Randy Heffner

Vice President, Principal Analyst serving Application Development & Delivery PROFESSIONALS

Randy serves Application Development & Delivery Professionals. He is a leading expert on architectures and design approaches for building enterprise applications that are secure and resilient in the face of continuous business and technology change. This makes service-oriented architecture (SOA) one of Randy's primary focus areas. Since enterprise applications need much more than SOA, Randy led the development of Forrester's digital business architecture, which provides a broad architectural context around SOA. For seven years, Randy has been a driving force for Forrester's research on application architecture trends, concepts, patterns, and best practices.

Particular focus areas within Randy's research include general application architecture and design issues; overall SOA strategy; SOA platform and infrastructure strategy; core SOA design concepts; Web services architecture; and standards, SOA security, SOA, and Web services management. He also covers coordination and leadership of other analysts' SOA work. Randy continues to develop strategies and structures to guide enterprises' longer-term evolution toward digital business architecture.

Previous Work Experience

Randy has extensive experience with enterprise architecture management and application architecture and design. Randy was a chief architect at Sprint, where he led enterprise architecture and standardization efforts, along with the analysis and introduction of application servers, component architectures, object-oriented development, application security architectures, CORBA, distributed transaction management, and other new technologies. His IT experience also includes technology leadership, management, and application development with a Big Five consultancy and in the retail and litigation support industries.


Education

Randy received a bachelor's of business administration from Baylor University's business school, where he was named the outstanding student in computer information systems.

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76 results in Everything

  • Alex Cullen
  • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

    Report:Using Business Capability Maps To Guide Application Portfolio Rationalization

    Business' Process Goals Strongly Influence Application Strategy

    Most firms have application portfolios with significant redundancy — a legacy of how business needs have been funded or past merger and acquisition activity. Firms initiate application...

    • Downloads: 1799
  • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

    Client Inquiry:What Are Forrester's Recommendations Regarding Storing Technology Documentation In A Wiki?

    As part of the movement to a more community-based environment, we are in the process of moving all our technical architecture information from its current site to a wiki. As we investigated movement...

    • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

      Report:Build A Business Architecture Program Road Map

      Road Map: The Business Architecture Playbook

      Too often, business architecture (BA) programs struggle to create a clear identity for the value they can deliver and get pulled in multiple directions. Successful BA programs — th ose with...

      • Downloads: 695
      • Rating:
    • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

      Charts & Figures:The Business Process Management Playbook

    • For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

      Report:Conceptual Architecture: Overview

      A conceptual architecture is a tool that enterprise architects can use to enhance communication, provide context, and aid direction setting. Though there are many situations in which an architect...

      • Downloads: 1277
    • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

      Report:Measure EA's Business Goals, Engagement, And Influence

      Metrics: The EA Practice Playbook

      This report outlines the metrics for enterprise architecture (EA) impact of Forrester's solution for EA executives building a high-performance EA program. Developing and executing a metrics and...

      • Downloads: 589
      • Rating:
    • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

      Report:Execute On Your EA Practice Strategy

      Road Map: The EA Practice Playbook

      This report describes how to turn a strategy into a road map for execution and how to overcome common impediments to high-performance enterprise architecture (EA). EA programs too often get pulled in...

      • Downloads: 522
    • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

      Report:Solution Architecture Tool Kit: Overview

      This tool kit discusses the role and importance of solution architects, the solution architecture process, templates for solution architecture deliverables, and solution architecture best practices.

      • Downloads: 144
      • Rating:
    • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

      Blog:Vote For Forrester's IT Forum 2011 Theme

      Are you ready for Forrester's IT Forum 2011? Mark your calendars for May 25-27 in Las Vegas and June 8-10 in Barcelona — and help us design an event that is as relevant and productive...

      • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

        Report:Drive Process Innovation Using BPM Technologies, Methods, And COEs

        Executive Overview: The Business Process Management Playbook

        In the midst of continuous change — from technology, market, and competitive forces — businesses must become skilled at transforming and inventing new processes while improving their...

        • Downloads: 540
        • Comments: 1
        • Rating:
      • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

        Report:Best Practices: Implementing An EA Management Suite

        Successes And Lessons Learned From Customer References

        The EA management suite (EAMS) is the next step in the evolution of EA tools. Going beyond modeling and standards repositories, the EAMS addresses pragmatic EA objectives such as IT planning, road...

        • Downloads: 721
      • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

        Blog:Forrester Is Hiring — Join Our Global Enterprise Architecture Team!

        You know how technology is changing how businesses operate — how they engage with their customers, deliver products and services, and understand their markets. The...

        • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

          Report:Forrester's Architecture Skills Assessment Tool Kit: Process Guide

          The purpose of this process guide is to provide an overview of the architecture skills assessment process and step-by-step instructions for using the assessment tool included in Forrester's...

          • Downloads: 43
        • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

          Report:Focus EA Strategy On Changing Business Expectations

          Strategic Plan: The EA Practice Playbook

          This report is designed to help enterprise architecture (EA) professionals construct a strategy to become more business-focused, strategic, and pragmatic. Many EA teams strive to be more...

          • Downloads: 514
          • Rating:
        • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

          Blog:Business Technology 2020 – Questions And Answers

          What will business and technology be like in 2020 – and what’s IT’s place in this new world? This is the subject of a teleconference that James Staten and I held for our...

          • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

            Blog:How To Keep Up With Reality In IT Planning

            Uli Kalex from Alfabet, whom many of you know, has provided us with a guest post addressing one key fallacy which underlies much of IT’s work with their business. I hope you enjoy it and feel...

            • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

              Report:Solution Architecture Tool Kit: Samples And Templates

              This workbook is part of the "Solution Architecture Tool Kit" collection, a companion to the "Solution Architecture Tool Kit: Overview" PowerPoint deck. It includes samples and templates for...

              • Downloads: 147
              • Rating:
            • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

              Blog:Are You An Enterprise Architecture Success Story?

              Some enterprise architecture programs become a key capability for the success of their business: ensuring aligned plans, shaping business transformations, or boosting the business value of IT. But...

              • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

                Blog:2012 EA Award Winners — Where Are They Now?

                The InfoWorld/Forrester Enterprise Architecture Awards recognize excellent EA programs — ones that due to their business focus, and strategic yet pragmatic orientation, provide sustained value...

                • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

                  Client Inquiry:Can You Please Provide Some Examples Of Big Rules For Architecture?

                  Our company is relaunching our enterprise architecture function. One area of focus is "big rules" for architecture. We currently have a set of more-detailed principles, but we are looking for...

                  • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

                    Client Inquiry:Capability Maps

                    I read Forrester's July 20, 2011, "Eight Ways CIOs Use Capability Maps To Embed Business In The Management Of IT" report. I am interested in leveraging the concepts and techniques. Do you have sample...

                    • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

                      Report:Forget EA Nirvana: Assessing EA Maturity

                      Use EA Archetypes To Assess Maturity And Align Effort With Expectations

                      Enterprise architecture (EA) maturity models abound. Each comes with its own opinion on EA maturity, its own system for scoring it, and a single set of beliefs on the proper role of EA within a firm....

                      • Downloads: 666
                    • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

                      Report:Create A Business Architecture Program That Helps Your Business Manage Change

                      Executive Overview: The Business Architecture Playbook

                      Strategic change initiatives are proliferating in organizations. There may be multiple programs to improve customer experience, co-existing alongside projects to reduce costs, streamline internal...

                      • Downloads: 626
                      • Rating:
                    • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

                      Blog:The Context For EA Success Is Changing – Are You Changing For This New Context?

                      As architects, we all know the importance of context. The right architecture for one context – say, an organically growing company – doesn’t work for a company growing by...

                      • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

                        Blog:Who Should Lead Strategic Investment Planning?

                        Mike Gilpin poses this question in the most recent post to his blog.  This question was sparked at Forrester’s Business Process & Application Delivery Forum during a conversation during...

                        • For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

                          Report:Focus EA Impact On Planning, Governance, And Innovation

                          This report outlines the high-level business impact of Forrester's solution for enterprise architecture (EA) executives working on building a high-performance EA practice. Describing the added...

                          • Downloads: 596
                          • Rating:
                         
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