The Open Group Conference,
San Diego
21st Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Conference
Highlights of the Plenary,
Day 1
(Monday February 2)
The Open Group’s 21st Enterprise Architecture
Practitioners Conference began Monday, February 2 in San Diego,
California at the Marriott Mission Valley.
The conference gathered around 270 members from around the world
in the hotel ballrooms to discuss the launch of the latest TOGAF™
Version 9 and the conference’s hot topics of cloud computing and
security. Tracks at the conference this week and at the two co-located
events – the Security Practitioners Conference and the Enterprise
Cloud Computing Summit – were focused on the best practices, standards,
tools, and technologies that are being used to develop the most
successful enterprise architectures across the world.
Allen
Brown, President & CEO, The Open
Group, welcomed over 270 members and attendees from across the
world to the San Diego conference that marks the launch of the latest version in the TOGAF
series. He acknowledged that
the turnout was impressive considering the difficult economic times and
restrictions put on corporate travel policies by many member
organizations. Nonetheless,
The Open Group is still gaining members with about 200 organizations now
being part of the Architecture
Forum.
Here is a glimpse at the initial coverage on the
TOGAF 9 launch, which spans some of the most esteemed online media sites
and blogs around the world, including:
Following Allen’s opening remarks, the morning
plenary sessions began with an “Introductory Session on TOGAF 9”
presented by Den Donovan, Packaged
Architecture Lead for
Capgemini, and Mike Turner, Principal
Enterprise Architect at Capgemini.
Den drives the thought-leadership on the use of architecture in
packages for Capgemini and shared his organization’s vision of the
enterprise, which sees TOGAF 9 as a critical component to help
organizations succeed at more results for less money.
He explained that there are two parts to an enterprise – back-office (legacy, etc.) and now also front-office with all the new Web 2.0
applications. SOA is what
ties the two together. In discussing Capgemini’s “crown” model,
Den showed the interrelation between the various IT
infrastructure needs – compliance, organization, differentiation, and
personalization.
As Mike Turner took over the presentation, he
acknowledged SAP, Architecting the Enterprise, Real IRM, and American Express, among many other members, on their
contributions to TOGAF 9. He
also reviewed the market drivers for this new version and gave an
overview on the updates in TOGAF 9 – modular structure, content
framework, extended guidance on using TOGAF, explicit consideration of
architectural styles such as SOA and security, and further detail added
to the Architecture Development Method (ADM).
In an interactive discussion between Den, Mike,
and Chris Forde with American Express, Allen Brown mentioned that The
Open Group had conducted over 26 briefings with the press and analyst
community on the TOGAF 9 launch. All of the briefings, except for one
research firm, were highly enthusiastic, agreeable, and supportive of
the TOGAF 9 launch. In this casual Q&A discussion, Allen mentioned
that Gartner predicts 55% of all EA programs will be stopped due to the
economic downturn. Given this, he asked what was Capgemini’s advice on
when to migrate from TOGAF 8 to 9? Den replied that he’s seen more
demand in the downturn than prior to it.
The next
presentation, focused on the “Value of TOGAF”
was presented by Chris Forde, Chief Architect for the American Express US Card Customer
Service Capability. Chris
is also the current chair of The Open Group Architecture Forum. He
outlined how EA adds value and enables American Express to benefit its
customers by delivering on its brand promise; become the world’s most
respected service brand; benefit its shareholders; and benefit its
people/workforce with professional, consistent, transferable skills and
knowledge. He admitted that, while American Express is not yet using
TOGAF 9, some of the best practices in Version 9 are already being
implemented in his organization. He
went on to explain that American Express has been customizing the TOGAF
framework since 2007, using it and adapting it as the organization sees
fit – which is the way it needs to be used.
He emphasized that ‘practice development’ is an ongoing
project that requires a lot of work. At American Express, training and
certification is very important, and TOGAF materials are helping them
improve the skills and knowledge of the staff, which is critical to the
organization. The
operational efficiency of the customized framework has had a very
positive impact on the organization, realizing that it’s a continuous
timeline with many quick wins, but a definite long-term investment.
The morning sessions were concluded by Terence
Blevins, Lead Architect at MITRE, supporting the U.S. Air Force Agile
Combat Support Architecture. His
presentation on the “Evolution
of Enterprise Architecture through Certification” began by
getting the audience’s attention in mentioning that 26% of $2.4
trillion dollars is being spent on integration and interoperability. His
organization’s goal is to reduce this amount with help from The Open
Group. In showcasing a
variety of professions across multiple industries, Terry outlined
how professions rely on certification to drive public recognition,
maintain integrity, and establish credibility. He further explored the
role certification plays in various industries and drew parallels to the
Enterprise Architecture profession. He gathered thoughts from random
individuals or “real people” on their views on certification, which
emphasized the need for professionals to validate their skills and
understanding of a particular subject matter with certification.
He then provided an informative update on the TOGAF
Certification Program and its specific role in maintaining the
integrity of TOGAF. He welcomed professional service providers and
customers to comment on performance requirements.
Prior to lunch, TOGAF 9 was officially launched
with the formal recognitions of various internal Open Group contributors
along with several member organization representatives.
The official launch was commemorated with a formal ribbon cutting
ceremony.
Starting off
the afternoon program on the first day was “The Open Group SOA
Governance Framework” presentation, which was part of the
“Enterprise and Information Governance in the SOA Environment”
stream. Mats
Gejnevall, Capgemini and Heather Kreger, IBM
discussed what goes into formulating an SOA governance framework.
Mats explained that work on governance has been going on for a
while and a lot has been learnt in the process.
Lots of people from different organizations have been taking part
via face-to-face meetings at The Open Group conferences to share their
knowledge and guidance on how to approach the subject matter.
SOA governance is looked at by three different aspects –
people, processes, and technology. And
SOA governance is a combination of corporate, IT, and EA governance
applied to SOA with the aim of re-using existing enterprise items. Some
of the governing processes include compliance, dispensations, and
communications.
During the second part of the presentation,
Heather explained the vitality method which states that governance is an
ongoing, constant process, representative of the very nature of
governance. She recommended that organizations take a look at where they
are, where they want to be, and develop a practical roadmap on how to
get there. There are various
phases necessary to get there, and these need to be repeated in order to
keep up the continual governance cycle.
These phases are the planning phase, the definition phase, the
implementation phase (with a communication aspect), and, lastly, the
monitoring phase (monitoring the governance phase itself). Governance
artifacts include plans and roadmaps and stored images.
Both presenters invited the audience to join The
Open Group SOA governance project to participate in future
discussions on the matter.
In switching over into the other stream of
presentations being delivered in the afternoon of day one – “TOGAF
9 In Detail” hosted by Chris Forde, from American Express – the
“TOGAF 9 Content Framework”
presentation was delivered by Mike
Turner, Enterprise Architect, Capgemini. He outlined
several of the building blocks in the content framework –
consistency; complexity (the content framework needs to allow one to
look at the complexity of each unique scenario); combination; compliance
(the ability to test whether architectures are compliant to the
overarching content framework); completeness; and consistency.
The three concepts within the content framework include the
deliverable, the artifact, and the building block.
After Mike Turner’s presentation, Hans
van den Bent, Senior Educational Consultant, Getronics, a leading IT
Service Management company, presented on “TOGAF9
Certification – Overview”. His
presentation was split into two parts – part one was
presented from the point of view of Vice Chair of the CSC, where Hans presented an overview of the new certification program for
TOGAF 9. He surveyed the audience and gained full agreement on the
importance of certification. In fielding audience inquiries, one member
was curious as to the difference between TOGAF certification and ITAC
certification. TOGAF certification ensures an individual’s knowledge
about TOGAF as a common baseline for knowledge, provision of a visible
trust mark, and a foundation for the emerging profession.
ITAC is based on an individual’s overall cumulative
professional experience in enterprise architecture, not in one specific
methodology or framework. He
also noted the importance of understanding the various levels for
certification, the paths for certification, and the requirements for
certification.
The second
part of Hans' presentation was from the point of view of a Senior
Educational Consultant and trainer for Getronics Consulting. Hans
explained how Benjamin Bloom’s learning taxonomy underpins the new
certification program for TOGAF 9. By using great real-world examples,
he outlined how people learn by asking for the names of things, using
symbols and terminologies.
He explained the three separate domains of Bloom’s theory:
cognitive domain, affective domain, and the psychomotive domain. TOGAF
certification only focuses on the cognitive domain. He also revisited
the certification program by describing Level 1 certification as
awareness, basic concepts, and relationships; Level 2 certification as
the application of knowledge and understanding; and stated that Level 3
certification has yet to be considered, and is still in development.
The
“Enterprise Architecture Frameworks – Thought Leaders Panel” brought
the two streams back together to wrap up a highly interactive first
conference day.
Moderated and recorded as a podcast by Dana
Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions and ZDNet Blogger,
the panel participants included:
- Tony
Baer, Senior Analyst, Ovum
- Henry
Peyret, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
- Janine
Kemmeren, Enterprise Architect for Getronics Consulting and Chair of the Architecture
Forum Strategy Work Group
- Chris
Forde, VP Technology Integrator, American Express and Chair of
Architecture Forum, The Open Group
- Jane
Varnus, Architecture Consultant for Enterprise Architecture
Department, of Bank of Montreal, Canada
The already
lively discussion even involved live audience polling (thanks to the
technology provided by Real IRM).
Some of the issues discussed included the roles EA frameworks play
in helping organizations align IT/business in the changing economic and
business landscapes, the benefits of using enterprise architecture during
such challenging and changing economic times, the comparison, contrast,
and interoperability of the several EA frameworks available – Zachman
Framework, FEAF, DoDAF, Gartner, MoDAF – and the role of certification now
and in the future. The resulting podcast will be made available on The
Open Group website.
The day
concluded with a showcase of the organizations that have applied for TOGAF
9 commercial licenses, and a ceremonial and celebratory toast (amidst a
glamorous balloon drop) to officially launch TOGAF 9.
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