Architecture Advancing

September, already!

Architecture keeps advancing here at SLU and the Enterprise Architecture team is involved in activities that we believe are adding great value. Some of the things the team have been working on aren't classic "EA" as described by our friends at Bredemeyer and others, but they do hit strongly upon the people, process, and technology themes that do add competitive advantage for the University.

The Architecture Review Board (ARB) is chartered and has begun to meet weekly, just following the Change Control Board (CCB) meeting here. The ARB has adopted a short list of Principles by which to manage, and just today adopted an "input" form with accompanying documentation that will be required for Architecture Review. This is a pattern similar to what is posted by our friends over at MIT and other schools. :-) MIT's Architecture Group (ITAG) has a very impressive library of EA artifacts that have been very useful in considering direction. The TOGAF and E2AF materials have also been useful perspectives. The NASCIO maturity model has been helpful in taking "weather checks" of where we are in terms of organizational maturity. Our documents will be posted very shortly to the SLU EA site, which we are the process of re-vamping. Our ongoing approach will be to fine-tune the process as requests roll-in.

My colleague, John Ashby, has also architected a business process to channel review when "hosting" products (servers, storage, etc.) -- primarily those affecting the central ITS data centers, enterprise standards, and procurement agreements -- come to our attention through purchase requisitions. It is still a common occurrence here at SLU, that the first time anyone in IT governance becomes aware of a server purchase is through a purchase requisition that comes through our business office for review. John as created a "host review" process that utilizes a survey tool we already have on campus to ask some high-level questions. The answers to the questions can then form the basis for additional in-depth review, including review by the ARB. This process was just ok'ed by our CIO and has begun to fix a very old problem.