Bas van Gils, Sven van Dijk. The Practice of Enterprise Architecture. Experiences, techniques, and best practices

BiZZdesign, 2014. — 186 p. — ISBN10: 9079240168; ISBN13: 978-9079240166.When Darwin wrote his opus magnum On the Origin of Species in (Darwin, 1951) he most likely did not have businesses and other enterprises in mind. Yet, the adage “survival of the fittest” definitely applies to many modern day enterprises. At the moment of writing, it appears we are just heading out of a long economical / financial crisis. Many corporations have folded, others have struggled to stay afloat. As Colander et al. (2009) and many other analysts and scholars suggested: it appears that our economical system has failed.Motivation
For many enterprises, there are struggles much closer to home that must be faced. For one, customers are increasingly empowered, in part due to technological advancements. For example, comparing prices for a product – even when in a store – is straightforward today for anyone with a smartphone. Even more, products can be bought online with a push of a button with guaranteed 24 hour delivery in case you’re in a hurry. To top it all off, due to deal-of-the-day websites like Groupon it is often possible to get a good deal (up to the point where paying full price for a hotel or meal would be almost silly), lowering profit margins even further.
Another force in this ‘game’ is the realm of technological development. The possibilities are endless and continue to grow at an alarming pace. Think of the growth in computing power and storage both in your own data center and in the cloud, or think of the ease with which we can nowadays handle big data (e.g. (Soares, 2012)). The pace has been so stunning that visionaries such as Peter Hinssen (2010) have remarked that “work is the time of day where we use old technology” and even that need not be true with the rise of the bring your own device (BYOD) movement. It is often claimed that the classic IT department is doomed due to these developments as they are slowly losing grip on what’s going on. Their role might indeed change to the custodians of the data and to enable business users to leverage this data as efficiently and effectively as possible on whatever application and device that might seem useful or convenient (e.g. (Aiken & Gorman, 2012)).
A related aspect is the world of patents and legislation. Even in the days of Nicola Tesla (e.g. (Seifer, 1998)) it was widely known that patents can make or break a company. With the ongoing patent (infringement) battles in the mobile market, it appears that not much has changed in that respect. What has changed is the fact that there’s more and more (ever changing) legislation that organizations have to adhere to, especially in a global market place.
What does all of that mean and imply for organizations? On the one hand, one consequence of all of this is that there is a constant awareness of ongoing change, and recognition that agility is increasingly important (Lankhorst, 2012). It means constant attention and a wide range of ‘approaches’ to management including strategic management, enterprise architecture (EA), business process management, data management, business rule management, Lean, etcetera. Indeed, it may be hard to make a choice between so many useful practices!Focus of this book
While each of these approaches are useful in their own right, we focus on enterprise architecture management in this book. A lot has been said and written about EA over the last few decades. Loosely defined, EA can be seen as a strategic discipline that helps organizations to get to grips with the question: how should we organize ourselves, and how do we get from where we are to where we want to be?
Various frameworks, modeling languages, tools, and techniques have been developed, published, used and tested in practice. There are so many of them that it is hard to keep up. Our goal is not to add another framework or approach to this growing body of knowledge. Instead, we aim to consolidate and share our experience with the EA discipline of the past 10 years: what did work? What didn’t work? What are common pitfalls and success factors? What are good / best practices?Intended audience
Even though Enterprise Architecture is often seen as a ‘specialist discipline’, we wrote this book for a broad audience. Enterprise architects – both novice and experts – are one group, of course. Novice architects should read the book cover to cover, with a heavy focus on the first two parts. Experts will want to glance through the first part and focus on part III. Leaders or managers of architecture teams will find part II most useful, as this is where we discuss building an architecture capability.
We have also attempted to cater for the wide group of professionals who aren’t architects, but frequently interact with architects: project managers, strategists, designers, change managers and strategic planners will find various pockets of useful information sprinkled throughout this book.Outline of the book
We have tried to follow the adage rigor and relevance throughout this book. Our goal is first and foremost on the practical level. However, we feel that strong linkage to the growing body of research will greatly increase the value of the text. Therefore we have structured this book in 3 parts.
The first part deals with theory. Here we present a broad overview of the field of enterprise architecture, linking it to other management disciplines. We also motivate our choice for TOGAF and ArchiMate
as the foundation for this book, and give a high level overview of these standards.
In the second part we focus on how to build a strong EA capability in a phased manner. The first phase is all about getting the organization committed and involved and sets the stage for the later phases. In the second phase we focus on building the actual capability, whereas the last phase is about execution: the proof of the pudding is in the eating!
In the third and last part of this book we share our good / best practices, which range from creating links from strategy via architecture to execution, standards management, governance and general tips for architecture modeling with ArchiMate.
We end the book with a call to action: we believe in sharing stories about enterprise architecture initiatives, projects, successes and failures. We will continue to update this book with our own, and we’re very interested in your stories so do not hesitate to get in touch.About Bas van Gils
Bas is an enterprise architect with a passion for business and IT. After receiving his MSc from Tilburg University (the Netherlands) and his PhD from Radboud University (Nijmegen, the Netherlands) he has continued to explore this field as a consultant, trainer, and researcher.
In his work he has developed a broad skill set in various areas that range from strategy and leadership, enterprise architecture, business analysis and -design, and change management. He has been involved in different types of projects around the world. In his work he strives to combine his practical experience with extensive knowledge of state of the art research on enterprise architecture including TOGAF and ArchiMate.
Bas has developed an international reputation and is frequently asked as a speaker and facilitator. He actively frequently publishes in academic and professional journals as well as on various blogs.
Bas is passionate about his work, has a strong personality, good analytic skills and good communication skills. A balance between adding value in practice and continuous learning is an essential ingredient of his attitude towards work. His ambition is to work on complex issues in the field of strategic architecture.About Sven van Dijk
Sven has gained a decade of experience with Enterprise Architecture, and related fields with a focus on the alignment of business and IT. He is an experienced, hands-on consultant combining business skills with a strong technical background.
Sven studied Business Information Technology at Twente University in Enschede, the Netherlands. Currently, he lives and works in Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA).
Sven has been building an extensive knowledge of and experience with structured methods and tools for enterprise architecture and business process management.
His work includes consultancy on information management, architecture review, ICT strategy, software selection and implementation within larger international organizations in a range of industries such as utilities, finance, telecommunications and construction. He speaks regularly at conferences and symposiums on EA & BPM around the world.