For our recent A&G Webinar,  Alex Cullen of Forrester Research joined me to discuss his research on the State of EA in 2010. The research was driven by Forrester’s latest Global Annual State of Enterprise Architecture Online Survey. It included a broad set of questions ranging from details on executive perceptions about EA to specifics on how organizations approached EA.

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. They prefer to get personal answers to their questions and have the opportunity to engage in a discussion that is contextually relevant to their situation.

Last week, Gartner Inc released its the 2009 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Architecture Tools report. Led by Robert A. Handler and Chris Wilson, the new Magic Quadrant provides an up to date and broad coverage of currently available EA software.

According to the authors of the report ‘“In both favorable and adverse economic conditions, organizations need visibility into their businesses. By enabling the creation, structuring and analysis of multiple aspects of enterprise architecture (EA), EA tools go far in fulfilling this need”.

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. They allow large change programs to be approached with rigor and can be used to organize, control, and monitor the performance of third-party system integrators, vendors, and contractors.

In my last post, I discussed how the emergence of Internet technologies are driving down the cost to acquire, understand and act on information.  As a result, traditional processes for many enterprise architecture organizations are requiring a substantial rethinking of strategy.

In this post, we will explore new tools and light processes that traditional EA can use to take advantage of the emergence of Web 2.0 on the nature of today’s firm. 

Jonas Lamis talks with Craig Martin, CTO of Enterprise Architects. Enterprise Architects is an EA strategy and training firm headquartered in Australia. They discus the evolving roles and responsibilities of the enterprise architect. They cover emerging demand for EA strategy, overt and covert EA tactics and the EA operating model. They also discuss certification programs like TOGAF and ITAC certification.

A couple of years back, I was attending Gartner Symposium, and the analyst presenter started talking about Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants.  The natives are technology savvy youngsters who have grown up in an always connected, always on world.  Digital Natives find new technologies to be intuitive.  They are at ease in navigating the blogosphere and the social networks.  And they tweet.

Enterprise architecture (EA) can mean different things to different people, depending upon the role and responsibility of the individual within the organization and depending upon the context of the organization (either being a consultancy or an end user). To many it is a framework, while others view it as a collection of rules, or a methodology for defining and designing infrastructure services. However, the common aims are to improve alignment of the IT infrastructure with business goals and to attempt to bring stability to an ever-changing, chaotic, and complex situation.