For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

The Five Essential Metrics For Managing EA

by Jeff Scott, November 17, 2009

Enterprise architects frequently ask what metrics they should use to demonstrate EA's progress and value to the organization. CIOs want to know what they are getting for their investment in EA, and EAs see metrics as an important tool for promoting their . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

When Selling EA Value, Context Is Everything

Align Your Value Message With Your Marketplace To Make It Stick

by Katie Smillie, Jeff Scott, November 3, 2009

Describing success as a result of being at "the right place at the right time" is often akin to saying "I just got lucky." So rather than waiting for the right place and time to market EA's value, continuously craft your message around what will be successful . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Case Study: WestJet Creates Clarity With Its Architecture Services Catalog

by Jeff Scott, October 26, 2009

EA organizations struggle to define what they do in terms the organization both understands and appreciates. The root cause for this struggle is often that the EA team itself is not clear about what it delivers, what stakeholders it is delivering to, . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Successful EA Programs Integrate Specific Value Levers And Accelerators

by Jeff Scott, October 22, 2009

CIOs intuitively understand the value of a well-architected environment but are less certain of how (or if) their enterprise architecture (EA) teams deliver that value. This disparity generates a great deal of discordance in EA efforts: Companies charter . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Road-Mapping: An Essential EA Skill  (1.6 MB PPT)

by Jeff Scott, September 15, 2009

This workbook discusses road-mapping essentials including best practices for building and managing road maps as well as examples depicting how to build a road map and what road maps look like.

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Business Architecture Clarifies The Scope Of Business Change Programs

by Jeff Scott, July 10, 2009

Most IT organizations have experienced projects where, despite good project management and delivery to business requirements, the project failed to deliver the desired business benefits and was deemed a failure. The root cause of these failures is that . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Business Capabilities Provide The Rosetta Stone For Business-IT Alignment

Capability Maps Are A Foundation For Business Architecture

by Jeff Scott, July 6, 2009

Business and IT alignment remains a top priority for CIOs and other business leaders. While many CIOs have made significant progress in gaining a seat at the strategy table, a gap remains in organizing and illuminating business executives' thinking in . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Next-Generation IT Requires Next-Generation EA

EA Makes The New Core Processes Of IT Work

by Alex Cullen, Gene Leganza, Jeff Scott, Jost Hoppermann, June 30, 2009

What business wants from IT is changing, and that means IT has to change how it manages itself and the IT-business relationship. Building on current project delivery and operational management competencies, CIOs are adding new core management processes: . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Inquiry Spotlight: Developing Architects, Q2 2009

by Jeff Scott, Katie Smillie, June 29, 2009

Whether you're an architect yourself or you have architects reporting to you, you've probably wondered: What does it take to be an architect? We analyzed more than 60 inquiry questions from Forrester clients related to the topic of the architect's role . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Case Study: Wachovia Demonstrates The Value Of Business Architecture

by Jeff Scott, June 12, 2009

As interest in business architecture heats up, IT and business executives are asking how they can use business architecture to drive value. Many organizations have started business architecture initiatives, but few have reached the point of producing . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

EA's Next Evolution: Business-Centric Architecture

by Jeff Scott, April 7, 2009

Making the leap from technology-centric architecture to business-centric architecture might be enterprise architects' biggest challenge yet. Business architecture is not simply another enterprise architecture (EA) view. It is an entirely different way . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Sharpen Your Focus By Building An EA Practice Strategic Plan

by Jeff Scott, April 7, 2009

Enterprise architects who focus exclusively on building architecture and ignore building their architecture practice are missing the opportunity to grow their influence and value. The result is often great architecture but little impact. To meet their . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Choose From Five Basic Approaches To Business Architecture Based On Your Context And Goals

by Jeff Scott, January 7, 2009

As interest in business architecture grows, multiple approaches are evolving. Architects are blending a wide variety of generic models to develop business architectures that are specific to their environment and organizational context. Organizational . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Trends For EA Professionals In 2009

Enterprise Architects: Use Today's Economic Challenges To Focus And Sharpen Your Efforts

by Jost Hoppermann, Gene Leganza, Jeff Scott, Ken Vollmer, January 7, 2009

Enterprise architecture (EA) will continue its journey up the value chain in 2009, but there's no doubt that the road will be bumpy at best. Helping their organizations deal with economic conditions will consume some EA teams, and most will have to narrow . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Establishing EA Governance Models  (1.5 MB PPT)

by Jeff Scott, January 5, 2009

This is a workbook on establishing EA governance models.

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Create Greater EA Impact By Analyzing Your Value Chain

by Jeff Scott, December 3, 2008

Since the mid 1980s, business executives have been applying Michael Porter's value chain analysis to understand how their companies create competitive advantage and deliver stakeholder value. Porter's value chain model describes the collection of activities . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Establish Enterprise Architects As IT Innovation Champions

by Jeff Scott, November 4, 2008

Business leaders expect technology to help drive competitive differentiation, yet only a small number of IT organizations have established a formal approach to innovation with clear roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities. Even fewer are relying . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

The Up-And-Coming Business Architect

A Forrester Survey Reveals Trends In The Business Architect Role

by Jeff Scott, Katie Smillie, October 24, 2008

Forrester recently labeled the business architect as an "extremely hot" IT role — and it's an equally hot role in the business. But in spite of the role's popularity, it's hard to find agreement on its attributes. To uncover current trends, Forrester . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Business Architecture's Time Has Come

The Current State Of Business Architecture

by Jeff Scott, October 24, 2008

Interest in business architecture is growing dramatically. During the past two years both IT and business leaders have joined the discussion about the need for a well-defined business architecture. Though there is a great deal of discussion, there is . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Architecting In The Zone

Build Architecture Zones To Create Structured Flexibility

by Jeff Scott, September 15, 2008

Industry consolidation and globalization demand increasingly complex and varied IT solutions. In this taxing environment, one-size-fits-all EA approaches cannot satisfy business needs for flexibility, adaptability, and innovation. Architects using this . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Create Greater Impact Through EA Stakeholder Management

by Jeff Scott, September 12, 2008

Enterprise architecture (EA) stakeholder support is critical to EA program success. Without stakeholders' continued buy-in and support, EA strategies will go nowhere. But a little bit of attention can go a long way. Architects can significantly increase . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Case Study: PNC's Secret To EA Success? A Strong Customer Focus

How One Company Achieves And Measures EA Effectiveness In A Federated IT Environment

by Jeff Scott, Katie Smillie, August 1, 2008

When The PNC Financial Services Group created a central enterprise architecture (EA) program nearly three years ago, it sought to build the team's success from the inside out, creating a small, central team as well as a formal structure of distributed . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Best Practices: Improving EA Effectiveness

Customer Focus, EA Skills, And Delivering Value Are Key

by Jeff Scott, August 1, 2008

Creating an effective enterprise architecture (EA) practice is challenging and frequently elusive for EA teams. Architecture initiatives require broad organizational support just to get started and, once started, often have long investment cycles. Small . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Getting Business Inputs For Architecture Planning

Mature EA Groups Have More Regular Interactions With The Business, And BPM Project Success Follows

by Jeff Scott, Katie Smillie, May 28, 2008

Understanding the business is essential to enterprise architects, especially as IT transitions to business technology (BT), where success is measured in terms of business results. Enterprise architecture (EA) teams need business information to plan effectively . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Collaborating For EA Success

Architects Expand EA's Network Beyond IT For Greater Impact

by Jeff Scott, May 5, 2008

Enterprise architecture (EA) leaders have small teams with big responsibilities. Few EA teams are staffed adequately to deliver all that they are tasked with. To increase their impact, EA teams leverage a wide variety of IT staff to both develop and promote . . .