The Enterprise Architecture Blog
by Leon A. Kappelman, Ph.D
There is a lot of confusion today about Enterprise Architecture (EA). Many people don't realize that EA is requirements for the whole enterprise, not just an IT system in an enterprise. And just like knowing the requirements is the essence of creating a system, knowing the architecture of the enterprise is the essence of creating and managing it.
I don't know what the "EA" of today will be called in a few generations. I do know we will achieve the EA vision of bridging the chasm between strategy and implementation, of capturing all the knowledge about the enterprise and making it available in real time for every imaginable management need, and of having a shared "language" of words, graphics, and other depictions to discuss, document, and manage every important aspect of the enterprise.
I believe this because the enterprises that survive those next few generations will be agile, adaptable, interoperable, integrated, lean, secure, responsive, efficient, effective, and thereby more able to succeed in a world that demands we do more with less, faster, while traditional boundaries blur, and the rules of engagement change.
What's The Purpose Of EA?
The Society for Information Management Enterprise Architecture Working Group's (SIMEAWG) "Information Management Practices Survey 2007" found a bimodal distribution of the responses to the question "The purpose/function of enterprise architecture is: to provide a snapshot in time of an organization". About 46 percent of the respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement (nearly 62% were either neutral or disagreed) while only about 34 percent agreed or strongly agreed.
The amount of disagreement with the statement is revealing since it indicates that the majority of respondents do not believe that EA is about the enterprise at all, apparently believing that EA is only about IT. A believe that may doom their IT efforts to a persistent lack of IT-Business alignment, stove-piped systems, and "IT doesn't matter" or "doesn't get it" cost cuts. {The SIMEAWG's survey report "The State of EA: Progress, not Perfection" is available at this time only to SIM members and others who participated in the 2007 survey at eawg.simnet.org but I will try to report additional findings here as issues come up in the discussion. The SIMEAWG is working on the 2008 version of their survey now.)
Website http://courses.unt.edu/kappelman
Featured Blogger Leon A. Kappelman, Ph.D
Leon A. Kappelman, Ph.D. is a researcher; teacher, author, and consultant dedicated to helping organizations better manage their information and technology assets. Dr. Kappelman co-chairs the Society for Information Management’s Enterprise Architecture Working Group and has assisted the Executive Office of the President of the United States and the Department of Veterans Affairs with their EA work, given presentations, written articles, and testified before the US Congress about EA. He is Director Emeritus of the IS Research Center and Professor of IS in the College of Business at the University of North Texas, where he is also a Fellow of the Texas Center for Digital Knowledge. He has published several books and over 100 articles.
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