By Ash Patel, Marketing Specialist, The Open Group
The Open Group Edinburgh 2022 event brought together a variety of speakers, topics, and discussion points surrounding Digital Open Standards, Enterprise Architecture (EA), and Sustainability.
On Sunday, October 16, 2022, Members of The Open Group took part in a golf tournament at the historic St. Andrews Torrance Course. The day comprised of a tour of the old course, photos of Swilcan Bridge, and a round on the Torrance course itself.
Day One
Steve Nunn, President and CEO, The Open Group, started things off by welcoming attendees, and saying how nice it was to be together again in-person.
Andrew Josey (VP Standards & Certification) and Dave Hornford (Enterprise Architect and Partner, Conexiam) were up first, introducing the latest developments for the TOGAF® Certification Portfolio. Andrew kicked off the session with the announcement of new learning paths based on the TOGAF® Standard, 10th Edition. Andrew walked through the details of the portfolio which encompasses the TOGAF 9 certifications, TOGAF Enterprise Architecture certification, TOGAF Business Architecture certification, and TOGAF certification credentials for Agile Specialists, Digital Specialists, and EA Leaders.
Next, Dave described the journey the standard has taken and how it was now structured for action, and how both the standard and certification portfolio are modular, useful, and practical. He challenged the audience with some questions about the content, offering a prize to the first person with the right answer. He highlighted the subtle yet powerful change in that the certification portfolio now focuses on specific bodies of knowledge drawn from the standard, addressing different audiences, different use cases, and different levels of competence.
After the break, Ron Tolido (EVP, CTO, Capgemini) gave a stirring and charismatic presentation on The Case for Sustainable Digital Architecture. His presentation included touching on the move from alignment to unity of business and IT, creating a seamless Technology Business strategy and operations. While also focusing on how all business and societal challenges have one commonality: they rely on technology to address them as part of the change equation. He touched on the initiative of ‘Do Well, Do Less, Do Good’, which really emphasized the main purpose of his presentation.
Next Celine Lescop (Lead Digital Sustainability & Data Architect, AXA Group Operations) gave a very insightful presentation on using systematic enterprise. She explained the main aspects of a system involving how a system is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that achieves something and much more. Celine also reinforced how we need to drive the change toward sustainable ICT business models.
Another fantastic speaker, Leslie Robinet, Services Director, MEGA International presented ‘Overcoming Legacy in a Sustainable Digital Transformation’. Sustainable IT, and particularly ecoconception, are key in our collective drive towards a more sustainable future. Enterprise Architecture contributes to this sustainable development transformation.
Between each of the sessions, there was ample opportunity for questions to be taken regarding the presentations, with Steve Nunn moderating the questions after each session.
Other sessions within the tracks also involved ‘Accelerating Sustainable Technology Through Industry Standards’, presented by David Holmes (GM Energy, Dell), along with a continuation of ‘The TOGAF Standard 10th Edition: Ready for Anything and Everything’ by Mike Lambert (Fellow, The Open Group).
Rounding the day off before the Q&A sessions were Luc Burnip & Natalie Garner (DXC Technology) on Sustainable Software Delivery Lifecycle and Zero Trust and the TOGAF ADM.
The Q&A session demonstrated how sustainability is acting as an agent for change and driving the adoption of a software delivery framework which addresses sustainability from a holistic perspective. Finally, Q&A sessions were held, surrounding the topic of EA and sustainability. There was then an offsite dinner at Edinburgh Castle, full of grandeur, live bag pipes, authentic Scottish food and a tour of the crown jewels.
Day Two
Steve Nunn introduced the day ahead involving the TOGAF User Group, while also mentioning Toolkit Tuesday. Chris Forde (GM Asia Pacific & VP Enterprise Architecture, The Open Group) then gave a detailed overview of the TOGAF Standard, 10th Edition. He touched on the key features of the standard, ways to access it also the terminology behind all. Chris also explored what is to come with the standard.
Up next, was Phil Tetlow (CTO Data Ecosystems, IBM), who gave a very thought-provoking presentation on ‘Ecosystems Architecture’. His presentation made attendees think about viable ecosystems, promoting and maintain ecosystems architectures and more. Significant challenges remain when trying to think about IT architectures that stretch beyond the classical boundaries of what we once considered “the enterprise”. Not least on that list are matters like effective closure and increased levels of complexity.
Mike Annis (Owner/Principal Anniss Ltd.) provided practical and tested approaches to using the concepts of enterprise, segment, and capability levels to better manage and deliver effective results from architecture landscape management. We were then taken through the ArchiMate® Modeling Language, particularly how it is used and how it can support the TOGAF Standard. Marc outlined how the ArchiMate® Specification can be used with the TOGAF Standard to support business transformations, highlighting the following Guide https://publications.opengroup.org/guides/archimate/g21e.
Andrew Josey (VP Standards and Certification), who gave a very interesting presentation on the ‘Deeper Dive: The TOGAF Certification Portfolio’. His presentation touched on the various qualifications whilst also diving into the scope and the body of knowledge throughout.
To finish off the morning, attendees were able to send questions for the panel to answer (surrounding The TOGAF Standard, 10th Edition), which was led by Chris Forde, Phil Tetlow, Mike Annis, Andrew Josey and Steve Nunn. Some of the question highlights included: Platform and ecosystems : What is your view on differences when platforms (which are used to build enterprise systems, and providing configurability and self serve for its tenants) are connected to each other creating a ecosystem of platforms vs enterprise application ecosystems. How do product thinking/product owner/product organization concepts that are dominant in agile approaches fit within the TOGAF philosophy and evolution?
The day then broke off into parallel tracks with ‘My Open-CA Journey’: Growing my career one experience at a time. This session featured a range of experts discussing their own Open CA journey, offering an overview of the program, key insights, along with a Q+A segment giving attendees a change to ask any questions while listening to the session. The other track saw Dave Lounsbury (consultant) moderate a ‘Digital Business Workshop on the Exchange of Environmental Data’. This track’s main aim involved exploring the current barriers that exist to the capture, measurement, exchange, and use of environmental data. Other highlights included covering the Open Footprint™ Forum landscape and highlighting communality.
Day Three
Steve Nunn welcomed attendees to day three and outlined the focus of Digital Open Standards. First, we heard from Chris Frost (Principal Enterprise Architect, Global Services Business Group, Fujitsu) who gave an engaging presentation on the development of the Portfolio of Open Digital Standards, along with the benefits that it will bring to the members. Next up, Sonia Gonzalez (Digital Portfolio Manager, The Open Group) delivered a demo on navigating around the portfolio in its current state. This session took attendees through the demo, while also offering visual aids throughout.
Announcing something exciting was Steve Nunn, who introduced Lars Rossen and Rob Akershoek, with both presenting the IT4IT™ Standard Version 3. This has been years in the works and the publication was much anticipated.
Following that great news, Dr. Chris Harding (Founder and Principal, Lacibus Ltd.) presented ‘Cloud-Native Data Integration about how Information Technology professionals always need to integrate data of different kinds.
Another big highlight of the day was the announcement of the ArchiMate® 3.2 Specification release by The Open Group ArchiMate Forum. Jean-Baptiste Sarrodie (Enterprise Architect, BNP Paribas) and Marc Lankhorst (Managing Consultant & Chief Technology Evangelist, Bizzdesign) gave us a ‘tip of the iceberg’ on what the updates to the specification are, and what’s to come.
The rest of the day included useful and explorative parallel streams, which saw attendees hear from the likes of Jack Fujieda (Founder President and CEO, ReGIS Inc, Kyohichi Matsuzawa, Chief Architect, Kyndryl Japan) regarding progress updates for O-DA 2.0 Standards WG and also Scott Sloan (CTO Kyndryl), who gave a presentation on The Value of Industry Reference Architectures: Zira and Healthcare along with other dynamic speaker presentations.
Finally, we ended the event on a high note with the last two tracks, which involved Making Standards Work®: Evolving the Ecosystem of the Future Airborne Capability Environment™ (FACE), presented by Judy Cerenzia, VP Forum Operations, The Open Group. This presentation really encapsulated what we do, whilst applying it to the Ecosystem of the Future Airborne Capability Environment™ (FACE), as it begins to evolve. While the other track, focused on Transition to Product Thinking, presented by Dave Hornford (Enterprise Architect and Partner, Conexiam) and Nathan Hornford Enterprise Architect, Conexiam. Some of the topics covered within the track included covering the broad set of capabilities required across the business.
Overall, the whole event was not only engaging, but was also very interactive with a range of speakers, many Q&A Panels, networking opportunities, and more.
Huge thanks goes to our sponsors – the Association of Enterprise Architects (AEA), Boomi, Conexiam, DELL Technologies, MEGA, and Van Haren Publishing. Also, thank you to our speakers, Members, event attendees, and staff!
Proceedings will be available to Members and attendees week of October 24, 2022.
The next quarterly event will take place virtually January 30 – February 2, 2023. Please stay tuned for details! We’re excited to see you online there!
Ash Patel, Marketing Specialist, joined The Open Group in 2020, initially working in the Certification Team as a Certification Services Agent, before moving into the Marketing Team where he now works on digital communications, content for the staff intranet (O-Zone), SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and analytics. Ash holds a First-Class Bachelor’s Degree in Media Production (BA hons) from Coventry University and has a background in content writing, copy writing, script writing, photo editing, and video editing. He is based in the UK.