Are you trying to sell enterprise architecture (EA) to the business? Explore the possibilities of leveraging business process management (BPM) in your efforts, said Robert Handler today at Symposium in his presentation "The New Business Architecture: Enterprise Architecture and BPM."

Enterprise architecture (or enterprise business architecture) has always been challenged by the "so what" factor. After much modeling and analysis, management often looks at the enterprise architecture and says, "So what?" said Handler. "After all this time, where's the new system?"

This dynamic has plagued EA since its inception, Handler added. However, advances in modeling, modeling standards, modeling tools and related technologies are now enabling "living-target" architectures. BPM is emerging as a means to create a living-target architecture that's palatable to many stakeholders in many organizations.

BPM uses many of the same tools and techniques as EA, but provides usable systems that generate rapid value, Handler explained. Moreover, BPM and EA share many common characteristics. Both involve modeling, and the tools that support them overlap. Moreover, methodological and notation standards exist for both.

"By using the right tools and modeling correctly, you can get 'two for the price of one,'" Handler said.

The case for coordinating BPM and EA goes beyond economics, said Handler. Other benefits include opportunities to create greater operational visibility and reuse and maintain models while avoiding reworking them, and laying the groundwork for process management scenarios.

"BPM is people-changing and process-changing -- it's not just about technology," Handler stressed.

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What is the “business context,” and why is it important? Here’s an anecdotal hint: In an article published in 2004 reported that according to Bain & Co., while 70% of senior executives at large corporations agree that information technology is relevant to growth, 60% believe that IT is actually inhibiting their growth efforts. Further, the perception is affecting tech spending."

To help Enterprise Architecture Leaders improve responsiveness to business needs and demands, at 9:30 Tuesday, Gartner Research VP Anne Lapkin will offer a presentation titled, “Business Alignment: Building the Business Context.”

Other key issues that Lapkin will cover in her discussion include:

What are the components of the business context, and how do you create one?
How do you link the business context to the viewpoints of the enterprise architecture?
Who should be involved, and how long does it take?

Though two years have passed since the results of the Bain study were published, said Lapkin, “Our discussions with clients indicate that, in many organizations, the situation has not improved. Implementing technology alone rarely delivers substantial benefits. Other changes are needed if IT is to be properly exploited and strategic change is to be achieved.”

Lapkin’s session will be held at the Yacht & Beach Hotel Grand Harbor North.

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As process improvement becomes more critical to business success, both business architecture and BPM are taking on increased importance. Yet the demarcation between the business viewpoint of the enterprise architecture, business process modeling and business process management is unclear. In many case, the same tools are used. At Symposium, we will explore how an architected approach to these interlocking disciplines can drive business improvement. We’ll also explore how you can same a ton of money, stop wasting so much time, and avoid irritating business people, using just a little upfront coordination.

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Frank Schlier likes to call it “working for the man.” In order for an organization to truly get value from their enterprise architecture, the architectural vision must be realized in the projects and programs that the organization implements. Most organizations realize that architecture must be treated as one of a set of key IT disciplines that work together to deliver business value to the enterprise. Also, enterprise architecture is increasingly viewed as a partner in the creation of a “technologically sophisticated business strategy”, which can deliver true competitive advantage through the intelligent application of information technology to the enterprise. While we have several papers on the topic, Frank Schlier will be presenting a lively presentation on the topic Wednesday at Symposium.

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It's widely accepted that an enterprise architecture driven out of the business strategy provides you with the highest degree of technology/business alignment. Yet many organizations fall short in their attempts to truly engage the business. The first step is the creation of the business context. The creation of the business context for EA means understanding enough about the business to ensure that the enterprise architecture truly meets the business needs. Several techniques exist to have business context. We’ll be doing a presentation at Symposium - Business Alignment: Building the Business Context - Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. that provides the best techniques.

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Enterprise architecture is an evolving discipline. A decade ago, architects were primarily concerned with technology rationalization and simplification. Today, they are concerned with helping their business to formulate and execute a technologically sophisticated business strategy. With these new, more strategically focused objectives, different approaches need to be taken and different skills are required. I’ll be doing a session at Symposium, Enterprise Architecture 2010: What's Changed and What's the Same, that talks about this dynamic and provides prescriptive guidance to be successful, now and in the future. A sneak peak: I’ll formally pronounce the death of EA as a series of three ring binders.

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Many SOA efforts fail due to the lack of a coherent information strategy and architecture. With the increasing adoption of SOA, enterprises are focusing more attention on information architecture and related disciplines like Enterprise Information Management. Yet our discussions with our clients indicate that information architecture is not well understood. For that matter, information is not that well understood. Get a bunch of IT folks together in a room and ask them to differentiate between data, information, and knowledge if you’d like to see a spirited and endless debate. Information provides insight and allows better decision making. Information is key to effective customer service. Information can, and should be architected, governed and managed. We’ll discuss this at Symposium, so join us.

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Many enterprise architecture initiatives are perceived as wasted effort, disconnected from the business and providing no long term benefit. In some cases, this perception is a reality. In most, however, enterprise architecture teams forgot to capture, measure and report their successes. Enterprise architecture teams that are perceived as successful typically have a program in place to measure and report the effectiveness of the architecture efforts in business terms. The EA measurement program is important to the success of the architecture effort and provides critical feedback for the continuous improvement of the enterprise architecture. We have several new notes covering this topic and an exciting presentation coming up at Symposium. See you there.

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Successful enterprise architecture programs are characterized by consistent attention to basic best practices that ensure constant delivery of value to the enterprise and continuous improvement of the architecture process. Anne Lapkin will be doing a presentation at Symposium Thursday, October 12 at 3:15 p.m. that explores these best practices and provides some techniques for applying them to your enterprise architecture effort. Remember, however, that a best practice is really only “best” if it helps your organization out. If it doesn’t, it isn’t! Let us know your best practices (so we can publish them in a research note and charge you to read them)!

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Today's enterprise architecture isn't about lists of technology standards. It's about crafting the optimal constellation of business process, information and technology services to support the business strategy. It's about designing and managing interlocking portfolios of application, business and infrastructure services to maximize your technology investments while supporting the level of flexibility and agility that your organization requires. It's about developing an integrative, strategic planning discipline that will support effective enterprise change. Enterprise architects require a new set of skills and new types of knowledge. During Symposium/ITxpo, join me as we explore the challenges facing today's enterprise architects and the tools and techniques that you need to meet them.

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