The Open Group Conference, Chicago
19th Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Conference

Highlights of the Plenary, Day 2 (Tuesday July 22)

Day Two of the Chicago Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Conference marked the beginning of the Architecting Government Services & SOA plenary. This kicked off with a keynote address from Allen Brown, President & CEO, The Open Group, on the state of the enterprise architecture profession. Allen began his address with an overview of The Open Group’s tremendous momentum over the last five years. During this time, he explained, membership has increased by over 70% and The Open Group saw 21 new members join in the last quarter alone, including its first Gold Member from China – Kingdee.

Allen attributed much of this positive growth to The Open Group’s vision of Boundaryless Information Flow™, which is anchored in the real needs of the customers. Enterprise architects, he explained, are pivotal to helping their organizations achieve this vision. Today’s architects have a great opportunity but also a responsibility: an opportunity to be there as this profession develops, and a responsibility to ensure it is grounded in the proper principles and practices that will provide sustained guidance for those who follow.

Allen then shared highlights on The Open Group’s progress in fostering knowledge, capabilities, and a professional body for enterprise architects:

• More than 7,500 individuals have demonstrated sufficient knowledge of TOGAF™ by achieving certification to the TOGAF 8 standard.
• There are now more than 2,600 individuals certified under The Open Group’s IT Architect Certification (ITAC) Program.
• The Association of Open Group Enterprise Architects, which launched one and a half years ago, now has over 7,500 members, with Chapters in the United States, Canada, India, and Australia.

Allen concluded by saying that the state of enterprise architecture in general is good; the state of enterprise architecture in The Open Group in particular is very good; but while we have come a long way, now is not the time to sit back.

Next up was David Cotterill, Head of Innovation, UK Government Department for Work and Pensions, who delivered a keynote address on Enterprise Architecture and the Revolution – Putting Customers at the Heart of UK Government Services. Historically, government services have been built around products, not the customers using the services, David explained. Today’s reality is that customers are now at the heart of these services. His presentation focused on the work that the UK Government Department for Work and Pensions (the equivalent of the Social Security Administration in the US) is doing in the area of enterprise architecture, and its use of TOGAF to put customers at the center of government services. Through this architectural journey, his organization is now able to provide services to its customers that are more effective, efficient, and agile. David also discussed methods of measuring success, including score cards across several areas and TOGAF mapping.

Following this, John F. McLaughlin, Executive IT Architect, Office of the Federal CTO, IBM Corporation, delivered a presentation on How to Understand SOA Security. John’s presentation explored how security is factored into the SOA life cycle, arguing that "security is a business requirement and not just a technology attribute". He went on to spotlight an SOA security model and advocated the use of a security reference architecture as a key means of assuring secure SOA.

Uniting Business and Information Technology was the focus of a presentation delivered by George S. Paras, Managing Director, EAdirections. In this presentation, George acknowledged that while we have seen significant advancement in enterprise architecture, all architects really need to view themselves as both business and IT professionals to ensure the proper degree of alignment between the two sides. Furthermore, architects need to prepare a credible Business/IT Alignment Roadmap with their business constituents to achieve true business transformation. This strategy must encompass several components and stages, including service-oriented analysis, service design, and service management – all from an enterprise-wide perspective. Finally, a company needs to assess its fundamental capability requirements before starting an enterprise architecture journey in order to be successful.

Wrapping up the morning session was a panel on SOA & the Government Enterprise, moderated by Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst, Interarbor Solutions. This "who’s who" panel included well-known industry analysts and experts Eric Knorr, Editor in Chief, InfoWorld; Tony Baer, Senior Analyst, Ovum; Joe McKendrick, SOA Author, Blogger, and Consultant; David Cotterill, Head of Innovation, UK Government Department for Work and Pensions; and Andras Szakal, Chief Architect, IBM Federal Software Group. Among the hot issues explored on the panel were the current state of required SOA skills and capabilities within the public and private sectors, the role of enterprise frameworks such as TOGAF, and the adoption of professional certification standards like ITAC. The panel was recorded as a live BriefingsDirect™ podcast which will be available online at www.opengroup.org and ZDNet.com after the conference.

Kicking off the afternoon’s SOA and the Boundaryless Enterprise track was Michael Rollings, Senior Analyst, Executive Advisory Program, Burton Group, US, with Architecting for SaaS. This presentation delved into the increasingly popular IT application delivery approach known as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), which allows pieces of IT to be commoditized so that businesses can focus on their core competencies. Michael explained that although an SaaS solution may solve immediate issues, organizations blinded by its promise often ignore architectural challenges, integration issues, and other risks. After framing the business context for SaaS, Michael discussed several architectural principles which should be considered.

Later during the SOA and the Boundaryless Enterprise track, Ross Button, Vice President, Technology Leadership, CGI, presented on How the Internet influences Enterprise IT and How Web 2.0 influences EA. This presentation examined the relationship between enterprise architecture, SOA, and Web 2.0. Ross probed into the reality of the Internet’s influence on enterprise IT and explained why enterprise architecture initiatives must address modern Web 2.0 approaches, models, and technology, both inside and outside the enterprise. Attendees got examples of several "Enterprise 2.0" technology applications at CGI, spanning social networks, user-generated content, mashups, SaaS, rich internet applications (RIAs), and SOA.

Over in the Architecture Profession track, Saverio Rinaldi, Chief Architect, EDS GMAC, presented on Training, Coaching, and Mentoring Architects. This presentation offered insight into how to create and execute a formal program to train, coach, mentor, and grow quality enterprise architects within a large company. Saverio emphasized the importance of having formal training, with a clear career path and progression for all levels of architects. He also used real-world scenarios to illustrate the role of The Open Group IT Architect Certification (ITAC) program, both in terms of furthering the careers of architects and assuring employers that their architects have the right skills and experience for the job.

Ron Tolido, CTO Continental Europe & Asia Pacific, Capgemini closed out the Day Two Business Architecture track with his tutorial: Open BA – Exploring Opportunities for an Open Business Analysis Methodology. Ron explained The Open Group’s current efforts to create a standard definition of Business Analysis within its recently launched ITSC (IT Specialist Certification) program. He explained that the development of a standard Business Architecture (BA) methodology is underway. This initiative is being driven by the growing emphasis of technology solutions on the business – not just IT operational efficiencies – and BA’s logical intersection with emerging areas such as Business Process Management (BPM) and continuous process improvement. Ron concluded by offering a possible roadmap for BA success.