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

Characterizing EA Teams And Their Challenges

by Alex Cullen, Katie Smillie, August 6, 2009

Forrester has seen that the mission and operating model of enterprise architecture teams can be characterized along two dimensions: orientation (technology-oriented or business-oriented) and focus (project-focused or strategy-focused). These two dimensions . . .

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

Inquiry Spotlight: Building An EA Practice, Q2 2009

by Gene Leganza, Katie Smillie, June 1, 2009

Forrester examined 2,292 end user inquiries from enterprise architecture (EA) professionals in 2008. The topics of these inquiries were wide ranging, including questions about information and knowledge management, infrastructure and operations, and application . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Inquiry Spotlight: Enterprise Architecture Best Practices, Q1 2009

by Gene Leganza, Katie Smillie, April 9, 2009

Forrester examined 2,292 end user inquiries from enterprise architecture (EA) professionals. Most of these inquiries were on specific technology topics such as information and knowledge management, infrastructure and operations, and application development; . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Inquiry Spotlight: Organizing Architecture Teams Q1 2009

by Gene Leganza, Katie Smillie, March 27, 2009

Forrester examined a total of 2,292 end user inquiries from enterprise architecture (EA) professionals in 2008. Many of these inquiries were about specific technology topics such as information and knowledge management, infrastructure and operations, . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Semantic Ontologies In EA Tooling

Semantic Web Languages Help Enterprise Architects Manage Data

by Henry Peyret, Katie Smillie, December 9, 2008

There are many sources of enterprise information, and enterprise architects often face an uphill battle to integrate diverse information sources — systems, people, organizations — in the same company. Issues arise at the metadata exchange level, and differing . . .

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

User Interviews Reveal Broad Adoption Of IC-BPMS Components

Customers Use BPM And SOA Features The Most; B2B The Least

by Katie Smillie, Ken Vollmer, September 19, 2008

In just the past three years, we've seen the features available in integration-centric business process management suites (IC-BPMSes) rapidly evolve well beyond their enterprise application integration (EAI) roots. This raises the question of whether . . .

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

Infrastructure Architects Link Technology Strategy With Long-Term EA And Business Goals

by Gene Leganza, Katie Smillie, July 16, 2008

The specifics of various architecture roles have become a hot topic as enterprise architecture (EA) practices have matured. A common role in many organizations is the infrastructure architect. A recent Forrester survey reveals that most enterprise architects . . .

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

Leverage Solution Architects To Drive EA Results

by Jeff Scott, Katie Smillie, March 28, 2008

The role of the solution architect is maturing. More than two-thirds of respondents in a Forrester poll state that their IT organizations define this role for at least some areas within their enterprises. As enterprise architecture (EA) programs mature . . .