Understanding EA Frameworks

Enterprise Architecture by nature has a broad scope. In a sense, the typical Enterprise Architect is being asked to describe all things IT-related about any given enterprise in the course of their routine duties. What Architects determined fairly early on (in the relatively brief history of IT Architecture) was that this descriptive process is in most cases similar across organizations. And this realization is how the concept of Architecture Frameworks...

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How to Set up an Enterprise Architecture Practice

What if someone walked into your office and told you; "you're now in charge of Enterprise Architecture," what would you do? Where would you start? Here are some suggestions... First, you'd need to be cognizant of the mission implied with such a request. There are in fact two missions that might be involved depending on what type of organization you support. Those missions are: Internal Architecture Management - This mission is focused entirely...

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Can Enterprise Architecture be Agile?

IT practice changes quite a bit and certain practices come and go. About 10 years ago, Enterprise Architecture (EA) surged to the forefront of the IT community primarily because it was adopted as part of the key acquisition processes connected to the Federal Government. The law that brought this about was called the Clinger-Cohen Act and it provided portfolio management expectations for IT which were designed to help avoid large-scale IT project...

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What Does an IT Architect Do?

This is an interesting question for anyone thinking about working as an Architect but also for anyone else working in IT because there isn't a consistent set of definitions regarding architects within the industry. Architects who do more or less the same things with the same skills could variously be referred to as: Enterprise Architects Solution Architects Project Architects IT Architects Technical Architects Data Architects Application Architects Business...

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The 5 Rules of IT Architecture

It is perplexing that after nearly 20 years since the emergence of IT Architecture as a discipline, there is still so much confusion surrounding what architects do (or more precisely, what they are supposed to do). Many people in IT refer to themselves as "Architects" now - yet how can employers or colleagues quantify or otherwise validate that they are indeed actually Architects? I will propose five simple rules or tests to help clarify this: Rule...

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The Difference Between Enterprise and Solution Architects

I'll preface this topic by stating up front that very often Solution Architects (SA's) and Enterprise Architects (EA's) are the same people. There's no reason why EA's and SA's can't fill each other's roles and in fact this happens quite a lot. Having said that though, there are differences between the type of work you'll be asked to do as a Solution Architect from the tasks you'd be asked to perform as an Enterprise Architect. It is also important...

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Solution Architecture Defined

Solution Architecture is sometimes also referred to as System Architecture or Project Architecture. It differs from Enterprise Architecture both in scope and the level of detail. Generally, Solution Architectures are also more narrowly focused (sometimes on a single system or system component  scope) and are usually more detailed in regards to both implementation and configuration. People often view Enterprise Architecture as more strategic...

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Ten Skills IT Architects Should Possess

IT Architects are people who have the ability to engineer and design solutions across the architecture stack and across diverse technologies. While many architecture roles are more specific and require expert knowledge of one or several particular aspects of a larger enterprise environment, architects who intend to work across a broader range of projects need to possess a common set of foundational skills. The top 10 foundational skill sets for IT architectures are as follows: Data Modeling - Data modeling and Data Flow Diagrams are an excellent...

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Enterprise Architecture Defined

When examining the various flavors of IT Architecture it is worthwhile perhaps to start at what some might consider the “top.” By Top, we don’t mean the best or most difficult but rather the top level of architecture – e.g. that level which has an enterprise level or higher (cross-enterprise) scope. Many people define Enterprise Architecture (EA) differently, but the common thread that passes through all definitions is scope and reliance on formalized...

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Introduction to the IT Architecture Journal

IT Architecture is a relatively new discipline and represents a cross-cutting community of practice. By that we mean Architecture is not necessarily technology-specific but can be applied to most any technical solution lifecycle. Even where or when architecture does become technology-specific, say for example specific to a particular product or to a set of unique technical standards, the methodology for how architecture tasks are managed can remain...

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