By Loren K. Baynes, Director, Global Marketing Communications, The Open Group
The Open Group hosted over 300 attendees from 17 countries July 17 – 20 for the ‘Making Standards Work® e-Government’ event at the Shaw Centre in Canada’s beautiful capital city, Ottawa. It was a wonderful time to be in the country as Canada is celebrating its 150th anniversary!
Monday morning, July 17, began with a welcome by Steve Nunn, President and CEO, The Open Group. Steve gave an overview of the event and introduced the day’s plenary speakers.
First up was Case Study: How Agile EA (Enterprise Architecture) Delivered Value in 7 Week Sprints by David Hornford, Managing Partner, Conexium, and Murali (Kris) Verikatesh, Director, EA, UnitedHealth Group
Their presentation shared ‘how to have an agile big bang with no bang’.
Dave and Kris stated each sprint has four objectives – harvesting value of prior architecture; developing new useful architecture deliverables; enhancing the EA capability; extending the toolset of the EA team.
Robert Weisman, CEO & President, Build the Vision, presented on Getting Government to Innovate and Transform. For success, government needs access to e-Collaboration environments. Interoperability Management Services are also key. Bob stated that an EA transformation needs to squeeze the technology and social innovation gap.
The final keynote of the morning was Flaw of Averages: Why We Underestimate Risk in the Face of Uncertainty by Sam Savage, Executive Director, ProbabilityManagement.org and adjunct professor at Stanford University’s School of Engineering, and Marc Thibault, Independent Consultant. The discussion began about the many uncertainties in the world, such as number of hackings, earthquakes, floods, widgets needed by manufacturing, etc. Sam and Mark presented on the ability to manage calculations like those and make more accurate predictions about uncertainty for Risk Management through use of the open SIPMath™ Standard. This standard allows users to perform arithmetic on uncertainties for better outcomes.
Each session was followed by Q&A moderated by Steve Nunn.
Lunchtime featured a Partner Presentation Showing Traceability Through Transformation by Josh Farmer, Consultant, Orbus Software. Josh discussed how projects can be linked to strategic objects like goals and drivers, as well as more tangible assets such as the application portfolio.
Afternoon track sessions were on e-Government, Digital Transformation, and IT4IT™ (an Open Group standard and Forum) in Practice. Speaker organizations represented included the Governments of Canada and Uruguay, Nationwide Insurance, IBM, and HPE.
After a very productive day, an evening cocktail reception was held at the Shaw Centre where attendees networked and visited the sponsor/exhibitor booths.
On Tuesday, July 18, Steve Nunn again welcomed everyone in the packed ballroom and introduced the upcoming keynote speakers.
The first presentation was European Interoperability Reference Architecture (EIRA) – State of Play by Raul Mario Abril Jimenez, Programme Manager, EU Policies, European Commission. Raul stated EIRA, as any reference architecture, has a focus, interoperability, reference model/ontology (ArchiMate®, an Open Group standard) and an architecture style (Service-Oriented Architecture, also known as SOA).
Kevin Wallis, Chief Architect, UK MoD, presented NATA Architecture Framework, a Standard for Developing Enterprise Architecture. Kevin discussed that information is the lifeblood of operations. Architecture and interoperability are key to bringing all the nations together.
The plenary continued with Providing Improved Capabilities to the Warfighter Faster through Reuse of Avionics Software by Terry Carlson, CIO/G-6, Chief Software Architect, PEO Aviation.
Terry commented that cost and schedule can be reduced by writing less code and reusing code. Both choices reduce development time, shorten code reviews and unit testing. Only one choice is feasible. Terry is a big fan of reuse which can minimize errors; increase software productivity; improve interoperability; reduce maintenance costs and risk; accelerate development; use more standardized software.
The final keynote was Preparing for the Inevitable Cyber Disruption – Response Planning by Eric Sweden, Program Director, Enterprise Architecture & Governance, NASCIO (National Association of State Chief Information Officers). Eric shared how the roles of EA and standards play in planning for the inevitable disruptions in the digital age.
Each presentation was followed by a Q&A session moderated by Steve Nunn.
Afternoon track sessions featured EA in Government, Security and Risk Management, Open Process Automation™ (a Forum of The Open Group), and Architecture Framework workshops.
In the evening, The Open Group hosted a private dinner reception at the Canadian Museum of History.
Wednesday, July 19, also featured a very busy agenda.
An EA Roundtable for Government, limited to government personnel and by invitation only, was attended by 50 people in roles such as Architects (Enterprise, Solution, Technical, Cybersecurity, Application, Business), CEOs, Project Managers and PhD students. The wide variety of organizations represented includes Bank of Canada, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, European Commission and the Chinese Culture University). The roundtable featured keynotes and interactive discussions on how EA and interoperability can benefit government.
In the afternoon, the TOGAF® User Group meeting was held. These sessions are open and free to those who are practicing or interested in learning more about TOGAF, an Open Group standard. The workshop offers opportunities to ask questions, network and share best practices, new ideas and key learnings.
Afternoon tracks centered around Architecture Reference Models, EA Practice, and Open Platform 3.0™.
The event culminated on Thursday, July 20 with Member Meetings for The Open Group Forums.
A very special ‘thank you’ goes to our sponsors and exhibitors: Build the Vision, Good e-Learning, HPE, Orbus Software, Association of Enterprise Architects (AEA), Invest Ottawa, Van Haren Publishing
Event proceedings are available to members and attendees here.
@theopengroup #ogOTTAWA
Please join us at The Open Group Amsterdam 2017 October 23-26! Early bird registration ends September 15. #ogAMS
Loren K. Baynes, Director, Global Marketing Communications, joined The Open Group in 2013 and spearheads corporate marketing initiatives, primarily the website, blog, media relations and social media. Loren has over 20 years experience in brand marketing and public relations and, prior to The Open Group, was with The Walt Disney Company for over 10 years. Loren holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Texas A&M University. She is based in the US.