Day 1 -- notes and thoughts

Hi! It's actually day 2, but day 1 was busy up until bedtime, so here are a few observations from yesterday...

When does an Enterprise Architect get involved?

> When decisions MUST be made first in order to be successful.
> When decisions MUST be made from a whole system view.

**and**

with a MINIMALIST view; only what needs to be done, no more.

EA's should not get bogged down in minor details, unless they are necessary to answer the above questions.

EA's should not be so much of a specific technology advocate, as much as promote BUSINESS VALUE.

The graphic of an umbrella was used with the EA looking at the problem from the top of the umbrella, with functional managers and architects looking at the problem as a "local" issue under the umbrella.

EAs are concerned with BUSINESS CAPABILITIES, which must be a combination of people, process, and technology. They navigate the gap between business thinkers and technology thinkers...

EA Office must interact with strategic thinkers in order to be effective and successful.

In order to have IT alignment with the business, the strategy must be expressed in a way that makes that possible...

The Ideal EA:

1. Must be in "the know" about business strategy and have open lines of communication with the strategy owner.
2. Be involved in enterprise process improvement.
3. Be involved in strategic discussion.
4. Be involved in standards/architecture for corporate data.
5. Have architectural control over key applications.

10% of System Development process should be EA.

The Ideal EA Team should have...

Chief EA *and*
*Chief Business Architect
*Chief Information Architect
*Chief Application Architect
*Chief Technology Architect

EA's should talk about the problems in Business Terms (cost savings, etc.), not in technical terms (duh!).

We also into using a "context map" in order to help develop a strategy. This is a very graphical tool used for "brainstorming..."

(follow up --- go to Grove's website for toolkit... great for facilitate planning and strategy meetings...)

We discussed the structure of a strategy which was described as three circles...

Industry (World Outside)
Competitors (Includes Customers)
Us (Internally)

The visual tools can be used to develop "visions of the future" or scenerios that map and describe trends and forces to the future.

The focus should be on "high impact" and "high likelihood" scenerios

Book References "7 Tomorrows" and "The Art of the Long View" (Peter Schwartz)

Ok enough for now...