Overview
The Open Group Conference Amsterdam 2010 began Monday, October 18 at the NH Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky. The conference gathered to discuss themes along three primary tracks:
- Cybersecurity - architectures for managing uncertainty
- Transforming EA into a business discipline – aligning the practice of EA with the requirements of business decision-making
- Cloud computing – the business impact of cloud computing
On Day Three of the Conference, members were able to attend tracks throughout the day that followed four separate interest areas:
- Enterprise Architecture and Business Strategy
- ArchiMate®
- Cloud Computing
- Value Creation in the Enterprise – the Role of Architecture and Alignment
Enterprise Architecture and Business Strategy
What are Architecture and EA Really About?
Len Fehskens, VP Skills & Capabilities, The Open Group
In this session, Len explored what Enterprise Architecture is about and highlighted how it is difficult to put boundaries between architectural design and decision-making. On the design front, he discussed the importance of defining some criteria for success: Doing everything you can to achieve success doesn’t mean doing everything – it requires focus. Talking about the need to work on the design constraints necessary and sufficient for success, he explained that because of the number of people involved, the translation from strategy to execution can be challenging.
Len went on to ask the audience to forget everything they knew about architecture and bear in mind that the word "architecture" is often used as a metaphor. As such, it’s easy for people to draw comparisons between what enterprise architects do and what, for example, business architects do. Architecture is an abstract concept and as such a complex process exists between design and implementation. For instance, once plans are drawn up, decisions will be made about a building that are out of the hands of the architect.
He then went on to introduce three concepts concerning enterprise architecture:
- Mission – the importance of defining success
- Solution – the steps you take to achieve the mission (solutions may vary but will all be working toward the same mission)
- Environment – the mission and solution always exist in some form of external environment so it’s important to always keep this in mind
He ended by discussing the importance of keeping the solution and mission implicit to ensure work is focused. Too often, he stated, IT efforts fail because a solution becomes an end in its own right rather than delivering the benefits a business needs. Ultimately, he said, architecture is: everything you need and nothing you don’t.
ArchiMate®
Case Study: Enterprise Architecture at De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the Dutch Central Bank
Henrik Jacobsson, Lead Architect, De Nederlandsche Bank
Henrik explained that one of the strategic goals at the DNB is to build a mature architecture function that supports the business in an integral way. In his mid-morning presentation, he began by outlining key architecture criteria:
- Principles: Why do we want to do it?
- Policies: How do we do what we do?
- Standards: What should we use?
He then explained how they had simplified what they were trying to achieve at the bank by visualizing architecture so senior business leaders could follow. He also touched on the topic of communications and demonstrated how ArchiMate® can be used to help IT effectively communicate with the wider business.
In concluding comments, Henrik explained how if an organization uses the architecture function correctly in its business, the function can provide significant insight so the right priorities can be set.
Cloud Computing
Effectively Addressing Challenges of Cloud Computing
Tejpal (TJ) Virdi, Computing Architect, The Boeing Company
Tejpai began his presentation by discussing the current use of cloud computing and outlined the differences between Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). He then outlined some of the risks businesses face in adopting cloud. For example, he highlighted how hastily adopted cloud risks upsetting end-users because of inconsistent application beahvior and how unplanned use of cloud risks compromising information and creates compliance irregularities. He then questioned the extent to which current enterprise capabilities are ready for cloud and stressed:
- The need to standardize business capabilities
- Enable a common framework for applications
- Have robust integration capabilities in place
- Optimize operational capabilities
- Empower those that use cloud applications
When describing some of the challenges in migrating existing applications to cloud, he talked about the importance of securing intellectual property and capital assets as well as the growing need for intelligent identity management. He also raised issues surrounding the regulations with which firms have to comply when it comes to issues such as the location of stored data.
He then suggested how the ADM Enterprise Architecture framework can help address some of these challenges since, for instance, it helps define business scenarios, identify opportunities, and support risk assessment. He also commented on its value in helping group business capabilities so migration to cloud is made easier.
Tejpai ended his presentation by discussing the semantic web and the challenges this presents:
- Relationships need to be dynamic.
- Organizations require greater computing power.
- Enterprises need organization-wide meta-data to ensure interoperability.
Cloud, the Enterprise, and the Enterprise Architect: Convergence that Drives Sustainable Business Value
Pamela Isom, Executive Enterprise Architect, IBM
In an engaging presentation, Pamela urged enterprise architects to up their game when it came to getting involved and leading cloud initiatives in organizations. Some EAs, she argued, take a back seat when it comes to cloud, but this shouldn’t be so, as the profession is ideally placed to help guide enterprises through cloud adoption. In many cases, she said, it’s possible for EAs to apply the same techniques they already use to thinking about cloud.
She went on to highlight what C-level executives are saying about cloud computing:
- We need it to improve the end-user experience.
- It must be an enabler of rapid innovation and business transformation.
- Cloud must support a typical enterprise budget and planning process.
- We need it as we require a new kind of infrastructure that is highly efficient, reliable, and secure.
Pamela also cited some interesting statistics from IBM which included:
- 71% of CIOs indicate self-service IT is a top-10 priority.
- 65% say concerns about security are a top inhibitor to their use of public cloud.
Pamela went on to argue how EAs cannot wait for businesses to ask for enterprise architecture support with cloud initiatives; instead, EAs must take the lead on offering this. It’s no longer possible, she explained, for EAs to ignore what’s happening as the profession must now take on responsibility for the "extended enterprise" cloud creates.
She then brought her discussion to life by presenting some case studies on consulting work she had done in the field of cloud. After this, she highlighted key takeaways from her talk:
- EA experience can support and sustain cloud adoption strategy.
- EA shouldn’t sit on the sidelines – now’s the time to get engaged with cloud.
- EA’s ability to identify business processes and develop business case studies is crucial.
- EAs have the skills and experience needed to know how and when to pull in the right amount of resources to produce end-to-end solutions for enterprises.
Value Creation in the Enterprise – the Role of Architecture and Alignment
Leveraging Architecture – Service Engineering
Wil Janssen
Will began his session by defining the uses of architecture, which he saw as a tool for governance, communication, innovation, and design. In too many cases, he explained, EA is not seen this way but instead is perceived as a bureaucratic function that puts constraints on the business. This is a limited perspective that fails to take into account the strategic capabilities of EA.
He then went on to discuss the various levels of IT-induced transformation and suggested that although the benefits increase as an organization changes, so do the risks. He then moved on to talk about the Service-Innovation value chain model from Hansen and Birkinshaw, which focuses on:
- Creation
- Conversion
- Diffusion
When it comes to service engineering, Will explained how the conversation rate was often challenging and talked about how large organizations in particular can be very reluctant to embrace change. Banks, for example, are very good at doing what they’ve always been doing but it’s a different story when it comes to changing.
The HR Environment Architecture as Part of EA
Peter de Bley, HR Management, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Marjan Verbeeck, Senior Consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers
In this talk, Peter de Bley and Marjan Verbeeck discussed the enterprise from the HR perspective so comparisons and reflections could be made from an EA point of view. Peter took to the floor first and asked the audience what they thought about the HR function. He then played a video clip that featured Alain de Botton discussing the valuable role HR plays within an enterprise.
He then went on to explain how HR is part of the larger enterprise system and the role of the function in getting the very best levels of behaviors out of those working in an organization. He focused on the important role HR plays in aligning actions in the enterprise with the corporate strategy. For example, he said if an organization has collaboration written into its business strategy, then it might want to carefully examine why it allocates bonuses on an individual performance.
When Marjan took over, she discussed the elements of HR architecture and again reinforced the role the function has in ensuring a corporate strategy is played out. She gave an example of how banks are currently undergoing a major shift in the competencies needed by staff. In the past, she said, employees were selected for their ability to complete transactions and administrative tasks, but now since these can be done by users online, customer service is more important.
The talk led to a lively Q&A session in which members of the audience commented on the benefits of bringing other functions such as HR into the discussion about the challenges and opportunities facing enterprise architecture today.
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