Today is 200th birth anniversary one of the great thinkers of modern times. Darwin presented us with the theory of evolution, summed up as 'natural selection' or 'survival of the fittest'. We also know that applying Darwinism in all spheres (e.g. social sphere - a la Nietzsche/Hitler) is not a good idea. However thats what tends to happen when it comes to enterprise IT. The evolution of enterprise IT tends to follow, the evolution of enterprise itself. As enterprises evolve, different parts of its value chain become important and get more attention (consequently more resource allocation). This weird sort of natural selection leads to multiplicity of systems and infrastructure, which tend to overlap or in rare cases leave gaps.
Over a period of time, the architectural environment, may it be business, application or technology architecture gets contaminated. This leads to bloated cost base and starts affecting time to market for business change. Approaches such as portfolio rationalisation can restore order temporarily. But to retain some semblance of order all the time, a proper enterprise architecture function must oversee the enterprise IT.
However what I have seen happening in practice is that at best of times the enterprise architecture function gets tolerated at most, and given total short shrift during bad times (such as current times). Focus moves to doing change projects faster and cheaper. The old wisdom is however easily forgotten, in being penny wise on short term project costs and time lines, we ignore the pound foolishness of bloated cost base and compromised time to market for future changes. However I also tend to agree that business change cannot wait for the right architecture to be put in place first. Businesses normally have window of opportunity to cash in, and cash in they will - with, without or despite IT.
Thats where the concept of Enterprise IT Oracle comes in. The Enterprise IT Oracle will let IT predict the future as envisaged by business, and put the right architecture (with appropriate governance) in place even before the need arises. It kind of puts IT in an offside position (soccer/football term) so that when business wants to pass the ball, IT is ready to receive it and shoot it into the goal. It is my firm belief that without such 'Oracle' function, enterprise architecture functions in reactive mode will never be able to rise to occasions.
These are my thoughts about various issues faced by an enterprise architect.
Here you will find thoughts related to enterprise architecture, TOGAF, SOA, BPM, MDA, MDD, Web 2.0 etc.
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Thursday, February 12, 2009
Darwin and enterprise architecture
Today is 200th birth anniversary one of the great thinkers of modern times. Darwin presented us with the theory of evolution, summed up as 'natural selection' or 'survival of the fittest'. We also know that applying Darwinism in all spheres (e.g. social sphere - a la Nietzsche/Hitler) is not a good idea. However thats what tends to happen when it comes to enterprise IT. The evolution of enterprise IT tends to follow, the evolution of enterprise itself. As enterprises evolve, different parts of its value chain become important and get more attention (consequently more resource allocation). This weird sort of natural selection leads to multiplicity of systems and infrastructure, which tend to overlap or in rare cases leave gaps.
Over a period of time, the architectural environment, may it be business, application or technology architecture gets contaminated. This leads to bloated cost base and starts affecting time to market for business change. Approaches such as portfolio rationalisation can restore order temporarily. But to retain some semblance of order all the time, a proper enterprise architecture function must oversee the enterprise IT.
However what I have seen happening in practice is that at best of times the enterprise architecture function gets tolerated at most, and given total short shrift during bad times (such as current times). Focus moves to doing change projects faster and cheaper. The old wisdom is however easily forgotten, in being penny wise on short term project costs and time lines, we ignore the pound foolishness of bloated cost base and compromised time to market for future changes. However I also tend to agree that business change cannot wait for the right architecture to be put in place first. Businesses normally have window of opportunity to cash in, and cash in they will - with, without or despite IT.
Thats where the concept of Enterprise IT Oracle comes in. The Enterprise IT Oracle will let IT predict the future as envisaged by business, and put the right architecture (with appropriate governance) in place even before the need arises. It kind of puts IT in an offside position (soccer/football term) so that when business wants to pass the ball, IT is ready to receive it and shoot it into the goal. It is my firm belief that without such 'Oracle' function, enterprise architecture functions in reactive mode will never be able to rise to occasions.
Over a period of time, the architectural environment, may it be business, application or technology architecture gets contaminated. This leads to bloated cost base and starts affecting time to market for business change. Approaches such as portfolio rationalisation can restore order temporarily. But to retain some semblance of order all the time, a proper enterprise architecture function must oversee the enterprise IT.
However what I have seen happening in practice is that at best of times the enterprise architecture function gets tolerated at most, and given total short shrift during bad times (such as current times). Focus moves to doing change projects faster and cheaper. The old wisdom is however easily forgotten, in being penny wise on short term project costs and time lines, we ignore the pound foolishness of bloated cost base and compromised time to market for future changes. However I also tend to agree that business change cannot wait for the right architecture to be put in place first. Businesses normally have window of opportunity to cash in, and cash in they will - with, without or despite IT.
Thats where the concept of Enterprise IT Oracle comes in. The Enterprise IT Oracle will let IT predict the future as envisaged by business, and put the right architecture (with appropriate governance) in place even before the need arises. It kind of puts IT in an offside position (soccer/football term) so that when business wants to pass the ball, IT is ready to receive it and shoot it into the goal. It is my firm belief that without such 'Oracle' function, enterprise architecture functions in reactive mode will never be able to rise to occasions.
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