Enterprise Architecture
Practitioners Conference
January 28-30 2008, San Francisco, CA, USA
"Bringing Together Enterprise Architects with the Right Skills, the Right Standards,
the Right Framework, and the Right Style of Architecture"
Objective of Meeting
The Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Conferences are organized by enterprise architecture practitioners, for
enterprise architecture practitioners, and for those
directly involved in the management and oversight of enterprise
architecture.
The Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Conference at San Francisco
addressed some of the key issues and challenges that face enterprise
architects today. In this highly practical three-day conference and series
of workshops, Open Group members and non-members alike came together to share insights and perspectives on
best practices in enterprise architecture, and the key issues and challenges that
enterprise architects face
today.
The conference underlined the continuing role of The Open Group in providing a
truly global forum in which enterprise architects from all sectors of the industry can come
together to discuss best practice in enterprise architecture, hone their skills,
find new ways to solve problems, share experiences, and learn from each other.
Summary
The agenda for this Enterprise Architecture Practitioners' Conference covered
72 individual presentations, structured into three half-day plenaries plus
22 streams across four parallel
tracks.
Each day included a mix of plenary presentations, with industry leaders
from near and far sharing their insights on the day’s theme; and a set
of parallel streams examining specific areas in depth. The various streams delivered innovative viewpoints,
practical insights, and case study presentations by enterprise
architecture professionals from both vendor and customer organizations; and provided experience-based insight into the approaches and
methods that have proved most effective for developing architectures around the
world.
The event as a whole provided a wealth of current case study and tutorial
material. The proceedings are reported below under separate daily
headings:
The Open Group’s 17th Architecture Practitioners Conference kicked
off on Monday, January 28 with industry leaders from around the world
convening to share their insights on the theme of “Leveraging
SOA in Enterprise Architecture”.
Welcome & Opening Remarks Allen
Brown, President & CEO, The Open Group Allen Brown gave everyone a warm welcome to
San Francisco and to the opening day plenary. In his opening remarks Allen announced that membership
in the Association of Open Group Enterprise Architects (AOGEA) has surpassed
5,000 since launching one year ago. Also, the past year was a
successful year for membership within The Open Group, with the
addition of two new Platinum Members: Sun Microsystems and HSBC Bank.
Technology, Methodology, and an Independent Assessment of
Enterprise Architects Lauren
States, Vice President, Skills & Capabilities,
Client Value Initiative, IBM
Following Allen’s opening remarks, Lauren States delivered her
presentation. In her address, Lauren talked about
the increased pressure to compete in this global market and the need
to drive growth and efficiency. She suggested that SOA is important to
businesses right now because of the current state of the economy, its
ability to ultimately reduce costs internally, and architectural
reality. With an increase of companies aligning their IT and business
strategies, the enterprise architect is now chartered with building an
architecture that addresses governance, deployment, and management.
Lauren reiterated that we need a way to measure the skills of
architects and suggested developing an architect standard as a tool.
She complimented The Open Group on its work in this area, specifically
the ITAC and ITSC (IT Specialist Certification) standards.
Keynote: Leveraging the SOA in Enterprise Architecture David
Linthicum, Managing Partner, ZapThink, LLC Delivering the keynote was David Linthicum, who is a thought leader in SOA with over 800
articles and columns, his weekly blog, podcasts, and books. He brought
his real-world consulting insight to the event with his presentation.
David reminded us
that today’s IT troubles are nothing new. We’ve had IT challenges
for years, but now we have SOA as a solution, which if developed and
implemented properly, is well worth the effort and cost up-front. He pointed out that this is not for everyone, and that those
organizations who could benefit from SOA should approach SOA in the
same way they would “eat an elephant” – one bite at a time.
“SOA Reality Check” Power Panel Moderated by Eric
Knorr, Editor in Chief, InfoWorld.com
This powerhouse panel included well-known
industry analysts and experts; Tony
Baer, Principal Analyst, OnStrategies; Dr. Chris Harding,
Forum Director for SOA & Semantic Interoperability, The Open
Group; Joe
McKendrick, Lead Analyst, ZDNet blogger; David
Linthicum, Managing Partner, ZapThink; and Thomas
Morgan, Enterprise Architect, Autodesk. The panel covered
issues from when and why to undertake SOA, which organizations will be
most vulnerable in a recession, why SOA is not a solution in a box, to
information interoperability, mashups, BPM, BI, and restful services.
Spotlight: SOA Working Group
SOA Working Group members Tony
Carrato, World-Wide Chief Operations Architect, EIS SOA
Advanced Technology, IBM and SOA Working Group Co-chair, and Mats
Gejnevall, Certified Enterprise Architect, Capgemini, SOA
Working Group Co-chair, and SOA Governance Project Co-chair, provided
the audience with an overview of the SOA Working Group. Mats explained that the SOA Working Group was formed because they wanted to
know what impact SOA would have on doing infrastructure work. They
also shared insight into a few new projects underway including
creating a practical guide for the enterprise architect implementing
TOGAF.
Parallel Streams
TRACK A: Service Oriented Architecture
Stream A1: Service Oriented Infrastructure
Host: Tony Carrato, World-Wide Chief Operations Architect, EIS SOA
Advanced Technology, IBM and SOA Working Group Co-chair
Just how big is it? Tony
Carrato, World-Wide Chief Operations Architect, EIS SOA Advanced
Technology, IBM Software Group
The State of SOA and the Standards that Support it Ed Harrington, Executive Vice-President & Chief Operations
Officer, Model Driven Solutions; James
Odell, Technology Advisor, Oslo Software; and Chris
Harding, Forum Director, The Open Group
TRACK B: TOGAF™
Stream B1: TOGAF and Service Oriented Architectures
Host: Chris Armstrong, President, Armstrong Process Group, Inc. (US)
Day two of the San Francisco Architecture Practitioners Conference on
Tuesday, January 29 began with “The Value of TOGAF™” plenary.
Welcome Allen
Brown, President & CEO, The Open Group Allen welcomed everyone
to the second day plenary.
Spotlight: Business Architecture Work Group This was the first in a series of spotlights on some of The
Open Group’s Forums and Work Groups, moderated by Chris Greenslade
of CLARS Limited. First to be spotlighted was the Business
Architecture Work Group. Dave van Gelder, Global Architect, Capgemini,
gave the audience an insight into the latest developments within this
Work Group.
Keynote: How TOGAF Makes Advances in the Enterprise
Architecting Discipline Terence
Blevins, Lead Architect, MITRE Corporation Terry delivered the plenary keynote on the subject of
how TOGAF makes advances in the enterprise architecture discipline,
using a satire of the popular US game show “Jeopardy” to
provide insights into the world of enterprise architecture with a
great dose of humor. He particularly highlighted three “contestants”;
i.e., customers who are desperate for answers, a vendor who truly
believes they are providing the answer, and people who are working in
enterprise architecture.
Spotlight: Architecture Forum This second spotlight of the day focused on The Open Group
Architecture Forum, and was led by the Chair of the Architecture
Forum, Chris Forde, VP Integrator SDN-T Strategy & Architecture,
American Express. In this update, Chris discussed the Forum’s goals
and the main topics on which the Architecture Forum is working,
including an overview of what were the most valuable projects for this
Forum in 2007.
TOGAF End Users Panel Moderated by Allen
Brown, President & CEO, The Open Group; Chris
Forde, VP Integrator SDN-T Strategy & Architecture,
American Express; John Bell,
Enterprise Architect, Marriott International
The TOGAF End Users panel discussed how organizations are using TOGAF internally. One
lesson learned was that, during the buy-in process, while it is
imperative to have a lot of conversations with the CTO and CIO in
order gain their support with these programs, it is just as important
to include the other key people managing the day-to-day delivery in
the adoption process – the technologists who have a deeper level of
understanding of enterprise architecture concepts. The ability to accept cultural change is
also an important factor to consider when implementing new frameworks.
By including layers of the organization during the adoption process,
you are empowering your organization to participate in this change
instead of resisting it.
Spotlight: Adaptive Business Solutions Work Group The third spotlight of the day focused on
the Adaptive Business Solutions Work Group, and was lead by Allen
Brown. It showcased the work that members of this Work Group are
engaging in, in areas such as agent technology, and the 2008 goals and
objectives of the Work Group.
Applying TOGAF: Understanding the Framework, Advantages, and
Lessons Learned Robert
Weisman, Partner & Executive Consultant, CGI
In this presentation, Robert discussed the nature of TOGAF, its skills, the framework,
architecture style, and standards. He made the point that that no one
size fits all when it comes to TOGAF. IT skills are imperative when
implementing enterprise architecture and TOGAF. “Enterprise Architecture is a team
sport”, he commented.
Spotlight: Semantic Interoperability Work Group Wrapping up the morning session was the final spotlight of
the day, on the Semantic Interoperability Work Group, lead by Arnold
van Overeem, Certified Global Architect, Capgemini. Arnold gave an overview of the current Work Group’s projects, and provided
attendees with a better understanding of Semantic Interoperability and
UDEF.
Parallel Streams
TRACK A: Service Oriented Architecture
Stream A3: SOA Governance
Host: Mats Gejnevall, Certified Enterprise Architect, Capgemini,
SOA Working Group Co-chair, and SOA Governance Project Co-chair
SOA Governance Panel
Panelists: Andrew
Hately, Senior Technical Staff Member, IBM (US); Kyle
Gabhart, Director of SOA Technology, Web Age Solutions (US); Michael Nassar, Enterprise Integration Architect, IBM (US); Stephen
Bennett, Americas SOA Practice Lead, BEA Systems and SOA Governance
Project Co-chair; Mats Gejnevall, Certified Enterprise Architect, Capgemini, SOA
Working Group Co-chair, and SOA Governance Project Co-chair
Stream A4: Migration to SOA
Host: Nikhil Kumar, President, Applied Technology Solutions, and SOA
Reference Architecture Project Co-chair
Stream C4: The IT Architect Certification (ITAC) Program
Host: James de Raeve, VP Certification, The Open Group (UK)
ITAC from the Candidate's Perspective
James de Raeve, VP Certification, The Open Group (UK)
James presented with a panel of
ITAC Working Group members.
Wednesday, January 30 2008
Plenary: Skills and Experience-Based Certification
for the Enterprise Architect
The plenary on Wednesday, January 30 focused on Skills and
Experience-Based Certification for the Enterprise Architect, and featured a number of important presentations on
this theme.
Keynote: Community of Enterprise Architects Cristina
Woodbridge, Executive IT Architect & Worldwide IT Architect Profession Leader,
IBM
At IBM Cristina Woodbridge's responsibilities include
managing the ongoing IT Architect professional development programs
deployed worldwide within IBM, and reviewing and approving skill and
experience requirements, professional education, and certification
programs to ensure consistency and maintenance of profession standards
and vitality. Cristina is an IBM Certified IT Architect and a member
of the IBM Americas IT Architect Certification Review Board. She is an
Open Group Master Certified IT Architect and is the Certification
Program Manager for IBM's Open Group Accredited IT Architect
Certification program. She has also participated as a board member for
The Open Group Direct Certification Boards.
Enterprise architects today play a key role in helping businesses to be
successful. Their ability to define solutions to business problems
through the reasoned application of technology is vital in today's
global and changing environment. But how do we make these enterprise
architects successful in what they do? And what promotes the
development of successful enterprise architects? Defining skills and
experience requirements and providing a well-defined validation
process are key parts of the environment needed to develop successful
enterprise architects. Providing an environment where enterprise
architects can learn and network is equally important.
Spotlight: Security Forum This was one of a series of spotlights on some of The Open
Group’s Forums and Work Groups. First to be spotlighted on Wednesday
was the Security Forum. This session gave the audience an insight into
the latest developments within this Forum.
Unanswered Questions About the Enterprise Architect
Profession Len
Fehskens, VP & Global Profession Lead for Enterprise
Architecture, The Open Group
Len Fehskens is responsible for all activities relating to enterprise
architecture at The Open Group, including AOGEA, TOGAF,
and the Architecture Forum. Prior to joining The Open Group, Len led
the Worldwide Architecture Profession Office for HP Services at
Hewlett-Packard.
Enterprise architecture is a
relatively young and (some would argue immature) profession,
especially when compared with the medical, legal, and engineering
professions. As such, there are many questions about the profession
that we don't yet have universally accepted answers to. This session
discussed some of these unanswered questions, such as: What is
enterprise architecture anyway? Can enterprise architecture be taught?
Is it possible for someone to be a "real" enterprise
architect without an IT background? And do enterprise architects sit
at the top of the "food chain"?
Spotlight: Platform Forum This second spotlight of the day focused on The Open Group’s
Platform Forum, which standardizes the platform infrastructure on
which applications can be built. The Forum's main focus is on open
standards for operating systems, including the UNIX® system, POSIX®,
open source operating systems such Linux® and BSD, real-time systems,
and network computing. The Forum is also the specification authority
for The Open Group's UNIX certification program.
IT Architect Certification Standard, Level 3, The
Distinguished Certified IT Architect Andras
Szakal, Distinguished Engineer & Chief Architect, Federal Software Group, IBM
Andras Szakal is an IBM Senior
Certified Software IT Architect and an IBM Certified SOA Solution
Designer. His responsibilities include developing e-Government
software architectures using IBM middleware and leading the IBM
federal government software IT architect team. He also currently holds
the Chair of the IT Architect Profession Certification Standard (ITAC)
within The Open Group.
In his presentation, Andras discussed the most recent
certification level within the IT Architect Certification Standard:
Level 3, the Distinguished Certified IT Architect, and the process for
progressing through the IT architect career to become a Distinguished
Certified IT Architect. The presentation explained the profession
profile and conformance criteria for becoming a Distinguished
Certified IT Architect, and introduced some of the new concepts of the
ITAC program that are integrated into the Level 3 certification
process and conformance criteria, including the introduction of Career
Path Categories (CPCs) for Enterprise Architects, Chief/Lead IT
Architects, and IT Architecture Profession Executives.
Enterprise Architects Can Be Developed Jason
Uppal, Chief Architect, QR Systems, Inc., Toronto Chapter AOGEA
Jason Uppal was the first Master IT Architect certified by The Open
Group in October 2005. At that point, Jason had been Chief Architect
of QR Systems, Inc. for six years and had been providing senior
enterprise architecture services since the mid-1990s. Jason's
commitment to the Enterprise Architecture Life Cycle (EALC) has led
him to focus on training (TOGAF), education (UOIT), and mentoring
services to his clients. However, Jason has found that education is
only beneficial to those companies where staff can implement what they
have learned.
In his presentation Jason explored what business values should be
expected of an enterprise architect and how to develop professionals
with the necessary skills for this role. The presentation was a
synthesis of three case studies designed to explore the following key
questions: What is an Enterprise Architect actually responsible for?
What are the required skills of an Enterprise Architect? What other
professions have parallel skills, and how are these professionals
developed? Can the lessons from these other professions be applied to
the development of an enterprise architect? And what is The Open Group
doing to develop enterprise architects?
Overview of AOGEA (Association of Open Group Enterprise
Architects) Chapters The AOGEA is the
definitive professional association for enterprise architects. This
final session of the plenary explained the goals of AOGEA and focused
on the concept of chapters within the AOGEA program.
The goals of the program are to increase job opportunities for all
of its members and increase their market value by advancing
professional excellence, and to raise the status of the profession as
a whole.
Those members who identify with the 'strength via community' ethic
will be interested in forming or joining a Chapter in order to help
advance the enterprise architect profession in their more localized
geographical location. Chapters
are encouraged to organize local conferences, meetings, and work groups
in order to address local issues and requirements in a formal manner,
and with the support of the Association as a whole.
Parallel Streams
TRACK A: Service Oriented Architecture
Stream A5: Semantics for SOA
Host: Arnold Van Overeem, Certified Global Architect, Capgemini
Stream C5: Enterprise Architecture Professional Development
Host: Cristina Woodbridge, IBM Worldwide IT Architect Profession Leader
Panel: Women in Enterprise Architecture Sue
Miller-Sylvia, Distinguished Engineer & Service Area
Leader for Enterprise Architecture & Technology in Global Business
Services (GBS), IBM; Jane
Varnus, Enterprise Architect, Bank of Montreal (Canada);
and Judy
Cerenzia, Sr. Program Manager, Videon Central, Inc.
Next Steps … Forming the San Francisco Chapter of AOGEA and
the Women’s Working Group
Stream C6: Enterprise Architecture & the Academic Community
Host: David Jackson, Boston University Institute for Leadership in a
Dynamic Economy (BUILDE) (US)
The presentations, tutorials, and workshops at the meeting, and the associated
discussions and panel sessions, all provided participants with a wealth of
experience-based insight into current best practice in enterprise
architecture, from leading
experts and practitioners around the world.
Participants at this unique event were able to:
Participate in highly practical workshops and tutorials teaching best
enterprise architecture practices
Review case studies from organizations who have put theory into practice, and learn from
them what works and what doesn't
See demonstrations and presentations on leading tools supporting open architecture
methods
Network with leading architecture experts, vendors, and peers in the
enterprise architecture field
Next Steps
This 17th Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Conference was a
great success, confirming the global need for this unique series of
events.
If you are interested in presenting at Bangalore, Glasgow, or at other Enterprise Architecture
Practitioners' Conferences, then please submit a Presentation
Proposal.
