The context for this workshop was set by a series of presentations
within Stream 8 of the Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Conference.
Mike Lambert (Reading University and The Open Group) set the context and
the challenge for academia in an introductory
presentation.
To scope the kind of topic areas that need to be included in the
career development of an architect, Simon Dalziel (Architecting the
Enterprise) presented the TOGAF skills framework.
Many commercial organizations currently have academic programs to
help universities to develop appropriate courses. Sharon McFadden and
Boris Vishnevsky (IBM) described the IBM academic
program.
Similarly, academic institutions are providing courses in enterprise
architecture. Two such courses were described:
- The FEAC Institute was presented by
Beryl Bellman, Academic Director.
- A course offered by Lawrence
Technological University, Michigan, was presented by Annette
Steenkamp, Professor and Director of IT Management.
Finally, Mike Lambert proposed a potential
program of work.
This program of work will operate within
The Open Group Association of Enterprise
Architects (AOGEA), launched on 29th January 2007. This will enable
academic institutions to participate without having to become members of
The Open Group.
The long-term vision for The Open Group is to establish enterprise
architecture as a recognized profession in its own right, with:
- A recognized body of knowledge
- A recognized professional qualification based on knowledge,
experience, and proven competence
- A recognized career development path
This in turn implies a long-term objective of establishing a standard
body of knowledge for an academic enterprise architecture curriculum and a worldwide body or
bodies to accredit courses.
In discussion it was agreed that this will take at least a decade to
achieve:
- The university system is very conservative. The process for
establishing new curricula is long-winded.
- An enterprise architecture degree would have to be multi-disciplinary, which means
co-operations between different schools, which is notoriously hard
to achieve.
Making incremental changes to existing curricula is more achievable,
especially through the addition of new optional/elective course with an
existing curriculum.
An interim (two-year) goal of defining the minimum level of
enterprise architecture content that would be of value to industry as the basis for recognition
of suitable courses was proposed, together with activities to help
universities include additional material in existing courses.
Several short-term (within 2007) activities were proposed to initiate
the academic program:
- Mechanism to promote existing courses that claim to have
enterprise architecture content
- Establish standard TOGAF courseware for academic use under
license
- Establish register of enterprise architecture courseware available for academic use
During discussions, a number of other potential activities were
identified:
- Build relationships with industry to include a practical element
into enterprise architecture courses, including non-commercial enterprises (such as
government)
- A teach the teachers program, to help universities who want to
introduce this kind of course
- Funding resources for research and sponsorship
- Courseware for a baseline architectural thinking class
There was agreement that the program as proposed and discussed makes
sense. The participants all agreed to contribute to the development of
the program.
