Leading the Way: Three Enterprise Architects to Watch
In the small community that is Enterprise Architecture, it is up to each thought leader, professional, and practitioner to innovate, pushing the bounds of the discipline in new dynamic directions.
Architecture & Governance plans to feature three such individuals in each issue in the hope that it not only will educate others in the field, but also inspire.
“We have an enormous wealth of talent in our profession, which is something Architecture & Governance does not take for granted,” says Editor-in-Chief George Paras. “This is our way of not only recognizing these individuals, but sharing a little bit of their philosophy with A&G readers.”
Ira Grossman
In the public sector, few enterprise architects are more passionate about the field than Ira Grossman.
This summer, Grossman was named the Chief Enterprise Architect for Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), a crowning accomplishment for a professional with 34 years of experience in Enterprise Architecture, Systems Engineering and Acquisition Management.
Grossman, however, might have chucked it all away, were it not for the FDIC's willingness to allow him to remain as chairman of the Chief Architects Forum Leadership Team for the Federal CIO Council's Architecture and Infrastructure Committee.
Why was that so important? Look no further than his response to the question: How do you feel about the future of enterprise architecture, and why?
“Enterprise Architecture will always be with us because it fills a long-standing gap in business thinking that exists between the technical practices of systems design and systems engineering and the business practices related to strategic planning,” Grossman told A&G. “Bridging these seemingly disparate disciplines gives EA an important role to play in the modern enterprise. EA is not is just another management fad.
“Enterprise Architecture brings value to the enterprise in many ways that have been documented. Enterprise architecture has been identified as a source for improving information technology investment decisions, as playing a significant role in infrastructure consolidation and the resulting cost savings, and in creating consistency and cohesiveness across applications and across organizational boundaries.
“In addition, EA has become a significant driver in the development and/or revision of an organization's strategic plan. EA is also instrumental in enterprise transformation that results in measurable increases in enterprise performance and productivity.
“Finally, within the federal government, the success of the Lines of Business that facilitate cross-governmental communication and information sharing and enhance services to our citizens can be directly attributed to the use of enterprise architecture.”
Jaap Schekkerman
If you believe that the United States is clear and away the center of gravity for the enterprise architecture field, think again.
Jaap Schekkerman is one example of why other parts of the world are just as critical to the continued evolution of the discipline.
Schekkerman is the President and Founder of the Institute for Enterprise Architecture Developments (IFEAD) in the Netherlands (http://www.enterprise-architecture.info), which is one of the world's most important sources of information related to enterprise architecture. Working closely with other research organizations, institutes and universities, Schekkerman and the IFEAD are trying to create an independent platform for enterprise architecture research, developments and knowledge exchange.
Schekkerman, who is also an EA consultant and opinion leader for Verdonck, Klooster & Associates, has more than two decades of experience in managing complex and large enterprise architecture programs in the defense, governmental, travel and technology industries.
But it is the future that really has Schekkerman's attention, when A&G asked him: How do you feel about the future of enterprise architecture, and why?
“What I can see today is that more and more organizations are adopting Enterprise Architecture in their organizations as a planning and decision support tool to support management in change trajectories,” he told A&G. “So EA programs and results are used to reduce complexity, to show coherence between business and IT and to manage risks in change programs. Even so, the responsibility for EA programs is moving from the IT domain to the business domain.
“The adoption of Service Orientation as an enterprise architectural style is growing very fast, not only in the IT domain as a result of vendors SOA pushes, but also in the business domain as a result of customers / citizens / patients / partners demands. Bringing in line both forces and aligning them together is a major challenge today and requires Enterprise Architects who are able to manage the business as well as the IT side of the Service Oriented Enterprise. The role for real Enterprise Architects is to manage these forces, showing benefits of adopting a service oriented paradigm in Business and IT and bringing them in line with international standards and initiatives.
“As the Enterprise Architecture function becomes more mature in organizations, the ‘special' status of the Enterprise Architecture function will be part of a modern economic management approach where Enterprise Portfolio Management is the driver for change and innovation. In this spectrum of Enterprise Portfolio Management, which is in modern organizations a standard business function, Enterprise Architecture is no longer a separate function at itself within organizations, but rather the logical foundation for Enterprise Portfolio Management, and therefore an essential element in the context of Investment Management, Asset Management, Risk Management, IT Portfolio Management and Environmental Management.”
Scott Bernard
Having been a former naval aviator, Dr. Scott Bernard knows a little something about flying over uncharted waters.
Thus, it's second nature for Bernard, now an assistant professor for the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University, to explore new territories in the field of Enterprise Architecture.
For example, Bernard invented the EA3 CubeTM framework and methodology as well as the design for an on-line EA repository, which is called Living Enterprise. He talks about both creations in his textbook on EA (An Introduction to Enterprise Architecture: 2nd Edition, 2005), which has become a staple in the academic community.
One also gets the feeling that Bernard, given his 20 years of experience in IT management, is not done yet.
When we asked the Founding President of the Association of Enterprise Architects how he feels about the future of enterprise architecture, and why, he talked about the transformation currently taking place in the industry.
“I am very optimistic about the future of enterprise architecture because over the past several years it has transformed itself from being largely an IT documentation exercise into a robust methodology for integrating strategic, business, and technology planning in a way that involves leadership and makes organizations more agile and competitive,” said Bernard.
by Holt Hackney, managing editor of Architecture & Governance magazine
