The Last Word: The New World of Enterprise Architecture
As you’ve heard from industry thought leaders and visionary practitioners in this first edition of Architecture & Governance, the role of the Enterprise Architect is rapidly changing. IT executives are realizing that IT management decisions are only as good as the information they're based on. With increasing pressure from business executives, their boards, and regulatory agencies to manage the business side of IT, this information has to be comprehensive, accurate, and complete.
What type of information do they need? They need information that provides visibility into the current technology infrastructure and how this infrastructure supports business processes, functions, goals and strategies. What's the problem today? In most enterprises this information doesn't exist, is inaccurate, or exists in disparate systems across the organization.
And here is where Enterprise Architects enter the stage. In leading IT organizations the EA group is no longer focused solely on theoretical models of the future-state architecture. They're now rolling up their sleeves, and providing the information IT needs to effectively govern and manage by:
- Broadening the scope of Enterprise Architecture to include the business architecture, including strategies, goals, processes and people.
- Extending the models to include 'as-is' information on the actual technology infrastructure
With EAs responsible for maintaining both the 'as-is' and 'to-be' model of the complete business and IT architecture, EAs are becoming the critical owners of the information foundation. This information foundation, or as we call it the Enterprise Baseline, is the critical missing element in most IT governance programs and initiatives today.
Troux is committed to helping Enterprise Architects and IT executives achieve this vision of effective IT governance enabled by comprehensive Enterprise Architecture Management. To help us achieve this vision, we are excited to announce that Troux has recently acquired Computas Technology and their breakthrough Metis Product line. Metis is an award winning solution for business architecture modeling with a broad base of commercial and governmental users. With the acquisition of Computas/Metis, Troux will be able to offer our customers:
- A 'one-stop-shop' for Enterprise Architecture Management tools that link best-of-breed modeling and IT repository capabilities.
- Unparalleled leadership in IT and architecture modeling with support for all major commercial and governmental architecture frameworks.
- A complete IT governance framework that links information with automated workflows and policy management capabilities that support planning, compliance and management applications.
While we find many in the IT and EA analyst community 'get it', and share our vision of effective IT governance through EA management, there are some that still don't. Be wary of analysts and consultants who stubbornly maintain a narrow, academic vision of Enterprise Architecture Management, and are focused on EA as an 'end unto itself'.
In coming issues, we look forward to providing you insight and perspectives from industry practitioners, analysts, and partners who are working to make the vision of the new EA a reality. Welcome aboard!
by Scott Bils
