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 Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Global EA Drives Global IT: Assess Your EA Initiative's Global Readiness

by Jost Hoppermann, November 5, 2009

Poor results when working to facilitate global IT are often a result of poorly executed global EA programs, poor preparation, and/or a too-positive perception of the global business and IT environment. Forrester's Global Enterprise Architecture Self-Assessment . . .

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: 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: 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

Enterprise Architects Are Not Proving Their Value

Gaps, Acceptable In Good Times, May Be Challenging In Bad Times

by Jost Hoppermann, March 11, 2009

Forrester surveyed 140 firms and their enterprise architecture (EA) groups in October 2008 — after the financial market meltdown — to identify the trends regarding EA organizations, resources, and governance processes. We also wanted to find the hot architecture . . .

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

Critical Success Factors For BPM Implementation

Key Issues That Enterprise Architects Must Consider

by Ken Vollmer, December 24, 2008

BPM implementations have assisted many enterprises by enhancing their operational efficiency and level of business innovation, and improvements in these two areas can go a long way toward helping enterprises navigate the shoals of enterprise performance . . .

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 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

EA Team Structures Vary Widely

Most Enterprises Leverage Small Organizations To Get The Job Done

by Jeff Scott, April 11, 2008

Organizations challenge enterprise architects to implement comprehensive, strategic technology programs using limited resources: Most EA teams have small organizations, limited discretionary funding, and little political power. To cope with these limitations, . . .

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 . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Assess Your Enterprise Agility

Agree On Agility Objectives With Your Internal Peers

by Henry Peyret, November 12, 2007

Firms and government organizations are constantly buffeted by changes in their business environment — from changing customer tastes to economic changes affecting raw material prices to government regulations that make hitherto smart business strategies . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Role Overview: The Enterprise Architecture Professional In 2007

by Gene Leganza, Larry Fulton, May 11, 2007

In 2007, enterprise architects face the ongoing issues of defining technology strategy and improving the overall effectiveness of enterprise architecture (EA) processes, but the imperative to merge technology and business strategy brings new challenges. . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

EA Groups Need To Prepare The Ground For Next-Generation Architectures

by Jost Hoppermann, April 30, 2007

In January 2007 Forrester surveyed enterprise architects, IT planners, and IT strategists to get their take on the current state of enterprise architecture (EA) groups and initiatives in Europe. The survey yielded three key findings: 1) EA governance . . .

For CIOs

Structuring The Applications Group

New Development And App Maintenance Organizational Approaches

by Marc Cecere, January 12, 2007

Many CIOs use the same staff to perform applications development and maintenance work. However, dividing these responsibilities into separate groups provides greater oversight, clarity, and efficiency. New development groups are mostly commonly aligned . . .

Topic Overview: Government Enterprise Architecture

by Gene Leganza, April 24, 2006

As government executives grow increasingly concerned about cutting operations and maintenance costs, as well as transforming their service delivery models, agency CIOs are leveraging enterprise architecture (EA) to reduce redundancy and deliver technology-enabled . . .

Topic Overview: Enterprise Architecture

by Alex Cullen, Gene Leganza, March 28, 2006

As businesses focus on top- and bottom-line growth (and as IT becomes integral to this growth), IT departments are turning to enterprise architecture (EA) to best advance objectives ranging from operational efficiency to delivering IT-enabled business . . .

How Big Should The Enterprise Architecture Group Be?

by Alex Cullen, October 13, 2005

The enterprise architecture (EA) group is a staff function; it is not directly involved with either production operations or solution delivery to the business. However, EA provides a critical element in harnessing the value from IT, so IT's goals and . . .

Remote Offices: Critical Links In Enterprise Architecture

by Richard Fichera, March 24, 2005

A critical aspect of the consolidation and IT rationalization plans of large enterprises is support for remote offices. Many enterprises enter into data center consolidation programs only to realize that a substantial fraction of their IT resources and . . .

The Organization of the Central Enterprise Architecture Group

by Gene Leganza, December 19, 2003

A networked model is significantly more effective than any self-sufficient model that attempts to avoid ¿borrowed¿ resources, since that approach has proven to be too insular to be politically effective in any environment.

Managing the People Side of Enterprise Architecture

by Gene Leganza, June 27, 2003

While enterprise architects must have a firm grasp of contemporary technology issues, their most important skills are the soft skills of the successful sales person, consultant or professional negotiator.

Enterprise Architecture Evaluation Scorecard: Rating the EA Organization

by Gene Leganza, June 16, 2003

As EA continues to grow as a significant cross-divisional force in contemporary IT organizations, it is critical that architecture groups assess the quality and impact of their efforts to ensure that they are progressing along a productive path.

Analysis of Enterprise Architecture Organization Survey

by Gene Leganza, April 2, 2001

Giga recommends including distributed parts of the organization to obtain participation of development and infrastructure technologists. This will eliminate insularity, break free of the infrastructure-only mode and enhance enterprisewide influence.