For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Global Enterprise Architecture Self-Assessment Tool  (186 KB XLS)

by Jost Hoppermann, November 5, 2009

Forrester's Global Enterprise Architecture Self-Assessment Tool is an interactive tool designed to help enterprise architecture professionals identify their global EA initiative's probability of success. The tool bases this assessment on an organization's . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Software AG Acquires IDS Scheer To Finalize Its Five-Year Restructuring Plan

Software AG Will Pass The €1 Billion Revenue Mark Once It Closes The Deal

by Stefan Ried, Ph.D., July 15, 2009

Software AG continues to stay the course on its five-year turnaround plan. After stabilizing its legacy application business — mostly by replacing its former integration offering with the webMethods technology stack it acquired in 2007 and successfully . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Use EA Assessment And Maturity Models To Guide Your EA Program Next Steps

by Henry Peyret, July 2, 2009

A recent survey revealed that a minority of enterprise architects perform regular EA assessments. While a wide range of assessment methodologies are available to EA organizations, none of them are widely recognized or complete in scope — which is why . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Use TOGAF 9 As Your Next EA Framework

TOGAF V9 Complements Your Existing EA Framework With Methodology And Templates

by Henry Peyret, July 1, 2009

An enterprise architecture (EA) framework describes the deliverables an EA function should produce as well as how to create these deliverables. A framework helps EA leaders organize their efforts as they work with their teams to fulfill the EA objectives . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Help Yourself Make Tomorrow's IT Decisions

Tools For IT Planning

by Simon Yates, June 23, 2009

Flexibility and quick thinking are vital when planning for IT, so go ahead and arm yourself with the best weapons: You're going to need them. Volatility in the marketplace and an increased reliance on IT across all business sectors have forced IT managers . . .

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

Enterprise Architecture Tool Trends: Slow Adoption But Expanding Usage

by Henry Peyret, April 7, 2009

The December 2008 Global EA Toolbox Online Survey shows slow progress of enterprise architecture (EA) tools adoption. Given the growth of EA as a practice, the slow adoption belies a change in how these tools are used. While the perception that EA tools . . .

For CIOs

Tools For IT Planning

by Sharyn Leaver, March 23, 2009

Strategic planning is more difficult than ever. Today's volatile economic environment means that IT must plan quickly, more flexibly, and more thoroughly. Plans that don't follow this path quickly become obsolete — sometimes even before they're completed. . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Topic Overview: How BPM Can Help The Bottom Line In Difficult Financial Times

BPM-Enabled Improvements In Business Agility Flow To The Bottom Line

by Ken Vollmer, March 17, 2009

The current global economic crisis is putting increasing pressure on enterprise architects to find new — and more cost-effective — ways of meeting business needs. One software category in particular offers proven solutions to help increase operational . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: Business Process Analysis, EA Tools, And IT Planning, Q1 2009

IDS Scheer, Casewise, MEGA, Metastorm, And Troux Technologies Lead The EA Tools Category

by Henry Peyret, January 7, 2009

In this second release of Forrester's assessment of enterprise architecture and business process analysis (BPA) tools, Forrester assessed nine leading vendors in a 93-criteria evaluation. We found that IDS Scheer, Casewise, MEGA, Metastorm, and Troux . . .

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

Use The Right Set Of Criteria When Selecting An Enterprise Architecture Tool

EA Tool Value Comes From Supporting EA Stakeholders

by Henry Peyret, October 24, 2008

Most enterprise architects are still using criteria such as price, ease of use, or metamodel customization to differentiate enterprise architecture (EA) tools. While these criteria are useful, they are not the ones that will help you show the real value . . .

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 Technology Sales Enablement Professionals

Role Profile: The Enterprise Architect

Understanding And Marketing To The EA Professional

by Emily Van Metre, Eric G. Brown, July 25, 2008

Knowing your customers will help you start the right conversation with a prospect, understand how your products are relevant to your customer's daily life, and in the end help to land you a sale. This role profile will take you through key attributes . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Are Open Source And Low-Priced Solutions Available For Tooling EA?

by Henry Peyret, July 23, 2008

Justifying an enterprise architecture (EA) tools investment continues to be a problem — particularly when compared with just using Microsoft Visio. So what are the alternatives for inexpensive EA tooling? We investigated five scenarios that can provide . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Some EA And BPA Tools Support Enterprise Quality Initiatives

by Henry Peyret, July 17, 2008

Many commercial organizations first captured business processes as part of enterprisewide quality initiatives. But now that multiple tools — such as business process analysis (BPA) tools as well as business process management (BPM) and enterprise architecture . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

BPM Tool Usage Varies By Sector

Manufacturing And Financial Services Sectors Highlight Key Differences

by Ken Vollmer, April 4, 2008

Forrester's October 2007 US And UK Enterprise Architecture And Business Process Management Online Survey indicates that the most widely used business process management (BPM) tools fall into the integration-centric business process management suite (IC-BPMS) . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

EA+Requirements Management Increases Enterprise Agility

by Henry Peyret, April 3, 2008

Large enterprises often struggle with managing changes to multiple projects and properly tracking the impact of changes across initiatives. Enterprise architects in such environments find the deck is stacked against them when they want to introduce design . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Process-Views-Services: A Better Design Paradigm For Applications

Step Aside, Model-View-Controller — PVS Must Take Center Stage

by Randy Heffner, February 12, 2008

It is time for a major shift in the top-level design model for applications. Model-view-controller (MVC) has been the dominant framework for tying together the user interface and business logic of an application. But flexible, process-focused applications, . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Automated Application Discovery: The Enterprise Architect's Auto-Aide

by Charles Brett, December 12, 2007

The challenge that enterprise architects face in establishing enterprise architecture (EA) lies less in its creation and more in its lack of observance by the developers or others that it is supposed to govern. There are few tools to assist architects . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Canonical Information Modeling Is Key To Many Information-As-A-Service And SOA Strategies

by Mike Gilpin, November 15, 2007

Forrester recently surveyed 1,017 decision-makers at North American and European enterprises on the adoption of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and related technologies including information-as-a-service (IaaS). Compared to other SOA technologies . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Will Enterprise Architecture Exchange Tools Emerge?

by Henry Peyret, September 16, 2007

Many organizations find that they can't avoid choosing several tools to satisfy their wide range of enterprise architecture (EA) stakeholders. These enterprises can only maintain a single version of the truth for EA by consolidating and exchanging data . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Business Modeling For CxOs

by Henry Peyret, August 21, 2007

The recently published Forrester Wave™ on enterprise architecture (EA) tools demonstrates that the real benefit of these tools is not in the modeling itself but in the modeling that supports real EA objectives — such as knowledge sharing, collaboration . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Best Practices For Choosing EA Tools

by Henry Peyret, June 12, 2007

How can IT groups claim they have an enterprise architecture (EA) — a single representation of the "truth" about their enterprise —if they do not consolidate knowledge into a single EA tool? Why is it so difficult for some enterprises to choose a single . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Avolution Uses New Simulation To Choose Scenario-Based EA Evolutions

by Henry Peyret, May 30, 2007

The recently published Forrester Wave™ on enterprise architecture (EA) tools demonstrates that the real benefit of these tools is not in the modeling itself, but in the modeling that supports real EA objectives — such as knowledge-sharing, collaboration . . .