Greetings, and welcome to our sixth issue of Architecture & Governance Magazine. With over 7000 subscribers across more than 20 countries, A&G has become one the most widely circulated and most influential publications dedicated to advancing the knowledge of Enterprise Architecture and IT Governance issues.

It has become nearly impossible to attend any gathering of IT managers without the topic of Shared Services being discussed. Although there are as many different definitions of Shared Services as there are people discussing it, the one thing that is certain is that it places pressure on traditional governance models.

“Innovate! We need to grow!” thunders the CEO. Yet not much seems to happen. Efforts peter out, or just never really get started. Business as usual seems to remain the order of the day.

Enterprise Architecture efforts are both blessed and cursed by the fact that they touch the entire... well... Enterprise. This means there are huge potential benefits as well as tremendous pitfalls to any EA initiative. This article discusses some key principles for taking on broad and potentially ambiguous EA initiatives and reducing them to an executable plan that will be successful. Also discussed is a scorecard approach for determining status and progress against these principles.

The next 10 years of technology innovation will be unlike anything our world has ever seen. Corporations need to paddle like hell to catch this wave - or they might just be ripped asunder.

The next wave of profound business innovation is underway. Business Week has “The Innovation Economy” as its cover story while Fortune Magazine promises to bring the reader “Inside the New China”. And China has more Internet users (111 million) than Germany, the United Kingdom and France combined!

Enterprise architecture is the organizing logic for IT and business processes reflecting the integration and standardization requirements of a firm's operating model. This definition of enterprise architecture recognizes that IT is tightly embedded in organizational processes and that the critical role of architecture is to ensure the desired level of business process integration (sharing of data across business units) and business process standardization (implementation of the same business processes across business units).

Hoping to spread the enterprise architecture gospel internationally, Jeanne Ross recently traveled to a small resort in the French Alps for a series of meetings. Famished, she approached the concierge to inquire about a restaurant or room service. Being mid-afternoon, everything was closed until evening and she disconsolately made her way back to her room, perking up enormously when she noticed the Cheetos in the welcome pack that Pepsico had left in her room. Not a dream French meal for the weary EA expert, but a happy sight nonetheless.

Innovation is a driving force for business change and Enterprise Architects must prepare for it and, preferably, lead the charge. Unfortunately, for many EA groups, most discussions of innovation are limited to debates on the latest, greatest technology advances. This should not come as a surprise, based on the background of most Enterprise Architects and the demands placed on them. The Enterprise Architect must provide coherent guidance to the enterprise through principles, standards and models while also providing project enablement, engineering support and value delivery.