Wednesday’s sessions consisted of parallel break-out tracks throughout the day. In the early morning sessions the tracks included:
- Cloud Computing (hosted by Penelope Gordon, 1Plug Corporation)
- Semantics for Enterprise Architecture (hosted by Chris Harding, The Open Group)
- EA and Business Strategy (hosted by Scott Sealock, Accelare)
In the EA and Business Strategy track, the morning kicked off with a presentation entitled EA and Business Alignment: The Progress You Make Depends on Where You Start. Presented by Jack Calhoun, CEO, Accelare (US), the session began by mentioning that most technologists are drawn to talking about and focusing on the technologies, in part because it’s more interesting. In contrast, most enterprise architecture work really needs to be focused on the business rather than just on technology. Although IT people are the best people to address the relevance of IT within companies, IT still hasn’t figured out how to affect real change in the business. To figure out how to better align these two constituencies, Jack then examined five ways to “get above the line” and move from IT to business alignment. Using the example of Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare, a Massachusetts-based HMO, he provided a comprehensive case study on how the company moved from receivership in 1999 to being the number one HMO in the country in 2006.
The first issue that companies must address is creating a direct link between strategy and business. Companies must ask the question: "What is the problem you’re trying to solve?”. One way to interpret and define a business strategy is to use value mapping and ask where emphasis is being placed within the business and determine where the company’s priorities really lie. Next, companies must tackle defining the operating model and business architecture. According to Jack, the best way to create an operating model is to start at the capabilities level and build processes from there. Capability models can be used to map the current operations of the business to help identify what changes need to be made. The third step is to assess capability value and performance. Because all capabilities are not equal, models must be analyzed to see what capabilities are essential and support the company value proposition in order to begin framing the agenda. Step four is to adopt agile methods for improved delivery. Often programs and projects are hindered by a lack of motivation, so using the Agile technique can help energize those projects. Finally, budgeting chaos must be avoided by getting ahead of the budget process and properly funding current priorities and then looking at programs at a multi-year basis to plan forward. After implementing these processes, Harvard Pilgrim has been ranked for six consecutive years as the number one healthcare program in the US.
In the second EA and Business Strategy presentation of the morning, Paul Johnson, CEO, Pragmatica Innovations, tackled the issue of EA for Decision Support – Connecting Data to Decisions. According to Paul, informed decisions supported by data are crucial for the success of any enterprise. Decisions cannot be made in a vacuum without having the proper data and the context for that information. Enterprise architects and their work are usually not very visible within most organizations, therefore much of the information and data they possess gets lost and is not available to management. Paul suggested that enterprise architecture can help businesses pose the correct questions and provide the necessary data to make better decision-making scenarios. This can be done in four key steps: framing the correct questions properly; aligning architectures to those questions; populating the architecture; and then communicating the results to management with good data. He said when data supports the information, managers can make better decisions, and the enterprise architecture can be executed in a more realistic and informed manner. Once this is accomplished, then EA can begin moving from a technology-driven discipline to a business discipline.
Following the morning coffee break were three late morning tracks:
- Business Impact of Cloud Computing (hosted by Chris Harding, The Open Group)
- EA Frameworks & Tools (hosted by Bill Estrem, Metaplexity)
- Business Architecture (hosted by Walter Stahlecker, The Open Group)
In the Cloud track, members of the Cloud Work Group spoke on the topic: Building ROI from Cloud Computing. Addressing the topic were three members of the Cloud Work group including Mark Skilton, Global Director, Applications Outsourcing, Capgemini, Pam Isom, Senior Certified Executive IT Architect, IBM, and Penelope Gordon, Enterprise Architect, 1Plug Corporation. Penelope Gordon began the session by discussing some of the work that the Cloud Work Group has been doing and the White Paper content the group is in the process of publishing. One of the initiatives the Work Group is tackling is to help create a Framework for Cloud Buyers. Using the Framework, companies can begin to determine whether cloud solutions are a good fit for their organization, as well as determine what type of cloud solution would work best for them. The Framework also addresses the need to identify value delivery mechanisms that will help clouds provide the best value for the organization since cloud technology is inherently a one-to-many proposition. Determining the primary business drivers for pursuing cloud solutions is also important. Once business requirements have been identified, you must consider whether the solution should be a platform solution or another type of solution. This decision is usually dictated by the value delivery mechanisms chosen. Ultimately, the Framework can be used to help provide a high-level overview of organizational cloud fit providing an easy-to-use decision tree that can help organizations identify the direction of their cloud initiatives.
Pam Isom followed Penelop Gordon by addressing the issue of how to strengthen the business case for using the cloud. In this White Paper, business use-cases are provided to help organizations gain insight into how cloud can be used to provide value. To build a good business case for cloud computing, companies must first consider what the business reasons are for considering the cloud. To help identify those reasons, the paper provides facts and real-world examples that outline problems, requirements, and experienced benefits of cloud computing. Next, risk must be considered, as well as the business impact of the cloud – these issues are also addressed in the paper with examples.
Finally, the paper also discusses how to speak to those stakeholders for whom the cloud means nothing. Included in the paper are use-cases that address these problems. In addition, the paper also outlines the business reasons for cloud adoption; the potential impact to the business from cloud use; lessons learned from early cloud deployments; how to identify capabilities, business value, trends, and insights to customers; and how to discuss cloud with business influencers.
In the final morning Cloud Computing session, Mark Skilton provided an overview of how to negotiate with sellers and stakeholders. Because getting buy-in becomes more difficult the further up the decision-chain one goes, he suggested that a combination of providing vision, quantitative analysis, and qualitative information is necessary to begin the conversation. This will help provide an arsenal of information that can be provided to buyers and sellers and help guide their decisions. Scorecards are one way of providing that information and assessment. Mark suggested building out three primary scorecards can help assist in the decision-making process. He recommended scorecards for cloud ROI, cloud risk, and cloud quality of service. Also important in the negotiation process are benchmarking and building a compliance checklist for the cloud.
Following lunch, the afternoon tracks were also split along three main topics:
- Cloud Computing (hosted by Pam Isom, IBM)
- EA Education & Research in Higher Education (hosted by Len Fehskens, The Open Group)
- Archimate® (hosted by Henry Franken, BIZZdesign)
In the Education track, Beryl Bellman, Academic Director, FEAC Institute, kicked off the afternoon with the presentation: The Education of an Enterprise Architect. Beryl began by pointing out that most effective organizations are “garrulous, clumsy, superstitious, hypocritical, monstrous, octopoid, wandering, and grouchy”. Although these terms may sound negative, organizations often possess these qualities because they’re complex and reflect the environment in which people and organizations function. According to Beryl, EA is one way to help provide understanding and a way of managing that complexity to solve the messes that are inherent within organizations.
As a discipline, EA has evolved as a practitioner-based discipline that grew out of the need to have IT professionals that could have an overarching view of the enterprise. EA is also a way for the enterprise to take a holistic view of every level of the organization. Because EAs need to have a holistic view, they also need to be capable of systems thinking. With the focus of IT shifting to the business, EAs now need a set of skills that can encompass many disciplines including an amalgam of systems engineering, IT trends and processes, and organizational theory-related fields such as psychology, public administration, communications, and sociology. One way to ensure that EAs have a comprehensive skill set is through certification. Beryl cautioned against going for a certificate as opposed to being certified. He then outlined benefits of the FEAC certification program, which allows candidates to build an architecture and gain graduate-level credits toward an engineering degree at the same time. FEAC also incorporates both DoDAF and TOGAF™ training. He also stressed that as EA develops as an academic discipline, it will be necessary for it to be within an interdisciplinary model that provides students to engage in gaining a body of knowledge that can build the foundation for the practical experience needed.
In the second Education presentation of the afternoon, Dr. Edward J. Glantz, P.E., Professor of Information Sciences and Technology, Pennsylvania State University, further discussed EA in academia in his session: Enterprise Architecture Education & Research in Higher Education. After a brief introduction of Penn State fast facts, Edward launched into an overview of the latest college at the university, the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST). The College’s mission is to “change the world with inspired solutions, humanized technologies, and informed people”. IST works to provide solutions to complex problems by synthesizing the science/art at the intersection of people, information, and technology. Programs at the College include an Enterprise Integration & Application program; an IST Consulting Solutions program; and an Enterprise Architecture Advisory Board. The EA Board is joining together partners from industry and academia to identify what can be developed at the collegiate level to develop EA as an academic discipline, including certificate services, a joint undergraduate degree with the College of Business, an online master’s program, and to create research programs.
The final three tracks of the day, which followed the afternoon break, were:
- Cloud Computing (hosted by Chris Harding, The Open Group)
- Association of Open Group Enterprise Architects (AOGEA) (hosted by Birgit Hartje, AOGEA/The Open Group)
- Architecture and Service Management (hosted by Bill Estrem, Metaplexity)
The late afternoon Cloud track addressed issues included two separate sessions, a presentation by Forrester Research analyst Henry Peyret, as well as a panel discussion on the topic of Taking the Business Decision to Use Cloud Computing.
Henry's presentation posed the question: How much of your Future will be in the Cloud? Strategies for Embracing Strategies for Cloud Computing Services. He began by providing a couple of contrary opinions. First, he disagreed with the scorecard approach of cloud readiness assessment advocated earlier in the day. Then, he pointed out that Forrester does not believe that Cloud is the “next big thing” in IT—rather, the next big thing is smart computing—which includes smart networks, data centers, mobile devices, and smart applications—of which the cloud is actually just an enabler of these things.
According to Henry, not everything is Cloud and not everything should be. Forrester’s Cloud Taxonomy, which provides some positioning advice, defines a spectrum of cloud services which includes IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, and now a new category, Business Processes as a Service (BPaaS). He also posited that cloud agility really pays off primarily when applications and services can affect time-to-market and cost reduction. Henry also discussed a number of use-case scenarios in which cloud is a good initial fit for organizations including test/development, web services, and applications. To make cloud computing a reality, EAs should plan to baseline their costs; create a decision gateway that includes a cloud-suitability checklist and that routes appropriate projects for the cloud; select preferred partners; and encourage engagement by acting as a consultant not just the help desk.
The Cloud Panel, which concluded the afternoon, included cloud panelists Henry Peyret, Mark Skilton, Pam Isom, and Dr. Marcos Athanasoulis, Director IT, Harvard Medical School. Moderated by Dana Gardner, Principal Analysts, Interarbor Solutions, the panel addressed practical cloud implementations.
In their discussion, the panel covered quite a bit of ground including the cloud topics that will survive the hype cycle and an examination of how Harvard Medical School has implemented their own private cloud. According to Mark Skilton, utility computing, SaaS, and application stores will be the primary drivers of cloud. As far as the role EAs must play, Henry Peyret pointed out that the EA role should be to evangelize the cloud to both IT and the business sides and translated to those two parties to mitigate the risks of cloud implementation. One overarching theme during the panel was the need to find some sort of common ground for IT and the business when it comes to cloud. Pam Isom pointed out that cloud cannot be done in a vacuum, so providers and stakeholders will need to come together. Henry Peyret agreed, saying that not only do IT and business need to be aligned, but they must actually be in sync at all times for cloud to work. Providing the practical perspective, Marcos Athanosoulis talked about how HMS must find common ground from which to function because their user community is heavily involved in the services they choose to use and driving the cloud initiative. The panel also discussed the benefits of taking an iterative approach to the cloud, beginning small and then repeating the process throughout the organization as needed. Everyone also seemed to agree that the cloud will eventually take the form of proving business services catalog throughout organizations and that the role of IT will evolve to be the promoter and broker of those services. Finally, they provided the following recommendations for cloud:
- Evangelize and act as a service provider
- Contractualize services as a business catalog
- Look at cloud as a risk mitigator
- Use best practices
- Try it, then practice what you preach
- Pilot, Particpate, Produce results, Promote the service
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