will be undeniable.

By revolutionizing the role of the CIO, we focus on closing the gap between IT and business strategy. Given the expanded role and responsibilities of this new breed of CIO, we have to wonder about how business priorities will shift as a result, Next up, I’ll examine the outlook for IT and business strategy in the coming years under the watch of the Transformative CIO.

Technorati Tags: CIO

Open Group Webcast - Enterprise Architecture Certifications Distilled

2012-04-12T09:41:25-07:00

Enterprise Architecture Certifications Distilled

An Open Group Webinar

Date: Wednesday, May 02, 2012
Cost: Free; registration required
Time: 5:00 p.m. BST; 12:00 p.m. EDT; 9:00 a.m. PDT
Speakers: Mike Walker (Microsoft), James de Raeve (The Open Group), Steve Philp (The Open Group)

This free webinar looks at the wide range of Enterprise Architecture (EA) certifications that are available and why it is important to choose the right certification for your career. We will examine why skills and experience-based certifications are becoming increasingly important to both employers and employees as part of the professional development process.

Attendees will also find out more about the new ArchiMate® 2.0 certification along with details of a new Business Architecture stream in Open CA and new Security and Service Management streams in Open CITS.

To Register, and to view upcoming / archived webinars, visit: The Open Group Webinar site >

Also:
Register for The Open Group Conference, Cannes, France, April 23-27, 2012

British Computer Society to recognize The Open Group certifications towards CITP status

2012-04-11T13:25:33-07:00

Good news for all of those Open CA and Open CITS architects who want to also pursue the British Computer Society Chartered IT Professional (CITP) status. Last month Open Group and BCS announced that BCS will recognize The Open Group certifications towards CITP status.

Below you can find the details of the announcement from the Open Group site:

The agreement allows individuals who hold The Open Group Certified Architect (Open CA) and Certified IT Specialist (Open CITS) certifications at Level 2 (Master) and Level 3 (Distinguished) to be exempt from the initial review and interview elements of the BCS Charted IT Professional (CITP) process. Applicants will still need to take and pass the BCS breadth of knowledge test as well as be Professional members of BCS to achieve CITP status. The Open Group certifications complement CITP status as they are globally recognized, credible qualifications which demonstrate that IT professionals have the knowledge, skills and expertise required to complete certain jobs.

The CITP assessment process was developed by BCS in response to industry and government demands for deeper expertise and relevance from the IT profession.

Adam Thilthorpe, Director of Professionalism, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, explains: “We have assessed The Open Group’s Open CA and Open CITS certifications and are happy that the criteria and processes established by The Open Group meet the level of experience and competence demanded for CITP. Globally there are about almost 6,000 IT professionals who will be able to take advantage of this new agreement when it is launched supporting our objectives to champion global IT professionals and give practitioners the professional development and career support that they deserve. This is important as employers are increasingly demanding CITP recognition from candidates for key IT roles.”

James de Raeve, VP of Certification, The Open Group adds: “This agreement is great news for IT professionals who want to complete both a qualification from The Open Group and achieve CITP status without duplicating effort. The chartered status demonstrates the same degree of professionalism recognized in other chartered professions in the UK and provides independent validation that Level 2 and 3 of The Open Group’s professional programmes are at least equivalent to SFIA Level 5.”

CITP status shows that senior practitioners possess a broad technical knowledge and can demonstrate business experience, commercial accountability and competence in their individual IT specialism(s). Applicants need to have eight to ten years experience with at least three of the last five years in a complex IT role requiring business insight. Professionals also need to demonstrate competence in their chosen specialism(s) and interpersonal skills via an online interview with expert assessors.
Holders of The Open Group certifications forming part of this agreement can register their interest in achieving CITP status through the scheme at: www.bcs.org/citp-theopengroup

Full article can be found here: http://www3.opengroup.org/news/press/bcs-recognise-open-group-certifications-towards-citp-status

Predictions: Enterprise Architecture in 2020

2012-04-03T22:29:23-07:00

At the Troux Worldwide Enterprise Architecture Conference I had the pleasure of being invited to an EA industry panel to answer and discuss questions from the conference attendees.

A question was posed to us panelists around the future of EA, specifically what EA looks like in 2020. I received such great feedback on my response that I thought I would share it with all of you.

In general, when this topic comes up there seems to be two very distinctive perspectives from folks I talk to. The first camp are the people that don’t understand the value proposition of EA and feel that it will be abandoned as a discipline soon. This is even seen to some degree in the analysts community. When I was talking at the conference I remembered an example of this from the article “Gartner predicts that by 2012 40% of today's enterprise architecture programs will be stopped”. Obviously we are not seeing this prediction coming to true in 2012.

On the other side we see wild enthusiasm and grand predictions on how EA will change the world. There doesn’t seem to be too many people that I talk to that are in the middle of the road.

So what do I think? While there is a lot that can happen in the next seven years I do think EA is here to stay. However, I believe that it will look a bit different than it does today. I believe that there will be a natural evolution to its eventual state.

Many of the existing functions that EA performs today will be here however I think that there will be a pruning of the functions that don’t sense and additions to what does. The core charter will stay the same.

Orthogonal Drivers and IT Environmental Aspects

In a recent post titled The Evolution of Today’s CIO I discuss that IT and the CIO’s role is evolving to be more and more business centric. There is quite a bit of evidence here. Below is a chart that shows the CEO and CIO aligning priorities over the next 3 to 5 years.

Source: IBM, The Essential CIO 2011 Survey

While CIO’s are expected to uphold operational and technical excellence the data not only from IBM but from many others shows that the CIO is getting the unique opportunity to step into the business realm as well. Now that technology is so ubiquitous coupled with such deep business impact CIO’s are essential to business units.

As the CIO matures and becomes more business centric who will they turn to in their organization. The Enterprise Architecture function of course. This is the only function that has the charter of being at a business level and aspires to grow more and more into this area. This is emphasized by the desire of very many EA functions to move out of IT entirely so they can easily be business focused.

If this is the trend, EA is essential for the CIO and the CIO is essential for the EA group. Whether it be staying within the IT or being a strong supporter that remains to be seen.

Macro themes for EA in 2020

Enterprise Architecture will business driven
Increase EQ to balance better with IQ
There will be a separation of IT Architecture from Enterprise Architecture
Enterprise Architecture may move out of the IT organization while IT Architecture remains
Increased focus on corporate sustainability. Business capabilities with longevity.
Enterprise portfolio management will be a first class citizen

Predictions for 2020

I believe the following will be the key changes to EA in 2020:

Clear purpose
Understand & Operationalize EA Business
EA Activities
EA Competencies & Certifications
Lead through Emotional Intelligence

Clear Purpose

Thus far, EA has been a collection of many things without a perfectly clear, consistent & universally accepted purpose, definition and set of outcomes. You may ask, why is this important? It’s so important for so many reasons.

A few of the key reasons below:

From an overall industry perspective it is essential to have the purpose and clarity to have sustainability as a profession. This allows for common expectations from the professionals that make up the EA industry.
Without purpose for individual EA teams within companies it can also be problematic. With loose or even random value propositions it will hinder credibility and ultimately results.

I am starting to see a great deal of changes in the industry to solidify this more. We see examples of this everyday with universities support, firmer standards, maturing enterprise architecture functions and a wealth of support from practitioners in communities like LinkedIn and others alike. To credit the discipline a little bit, for such a robust and complex as EA it is no doubt why it has taken so long.

At the current rate of change in EA by 202o the EA industry should have a clear and generally accepted answer on the purpose of EA. Whether that is fully adopted in EA organizations around world is a different story all together. Many other considerations are at play there.

For organizations today, it is essential to get to the root of the purpose of your EA function. Begin to think about why your EA function exists and what value does it bring to the company. Getting to the root of why is essential to be purpose driven.

Understand & Operationalize EA Business

Today when I ask, “describe the business of EA?” I often receive puzzling looks and brief answers on charters and such. What is troubling is that we expect to partner with the business but we don’t act the business. Often times we have our own language for things that have existed in the business for a very long time. This doesn’t help our cause.

By 2020 the industry should have matured much in this area with a revised focus on business acumen versus purely on technical architecture.

We are already starting to see operational and services excellence in EA teams. I believe this trend will continue. As we begin to interact more and more directly with the business they are going to want predictable and repeatable results. To do this, service enablement is needed to have clear SLAs and OLAs. Below is an example of a service model that I had created a few years back.

In the example above, the business or customer is able to request services from the EA team. This sets precise expectations on what they will get and more importantly what they will not get. With this comes metrics that can measure success or failure easily.

With this new focus and purpose, how EA operates will be different with a defined an Enterprise Architecture Operating and Service model that will aid in repeatable and predictable results for it’s customers.

EA Activities

With a business centric EA organization the first priority should be to focus on value management. EA’s in 2020 will think first about what value is to be derived from a potential solution to a problem. Value can be many things, it just depends on what it means to the specific customer. It could mean:

Cost reduction
Productivity
Risk reduction
etc.

By focusing on portfolios of capabilities the EA’s will be able to manage value in a quantitative and qualitative way. This will also aid the EA on focusing on what investments are important at any given time to allow for maximum returns for the business.

Instead of starting bottom up the standard mode of operation will be top down. Similar to what you see in popular frameworks like TOGAF.

This isn’t to say that the EA will perform all of these aspects of architecture but rather a model to follow.

EA Competencies

EA’s are being asked not only to align but to partner with the business. To do this they need the competencies and skills to be able to act and speak accordingly with the business. This space is advancing year over year.

I have built out a framework on how to separate competencies from other aspects. This is in the context of certifications. Below is a way to think about the separation of the different certification aspects.

Below is a description of each aspect:

Competency Based Certifications – These certifications are focused at evaluating your experience to validate that you are indeed an architect. Much like many other certifications in the industry (e.g., PMP). These are much different to others that determine what you know instead of how you applied the knowledge.
Industry / Specialized Certifications – Driven from a predetermined set of concerns such as the federal government or a specific industry is where these derive from. While these certifications are critical in that vertical, often times they do not transfer well across verticals given the difference in drivers and motivations of these very specific bodies of knowledge.
Foundational Certifications – Provides the essential skills for EA’s. These certifications are different from the other two in the respect that they validate that you’re an architect while foundational certifications validate that you know a specific methods, models and/or tools. These certifications are essential to EA’s as they populate the EA’s toolbox. For example, without an overall enterprise architecture framework how would we be truly effective as EA’s?
Applied – Divided into two primary areas, Academic and Vendor Tailored they either support a certification or provide a certification highly tailored. These are in a supporting function to Competency Based Certifications.
Supporting Certifications and Learning's – These certifications make a well-rounded enterprise architect. These are often referred to or leveraged in the day in the life of an EA.

For more detail see the post entitled, Enterprise Architecture Certifications Distilled.

Additionally, I have written several posts on this topic over the past year.

Certifications

Today there is a focus on specific architecture or EA certifications. Year after year I am finding that Enterprise Architecture certifications are becoming more important to architects. Back in 2007, I remember reading an article from Gene Leganza called, “Is EA Certification Important?”. In that article he stated that 65% of the people he had surveyed stated that EA certification is not important but he also noted that a significant minority stated they were including EA certification criteria in their hiring processes.

I believe this has changed quite a bit.

We continue to see the very positive trends in terms of investment in EA skills throughout the industry and the world. Below is a snapshot of some of the trends in a presentation I gave on certifications internally at Microsoft.

But there is one small wrinkle in this. The hypothetical question I ask is, “Does the business value your EA certification? Does that EA certification alone instill confidence in the business leaders?” To some degree. I would assert that alone it doesn’t because it doesn’t cover all the concerns of the business but does cover all the concerns of an EA.

Why do I say this? The reason for this is that the business expects you to have those certifications because you are an EA. That part is a given. However, if you want to be a true partner, they expect you to operate like the business and truly empathize with the business. Use their methods, models and tools. If that is the case, complement your EA certification with a MBA or equivalent is in order.

Lead through Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

Today we have some challenges here. Connecting with the business to facilitate, aid or participate in the decision making process is often a tricky task. It requires trust and credibility. While some EA’s are very good at this, there maybe some opportunity to get better at this. Culturally architects of all breeds tend to some common traits:

Academic or philosophical discussions
Going deep really quick
Get hung up on technical accuracy or purity

These are not necessarily bad things in moderation, but when abused, it can be disastrous for credibility.

In an article I wrote several months back titled IQ Isn’t Enough. Enterprise Architects Must Balance with EQ Driven Approaches, I discussed that it is vital to lead less with IQ and more with your EQ. Now that’s not to say that IQ doesn’t matter. Of course not, that’s what got you in the door but it doesn’t keep your job. EQ does.

For EA to succeed in the future, this skill will need to be honed. The EA’s audience and customers expands greatly as it reaches into the business. Not only will they need to partner with IT but also with the business. This introduces a mixing pot of needs and wants that the EA must rationalize.

To get us there on that journey there is a great article from a close friend J.D. Meier on his blog Sources of Insight called, 101 of the Greatest Insights and Actions for Work and Life. In this article, he outlines both the everyday improvements you can do to your routine but also shows the shifts that you can do to be more in tune with EQ.

Technorati Tags: Enterprise Architecture

Penn State Professional Masters Program for Enterprise Architecture Approved by Trustees

2012-03-27T12:40:47-07:00

Yesterday it was announced that the Penn State professional masters program for enterprise architecture was approved last week by the board of trustees. The program is officially green lit for the industry. This is truly exciting news.

There are a few really good reasons as enterprise architects why we should all be excited about this:

A learning path for aspiring architects - today there are limited to no options for EA's who want to get a professional education for a reputable education institution. Now individuals can start their career in the architecture field rit away with training while before it was a role that was achieved through other roles and lengthy experiences in IT.
EA profession is real - with worldwide EA academic programs springing up continuously it is showing that there is not only steady demand for EA but we are at a tipping point of where this discipline is has enough demand and sustainability that an academic base is needed.
New perspectives - The EA industry has been dominated by analysts, large vendors, consultancies and some standards bodies to date. With the ground swell of academic institutions participation in this field there is another important perspective that brings with it necessary rigor, repeatability and research principles.

According to Penn State this is the first enterprise architecture masters program in North America and the first online EA program in the world. This program has moved at light speed for academia. They did this in about 2 ½ years compared to other programs elsewhere taking upwards of 7-10 years to develop.

Through the MPS/EA program, professionals will learn how to:

• Understand and apply foundational concepts, issues, and best practices in the field of enterprise architecture.

• Develop and maintain the many components of an effective enterprise architecture.• Evaluate and select appropriate enterprise modeling approaches.

• Understand approaches for measuring and communicating value.

• Explore EA framework evaluation and development.

• Develop an understanding of the different layers of the enterprise information technology landscape.

• Develop an understanding of the best practices for effective leadership, decision making, and communications for enterprise architecture.

• Examine organizational theories and processes of organizational behavior.

• Understand best practices and approaches to manage costs and value of enterprise projects.

• How to link projects to overall corporate strategy.

• Follow interdisciplinary approaches and techniques to manage projects in a modern business environment.

• Deliver a clear advantage in today’s highly competitive and dynamic environment by continuously learning, analyzing, applying new trends, issues, and innovations in the field of enterprise architecture to the overall organization.

For more information:

Center for Enterprise Architecture: http://ea.ist.psu.edu/
The Federation for Enterprise ArchitectureProfessional Organizations (FEAPO): http://www.feapo.org/
Supply Chain Research: http://www.smeal.psu.edu/cscr

The Evolution of Todays CIO

2012-03-22T11:09:24-07:00

Over the past few months I have been presenting to executives around the world and within Microsoft about the evolution of the CIO role and its impact on IT. The materials have gone over extremely well and relate to their concerns. I call it the new breed of the CIO. This post is part of a series of posts that are a distillation of that workshop.

The face of today’s CIO has changed dramatically. Once upon a time the CIO was only concerned about the business of IT, from the development process and implementation to the operation of the IT world. What these CIO’s have learned, and some the hard way, is that isn’t enough. This narrow view has gotten IT in a load of trouble over the years.

There are a number of pressures that are forcing this change. First, there are top down business expectations from business leaders. They expect a more mature IT organization, quicker time to market on solutions and higher business value solutions. Second, disruptive technology advancements such as cloud, social, big data and mobility are opening up new possibilities for the business. One of which is a new world of work that breaks down the traditional barriers of productivity that enables a deeper understanding of the enterprise and its customers.

Reacting to these pressures is often difficult for organizations that are equipped both mentally and physically for the traditional way of IT. This new wave of business empowerment and technology innovation changes the traditional game quite a bit.

As an analogy, I think of it from a historical perspective. Remember in the early days of the United States especially in wars like the French and Indian War the British came to the battle in very formal bright uniforms, marching in lines and extreme formality in the engagement of war. The challenge here is that the system they were fighting within had fundamentally changed. They were not in Europe where this style was respected and adhered to but rather in a system where agility, surprise attacks and camouflage was the name of the game. IT is in a similar place right now, we are moving from the old world to the new world. The system has changed and we must adapt or face a defeat.

This has manifested itself in many ways, the first being how consumers leverage our products and services. In 2009, the Better Business Bureau in Vancouver Canada listed Computers and Technology as the number one complaint across all areas.

As shown in the report, computer software and services are worse than those pesky car salesmen hunting you down on their lots. We not only see this from our consumer base but also from within our four walls. It is easier to not look at but there are systemic issues with the business of IT as it is today. As an example, the Standish Group released a report stating that 50% of all technology Initiatives are a waste of money. So what is the CIO to do? Stick with the status quo or make a change? It’s time for a change in how IT is operated.

It used to be that aligning IT with the Business was strategically in vogue for CIOs. And it still is. However there is a fundamental shift elevating the modern role of the CIO to that of not only doing the business of IT, but also transforming and innovating along the way. With 54% of mid-market CIOs viewing IT as the critical enabler of business and organizational vision, CEOs are now looking to the CIO as the trusted enabler, the mainspring for IT solutions that meet the demands of the business, in real-time.

The traditional lens of the CIO focuses on providing technology platforms that “allow” the business to function while aligning IT priorities with business priorities, reducing solution cost and ensuring proper controls are in place. This is the CIO as Optimizer, immersed and concerned with driving internal IT process, efficiency and responsiveness, keeping pace with the needs of the business.

Today however brings a new set of business pressures that stares the CIO as Optimizer squarely in the eye and asks the question: “How are you helping the business adapt and cope with accelerating changes in market conditions and technology disruptors?” The answer lies within the new-fashioned role of the Transformative CIO.

The 2010 State of the CIO Survey provided by CIO magazine highlighted that nearly nine out of 10 (89 percent) anticipate assuming some additional area of non-IT leadership responsibility three to five years from now, compared to 61 percent who are currently responsible in a leadership capacity for one or more non-IT areas of the business. Security (55 percent), strategy (49 percent), and risk management (41 percent) are most frequently cited by IT leaders as areas they expect to assume leadership responsibility for in the longer term.

The Transformative CIO will help in this fashion by striving to partner with the Business, truly advancing the business relationship beyond pacing alignment. He becomes an expert of industry solutions; understanding, rationalizing and recommending strategies that meet the ever-changing demands of the Business. And as council and advisor to the CEO, he empathizes and takes action on his concerns.

As CIOs gain a foothold with the Business thought process, maturing strategic business value through the IT lens means continuing to find new ways of delivering value, service and cost containment. Enter the CIO as Innovator. He sees that in order to support business growth, he must be out ahead of the game solving real strategic business problems through innovation.

The new CIO also provides clarity of IT utility by understanding how competition can affect the company and by making strategic big bets on emerging technologies that are directly in line with business goals. He truly believes in a business first organization. In fact, fully 70% of the CIOs surveyed in the 2010 State of the CIO report said long-term strategic thinking and planning will be most critically needed in the coming year.

CIOs are starting to realize this in a substantial way. CIOs are actively moving their focus to not only the transformational areas in partnership with the business but also in an innovative role as well. The 2010 State of the CIO Survey also includes an interesting point that 54% of CIO’s will focus their time and energy on driving business innovation. That is a substantial amount of time for any role, especially the CIO. This will completely change the tone of the IT organization.

The modern CIO is one who not only understands the mechanical aspects of IT but also harmonizes the elements of IT culture, business maturity and industry innovation. And by having a seat at the business decision table, embracing enterprise architecture and running IT as a utility, he or she can incubate these elements in to a set of enablers the business can count on.

The pressure to deliver beyond the traditional role of the CIO is evolving in to a key asset for CEOs. A blend of CIO as Optimizer, Transformer and Innovator provides a powerful profile mix that amidst the constant of change will emerge a stronger and more service-focused business partnership with IT. After all, without IT there is no Business. Or is it the other way around?

Technorati Tags: CIO