Tag Archives: ArchiMate

by The Open Group Blog | May 14, 2013 · 10:45 AM

The Open Group Sydney – My Conference Highlights

By Mac Lemon, MD Australia at Enterprise Architects

Well the dust has settled now with the conclusion of The Open Group ‘Enterprise Transformation’ Conference held in Sydney, Australia for the first time on April 15-20. Enterprise Architects is proud to have been recognised at the event by The Open Group as being pivotal in the success of this event. A number of our clients including NBN, Australia Post, QGC, RIO and Westpac presented excellent papers on leading edge approaches in strategy and architecture and a number of EA’s own thought leaders in Craig Martin, Christine Stephenson and Ana Kukec also delivered widely acclaimed papers.

Attendance at the conference was impressive and demonstrated that there is substantial appetite for a dedicated event focussed on the challenges of business and technology strategy and architecture. We saw many international visitors both as delegates and presenting papers and there is no question that a 2014 Open Group Forum will be the stand out event in the calendar for business and technology strategy and architecture professionals.

My top 10 take-outs from the conference include the following:

The universal maturing in understanding the criticality of Business Architecture and the total convergence upon Business Capability Modelling as a cornerstone of business architecture;
The improving appreciation of techniques for understanding and expressing business strategy and motivation, such as strategy maps, business model canvass and business motivation modelling;
That customer experience is emerging as a common driver for many transformation initiatives;
While the process for establishing the case and roadmap for transformation appears well enough understood, the process for management of the blueprint through transformation is not and generally remains a major program risk;
Then next version of TOGAF® should offer material uplift in support for security architecture which otherwise remains at low levels of maturity from a framework standardisation perspective;
ArchiMate® is generating real interest as a preferred enterprise architecture modelling notation – and that stronger alignment of ArchiMate® and TOGAF® meta models in then next version of TOGAF® is highly anticipated;
There is industry demand for recognised certification of architects to demonstrate learning alongside experience as the mark of a good architect. There remains an unsatisfied requirement for certification that falls in the gap between TOGAF® and the Open CA certification;
Australia can be proud of its position in having the second highest per capita TOGAF® certification globally behind the Netherlands;
While the topic of interoperability in government revealed many battle scarred veterans convinced of the hopelessness of the cause – there remain an equal number of campaigners willing to tackle the challenge and their free and frank exchange of views was entertaining enough to justify worth the price of a conference ticket;
Unashamedly – Enterprise Architects remains in a league of its own in the concentration of strategy and architecture thought leadership in Australia – if not globally.

Mac Lemon is the Managing Director of Enterprise Architects Pty Ltd and is based in Melbourne, Australia.

This is an extract from Mac’s recent blog post on the Enterprise Architects web site which you can view here.

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Tagged as ArchiMate, architecture, Business Architecture, business transformation, certification, EA, enterprise architecture, Enterprise Transformation, security, The Open Group, The Open Group Conference, TOGAF

by The Open Group Blog | May 9, 2013 · 7:34 AM

Corso Introduces Roadmapping Support for TOGAF® 9 in its Strategic Planning Platform

By Martin Owen, CEO, Corso

Last week, we announced new roadmapping support for TOGAF® in IBM Rational System Architect®, a leading Enterprise Architecture and modeling software.

The new TOGAF extension supports the modeling, migration and implementation of an Enterprise Architecture within Corso’s Strategic Planning Platform, which integrates Enterprise Architecture, IT planning and strategic planning into a single, comprehensive solution. The new TOGAF extension provides capabilities in managing current and future state architectures, work packages and timelines/lifecycles /heatmaps—key areas for successful roadmapping and transition planning.

Corso now offers roadmapping solutions for both ArchiMate® 2.0 and TOGAF as part of its Strategic Planning Platform. Both solutions are available as SaaS option, on-premise or standard perpetual license solution. A roadmapping datasheet and white paper are available.

Roadmapping is critical for building change-tolerant Enterprise Architectures that accurately describe and manage strategic business transformations. Our new solution gives Enterprise Architects the tools within TOGAF to more quickly map out a transition plan with deliverables for the organization. By tying plans to the business strategy, the architects can drive a faster development and implementation lifecycle.

Our new TOGAF solution offers these key capabilities:

Automatic generation of timeline diagrams with milestones and dimensions.
Work package definitions and resources so users can group and track specific actions.
Heat maps that display a visual map of the state of the business and IT infrastructure and highlight cost overruns.
Improved gap analysis through enhanced support for plateaus and gaps.
Roadmap reports that enable users to see the current and future states of the architecture and work packages.
Integration with IBM Rational Focal Point® so that work packages and milestones can be used in portfolio management and prioritization initiatives.
Lifecycle support for standard states such as application portfolio management.

Corso’s Strategic Planning Platform is a comprehensive solution that integrates Enterprise Architecture, IT and strategic planning into a fully charged change process that uses cloud technology to elevate decision-making to a strategic level. This approach unites business and architecture views into one central platform and leverages existing tools and the Web to share information and decision-making across various teams within the organization. For more information about Corso and its roadmapping solutions, visit http://www.corso.co.uk.

Martin Owen, CEO, Corso has spent over 20 years in Enterprise Architecture and is a co-author of the original Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) standard. Martin has run teams driving the product directions, strategies and roadmaps for the Enterprise Architecture tools at IBM.

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Tagged as ArchiMate, architecture, business transformation, EA, EA framework, enterprise architecture, Enterprise Transformation, information technology, roadmapping, TOGAF

by The Open Group Blog | March 7, 2013 · 5:00 AM

Beyond Big Data

By Chris Harding, The Open Group

The big bang that started The Open Group Conference in Newport Beach was, appropriately, a presentation related to astronomy. Chris Gerty gave a keynote on Big Data at NASA, where he is Deputy Program Manager of the Open Innovation Program. He told us how visualizing deep space and its celestial bodies created understanding and enabled new discoveries. Everyone who attended felt inspired to explore the universe of Big Data during the rest of the conference. And that exploration – as is often the case with successful space missions – left us wondering what lies beyond.

The Big Data Conference Plenary

The second presentation on that Monday morning brought us down from the stars to the nuts and bolts of engineering. Mechanical devices require regular maintenance to keep functioning. Processing the mass of data generated during their operation can improve safety and cut costs. For example, airlines can overhaul aircraft engines when it needs doing, rather than on a fixed schedule that has to be frequent enough to prevent damage under most conditions, but might still fail to anticipate failure in unusual circumstances. David Potter and Ron Schuldt lead two of The Open Group initiatives, Quantum Lifecycle management (QLM) and the Universal Data Element Framework (UDEF). They explained how a semantic approach to product lifecycle management can facilitate the big-data processing needed to achieve this aim.

Chris Gerty was then joined by Andras Szakal, vice-president and chief technology officer at IBM US Federal IMT, Robert Weisman, chief executive officer of Build The Vision, and Jim Hietala, vice-president of Security at The Open Group, in a panel session on Big Data that was moderated by Dana Gardner of Interarbor Solutions. As always, Dana facilitated a fascinating discussion. Key points made by the panelists included: the trend to monetize data; the need to ensure veracity and usefulness; the need for security and privacy; the expectation that data warehouse technology will exist and evolve in parallel with map/reduce “on-the-fly” analysis; the importance of meaningful presentation of the data; integration with cloud and mobile technology; and the new ways in which Big Data can be used to deliver business value.

More on Big Data

In the afternoons of Monday and Tuesday, and on most of Wednesday, the conference split into streams. These have presentations that are more technical than the plenary, going deeper into their subjects. It’s a pity that you can’t be in all the streams at once. (At one point I couldn’t be in any of them, as there was an important side meeting to discuss the UDEF, which is in one of the areas that I support as forum director). Fortunately, there were a few great stream presentations that I did manage to get to.

On the Monday afternoon, Tom Plunkett and Janet Mostow of Oracle presented a reference architecture that combined Hadoop and NoSQL with traditional RDBMS, streaming, and complex event processing, to enable Big Data analysis. One application that they described was to trace the relations between particular genes and cancer. This could have big benefits in disease prediction and treatment. Another was to predict the movements of protesters at a demonstration through analysis of communications on social media. The police could then concentrate their forces in the right place at the right time.

Jason Bloomberg, president of Zapthink – now part of Dovel – is always thought-provoking. His presentation featured the need for governance vitality to cope with ever changing tools to handle Big Data of ever increasing size, “crowdsourcing” to channel the efforts of many people into solving a problem, and business transformation that is continuous rather than a one-time step from “as is” to “to be.”

Later in the week, I moderated a discussion on Architecting for Big Data in the Cloud. We had a well-balanced panel made up of TJ Virdi of Boeing, Mark Skilton of Capgemini and Tom Plunkett of Oracle. They made some excellent points. Big Data analysis provides business value by enabling better understanding, leading to better decisions. The analysis is often an iterative process, with new questions emerging as answers are found. There is no single application that does this analysis and provides the visualization needed for understanding, but there are a number of products that can be used to assist. The role of the data scientist in formulating the questions and configuring the visualization is critical. Reference models for the technology are emerging but there are as yet no commonly-accepted standards.

The New Enterprise Platform

Jogging is a great way of taking exercise at conferences, and I was able to go for a run most mornings before the meetings started at Newport Beach. Pacific Coast Highway isn’t the most interesting of tracks, but on Tuesday morning I was soon up in Castaways Park, pleasantly jogging through the carefully-nurtured natural coastal vegetation, with views over the ocean and its margin of high-priced homes, slipways, and yachts. I reflected as I ran that we had heard some interesting things about Big Data, but it is now an established topic. There must be something new coming over the horizon.

The answer to what this might be was suggested in the first presentation of that day’s plenary, Mary Ann Mezzapelle, security strategist for HP Enterprise Services, talked about the need to get security right for Big Data and the Cloud. But her scope was actually wider. She spoke of the need to secure the “third platform” – the term coined by IDC to describe the convergence of social, cloud and mobile computing with Big Data.

Securing Big Data

Mary Ann’s keynote was not about the third platform itself, but about what should be done to protect it. The new platform brings with it a new set of security threats, and the increasing scale of operation makes it increasingly important to get the security right. Mary Ann presented a thoughtful analysis founded on a risk-based approach.

She was followed by Adrian Lane, chief technology officer at Securosis, who pointed out that Big Data processing using NoSQL has a different architecture from traditional relational data processing, and requires different security solutions. This does not necessarily mean new techniques; existing techniques can be used in new ways. For example, Kerberos may be used to secure inter-node communications in map/reduce processing. Adrian’s presentation completed the Tuesday plenary sessions.

Service Oriented Architecture

The streams continued after the plenary. I went to the Distributed Services Architecture stream, which focused on SOA.

Bill Poole, enterprise architect at JourneyOne in Australia, described how to use the graphical architecture modeling language ArchiMate^® to model service-oriented architectures. He illustrated this using a case study of a global mining organization that wanted to consolidate its two existing bespoke inventory management applications into a single commercial off-the-shelf application. It’s amazing how a real-world case study can make a topic come to life, and the audience certainly responded warmly to Bill’s excellent presentation.

Ali Arsanjani, chief technology officer for Business Performance and Service Optimization, and Heather Kreger, chief technology officer for International Standards, both at IBM, described the range of SOA standards published by The Open Group and available for use by enterprise architects. Ali was one of the brains that developed the SOA Reference Architecture, and Heather is a key player in international standards activities for SOA, where she has helped The Open Group’s Service Integration Maturity Model and SOA Governance Framework to become international standards, and is working on an international standard SOA reference architecture.

Cloud Computing

To start Wednesday’s Cloud Computing streams, TJ Virdi, senior enterprise architect at The Boeing Company, discussed use of TOGAF^® to develop an Enterprise Architecture for a Cloud ecosystem. A large enterprise such as Boeing may use many Cloud service providers, enabling collaboration between corporate departments, partners, and regulators in a complex ecosystem. Architecting for this is a major challenge, and The Open Group’s TOGAF for Cloud Ecosystems project is working to provide guidance.

Stuart Boardman of KPN gave a different perspective on Cloud ecosystems, with a case study from the energy industry. An ecosystem may not necessarily be governed by a single entity, and the participants may not always be aware of each other. Energy generation and consumption in the Netherlands is part of a complex international ecosystem involving producers, consumers, transporters, and traders of many kinds. A participant may be involved in several ecosystems in several ways: a farmer for example, might consume energy, have wind turbines to produce it, and also participate in food production and transport ecosystems.

Penelope Gordon of 1-Plug Corporation explained how choice and use of business metrics can impact Cloud service providers. She worked through four examples: a start-up Software-as-a-Service provider requiring investment, an established company thinking of providing its products as cloud services, an IT department planning to offer an in-house private Cloud platform, and a government agency seeking budget for government Cloud.

Mark Skilton, director at Capgemini in the UK, gave a presentation titled “Digital Transformation and the Role of Cloud Computing.” He covered a very broad canvas of business transformation driven by technological change, and illustrated his theme with a case study from the pharmaceutical industry. New technology enables new business models, giving competitive advantage. Increasingly, the introduction of this technology is driven by the business, rather than the IT side of the enterprise, and it has major challenges for both sides. But what new technologies are in question? Mark’s presentation had Cloud in the title, but also featured social and mobile computing, and Big Data.

The New Trend

On Thursday morning I took a longer run, to and round Balboa Island. With only one road in or out, its main street of shops and restaurants is not a through route and the island has the feel of a real village. The SOA Work Group Steering Committee had found an excellent, and reasonably priced, Italian restaurant there the previous evening. There is a clear resurgence of interest in SOA, partly driven by the use of service orientation – the principle, rather than particular protocols – in Cloud Computing and other new technologies. That morning I took the track round the shoreline, and was reminded a little of Dylan Thomas’s “fishing boat bobbing sea.” Fishing here is for leisure rather than livelihood, but I suspected that the fishermen, like those of Thomas’s little Welsh village, spend more time in the bar than on the water.

I thought about how the conference sessions had indicated an emerging trend. This is not a new technology but the combination of four current technologies to create a new platform for enterprise IT: Social, Cloud, and Mobile computing, and Big Data. Mary Ann Mezzapelle’s presentation had referenced IDC’s “third platform.” Other discussions had mentioned Gartner’s “Nexus of forces,” the combination of Social, Cloud and Mobile computing with information that Gartner says is transforming the way people and businesses relate to technology, and will become a key differentiator of business and technology management. Mark Skilton had included these same four technologies in his presentation. Great minds, and analyst corporations, think alike!

I thought also about the examples and case studies in the stream presentations. Areas as diverse as healthcare, manufacturing, energy and policing are using the new technologies. Clearly, they can deliver major business benefits. The challenge for enterprise architects is to maximize those benefits through pragmatic architectures.

Emerging Standards

On the way back to the hotel, I remarked again on what I had noticed before, how beautifully neat and carefully maintained the front gardens bordering the sidewalk are. I almost felt that I was running through a public botanical garden. Is there some ordinance requiring people to keep their gardens tidy, with severe penalties for anyone who leaves a lawn or hedge unclipped? Is a miserable defaulter fitted with a ball and chain, not to be removed until the untidy vegetation has been properly trimmed, with nail clippers? Apparently not. People here keep their gardens tidy because they want to. The best standards are like that: universally followed, without use or threat of sanction.

Standards are an issue for the new enterprise platform. Apart from the underlying standards of the Internet, there really aren’t any. The area isn’t even mapped out. Vendors of Social, Cloud, Mobile, and Big Data products and services are trying to stake out as much valuable real estate as they can. They have no interest yet in boundaries with neatly-clipped hedges.

This is a stage that every new technology goes through. Then, as it matures, the vendors understand that their products and services have much more value when they conform to standards, just as properties have more value in an area where everything is neat and well-maintained.

It may be too soon to define those standards for the new enterprise platform, but it is certainly time to start mapping out the area, to understand its subdivisions and how they inter-relate, and to prepare the way for standards. Following the conference, The Open Group has announced a new Forum, provisionally titled Open Platform 3.0, to do just that.

The SOA and Cloud Work Groups

Thursday was my final day of meetings at the conference. The plenary and streams presentations were done. This day was for working meetings of the SOA and Cloud Work Groups. I also had an informal discussion with Ron Schuldt about a new approach for the UDEF, following up on the earlier UDEF side meeting. The conference hallways, as well as the meeting rooms, often see productive business done.

The SOA Work Group discussed a certification program for SOA professionals, and an update to the SOA Reference Architecture. The Open Group is working with ISO and the IEEE to define a standard SOA reference architecture that will have consensus across all three bodies.

The Cloud Work Group had met earlier to further the TOGAF for Cloud ecosystems project. Now it worked on its forthcoming white paper on business performance metrics. It also – though this was not on the original agenda – discussed Gartner’s Nexus of Forces, and the future role of the Work Group in mapping out the new enterprise platform.

Mapping the New Enterprise Platform

At the start of the conference we looked at how to map the stars. Big Data analytics enables people to visualize the universe in new ways, reach new understandings of what is in it and how it works, and point to new areas for future exploration.

As the conference progressed, we found that Big Data is part of a convergence of forces. Social, mobile, and Cloud Computing are being combined with Big Data to form a new enterprise platform. The development of this platform, and its roll-out to support innovative applications that deliver more business value, is what lies beyond Big Data.

At the end of the conference we were thinking about mapping the new enterprise platform. This will not require sophisticated data processing and analysis. It will take discussions to create a common understanding, and detailed committee work to draft the guidelines and standards. This work will be done by The Open Group’s new Open Platform 3.0 Forum.

The next Open Group conference is in the week of April 15, in Sydney, Australia. I’m told that there’s some great jogging there. More importantly, we’ll be reflecting on progress in mapping Open Platform 3.0, and thinking about what lies ahead. I’m looking forward to it already.

Dr. Chris Harding is Director for Interoperability and SOA at The Open Group. He has been with The Open Group for more than ten years, and is currently responsible for managing and supporting its work on interoperability, including SOA and interoperability aspects of Cloud Computing. He is a member of the BCS, the IEEE and the AEA, and is a certified TOGAF practitioner.

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by The Open Group Blog | March 6, 2013 · 5:00 AM

An Update on ArchiMate® 2 Certification

By Andrew Josey, The Open Group

In this blog we provide latest news on the status of the ArchiMate® Certification for People program. Recent changes to the program include the availability of the ArchiMate 2 Examination through Prometric test centers and also the addition of the ArchiMate 2 Foundation qualification.

Program Vision

The vision for the ArchiMate 2 Certification Program is to define and promote a market-driven education and certification program to support the ArchiMate modeling language standard. The program is supported by an Accredited ArchiMate Training program, in which there are currently 10 accredited courses. There are self-study materials available.

Certification Levels

There are two levels defined for ArchiMate 2 People Certification:

Level 1: ArchiMate 2 Foundation
Level 2: ArchiMate 2 Certified

The difference between the two certification levels is that for ArchiMate 2 Certified there are further requirements in addition to passing the ArchiMate 2 Examination as shown in the figure below.

What are the study paths to become certified?

The path to certification depends on the Level. For Level 2, ArchiMate Certified: you achieve certification only after satisfactorily completing an Accredited ArchiMate Training Course, including completion of practical exercises, together with an examination. For Level 1 you may choose to self study or attend a training course. For Level 1 the requirement is only to pass the ArchiMate 2 examination.

How can I find out about the syllabus and examinations?

To obtain a high level view, read the datasheets that describe certification that are available from the ArchiMate Certification website. For detail on what is expected from candidates, see the Conformance Requirements document. The Conformance Requirements apply to both Level 1 and Level 2.

The ArchiMate 2 examination comprises 40 questions in simple multiple choice format. A Practice examination is included as part of an Accredited ArchiMate Training course and also in the ArchiMate 2 Foundation Study Guide.

For Level 2, a set of Practical exercises are included as part of the training course and these must be successfully completed. They are assessed by the trainer as part of an accredited training course.

More Information and Resources

More information on the program is available at the ArchiMate 2 Certification site at http://www.opengroup.org/certifications/archimate/

Details of the ArchiMate 2 Examination are available at: http://www.opengroup.org/certifications/archimate/docs/exam

The calendar of Accredited ArchiMate 2 Training courses is available at: http://www.opengrou.org/archimate/training-calendar/

The ArchiMate 2 Foundation Self Study Pack is available for purchase and immediate download at http://www.opengroup.org/bookstore/catalog/b132.htm

ArchiMate is a registered trademark of The Open Group.

Andrew Josey is Director of Standards within The Open Group. He is currently managing the standards process for The Open Group, and has recently led the standards development projects for TOGAF 9.1, ArchiMate 2.0, IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (POSIX), and the core specifications of the Single UNIX Specification, Version 4. Previously, he has led the development and operation of many of The Open Group certification development projects, including industry-wide certification programs for the UNIX system, the Linux Standard Base, TOGAF, and IEEE POSIX. He is a member of the IEEE, USENIX, UKUUG, and the Association of Enterprise Architects.

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Tagged as ArchiMate, ArchiMate 2.0, ArchiMate Forum, certification, certifications, foundation, IT certification, Prometric, standard

by The Open Group Blog | March 1, 2013 · 2:04 PM

Complexity from Big Data and Cloud Trends Makes Architecture Tools like ArchiMate and TOGAF More Powerful, Says Expert Panel

By Dana Gardner, Interarbor Solutions

Listen to the recorded podcast here: Complexity from Big Data and Cloud Trends Makes Architecture Tools like ArchiMate and TOGAF More Powerful, Says Expert Panel, or read the transcript here.

We recently assembled a panel of Enterprise Architecture (EA) experts to explain how such simultaneous and complex trends as big data, Cloud Computing, security, and overall IT transformation can be helped by the combined strengths of The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF®) and the ArchiMate® modeling language.

The panel consisted of Chris Forde, General Manager for Asia-Pacific and Vice President of Enterprise Architecture at The Open Group; Iver Band, Vice Chair of The Open Group ArchiMate Forum and Enterprise Architect at The Standard, a diversified financial services company; Mike Walker, Senior Enterprise Architecture Adviser and Strategist at HP and former Director of Enterprise Architecture at Dell; Henry Franken, the Chairman of The Open Group ArchiMate Forum and Managing Director at BIZZdesign, and Dave Hornford, Chairman of the Architecture Forum at The Open Group and Managing Partner at Conexiam. I served as the moderator.

This special BriefingsDirect thought leadership interview series comes to you in conjunction with The Open Group Conference recently held in Newport Beach, California. The conference focused on “Big Data – he transformation we need to embrace today.” [Disclosure: The Open Group and HP are sponsors ofBriefingsDirect podcasts.]

Here are some excerpts:

Gardner: Is there something about the role of the enterprise architect that is shifting?

Walker: There is less of a focus on the traditional things we come to think of EA such as standards, governance and policies, but rather into emerging areas such as the soft skills, Business Architecture, and strategy.

To this end I see a lot in the realm of working directly with the executive chain to understand the key value drivers for the company and rationalize where they want to go with their business. So we’re moving into a business-transformation role in this practice.

At the same time, we’ve got to be mindful of the disruptive external technology forces coming in as well. EA can’t just divorce from the other aspects of architecture as well. So the role that enterprise architects play becomes more and more important and elevated in the organization.

Two examples of this disruptive technology that are being focused on at the conference are Big Data and Cloud Computing. Both are providing impacts to our businesses not because of some new business idea but because technology is available to enhance or provide new capabilities to our business. The EA’s still do have to understand these new technology innovations and determine how they will apply to the business.

We need to get really good enterprise architects, it’s difficult to find good ones. There is a shortage right now especially given that a lot of focus is being put on the EA department to really deliver sound architectures.

Not standalone

Gardner: We’ve been talking a lot here about Big Data, but usually that’s not just a standalone topic. It’s Big Data and Cloud, Cloud, mobile and security.

So with these overlapping and complex relationships among multiple trends, why is EA and things like the TOGAF framework and the ArchiMate modeling language especially useful?

Band: One of the things that has been clear for a while now is that people outside of IT don’t necessarily have to go through the technology function to avail themselves of these technologies any more. Whether they ever had to is really a question as well.

One of things that EA is doing, and especially in the practice that I work in, is using approaches like the ArchiMate modeling language to effect clear communication between the business, IT, partners and other stakeholders. That’s what I do in my daily work, overseeing our major systems modernization efforts. I work with major partners, some of which are offshore.

I’m increasingly called upon to make sure that we have clear processes for making decisions and clear ways of visualizing the different choices in front of us. We can’t always unilaterally dictate the choice, but we can make the conversation clearer by using frameworks like the TOGAF standard and the ArchiMate modeling language, which I use virtually every day in my work.

Hornford: The fundamental benefit of these tools is the organization realizing its capability and strategy. I just came from a session where a fellow quoted a Harvard study, which said that around a third of executives thought their company was good at executing on its strategy. He highlighted that this means that two-thirds are not good at executing on their strategy.

If you’re not good at executing on your strategy and you’ve got Big Data, mobile, consumerization of IT and Cloud, where are you going? What’s the correct approach? How does this fit into what you were trying to accomplish as an enterprise?

An enterprise architect that is doing their job is bringing together the strategy, goals and objectives of the organization. Also, its capabilities with the techniques that are available, whether it’s offshoring, onshoring, Cloud, or Big Data, so that the organization is able to move forward to where it needs to be, as opposed to where it’s going to randomly walk to.

Forde: One of the things that has come out in several of the presentations is this kind of capability-based planning, a technique in EA to get their arms around this thing from a business-driver perspective. Just to polish what Dave said a little bit, it’s connecting all of those things. We see enterprises talking about a capability-based view of things on that basis.

Gardner: Let’s get a quick update. The TOGAF framework, where are we and what have been the highlights from this particular event?

Minor upgrade

Hornford: In the last year, we’ve published a minor upgrade for TOGAF version 9.1 which was based upon cleaning up consistency in the language in the TOGAF documentation. What we’re working on right now is a significant new release, the next release of the TOGAF standard, which is dividing the TOGAF documentation to make it more consumable, more consistent and more useful for someone.

Today, the TOGAF standard has guidance on how to do something mixed into the framework of what you should be doing. We’re peeling those apart. So with that peeled apart, we won’t have guidance that is tied to classic application architecture in a world of Cloud.

What we find when we have done work with the Banking Industry Architecture Network (BIAN) for banking architecture, Sherwood Applied Business Security Architecture (SABSA) for security architecture, and the TeleManagement Forum, is that the concepts in the TOGAF framework work across industries and across trends. We need to move the guidance into a place so that we can be far nimbler on how to tie Cloud with my current strategy, how to tie consumerization of IT with on-shoring?

Franken: The ArchiMate modeling language turned two last year, and the ArchiMate 1.0 standard is the language to model out the core of your EA. The ArchiMate 2.0 standard added two specifics to it to make it better aligned also to the process of EA.

According to the TOGAF standard, this is being able to model out the motivation, why you’re doing EA, stakeholders and the goals that drive us. The second extension to the ArchiMate standard is being able to model out its planning and migration.

So with the core EA and these two extensions, together with the TOGAF standard process working, you have a good basis on getting EA to work in your organization.

Gardner: Mike, fill us in on some of your thoughts about the role of information architecture vis-à-vis the larger business architect and enterprise architect roles.

Walker: Information architecture is an interesting topic in that it hasn’t been getting a whole lot of attention until recently.

Information architecture is an aspect of Enterprise Architecture that enables an information strategy or business solution through the definition of the company’s business information assets, their sources, structure, classification and associations that will prescribe the required application architecture and technical capabilities.

Information architecture is the bridge between the Business Architecture world and the application and technology architecture activities.

The reason I say that is because information architecture is a business-driven discipline that details the information strategy of the company. As we know, and from what we’ve heard at the conference keynotes like in the case of NASA, Big Data, and security presentations, the preservation and classification of that information is vital to understanding what your architecture should be.

Least matured

From an industry perspective, this is one of the least matured, as far as being incorporated into a formal discipline. The TOGAF standard actually has a phase dedicated to it in data architecture. Again, there are still lots of opportunities to grow and incorporate additional methods, models and tools by the enterprise information management discipline.

Enterprise information management not only it captures traditional topic areas like master data management (MDM), metadata and unstructured types of information architecture but also focusing on the information governance, and the architecture patterns and styles implemented in MDM, Big Data, etc. There is a great deal of opportunity there.

From the role of information architects, I’m seeing more and more traction in the industry as a whole. I’ve dealt with an entire group that’s focused on information architecture and building up an enterprise information management practice, so that we can take our top line business strategies and understand what architectures we need to put there.

This is a critical enabler for global companies, because oftentimes they’re restricted by regulation, typically handled at a government or regional area. This means we have to understand that we build our architecture. So it’s not about the application, but rather the data that it processes, moves, or transforms.

Gardner: Up until not too long ago, the conventional thinking was that applications generate data. Then you treat the data in some way so that it can be used, perhaps by other applications, but that the data was secondary to the application.

But there’s some shift in that thinking now more toward the idea that the data is the application and that new applications are designed to actually expand on the data’s value and deliver it out to mobile tiers perhaps. Does that follow in your thinking that the data is actually more prominent as a resource perhaps on par with applications?

Walker: You’re spot on, Dana. Before the commoditization of these technologies that resided on premises, we could get away with starting at the application layer and work our way back because we had access to the source code or hardware behind our firewalls. We could throw servers out, and we used to put the firewalls in front of the data to solve the problem with infrastructure. So we didn’t have to treat information as a first-class citizen. Times have changed, though.

Information access and processing is now democratized and it’s being pushed as the first point of presentment. A lot of times this is on a mobile device and even then it’s not the corporate’s mobile device, but your personal device. So how do you handle that data?

It’s the same way with Cloud, and I’ll give you a great example of this. I was working as an adviser for a company, and they were looking at their Cloud strategy. They had made a big bet on one of the big infrastructures and Cloud-service providers. They looked first at what the features and functions that that Cloud provider could provide, and not necessarily the information requirements. There were two major issues that they ran into, and that was essentially a showstopper. They had to pull off that infrastructure.

The first one was that in that specific Cloud provider’s terms of service around intellectual property (IP) ownership. Essentially, that company was forced to cut off their IP rights.

Big business

As you know, IP is a big business these days, and so that was a showstopper. It actually broke the core regulatory laws around being able to discover information.

So focusing on the applications to make sure it meets your functional needs is important. However, we should take a step back and look at the information first and make sure that for the people in your organization who can’t say no, their requirements are satisfied.

Gardner: Data architecture is it different from EA and Business Architecture, or is it a subset? What’s the relationship, Dave?

Hornford: Data architecture is part of an EA. I won’t use the word subset, because a subset starts to imply that it is a distinct thing that you can look at on its own. You cannot look at your Business Architecture without understanding your information architecture. When you think about Big Data, cool. We’ve got this pile of data in the corner. Where did it come from? Can we use it? Do we actually have legitimate rights, as Mike highlighted, to use this information? Are we allowed to mix it and who mixes it?

When we look at how our business is optimized, they normally optimize around work product, what the organization is delivering. That’s very easy. You can see who consumes your work product. With information, you often have no idea who consumes your information. So now we have provenance, we have source and as we move for global companies, we have the trends around consumerization, Cloud and simply tightening cycle time.

Gardner: Of course, the end game for a lot of the practitioners here is to create that feedback loop of a lifecycle approach, rapid information injection and rapid analysis that could be applied. So what are some of the ways that these disciplines and tools can help foster that complete lifecycle?

Band: The disciplines and tools can facilitate the right conversations among different stakeholders. One of the things that we’re doing at The Standard is building cadres equally balanced between people in business and IT.

We’re training them in information management, going through a particular curriculum, and having them study for an information management certification that introduces a lot of these different frameworks and standard concepts.

Creating cadres

We want to create these cadres to be able to solve tough and persistent information management problems that affect all companies in financial services, because information is a shared asset. The purpose of the frameworks is to ensure proper stewardship of that asset across disciplines and across organizations within an enterprise.

Hornford: The core is from the two standards that we have, the ArchiMate standard and the TOGAF standard. The TOGAF standard has, from its early roots, focused on the components of EA and how to build a consistent method of understanding of what I’m trying to accomplish, understanding where I am, and where I need to be to reach my goal.

When we bring in the ArchiMate standard, I have a language, a descriptor, a visual descriptor that allows me to cross all of those domains in a consistent description, so that I can do that traceability. When I pull in this lever or I have this regulatory impact, what does it hit me with, or if I have this constraint, what does it hit me with?

If I don’t do this, if I don’t use the framework of the TOGAF standard, or I don’t use the discipline of formal modeling in the ArchiMate standard, we’re going to do it anecdotally. We’re going to trip. We’re going to fall. We’re going to have a non-ending series of surprises, as Mike highlighted.

“Oh, terms of service. I am violating the regulations. Beautiful. Let’s take that to our executive and tell him right as we are about to go live that we have to stop, because we can’t get where we want to go, because we didn’t think about what it took to get there.” And that’s the core of EA in the frameworks.

Walker: To build on what Dave has just talked about and going back to your first question Dana, the value statement on TOGAF from a business perspective. The businesses value of TOGAF is that they get a repeatable and a predictable process for building out our architectures that properly manage risks and reliably produces value.

The TOGAF framework provides a methodology to ask what problems you’re trying to solve and where you are trying to go with your business opportunities or challenges. That leads to Business Architecture, which is really a rationalization in technical or architectural terms the distillation of the corporate strategy.

From there, what you want to understand is information — how does that translate, what information architecture do we need to put in place? You get into all sorts of things around risk management, etc., and then it goes on from there, until what we were talking about earlier about information architecture.

If the TOGAF standard is applied properly you can achieve the same result every time, That is what interests business stakeholders in my opinion. And the ArchiMate modeling language is great because, as we talked about, it provides very rich visualizations so that people cannot only show a picture, but tie information together. Different from other aspects of architecture, information architecture is less about the boxes and more about the lines.

Quality of the individuals

Forde: Building on what Dave was saying earlier and also what Iver was saying is that while the process and the methodology and the tools are of interest, it’s the discipline and the quality of the individuals doing the work

Iver talked about how the conversation is shifting and the practice is improving to build communications groups that have a discipline to operate around. What I am hearing is implied, but actually I know what specifically occurs, is that we end up with assets that are well described and reusable.

And there is a point at which you reach a critical mass that these assets become an accelerator for decision making. So the ability of the enterprise and the decision makers in the enterprise at the right level to respond is improved, because they have a well disciplined foundation beneath them.

A set of assets that are reasonably well-known at the right level of granularity for them to absorb the information and the conversation is being structured so that the technical people and the business people are in the right room together to talk about the problems.

This is actually a fairly sophisticated set of operations that I am discussing and doesn’t happen overnight, but is definitely one of the things that we see occurring with our members in certain cases.

Hornford: I want to build on that what Chris said. It’s actually the word “asset.” While he was talking, I was thinking about how people have talked about information as an asset. Most of us don’t know what information we have, how it’s collected, where it is, but we know we have got a valuable asset.

I’ll use an analogy. I have a factory some place in the world that makes stuff. Is that an asset? If I know that my factory is able to produce a particular set of goods and it’s hooked into my supply chain here, I’ve got an asset. Before that, I just owned a thing.

I was very encouraged listening to what Iver talked about. We’re building cadres. We’re building out this approach and I have seen this. I’m not using that word, but now I’m stealing that word. It’s how people build effective teams, which is not to take a couple of specialists and put them in an ivory tower, but it’s to provide the method and the discipline of how we converse about it, so that we can have a consistent conversation.

When I tie it with some of the tools from the Architecture Forum and the ArchiMate Forum, I’m able to consistently describe it, so that I now have an asset I can identify, consume and produce value from.

Business context

Forde: And this is very different from data modeling. We are not talking about entity relationship, junk at the technical detail, or third normal form and that kind of stuff. We’re talking about a conversation that’s occurring around the business context of what needs to go on supported by the right level of technical detail when you need to go there in order to clarify.

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Tagged as ArchiMate, ArchiMate 2.0, ArchiMate Forum, big data, cloud, cloud computing, EA, enterprise, Enterprise architect, enterprise architecture, Newport Beach, Newport Beach Conference, The Open Group, The Open Group Conference, The Open Group Conference in Newport Beach, TOGAF, TOGAF 9.1

by The Open Group Blog | February 8, 2013 · 5:00 AM

Three Best Practices for Successful Implementation of Enterprise Architecture Using the TOGAF® Framework and the ArchiMate® Modeling Language

By Henry Franken, Sven van Dijk and Bas van Gils, BiZZdesign

The discipline of Enterprise Architecture (EA) was developed in the 1980s with a strong focus on the information systems landscape of organizations. Since those days, the scope of the discipline has slowly widened to include more and more aspects of the enterprise as a whole. This holistic perspective takes into account the concerns of a wide variety of stakeholders. Architects, especially at the strategic level, attempt to answer the question: “How should we organize ourselves in order to be successful?”

An architecture framework is a foundational structure or set of structures for developing a broad range of architectures and consists of a process and a modeling component. The TOGAF® framework and the ArchiMate® modeling language – both maintained by The Open Group – are two leading and widely adopted standards in this field.

While both the TOGAF framework and the ArchiMate modeling language have a broad (enterprise-wide) scope and provide a practical starting point for an effective EA capability, a key factor is the successful embedding of EA standards and tools in the organization. From this perspective, the implementation of EA means that an organization adopts processes for the development and governance of EA artifacts and deliverables. Standards need to be tailored, and tools need to be configured in the right way in order to create the right fit. Or more popularly stated, “For an effective EA, it has to walk the walk, and talk the talk of the organization!”

EA touches on many aspects such as business, IT (and especially the alignment of these two), strategic portfolio management, project management and risk management. EA is by definition about cooperation and therefore it is impossible to operate in isolation. Successful embedding of an EA capability in the organization is typically approached as a change project with clearly defined goals, metrics, stakeholders, appropriate governance and accountability, and with assigned responsibilities in place.

With this in mind, we share three best practices for the successful implementation of Enterprise Architecture:

Think big, start small

The potential footprint of a mature EA capability is as big as the entire organization, but one of the key success factors for being successful with EA is to deliver value early on. Experience from our consultancy practice proves that a “think big, start small” approach has the most potential for success. This means that the process of implementing an EA capability is a process with iterative and incremental steps, based on a long term vision. Each step in the process must add measurable value to the EA practice, and priorities should be based on the needs and the change capacity of the organization.

Combine process and modeling

The TOGAF framework and the ArchiMate modeling language are a powerful combination. Deliverables in the architecture process are more effective when based on an approach that combines formal models with powerful visualization capabilities.

The TOGAF standard describes the architecture process in detail. The Architecture Development Method (ADM) is the core of the TOGAF standard. The ADM is a customer-focused and value-driven process for the sustainable development of a business capability. The ADM specifies deliverables throughout the architecture life-cycle with a focus on the effective communication to a variety of stakeholders. ArchiMate is fully complementary to the content as specified in the TOGAF standard. The ArchiMate standard can be used to describe all aspects of the EA in a coherent way, while tailoring the content for a specific audience. Even more, an architecture repository is a valuable asset that can be reused throughout the enterprise. This greatly benefits communication and cooperation of Enterprise Architects and their stakeholders.

Use a tool!

It is true, “a fool with a tool is still a fool.” In our teaching and consulting practice we have found; however, that adoption of a flexible and easy to use tool can be a strong driver in pushing the EA initiative forward.

EA brings together valuable information that greatly enhances decision making, whether on a strategic or more operational level. This knowledge not only needs to be efficiently managed and maintained, it also needs to be communicated to the right stakeholder at the right time, and even more importantly, in the right format. EA has a diverse audience that has business and technical backgrounds, and each of the stakeholders needs to be addressed in a language that is understood by all. Therefore, essential qualifications for EA tools are: rigidity when it comes to the management and maintenance of knowledge and flexibility when it comes to the analysis (ad-hoc, what-if, etc.), presentation and communication of the information to diverse audiences.

So what you are looking for is a tool with solid repository capabilities, flexible modeling and analysis functionality.

Conclusion

EA brings value to the organization because it answers more accurately the question: “How should we organize ourselves?” Standards for EA help monetize on investments in EA more quickly. The TOGAF framework and the ArchiMate modeling language are popular, widespread, open and complete standards for EA, both from a process and a language perspective. EA becomes even more effective if these standards are used in the right way. The EA capability needs to be carefully embedded in the organization. This is usually a process based on a long term vision and has the most potential for success if approached as “think big, start small.” Enterprise Architects can benefit from tool support, provided that it supports flexible presentation of content, so that it can be tailored for the communication to specific audiences.

More information on this subject can be found on our website: www.bizzdesign.com. Whitepapers are available for download, and our blog section features a number of very interesting posts regarding the subjects covered in this paper.

If you would like to know more or comment on this blog, or please do not hesitate to contact us directly!

Henry Franken is the managing director of BiZZdesign and is chair of The Open Group ArchiMate Forum. As chair of The Open Group ArchiMate Forum, Henry led the development of the ArchiMate Version 2.o standard. Henry is a speaker at many conferences and has co-authored several international publications and Open Group White Papers. Henry is co-founder of the BPM-Forum. At BiZZdesign, Henry is responsible for research and innovation.

Sven van Dijk Msc. is a consultant and trainer at BiZZdesign North America. He worked as an application consultant on large scale ERP implementations and as a business consultant in projects on information management and IT strategy in various industries such as finance and construction. He gained nearly eight years of experience in applying structured methods and tools for Business Process Management and Enterprise Architecture.

Bas van Gils is a consultant, trainer and researcher for BiZZdesign. His primary focus is on strategic use of enterprise architecture. Bas has worked in several countries, across a wide range of organizations in industry, retail, and (semi)governmental settings. Bas is passionate about his work, has published in various professional and academic journals and writes for several blogs.

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Tagged as ArchiMate, ArchiMate 2.0, ArchiMate Forum, architecture framework, BIZZdesign, EA framework, enterprise, Enterprise architect, Enterprise Architects, enterprise architecture, Enterprise Transformation, frameworks, open standards, standard, standards, TOGAF, TOGAF 9.1

by The Open Group Blog | January 24, 2013 · 5:00 AM

Successful Enterprise Architecture using the TOGAF® and ArchiMate® Standards

By Henry Franken, BiZZdesign

The discipline of Enterprise Architecture was developed in the 1980s with a strong focus on the information systems landscape of organizations. Since those days, the scope of the discipline has slowly widened to include more and more aspects of the enterprise as a whole. This holistic perspective takes into account the concerns of a wide variety of stakeholders. Architects, especially at the strategic level, attempt to answer the question “How should we organize ourselves in order to be successful?”

An architecture framework is a foundational structure, or set of structures, which can be used for developing a broad range of different architectures and consists of a process and a modeling component. TOGAF® framework and the ArchiMate® modeling language – both maintained by The Open Group® – are the two leading standards in this field.

Much has been written on this topic in online forums, whitepapers, and blogs. On the BiZZdesign blog we have published several series on EA in general and these standards in particular, with a strong focus on the question: what should we do to be successful with EA using TOGAF framework and the ArchiMate modeling language? I would like to summarize some of our findings here:

Tip 1	One of the key success factors for being successful with EA is to deliver value early on. We have found that organizations who understand that a long-term vision and incremental delivery (“think big, act small”) have a larger chance of developing an effective EA capability

Tip 2	Combine process and modeling: TOGAF framework and the ArchiMate modeling language are a powerful combination. Deliverables in the architecture process are more effective when based on an approach that combines formal models with powerful visualization capabilities. Even more, an architecture repository is an valuable asset that can be reused throughout the enterprise

Tip 3	Use a tool! It is true that “a fool with a tool is still a fool”. In our teaching and consulting practice we have found, however, that adoption of a flexible and easy to use tool can be a strong driver in pushing the EA-initiative forward.

There will be several interesting presentations on this subject at the upcoming Open Group conference (Newport Beach, CA, USA, January 28 – 31: Look here), ranging from theory to case practice, focusing on getting started with EA as well as on advanced topics.

I will also present on this subject and will elaborate on the combined use of The Open Group standards for EA. I also gladly invite you to join me at the panel sessions. Look forward to see you there!

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Tagged as ArchiMate, ArchiMate 2.0, ArchiMate Forum, BIZZdesign, enterprise, Enterprise architect, Enterprise Architects, enterprise architecture, enterprise capabilities, Henry Franken, open standards, standard, standards, TOGAF, TOGAF 9.1, whitepaper

by The Open Group Blog | January 4, 2013 · 5:00 AM

2013 Open Group Predictions, Vol. 2

By The Open Group

Continuing on the theme of predictions, here are a few more, which focus on global IT trends, business architecture, OTTF and Open Group events in 2013.

Global Enterprise Architecture

By Chris Forde, Vice President of Enterprise Architecture and Membership Capabilities

Cloud is no longer a bleeding edge technology – most organizations are already well on their way to deploying cloud technology. However, Cloud implementations are resurrecting a perennial problem for organizations—integration. Now that Cloud infrastructures are being deployed, organizations are having trouble integrating different systems, especially with systems hosted by third parties outside their organization. What will happen when two, three or four technical delivery systems are hosted on AND off premise? This presents a looming integration problem.

As we see more and more organizations buying into cloud infrastructures, we’ll see an increase in cross-platform integration architectures globally in 2013. The role of the enterprise architect will become more complex. Architectures must not only ensure that systems are integrated properly, but architects also need to figure out a way to integrate outsourced teams and services and determine responsibility across all systems. Additionally, outsourcing and integration will lead to increased focus on security in the coming year, especially in healthcare and financial sectors. When so many people are involved, and responsibility is shared or lost in the process, gaping holes can be left unnoticed. As data is increasingly shared between organizations and current trends escalate, security will also become more and more of a concern. Integration may yield great rewards architecturally, but it also means greater exposure to vulnerabilities outside of your firewall.

Within the Architecture Forum, we will be working on improvements to the TOGAF® standard throughout 2013, as well as an effort to continue to harmonize the TOGAF specification with the ArchiMate® modelling language. The Forum also expects to publish a whitepaper on application portfolio management in the new year, as well as be involved in the upcoming Cloud Reference Architecture.

In China, The Open Group is progressing well. In 2013, we’ll continue translating The Open Group website, books and whitepapers from English to Chinese. Partnerships and Open CA certification will remain in the forefront of global priorities, as well as enrolling TOGAF trainers throughout Asia Pacific as Open Group members. There are a lot of exciting developments arising, and we will keep you updated as we expand our footprint in China and the rest of Asia.

Open Group Events in 2013

By Patty Donovan, Vice President of Membership and Events

In 2013, the biggest change for us will be our quarterly summit. The focus will shift toward an emphasis on verticals. This new focus will debut at our April event in Sydney where the vertical themes include Mining, Government, and Finance. Additional vertical themes that we plan to cover throughout the year include: Healthcare, Transportation, Retail, just to name a few. We will also continue to increase the number of our popular Livestream sessions as we have seen an extremely positive reaction to them as well as all of our On-Demand sessions – listen to best selling authors and industry leaders who participated as keynote and track speakers throughout the year.

Regarding social media, we made big strides in 2012 and will continue to make this a primary focus of The Open Group. If you haven’t already, please “like” us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, join the chat on (#ogchat) one of our Security focused Tweet Jams, and join our LinkedIn Group. And if you have the time, we’d love for you to contribute to The Open Group blog.

We’re always open to new suggestions, so if you have a creative idea on how we can improve your membership, Open Group events, webinars, podcasts, please let me know! Also, please be sure to attend the upcoming Open Group Conference in Newport Beach, Calif., which is taking place on January 28-31. The conference will address Big Data.

Business Architecture

By Steve Philp, Marketing Director for Open CA and Open CITS

Business Architecture is still a relatively new discipline, but in 2013 I think it will continue to grow in prominence and visibility from an executive perspective. C-Level decision makers are not just looking at operational efficiency initiatives and cost reduction programs to grow their future revenue streams; they are also looking at market strategy and opportunity analysis.

Business Architects are extremely valuable to an organization when they understand market and technology trends in a particular sector. They can then work with business leaders to develop strategies based on the capabilities and positioning of the company to increase revenue, enhance their market position and improve customer loyalty.

Senior management recognizes that technology also plays a crucial role in how organizations can achieve their business goals. A major role of the Business Architect is to help merge technology with business processes to help facilitate this business transformation.

There are a number of key technology areas for 2013 where Business Architects will be called upon to engage with the business such as Cloud Computing, Big Data and social networking. Therefore, the need to have competent Business Architects is a high priority in both the developed and emerging markets and the demand for Business Architects currently exceeds the supply. There are some training and certification programs available based on a body of knowledge, but how do you establish who is a practicing Business Architect if you are looking to recruit?

The Open Group is trying to address this issue and has incorporated a Business Architecture stream into The Open Group Certified Architect (Open CA) program. There has already been significant interest in this stream from both organizations and practitioners alike. This is because Open CA is a skills- and experience-based program that recognizes, at different levels, those individuals who are actually performing in a Business Architecture role. You must complete a candidate application package and be interviewed by your peers. Achieving certification demonstrates your competency as a Business Architect and therefore will stand you in good stead for both next year and beyond.

You can view the conformance criteria for the Open CA Business Architecture stream at https://www2.opengroup.org/ogsys/catalog/X120.

Trusted Technology

By Sally Long, Director of Consortia Services

The interdependency of all countries on global technology providers and technology providers’ dependencies on component suppliers around the world is more certain than ever before. The need to work together in a vendor-neutral, country-neutral environment to assure there are standards for securing technology development and supply chain operations will become increasingly apparent in 2013. Securing the global supply chain can not be done in a vacuum, by a few providers or a few governments, it must be achieved by working together with all governments, providers, component suppliers and integrators and it must be done through open standards and accreditation programs that demonstrate conformance to those standards and are available to everyone.

The Open Group’s Trusted Technology Forum is providing that open, vendor and country-neutral environment, where suppliers from all countries and governments from around the world can work together in a trusted collaborative environment, to create a standard and an accreditation program for securing the global supply chain. The Open Trusted Technology Provider Standard (O-TTPS) Snapshot (Draft) was published in March of 2012 and is the basis for our 2013 predictions.

We predict that in 2013:

Version 1.0 of the O-TTPS (Standard) will be published.
Version 1.0 will be submitted to the ISO PAS process in 2013, and will likely become part of the ISO/IEC 27036 standard, where Part 5 of that ISO standard is already reserved for the O-TTPS work
An O-TTPS Accreditation Program – open to all providers, component suppliers, and integrators, will be launched
The Forum will continue the trend of increased member participation from governments and suppliers around the world

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Tagged as 2012, 2013, ArchiMate, big data, business architects, Business Architecture, China, Chris Forde, cloud, cloud computing, Conference, Facebook, global standards, Global Supply Chain, LinkedIn, Newport Beach Conference, O-TTPS, Open CA, Open Group, Open Group Conference, OTTF, Patty Donovan, Predictions, Sally Long, Steve Philp, The Open Group, The Open Group Blog, The Open Group Conference, The Open Group Conference in Newport Beach, TOGAF, Trusted Technology Forum, Trusted Technology Framework, Twitter

by The Open Group Blog | November 30, 2012 · 11:33 AM

The Open Group Newport Beach Conference – Early Bird Registration Ends January 4

By The Open Group Conference Team

The Open Group is busy gearing up for the Newport Beach Conference. Taking place January 28-31, 2013, the conference theme is “Big Data – The Transformation We Need to Embrace Today” and will bring together leading minds in technology to discuss the challenges and solutions facing Enterprise Architecture around the growth of Big Data. Register today!

Information is power, and we stand at a time when 90% of the data in the world today was generated in the last two years alone. Despite the sheer enormity of the task, off the shelf hardware, open source frameworks, and the processing capacity of the Cloud, mean that Big Data processing is within the cost-effective grasp of the average business. Organizations can now initiate Big Data projects without significant investment in IT infrastructure.

In addition to tutorial sessions on TOGAF® and ArchiMate®, the conference offers roughly 60 sessions on a varied of topics including:

The ways that Cloud Computing is transforming the possibilities for collecting, storing, and processing big data.
How to contend with Big Data in your Enterprise?
How does Big Data enable your Business Architecture?
What does the Big Data revolution mean for the Enterprise Architect?
Real-time analysis of Big Data in the Cloud.
Security challenges in the world of outsourced data.
What is an architectural view of Security for the Cloud?

Plenary speakers include:

Christian Verstraete, Chief Technologist – Cloud Strategy, HP
Mary Ann Mezzapelle, Strategist – Security Services, HP
Michael Cavaretta, Ph.D, Technical Leader, Predictive Analytics / Data Mining Research and Advanced Engineering, Ford Motor Company
Adrian Lane, Analyst and Chief Technical Officer, Securosis
David Potter, Chief Technical Officer, Promise Innovation Oy
Ron Schuldt, Senior Partner, UDEF-IT, LLC

A full conference agenda is available here. Tracks include:

Architecting Big Data
Big Data and Cloud Security
Data Architecture and Big Data
Business Architecture
Distributed Services Architecture
EA and Disruptive Technologies
Architecting the Cloud
Cloud Computing for Business

Early Bird Registration

Early Bird registration for The Open Group Conference in Newport Beach ends January 4. Register now and save! For more information or to register: http://www.opengroup.org/event/open-group-newport-beach-2013/reg

Upcoming Conference Submission Deadlines

In addition to the Early Bird registration deadline to attend the Newport Beach conference, there are upcoming deadlines for speaker proposal submissions to Open Group conferences in Sydney, Philadelphia and London. To submit a proposal to speak, click here.

Venue	Industry Focus	Submission Deadline
Sydney (April 15-17)	Finance, Defense, Mining	January 18, 2013
Philadelphia (July 15-17)	Healthcare, Finance, Defense	April 5, 2013
London (October 21-23)	Finance, Government, Healthcare	July 8, 2013

We expect space on the agendas of these events to be at a premium, so it is important for proposals to be submitted as early as possible. Proposals received after the deadline dates will still be considered, if space is available; if not, they may be carried over to a future conference. Priority will be given to proposals received by the deadline dates and to proposals that include an end-user organization, at least as a co-presenter.

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Tagged as Adrian Lane, ArchiMate, big data, Business Architecture, Christian Verstraete, cloud, cloud computing, Conference, data security, David Potter, enterprise architecture, Ford, Ford Motor Company, HP, information security, IT security, Mary Ann Mezzapelle, Michael Cavaretta, Newport Beach Conference, Open Group Conference, Promise Innovation Oy, Ron Schuldt, security, Securosis, The Open Group Conference, The Open Group Conference in Newport Beach, TOGAF, UDEF

by The Open Group Blog | November 6, 2012 · 5:00 AM

Call for Submissions

By Patty Donovan, The Open Group

The Open Group Blog is celebrating its second birthday this month! Over the past few years, our blog posts have tended to cover Open Group activities – conferences, announcements, our lovely members, etc. While several members and Open Group staff serve as regular contributors, we’d like to take this opportunity to invite our community members to share their thoughts and expertise on topics related to The Open Group’s areas of expertise as guest contributors.

Here are a few examples of popular guest blog posts that we’ve received over the past year

“Are Your Business Process Management and Business Architecture a Perfect Match?,” by Serge Thorn, Architecting the Enterprise
“Enterprise Architects and Paradigm Shifts,” by Stuart Boardman, KPN
“It Is a Big World for Big Data After All,” by E.G. Nadhan, HP

Blog posts generally run between 500 and 800 words and address topics relevant to The Open Group workgroups, forums, consortiums and events. Some suggested topics are listed below.

ArchiMate®
Big Data
Business Architecture
Cloud Computing
Conference recaps
DirectNet
Enterprise Architecture
Enterprise Management
Future of Airborne Capability Environment (FACE™)
Governing Board Businesses
Governing Board Certified Architects
Governing Board Certified IT Specialists
Identity Management
IT Security
The Jericho Forum
The Open Group Trusted Technology Forum (OTTF)
Quantum Lifecycle Management
Real-Time Embedded Systems
Semantic Interoperability
Service-Oriented Architecture
TOGAF®

If you have any questions or would like to contribute, please contact opengroup (at) bateman-group.com.

Please note that all content submitted to The Open Group blog is subject to The Open Group approval process. The Open Group reserves the right to deny publication of any contributed works. Anything published shall be copyright of The Open Group.

Patricia Donovan is Vice President, Membership & Events, at The Open Group and a member of its executive management team. In this role she is involved in determining the company’s strategic direction and policy as well as the overall management of that business area. Patricia joined The Open Group in 1988 and has played a key role in the organization’s evolution, development and growth since then. She also oversees the company’s marketing, conferences and member meetings. She is based in the U.S.

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Tagged as ArchiMate, Architecting the Enterprise, big data, blog, Business Architecture, cloud, cloud computing, Conference recap, DirectNet, E.G. Nadhan, enterprise, enterprise architecture, FACE, FACE™ Consortium, HP, Identity Management, IT security, Jericho Forum, KPN, OTTF, Real Time Embedded Systems Forum, semantic interoperability, Serge Thorn, service-oriented architecture, SOA, Stuart Boardman, submission, The Open Group, The Open Group Blog, TOGAF

by The Open Group Blog | October 30, 2012 · 8:56 AM

Barcelona Highlights

By Steve Philp, The Open Group

Within a 15 minute walk of Camp Nou (home of FC Barcelona), The Open Group Conference “kicked off” on Monday morning with some excellent plenary presentations from Scott Radedztsky of Deloitte followed by Peter Haviland and Mick Adams of Ernst & Young, and after the break from Helen Sun of Oracle and finally Ron Tolido and Manuel Sevilla from Capgemini. You can see most of these Big Data presentations for yourself on The Open Group’s Livestream page.

The “second half” of the day was split into tracks for Big Data, Enterprise Architecture (EA), TOGAF® and ArchiMate®. Henry Franken of BiZZdesign talked about EA in terms of TOGAF and ArchiMate (you can see this on our Livestream site, too) and the other ArchiMate presentations from Peter Filip of Tatra Bank, Gerben Wierda of APG Asset Management and Mieke Mahakena of Capgemini were also well received by an enthusiastic audience. Networking and drinks followed at the end of the track sessions, and the “crowd” went away happy after day one.

Tuesday started with a plenary presentation by Dr. Robert Winter from the University of St Gallen on EA and Transformation Management. See the following clip to learn more about his presentation and his research.

This was followed by tracks on distributed services architecture, security, TOGAF 9 case studies, information architecture, quantum lifecycle management (QLM) and a new track on Practice Driven Research on Enterprise Transformation (PRET) and Trends in EA Research (TEAR). The evening entertainment on day two consisted of dinner and a spectacular flamenco dancing show at the Palacio de Flamenco – where a good time was had by all.

After the show there was also time for a number of us to watch Barcelona v. Celtic in their European Champions League match at the Camp Nou. This is the view from my seat:

The game ended in a 2-1 victory for Barcelona, and following the game there was much debate and friendly banter in the bar between the conference delegates and the Celtic fans that were staying at our hotel.

The track theme continued on day three of the conference along with member meetings such as the next version of TOGAF Working Group, the TOGAF Standard and ArchiMate Language Harmonization Project, Certification Standing Committee, and TOGAF Value Realization Working Group, etc. Member meetings of the Architecture Forum and Security Forum were held on Thursday and brought the Barcelona event to its conclusion.

At the end of the day, if your “goal” is to listen to some great presentations, network with your peers, participate in meetings and influence the generation of new IT standards, then you should get a ticket for our next fixture in Newport Beach, Calif., USA on January 28-31, 2013. The theme, again, will be Big Data.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Steve Philp is the Marketing Director at The Open Group. Over the past 20 years, Steve has worked predominantly in sales, marketing and general management roles within the IT training industry. Based in Reading, UK, he joined the Open Group in 2008 to promote and develop the organization’s skills and experience-based IT certifications. More recently, he has become responsible for corporate marketing as well as certification.

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by The Open Group Blog | October 20, 2012 · 5:00 AM

ArchiMate® 2.0 and Beyond

By The Open Group Conference Team

In this video, Henry Franken of BiZZdesign discusses ArchiMate® 2.0, the new version of the graphical modeling language for Enterprise Architecture that provides businesses with the means to communicate with different stakeholders from the business goals level to implementation scenarios.

Franken explains that the first edition allowed users to express Enterprise Architecture at its core – modeling business applications and infrastructure. ArchiMate® 2.0 has two major additions to make it fully aligned with TOGAF® – the motivation extension and the migration and planning extension. The motivation extension provides users with the ability to fully express business motivations and goals to enterprise architects; the migration and planning extension helps lay out programs and projects to make a business transition.

There are several sessions on ArchiMate® at the upcoming Open Group Conference in Barcelona. Notably, Henry Franken’s “Delivering Enterprise Architecture with TOGAF® and ArchiMate®” session on October 22 at 2:00-2:45 p.m. UTC / 8:00-8:45 a.m. EST will be livestreamed on The Open Group Website.

To view these sessions and for more information on the conference, please go to: http://www3.opengroup.org/barcelona2012

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Tagged as ArchiMate, ArchiMate 2.0, Barcelona Conference, Henry Franken, Livestream, Open Group, The Open Group, The Open Group Conference, The Open Group Conference Barcelona, TOGAF, TOGAF certification

by The Open Group Blog | August 16, 2012 · 11:06 AM

The Open Group Barcelona Conference – Early Bird Registration ends September 21

By The Open Group Conference Team

Early Bird registration for The Open Group Conference in Barcelona ends September 21. Register now and save!

The conference runs October 22-24, 2012. On Monday, October 22, the plenary theme is “Big Data – The Next Frontier in the Enterprise,” and speakers will address the challenges and solutions facing Enterprise Architecture within the context of the growth of Big Data. Topics to be explored include:

How does an enterprise adopt the means to contend with Big Data within its information architecture?
How does Big Data enable your business architecture?
What are the issues concerned with real-time analysis of the data resources on the cloud?
What are the information security challenges in the world of outsourced and massively streamed data analytics?
What is the architectural view of security for cloud computing? How can you take a risk-based approach to cloud security?

Plenary speakers include:

Peter Haviland, head of Business Architecture, Ernst & Young
Ron Tolido, CTO of Application Services in Europe, Capgemini; and Manuel Sevilla, chief technical officer, Global Business Information Management, Capgemini
Scott Radeztsky, chief technical officer, Deloitte Analytics Innovation Centers
Helen Sun, director of Enterprise Architecture, Oracle

On Tuesday, October 23, Dr. Robert Winter, Institute of Information Management, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, will kick off the day with a keynote on EA Management and Transformation Management.

Tracks include:

Practice-driven Research on Enterprise Transformation (PRET)
Trends in Enterprise Architecture Research (TEAR)
TOGAF® and ArchiMate® Case Studies
Information Architecture
Distributed Services Architecture
Holistic Enterprise Architecture Workshop
Business Innovation & Technical Disruption
Security Architecture
Big Data
Cloud Computing for Business
Cloud Security and Cloud Architecture
Agile Enterprise Architecture
Enterprise Architecture and Business Value
Setting Up A Successful Enterprise Architecture Practice

For more information or to register: http://www.opengroup.org/barcelona2012/registration

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by The Open Group Blog | August 8, 2012 · 3:30 AM

ArchiMate 2.0 – Ready for the Future of Enterprise Architecture!

By Henry Franken, BIZZdesign

Models have played an important role in business for a long time. Process models, information- and data models, application landscapes, strategic models, operational models – you name it, organizations have tried it. With the rise of Enterprise Architecture (EA) as a strategic discipline for many organizations, we saw two interesting developments. First of all, organizations try to connect their models, to gain insight in the way the enterprise works from many different perspectives. Secondly, we saw the trend that models become more high-level, focusing on the essence of the organization.

These developments have led to the development of the ArchiMate® language, which allows high-level modeling within a domain, but allows modeling the relations between domains. Even more, in recognition that architecture is a communications game, a key driver for the language was to also allow for effective visualizations for key stakeholders based on solid architectural analyses.

The first edition of the ArchiMate language enabled organizations to create holistic architecture models with concepts from three domains: business, application and technology. With a handful of concepts and relations, this allowed organizations to model the relation between products and services, processes, supporting applications and information, as well as infrastructure. Having modeled this formally, organizations can do impact assessments, generate visualizations for various stakeholders and so on.

ArchiMate has recently been extended by members within the ArchiMate Forum within The Open Group), resulting in ArchiMate 2.0 – a new version of ArchiMate that is fully aligned with The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF®). Two new extensions have been developed for this purpose, making sure the language now covers the entire Architecture Development Method (ADM) of TOGAF.

The new motivation extension allows organizations to graphically model the answer to the “why” question of EA: Who are key stakeholders of EA? What are their drivers? How do these drivers lead to principles and requirements that are realized in the architecture? This extension mainly aligns with the early phases of the TOGAF ADM.

The new ArchiMate 2.0 standard also has an implementation and migration extension that aligns with the later phases of the ADM. Using this extension, architects can align with project management and graphically model plateaus, projects and programs, as well as their deliverables.

One of the key strengths of ArchiMate – as well as TOGAF – is its openness – it allows practitioners worldwide to join in and help push the language forward. Indeed, we are seeing the adoption of the language, as well as certifications of practitioners grow worldwide.

The Open Group has introduced certification programs for individuals, training vendors and tool vendors, and the uptake of these programs is very successful! We are now seeing many individuals obtaining an ArchiMate 2.0 certificate, training vendors applying for training accreditation, and tool vendors implementing the ArchiMate modeling language into Enterprise Architecture modeling tools, all while being certified by The Open Group.

With all these great developments within the last few years – fluent integration with TOGAF and a fast growing number of professionals using ArchiMate – I believe it is safe to say that with ArchiMate 2.0 you are ready for the future of Enterprise Architecture!

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Tagged as ArchiMate, ArchiMate Forum, BIZZdesign, EA, enterprise architecture, Henry Franken, TOGAF

by The Open Group Blog | August 1, 2012 · 9:45 AM

Video Highlights Day 2 of Washington, D.C.

By The Open Group Conference Team

How can you use the tools of Enterprise Architecture and open standards to improve the capability of your company doing business? The Day 2 speakers of The Open Group Conference in Washington, D.C. addressed this question, focusing on Enterprise Transformation. Sessions included:

“Case Study: University Health Network (Toronto),” by Jason Uppal, chief enterprise architect at QR Systems, Inc. and winner of the 2012 Edison Award for Innovation

“Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE™): Transforming the DoD Avionics Software Industry Through the Use of Open Standards,” by Judy Cerenzia, FACE™ program director at The Open Group, Kirk Avery, chief software architect at Lockheed Martin and Philip Minor, director at System of Systems of Engineering Directorate at the Office of Chief Systems Engineer, ASA(ALT)

“Using the TOGAF® Architecture Content Framework with the ArchiMate® Modeling Language,” by Henry Franken, CEO of BIZZdesign, and Iver Band, enterprise architect at Standard Insurance

“Ask the Experts: TOGAF® and ArchiMate®” – Livestream session

David Lounsbury, CTO of The Open Group summarizes some of the day’s sessions:

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Tagged as ArchiMate, content framework, EA, enterprise, Enterprise architect, enterprise architecture, The Open Group Conference Washington D.C., TOGAF, TOGAF certification, Washington D.C. Conference

by The Open Group Blog | July 15, 2012 · 4:00 AM

ArchiMate at the Washington, D.C. Conference #ogDCA

By Iver Band, Standard Insurance Company

The Open Group offers many opportunities to learn about ArchiMate®, the fast-growing visual modeling language standard for Enterprise Architecture. ArchiMate enables enterprise architects to develop rich and clear graphical representations that are accessible to a wide range of stakeholders while providing clear direction to downstream architects and designers. Looking forward to this week’s Washington, D.C. conference, let’s examine the various sessions where attendees can learn more about this modeling language standard.

On Sunday, July 15, start with the ArchiMate 2.0 pre-conference introductory session from 4:30-5:00 p.m. ET led by BiZZdesign CEO and ArchiMate Forum Chair Henry Franken. Right afterward, from 5:00-5:30 ET, learn about ArchiMate certification along with other certifications offered by The Open Group. Conference attendees can engage further with the language at one of the interactive Learning Lab sessions from 5:30-6:15 p.m. ET.

On Tuesday, July 17, learn how to use the ArchiMate language for architecture projects based on TOGAF®. From 11:30-12:45 p.m. ET, I will join Henry, and together, we will present an in-depth tutorial on “Using the TOGAF Architecture Content Framework with the ArchiMate Modeling Language.” From 2:00-2:45 p.m. ET, I will explore how to use ArchiMate to shed light on the complex interplay between people and organizations, and their often conflicting challenges, principles, goals and concerns. My presentation “Modeling the Backstory with ArchiMate 2.0 Motivation Extension” will demonstrate this approach with a case study on improving customer service. Then, from 2:45-3:30 p.m. ET, The Business Forge Principal Neil Levette will present the session “Using the ArchiMate Standard as Tools for Modeling the Business.” Neil will explain how to use the ArchiMate language with Archi, a free tool, to model key business management mechanisms and the relationships between business motivations and operations. Finally, from 4:00-5:30 p.m. ET, Henry and I will join the “Ask the Experts: TOGAF and ArchiMate” panel to address conference attendee and Open Group member questions.

Don’t miss these opportunities to learn more about this powerful standard!

Iver Band is the vice chair of The Open Group ArchiMate Forum and is an enterprise architect at Standard Insurance Company in Portland, Oregon. Iver chose the TOGAF and ArchiMate standards for his IT organization and applies them enthusiastically to his daily responsibilities. He co-developed the initial examination content for the ArchiMate 2 Certification for People and made other contributions to the ArchiMate 2 standard. He is TOGAF 9 Certified, ArchiMate 2 Certified and a Certified Information Systems Security Professional.

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by The Open Group Blog | March 20, 2012 · 12:30 AM

Part 3 of 3: Building an Enterprise Architecture Value Proposition Using TOGAF® 9.1. and ArchiMate® 2.0

By Serge Thorn, Architecting the Enterprise

This is the third and final post in a three-part series by Serge Thorn. For more in this series, please see Part One and Part Two.

Value Management uses a combination of concepts and methods to create sustainable value for both organizations and their stakeholders. Some tools and techniques are specific to Value Management and others are generic tools that many organizations and individuals use. There exist many Value Management techniques such as cost-benefits analysis, SWOT analysis, value analysis, Pareto analysis, objectives hierarchy, function analysis system technique (FAST), and more…

The one I suggest to illustrate is close to the objectives hierarchy technique, which is a diagrammatic process for identifying objectives in a hierarchical manner and often used in conjunction with business functions. Close, because I will use a combination of the TOGAF® 9.1 metamodel with the ArchiMate® 2.0 Business Layer, Application Layer and Motivation Extensions Metamodels, consider core entities such as value, business goals, objectives, business processes and functions, business and application services, application functions and components. This approach was inspired by the presentation by Michael van den Dungen and Arjan Visser at The Open Group Conference in Amsterdam 2010, and here I’m also adding some ArchiMate 2.0 concepts.

First, the entities from the TOGAF 9.1 metamodel:

Then I will consider the entities from ArchiMate 2.0. Some may be identical to TOGAF 9.1. In the Business Layer, one key concept will obviously be the value. In this case I will consider the product (“A coherent collection of services, accompanied by a contract/set of agreements, which is offered as a whole to (internal or external) customers” according to ArchiMate 2.0), as the Enterprise Architecture program. In addition to that, I would refer to business services, functions, and processes.

In the Motivation Extension Metamodel, the goals. The objective entity in TOGAF 9.1 can also be represented using the concept of “goal.”

And in the Application Layer Metamodel, application services, functions, and components.

It is important to mention that when we deliver a value proposition, we must demonstrate to the business where the benefits will be with concrete examples. For example: the business sees Operational Excellence and Customer Intimacy as key drivers, and soon you will realize that BPM suites or CRM could support the business goals. These are the reasons why we consider the Application Layer Metamodel.

We could then use a combination of the ArchiMate 2.0 viewpoints such as: Stakeholder Viewpoint, Goal Realization Viewpoint, Motivation Viewpoint, or some other viewpoints to demonstrate the value of Enterprise Architecture for a specific business transformation program (or any other strategic initiative).

To be mentioned that the concept of benefit does not exist in any of the metamodels.

I have added the concept as an extension to ArchiMate in the following diagram which is the mapping of the value to a program related to the “improvement of customers’ relationships.” I also have intentionally limited the number of concepts or entities, such as processes, application services or measures.

Using these ArchiMate 2.0 modelling techniques can demonstrate to your stakeholders the value proposition for a business program, supported by an Enterprise Architecture initiative.

As a real example, if the expected key business benefit is operational excellence through process controls, which would represent a goal, you could present such a high level diagram to explain why application components like a BPM Suite could help (detecting fraud and errors, embedding preventive controls, continuously auditing and monitoring processes, and more).

There is definitely not a single way of demonstrating the value of Enterprise Architecture and you probably will have to adapt the process and the way you will present that value to all companies you will be working with. Without a doubt Enterprise Architecture contributes to the success of an organization and brings numerous benefits, but very often it needs to be able to demonstrate that value. Using some techniques as described previously will help to justify such an initiative.

The next steps will be the development of measures, metrics and KPIs to continuously monitor that value proposition.

Serge Thorn is CIO of Architecting the Enterprise. He has worked in the IT Industry for over 25 years, in a variety of roles, which include; Development and Systems Design, Project Management, Business Analysis, IT Operations, IT Management, IT Strategy, Research and Innovation, IT Governance, Architecture and Service Management (ITIL). He is the Chairman of the itSMF (IT Service Management forum) Swiss chapter and is based in Geneva, Switzerland.

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Tagged as application layer, ArchiMate, Architecting the Enterprise, Business goals, business layer, integration, interoperability, KPIs, metamodel, motivation extensions, performance, Serge Thorn, TOGAF

by The Open Group Blog | March 15, 2012 · 12:30 AM

Part 2 of 3: Building an Enterprise Architecture Value Proposition Using TOGAF® 9.1. and ArchiMate® 2.0

By Serge Thorn, Architecting the Enterprise

This is the second post in a three-part series by Serge Thorn.

Continuing from Part One of this series, here are more examples of what an enterprise cannot achieve without Enterprise Architecture:

Reduce IT costs by consolidating, standardizing, rationalizing and integrating corporate information systems

Cost avoidance can be achieved by identifying overlapping functional scope of two or more proposed projects in an organization or the potential cost savings of IT support by standardizing on one solution.

Consolidation can happen at various levels for architectures — for shared enterprise services, applications and information, for technologies and even data centers.

This could involve consolidating the number of database servers, application or web servers and storage devices, consolidating redundant security platforms, or adopting virtualization, grid computing and related consolidation initiatives. Consolidation may be a by-product of another technology transformation or it may be the driver of these transformations.

Whatever motivates the change, the key is to be in alignment, once again, with the overall business strategy. Enterprise architects understand where the business is going, so they can pick the appropriate consolidation strategy. Rationalization, standardization and consolidation processes helps organizations understand their current enterprise maturity level and move forward on the appropriate roadmap.

More spending on innovation

Enterprise Architecture should serve as a driver of innovation. Innovation is highly important when developing a target Enterprise Architecture and in realizing the organization’s strategic goals and objectives. For example, it may help to connect the dots between business requirements and the new approaches SOA and cloud services can deliver.

Enabling strategic business goals via better operational excellence

Building Enterprise Architecture defines the structure and operation of an organization. The intent of Enterprise Architecture is to determine how an organization can most effectively achieve its current and future objectives. It must be designed to support an organization’s specific business strategies.

Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, David C. Robertson in “Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business” wrote “Companies with more-mature architectures reported greater success in achieving strategic goals” (p. 89). “This included better operational excellence, more customer intimacy, and greater product leadership” (p. 100).

Customer intimacy

Enterprises that are customer focused and aim to provide solutions for their customers should design their business model, IT systems and operational activities to support this strategy at the process level. This involves the selection of one or few high-value customer niches, followed by an obsessive effort at getting to know these customers in detail.

Greater product leadership

This approach enabled by Enterprise Architecture is dedicated to providing the best possible products from the perspective of the features and benefits offered to the customer. It is the basic philosophy about products that push performance boundaries. Products or services delivered by the business will be refined by leveraging IT to do the end customer’s job better. This will be accomplished by the delivery of new business capabilities (e.g. on-line websites, BI, etc.).

Comply with regulatory requirements

Enterprise Architecture helps companies to know and represent their processes and systems and how they correlate. This is fundamental for risk management and managing regulation requirements, such as those derived from Sarbanes-Oxley, COSO, HIPAA, etc.

This list could be continued as there are many other reasons why Enterprise Architecture brings benefits to organizations. Once your benefits have been documented you could also consider some value management techniques. TOGAF® 9.1 refers in the Architecture Vision phase to a target value proposition for a specific project. In the next blog, we’ll address the issue of applying the value proposition to the Enterprise Architecture initiative as a whole.

The third and final part of this blog series will discuss value management.

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Tagged as ArchiMate, Architecting the Enterprise, Business goals, enterprise architecture, Enterprise Transformation, integration, interoperability, performance, Serge Thorn, TOGAF

by The Open Group Blog | March 13, 2012 · 12:30 AM

Part 1 of 3: Building an Enterprise Architecture Value Proposition Using TOGAF® 9.1. and ArchiMate® 2.0

By Serge Thorn, Architecting the Enterprise

This is the first post in a three-part series by Serge Thorn.

When introducing Enterprise Architecture as a program or initiative, it is regularly done from an IT perspective rarely considering what the costs will be and if there will be any return on investment. This presents a particular challenge to Enterprise Architecture.

Generally speaking, IT departments have all sorts of criteria to justify projects and measure their performance. They use measurements, metrics and KPIs. Going to the solution level, they commonly use indicators such as percentage uptime for systems from the system management team, error rates for applications from the development support team or number of calls resolved on the first call from the service desk, etc. These KPIs usually are defined at an early stage and very often delivered in dashboards from various support applications.

On the other hand, it is much more difficult to define and implement a quantifiable measure for Enterprise Architecture. Many activities introduced with appropriate governance will enhance the quality of the delivered products and services, but it still will be a challenge to attribute results to the quality of Enterprise Architecture efforts.

This being said, Enterprise Architects should be able to define and justify the benefits of their activities to their stakeholders, and to help executives understand how Enterprise Architecture will contribute to the primary value-adding objectives and processes, before starting the voyage. The more it is described and understood, the more the Enterprise Architecture team will gain support from the management. There are plenty of contributions that Enterprise Architecture brings and they will have to be documented and presented at an early stage.

There won’t be just one single answer to demonstrate the value of an Enterprise Architecture but there seems to be a common pattern when considering feedback from various companies I have worked with.

Without Enterprise Architecture you can probably NOT fully achieve:

IT alignment with the business goals

As an example among others, the problem with most IT plans is that they do not indicate what the business value is and what strategic or tactical business benefit the organization is planning to achieve. The simple matter is that any IT plan needs also to have a business metric, not only an IT metric of delivery. Another aspect is the ability to create and share a common vision of the future shared by the business and IT communities.

Integration

With the rapid pace of change in business environment, the need to transform organizations into agile enterprises that can respond quickly to change has never been greater. Methodologies and computer technologies are needed to enable rapid business and system change. The solution also lies in enterprise integration (both business and technology integration).

For business integration, we use Enterprise Architecture methodologies and frameworks to integrate functions, processes, data, locations, people, events and business plans throughout an organization. Specifically, the unification and integration of business processes and data across the enterprise and potential linkage with external partners become more and more important.

To also have technology integration, we may use enterprise portals, enterprise application integration (EAI/ESB), web services, service-oriented architecture (SOA), business process management (BPM) and try to lower the number of interfaces.

Change management

In recent years the scope of Enterprise Architecture has expanded beyond the IT domain and enterprise architects are increasingly taking on broader roles relating to organizational strategy and change management. Frameworks such as TOGAF® 9.1 include processes and tools for managing both the business/people and the technology sides of an organization. Enterprise Architecture supports the creation of changes related to the various architecture domains, evaluating the impact on the enterprise, taking into account risk management, financial aspects (cost/benefit analysis), and most importantly ensuring alignment with business goals and objectives. Enterprise Architecture value is essentially tied to its ability to help companies to deal with complexity and changes.

Reduced time to market and increased IT responsiveness

Enterprise Architecture should reduce systems development, applications generation and modernization timeframes for legacy systems. It should also decrease resource requirements. All of this can be accomplished by re-using standards or existing components, such as the architecture and solution building blocks in TOGAF 9.1. Delivery time and design/development costs can also be decreased by the reuse of reference models. All that information should be managed in an Enterprise Architecture repository.

Better access to information across applications and improved interoperability

Data and information architectures manage the organization assets of information, optimally and efficiently. This supports the quality, accuracy and timely availability of data for executive and strategic business decision-making, across applications.

Readily available descriptive representations and documentation of the enterprise

Architecture is also a set of descriptive representations (i.e. “models”) that are relevant for describing an enterprise such that it can be produced to management’s requirements and maintained over the period of its useful life. Using an architecture repository, developing a variety of artifacts and modelling some of the key elements of the enterprise, will contribute to build this documentation.

The second part of the series will include more examples of what an enterprise cannot achieve without Enterprise Architecture.

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Tagged as ArchiMate, Architecting the Enterprise, Business goals, integration, interoperability, performance, Serge Thorn, TOGAF

by The Open Group Blog | January 31, 2012 · 5:00 AM

What’s New in ArchiMate 2.0?

By Andrew Josey, The Open Group, Henry Franken, BiZZdesign

ArchiMate^®2.0, an Open Group Standard, is an upwards-compatible evolution from ArchiMate 1.0 adding new features, as well as addressing usage feedback and comments raised.

ArchiMate 2.0 standard supports modeling throughout the TOGAF Architecture Development Method (ADM).

Figure 1: Correspondence between ArchiMate and the TOGAF ADM

ArchiMate 2.0 consists of:

The ArchiMate Core, which contains several minor improvements on the 1.0 version.

The Motivation extension, to model stakeholders, drivers for change, business goals, principles, and requirements. This extension mainly addresses the needs in the early TOGAF phases and the requirements management process.

The Implementation and Migration extension, to support project portfolio management, gap analysis, and transition and migration planning. This extension mainly addresses the needs in the later phases of the TOGAF ADM cycle.

ArchiMate 2.0 offers a modeling language to create fully integrated models of the organization’s enterprise architecture, the motivation for the enterprise architecture, and the programs, projects and migration paths to implement this enterprise architecture. In this way, full (forward and backward) traceability between the elements in the enterprise architecture, their motivations and their implementation can be obtained.

In the ArchiMate Core, a large number of minor improvements have been made compared to ArchiMate 1.0: inconsistencies have been removed, examples have been improved and additional text has been inserted to clarify certain aspects. Two new concepts have been added based on needs experienced by practitioners:

Location: To model a conceptual point or extent in space that can be assigned to structural elements and, indirectly, of behavior elements.

Infrastructure Function: To model the internal behavior of a node in the technology layer. This makes the technology layer more consistent with the other two layers.

The Motivation extension defines the following concepts:

Stakeholder: The role of an individual, team, or organization (or classes thereof) that represents their interests in, or concerns relative to, the outcome of the architecture.

Driver: Something that creates, motivates, and fuels the change in an organization.

Assessment: The outcome of some analysis of some driver.

Goal: An end state that a stakeholder intends to achieve.

Requirement: A statement of need that must be realized by a system.

Constraint: A restriction on the way in which a system is realized.

Principle: A normative property of all systems in a given context or the way in which they are realized.

For motivation elements, a limited set of relationships has been defined, partly re-used from the ArchiMate Core: aggregation (decomposition), realization, and (positive or negative) influence.

The Implementation and Migration extension defines the following concepts (and re-uses the relationships of the Core):

Work Package: A series of actions designed to accomplish a unique goal within a specified time.

Deliverable: A precisely defined outcome of a work package.

Plateau: A relatively stable state of the architecture that exists during a limited period of time.

Gap: An outcome of a gap analysis between two plateaus.

ArchiMate 2 Certification

New with ArchiMate 2.0 is the introduction of a certification program. This includes certification for people and accreditation for training courses. It also includes certification for tools supporting the ArchiMate standard.

The ArchiMate 2 Certification for People program enables professionals around the globe to demonstrate their knowledge of the ArchiMate standard. ArchiMate 2 Certification for People is achieved through an examination and practical exercises as part of an Accredited ArchiMate 2 Training Course.

The Open Group Accreditation for ArchiMate training courses provides an authoritative and independent assurance of the quality and relevance of the training courses.

The Open Group ArchiMate Tool Certification Program makes certification available to tools supporting ArchiMate. The goal of the program is to ensure that architecture artifacts created with a certified tool are conformant to the language.

Further Reading

ArchiMate 2.0 is available for online reading and download from The Open Group Bookstore at www.opengroup.org/bookstore/catalog/c118.htm.

A white paper with further details on ArchiMate 2.0 is available to download from The Open Group Bookstore at www.opengroup.org/bookstore/catalog/w121.htm .

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Tagged as ADM, Andrew Josey, ArchiMate, ArchiMate 2.0, enterprise architecture, Henry Franken, The Open Group, TOGAF

Tag Archives: ArchiMate

The Open Group Sydney – My Conference Highlights

Corso Introduces Roadmapping Support for TOGAF® 9 in its Strategic Planning Platform

An Update on ArchiMate® 2 Certification

Three Best Practices for Successful Implementation of Enterprise Architecture Using the TOGAF® Framework and the ArchiMate® Modeling Language

Successful Enterprise Architecture using the TOGAF® and ArchiMate® Standards

Barcelona Highlights

ArchiMate® 2.0 and Beyond

ArchiMate 2.0 – Ready for the Future of Enterprise Architecture!

Video Highlights Day 2 of Washington, D.C.

ArchiMate at the Washington, D.C. Conference #ogDCA

Part 3 of 3: Building an Enterprise Architecture Value Proposition Using TOGAF® 9.1. and ArchiMate® 2.0

Part 2 of 3: Building an Enterprise Architecture Value Proposition Using TOGAF® 9.1. and ArchiMate® 2.0

Part 1 of 3: Building an Enterprise Architecture Value Proposition Using TOGAF® 9.1. and ArchiMate® 2.0

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