09.25.09
Tools for Enterprise Architecture
Recently, at an Enterprise Architecture conference the speaker asked several hundred attendees what tools they used. The majority of them raised their hand when he asked about Visio. Everyone laughed, but unfortunately this is not a joke.
The lack of well-defined tools to support the profession of Enterprise Architect is a strong indicator that the profession has not yet matured. For an industry that is founded on technology, how could we still find ourselves doing artwork? Enterprise Architecture should be based upon highly disciplined engineering principles.
So where are those principles? Have Zachman, Yourdon, and a host of others been wrong? Is there not an enterprise view above the Unified Modeling Language?
I believe that the principles already exist and they will only get better. The problem is not the principles. It is the attitude of the messenger. It is the attitude of the Enterprise Architects who believe they are solution providers. With this attitude, they believe their purpose is to present to management, in the simplest form as possible, a strategy for IT. They like to say they are all about the business. Some even believe that only the future is important and there should be no attention given to fully understanding the current environment.
So what should the attitude be? The attitude that best supports the business is one that recognizes that those that run the business are more than capable of understanding the Enterprise Architecture. They are more than capable of making the big decisions necessary to direct the overall strategy. The Enterprise Architects should be the facilitators in making this happen.
When the Enterprise Architects shed themselves of believing they are the solution providers, we can then begin to see some progress towards principles. We would see commonalities in approaches in all organizations. Managers could move from one organization to another and be able to quickly understand the strategy for IT. Universities would include Enterprise Architecture as part of their business curriculum just as they do Marketing, Finance, etc.
With this attitude change, the principles will become apparent. This will happen when Enterprise Architects realize that the business managers are not customers, but partners. Business managers are the owners that take risks by investing in IT. They take these risks to either reduce costs or increase revenues. Enterprise Architects must provide them with the pertinent information so they can minimize their risk.
With this change in attitude, the principles will rise to the surface. The products will be developed to support the principles. Then, at long last, the Enterprise Architects will have tools for their profession.
