Mike RollingsFor any transformation to occur it is important to first recognize there is a problem. Without this critical first step, change cannot occur, bad behaviors persist, and relationships with others deteriorate. This post is about my longtime friend enterprise architecture (friends call him EA) and his journey.
EA has been suffering from a raft of dysfunctional behaviors for years. Ever since the launch of Burton Group’s IT1 coverage, I have been speaking publicly about these problems in the hope that EA would wake up and see how he was stumbling through life and had lost his direction. I discussed how his silo thinking had disconnected him from getting things done. I expressed concern that his inability to work well with others and his “my way or the highway” attitude was just alienating his friends. Yet he continued to focus on trying to control others, stay in his tower, and became even more isolated surrounding himself with technology.
A while ago I met with EA, he was wearing his characteristic ivory colored robe. He began mumbling incessantly, repeating over and over “standards, guidelines, enforcement, framework…”, he went on and on. I knew he had reached bottom. The press knew it too; this famous photo showed his decline for all to see when he fell into a trough.
Publicists suggested that he just change his name to BA (business architecture) to preserve his reputation. However, when you are in a trough, a name change is not enough. Real transformation requires doing something different, and it all starts by recognizing there is a problem. Once you recognize that there is a problem, you are then open to other possibilities — other ways of living that are more fulfilling, more connected, and more relevant.
Last week there was a lot of discussion about EA’s problems. Many joined the discussion “Why is EA dying“. I am happy to read this and other similar discussions because I think it signals that my longtime friend EA is finally entering rehab.
EA’s checkered past does not need to define him. He can emerge from this low and become even more relevant than before. By recognizing there is a problem, EA can be different, however like the caterpillar becoming a butterfly, EA must transform into something radically different than before.
Good luck EA! I am happy to lend a hand in your transformation.
Category: Human Behavior Management Strategic Planning Transformation Uncategorized Tags: Behavior, Transformation
5 responses so far ↓
1 Tweets that mention Enterprise Architecture enters Rehab -- Topsy.com August 16, 2010 at 12:35 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Alex Waddell, Greg Lambert Feed. Greg Lambert Feed said: Enterprise Architecture enters Rehab http://bit.ly/d7BepY [...]
2 Adrian Grigoriu August 19, 2010 at 11:06 am
I think the EA problem consists in that we always preached about the ideal EA that promised to heal all ailments of the Enterprise while practising an EA that mainly covered solution architecture, its reviews and IT strategy, as a Forrester survey interpretation shows: see http://tinyurl.com/3469uyh. I would not call it EA but let me not go there.
EA seldom provides, if at all, the Enterprise blueprint or operation as keenly expected by top management and business people. That is why it may be at the trough of disillusionment. That is, depending on viewpoint, since EA employs more people than ever, happy to use TOGAF, whatever that does for them … And the IT management is not unhappy because the expectations are no different.
“EA” architects might be happy to take up a real integrated EA but they need a framework for that, that links business functions, flows, layers and technology components in a unitary navigable whole aligned to strategy. They don’t have that and they are not expected to represent the Enterprise, each in their own way.
This won’t come without innovation either no matter how assiduous we promise it, re-brand it, rehab it or add wondrous terms or approaches.
The EA landscape is unfortunately confused by the fact that the EA is too often associated to ITIL, software or IT technologies that have “Enterprise in the name” (ERP, EAI, ESB, JavaEE…) or even with the “glue” between strategy and…, business and….
As such lots of other practitioners claim to be EA architects.
In the end, EA just needs an honest definition of what we do and what we would like to do but cannot since we don’t know how to build it. And that should be make public so that anyone can make distinction between what an EA role or it isn’t.
I would have expected that reputed fora would listen and arbitrate a solution if not coming with one. But that does not seem to happen.
3 Tom August 19, 2010 at 11:47 am
Please talk to us regarding the business value of these five enterprise architecture capabilities.
1. Strategy Formation, Planning and Alignment
2. Emerging Technologies and New Technology Innovation
3. Technology Risk and Impact
4. Investment Oversight and Architecture Governance
5. Architecture and Transformation
4 Tweets that mention Enterprise Architecture enters Rehab -- Topsy.com August 20, 2010 at 12:35 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mridul K Singh, Metia AR. Metia AR said: @Gartner_Inc (Blog): Enterprise Architecture enters rehab http://digbig.com/5bceqg [...]
5 Tom Tinsley August 24, 2010 at 2:28 pm
I agree with you that we EAs recognize there is a problem. The problem seems even broader than just EAs and goes at the central control of corporate IT.
I also agree that there will be significant innovations that will move us past this point. The drivers seem to be leading us towards a decentralized approach where anyone can just plug in and contribute.