By The Open Group
How many failed and de-railed technology solution implementations has your company been through? It’s past time to reevaluate your digital transformation strategy. Become the hero of your business by implementing a standardized operational backbone that saves money, automates processes, and reduces the waste and friction in your current technology solutions to keep you moving forward ahead of your competitors efficiently and effectively.
By Kees van den Brink, Senior Manager Platform Architect, ServiceNow.
This blog title is derived from the famous quote by George E.P. Box from his paper “Science and Statistics”:
Box made this statement in relation to the use of statistical models by scientists, but I’ve found that it applies equally well to the use of open standards by enterprise architects and other digital practitioners.
Key take away from this blog:
o Standards can be useful when you:
o Learn and adopt from what makes sense
o Reject what does not fit
o Want to know more: Read “The Turning Point: A Novel about Agile Architects Building a Digital Foundation”
Frankly, standards can be very helpful and are necessary, like the TCP/IP standard, or even old standards such as the Baudot Code (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baudot_code), which helped early instances of what would later be called telecommunications companies grow fast, or the ISO Standards, which help with interoperability.
However, there are a lot of lesser-known standards that are not getting such broad adoption. Examples that come to mind are the IT4IT™ Standard, TOGAF® Standard, BIZBOK®, etc.
y, Associate Director, Enterprise Architecture & Strategy
I consider open standards a huge time saver when getting started on any architecture engagement. I would like to start a conversation here about the use of architecture standards for agility in a digital transformation. In the comments, would you please answer the following question?:
Which standards have you tried using, to solve which problems, and what benefits did you receive?
To get this started, here are some of the standards we opted to include in a book I recently co-authored with Kees van Brink and Sylvain Marie called, “The Turning Point: A Novel about Agile Architects Building a Digital Foundation.” The novel tells the story of Enterprise Architects and other characters in a company who recently went through a merger and who use several standards together to accelerate a Digital Transformation, including these standards from The Open Group
As organizations across all industries strive to become Digital First, open standards are more important than ever for providing the necessary frameworks and career development tools to drive transformation progress.
This week, our ‘Open Digital Standards’ Virtual Event April 26-28 brought together experts from across the globe to provide guidance for the creation and implementation of open digital standards. It was fantastic to see 1,300 attendees from more than 85 countries gather virtually to discuss various approaches and best practices for making sense of the evolving business landscape and delivering digital products and services.
Aircraft safely is of interest to everyone around the world. To address aircraft safety there are certification processes in place where two organizations with the greatest involvement are the FAA (Federal Aviation Agency) in the US, and the EASA (European Union Aviation Safety Agency) in Europe.
Certification is how the FAA manages risk through safety assurance. It provides the FAA confidence that a proposed product or operation will meet FAA safety expectations to protect the public. Certification affirms that FAA requirements have been met.
In the ongoing transition to Digital-First, an increasing number of technology executives, managers, and practitioners are looking for new approaches that will help them to make sense of the evolving business landscape and deliver digital products and services.
As an organization that is known for solving business issues through global industry collaboration, The Open Group hosted its third virtual event October 26-29, 2020, which provided over 3,300 registrants with the opportunity to discover the critical digital standards that enable a smooth transition to a Digital-First enterprise.
As an organization that is known for its world-class events and prides itself on bringing people together globally, this week The Open Group hosted its second virtual event following the success of the first ever #ogVIRTUAL in April.
It was fantastic to have over 2,100 attendees from 107 countries come together virtually to explore the topic of ‘Digital First’. Sessions and workshops were hosted by a plethora of industry experts and centered on the security, trust, and architectural issues which need to be considered when becoming a “Digital-First” organization.
The number of individuals certified in the TOGAF® Certification Program as of May 2020 is growing rapidly and about to surpass 100,000 – currently standing at 98,900. This includes certified individuals from 149 countries, with the most certifications awarded in the UK, USA, India, Netherlands, and Australia.
The TOGAF Standard, a standard of The Open Group, is a proven Enterprise Architecture (EA) methodology and framework, used by the world’s leading organizations to improve business efficiency. Representing a Body of Knowledge from world-leading practitioners, the latest TOGAF Standard, Version 9.2 is universally known as industry best practice.
Every organization needs to be Agile in order to handle all kind of forces and developments inside and outside the organization. Equally, organizations also need the structure and overarching view of an organization that is provided by Enterprise Architecture. and in particular, The TOGAF® standard, a standard of The Open Group. Both Lean and EA can make organizations more Agile, but work from a different, complementary perspective. By synergizing both EA and Lean knowledge, techniques, and people, many organizations are exploiting the strengths of both approaches.
In this time of the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated extreme economic disruption we’re all experiencing, the imperative to move rapidly toward digital products and business models is becoming both clear and increasingly urgent.
Like many of technology’s better creations, the IT4IT™ Reference Architecture standard was born out of necessity.
The IT landscape is continually shaped by innovation. Despite that being a cause for celebration for consumers and end-users, the introduction of these new technologies – such as the mainframe, the PC, client servers, the Internet, cloud computing, IoT, etc. – meant that the IT function had, effectively, lost track of what it needed to manage and control.
An open standard architecture-based approach to managing the business of IT was needed. This would have to be a holistic, end-to-end, service-based description of everything the IT function needs, and to be a good steward of all the IT components, solutions, and services within its remit. It was this issue that set in motion the train of events that brought us to where we are today. But there are no grounds for complacency. The work continues.
Even today the complexity and pervasiveness of, and the dependency on, IT systems continues to grow. In many cases, in many organizations today, the management solution is a loose collection of siloed processes. We are still not paying enough attention on how to remain in control. That is why the IT4IT standard is such an important instrument to manage IT, and why we have chosen to document how it came to be.
The Open Group hosted its latest event at the Marriott Riverwalk in the lively city of San Antonio, Texas. On January 27 – 30, we welcomed attendees from across the globe – including decision-makers, Enterprise Architects, Data Scientists, engineers, technologists, and end-users representing many businesses and governments – to explore how organizations can utilize their growing volume of data effectively and securely as part of a digital transformation program.
By Steve Nunn, President and CEO, The Open Group
As we usher in the new decade, I would like to express my sincerest wishes for you – our valued Members, The Open Group global community, and staff – to enjoy much happiness and great success in 2020.
What a year it has been here at The Open Group! As I reflect on 2019 and consider what is to come in 2020, one thing is very clear – The Open Group is doing even more of what it does best – helping to solve real business problems through technology standards.
From cloud computing and big data, to the Internet of Things and digital product delivery, the nature of IT has changed dramatically. As a result, today’s IT departments are under enormous pressure to help organizations remain competitive throughout the digitalization process. Traditionally, IT departments have not been built to focus on development, and are not yet agile enough to handle a business environment that must constantly adapt to an ever-evolving marketplace.
The delivery of IT services to the business has changed significantly in recent times. Largely driven by the consumerization of IT, DevOps is being charged with linking development and operation teams to improve the quality and speed of delivering new offerings to consumers.This shift is being facilitated by the rapidly changing digital landscape and the increased demand for new products and services.
Forrester predicted that 2019 would be the year of rebuilding foundations and measured innovation for the CIO. As part of this, they suggested that CIOs not put the proverbial ‘cart’ before the ‘horse’, and to focus on providing solid foundations while taking a measured approach to innovation. Yet despite the guidance to focus on practicality, many CIOs still aspire to be seen as a technology evangelist and to work with smart business partners to create major change within the organization. This has left many CIOs at a stalemate in regards to their role and responsibilities, especially as the CEO and CDO roles continue to evolve.
The Open Group released two new bodies of work during The Open Group Denver event in July 2019. The first was a snapshot of what is intended to become The Open Agile Architecture Framework™ (O-AAF). The objective of this document is to cover both Digital Transformation and Agile Transformation of the enterprise, and is valid until January 15, 2020. The second new document was The Digital Practitioner Body of Knowledge™ Standard (DPBoK), Version 1.0, which assists individuals and organizations who wish to create and manage product offerings with an increasing digital component, or lead their organization through Digital Transformation.
The Open Group hosted its latest event at the stunning Koepelkerk, a 17th century domed cathedral adjoining the Renaissance Hotel, in Amsterdam, November 4 -7. In attendance were 350 attendees – from 29 countries – including decision-makers, Enterprise Architects, technologists, and end-users representing many businesses and governments. The event explored how the two practices of Agile and Enterprise Architecture (EA) can leverage one another, with plenary and track sessions on Agile Architecture methods including case studies from organizations such as Capgemini, Raytheon, DXC, IAG, Micro Focus, Philips, and ING.
The Open Group, the vendor-neutral technology standards consortium, is hosting its upcoming event in Amsterdam, November 4 – 7, 2019. The Open Group Amsterdam 2019 will bring together vendors and end user organizations to discuss a range of topics focused around a central theme of Agile Architecture. The event will host attendees from throughout the globe, including decision-makers, Enterprise Architects, engineers, technologists, and end-users representing many businesses and governments.
The Open Group IT4IT™ Reference Architecture, a standard of The Open Group uses a value chain framework that applies this concept to IT by defining an integrated IT management framework focusing on the lifecycle of services. This allows IT to achieve the same level of business predictability and efficiency that supply chain management has allowed for the business.
