The Evolving Role of the Enterprise Architect

Raising the Level of Professionalism Through Certification

Editor’s Note: Allen Brown is the president and CEO of The Open Group, a not-for-profit consortium that brings together firms based on open standards and global interoperability. Recognizing the industry demand, The Open Group launched the first independent, comprehensive IT Architect Certification program. The program defines global standards for measuring the skills and experience of IT architects and for the operation of IT architecture practices within enterprises. The following question-and-answer session with Brown was conducted by A&G Managing Editor Holt Hackney.

QUESTION: With more than twenty years of experience as a vendor and technology-neutral consortium, can you speak to the evolution of the enterprise architect?

BROWN: The Open Group saw the evolution of the enterprise architect shift in 1993, when end-user enterprises started demanding architecture standards. A year later, the Department of Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) donated the Technical Architectural Framework for Information Management (TAFIM) as a base for enterprise architecture, which became a preferred starting point for the creation of these architecture standards. The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF™) was then published in 1995. Until 2001, the profession’s focus remained largely on technical architecture.

This is also when many of our members brought to light a common problem of operational inefficiencies hindering these businesses from operating on a much higher level. They needed a solution to improve the enterprise’s many different internal and external business processes spanning key interactions with suppliers, customers, and partners using integrated information. That same year, a solution was introduced to the industry at large, in the form of a white paper, that then led the new vision of The Open Group: “Boundaryless Information Flow.” Subsequently, in 2002, The Open Group’s Architecture Forum published TOGAF 8, the Enterprise Edition.

Significant market demand for enterprise architects, especially those with TOGAF knowledge, followed as organizations needed to adopt more of a “city planner” view of the enterprise. It was no longer enough to be a technology architect or focus almost exclusively on technology or the “T.” Instead, a focus on information, or the “I,” influenced the development and emergence of a new breed of professionals who were able to communicate effectively with each level of their organization. This demand for a more experienced and knowledgeable enterprise architect created a new class of maturing professionals. Specifically expected to communicate the big picture as well as the detailed steps necessary to align IT with tangible business goals, these so-called enterprise architects are now rated more highly than developers, when measured by the value they can deliver to their companies.

It’s worth noting that as the enterprise architecture profession continues to evolve and mature, there remains a shortage of qualified architects. Consequently, this demand is fueling the trend for hiring professionally certified enterprise architects. As more and more organizations were presented with a number of claims by people who do not have the necessary skills—we noted a need to differentiate those individuals who possessed true enterprise architecture knowledge and skills. To address this need, members of The Open Group did two things: created a skills and experience based certification called IT Architecture Certification (ITAC) and launched a professional body—the Association of Open Group Enterprise Architects (AOGEA).

Q: Can you elaborate on what you mean when you suggest a city planner perspective?

BROWN: As enterprises everywhere are seeking to break down the silos within and between organizations and create truly boundaryless enterprises, they need information to be available to those who need and are entitled to it in an integrated form for whatever purpose is at hand.
Yet, it’s increasingly common for organizations to create multiple systems, conceived and developed individually. Compounding this problem is the popular occurrence of cross-functional teams continuously forming new business partners and generating reams of stove-piped information. It’s also easy to find many applications built, all in support of these siloed operations. As new projects or business demands are placed on the existing infrastructure, it is not sustainable for organizations to develop another specific application to solve the current problem—and add to an increasingly bloated infrastructure.

Hence the need to take a city planner view of how the enterprise works and how information flow can be enabled. Because with the city planner view of an enterprise, the enterprise architect can more quickly and easily identify existing silos and provide a cross-organizational and functional solution to avoid such a scenario.

Q: What is the role of industry certification programs such as The Open Group’s comprehensive IT Architect Certification program? Why are these programs necessary?

BROWN: IT Architecture Certification, or ITAC, is all part of raising the level of professionalism and differentiating between those individuals who can really do the job from those who cannot. To continue the enterprise architect’s professional evolution, four things are necessary: high standards of expertise, recognized best practices, skills and experience certification, and a forum for practitioners to come together and share knowledge.

Q: What did you hope to accomplish at the 16th Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Conference, which was held October 22–26, 2007, in Budapest, Hungary?

BROWN: We wanted to see greater knowledge sharing among attendees, plus this is also a working meeting for our members who develop TOGAF, ITAC, and other key industry programs.

Q: How has TOGAF helped your members?

BROWN: It provides a framework, method, and resource base for doing enterprise architecture. There are a number of examples that our members present to The Open Group on a regular basis (often during The Open Group Architecture Practitioners Conferences), which illustrate the success they’ve had with enterprise architecture—namely using TOGAF as the basis for their work.