Enterprise Architecture

In the recent Worldwide Business Process Management (BPM) Market Opportunities Strategies, and Forecasts, 2009 to 2015 , WinterGreen predict that: Business process management (BPM) and services oriented architecture engine markets at $1.8 billion for licenses, maintenance, and services in 2008 are expected to reach $6.2 billion by 2015. Products have a dashboard that supports ease of use for business analysts. The automation of process is what drives profitability for the enterprise. The authors state that BPM is going to be at the heart of most organisational transformation initiatives and that: Business process management promises to drive enterprise markets going forward by implementing automated process ... Read Full Story

While researching BPM Process Modeling tools recently ( see post here ), I also came across a few Enterprise Architecture tools that I thought I would share with readers. interaplan, the Essentials Project and the Togaf Customiser are all Open Source initiatives and are briefly summarised below: interaplan Claimed to be the first open source tool for enterprise architecture management (EAM), iteraplan is based on the IT landscape modelling method developed by the consulting company iteratec. It is available in two editions: Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE). A feature comparison table can be found here . The Essential Project The Essential Project ... Read Full Story

Relationship Brings Together Planning and Implementation Stakeholders to Accelerate Business Transformations GARTNER ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE SUMMIT 2009 — ORLANDO, FLA. — Sybase, Inc. ( NYSE: SY ), an industry leader in delivering enterprise and mobile software, and Troux™ Technologies, Inc., the leader in Strategic IT Planning and Control software, today announced a working relationship with plans to integrate Sybase's PowerDesigner® enterprise modeling product with Troux's strategic IT Planning and Enterprise Architecture solutions. The goal of the relationship is to enable the companies' joint customers to maximize the ROI on PowerDesigner enterprise modeling investments by making those information assets available to enterprise-wide IT Planning processes. A ... Read Full Story

This coming Tuesday evening I'm going to be delivering my "Case Studies of Enterprise Architecture" presentation in Manchester, at a meeting hosted by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Manchester Network and jointly with the BCS Manchester branch . For more information the event is advertised both with the IET and BCS . The core details are: Date: 17 March 2009 (iCalendar Entry) Time: 18:00 Refreshments / 18:30 Start Location: Conference Room 6, The Manchester Conference Centre, Sackville Street, Manchester M1 3BB. Cost: Free, open to all (including non-members of the IET or BCS), no registration required. The case studies presented explore my ... Read Full Story

Towards the end of 2008, Dave Linthicum issued his predictions for the year ahead in service oriented architecture. They are summarised below: The interest in cloud computing (or WOA, Web 2.0, or insert current Webby buzzword here) will drive many enterprises toward SOA The explosion in PaaS (platform as a service) will leave many enterprise architects and CIOs scratching their heads The economy will recover, but most enterprises out there will focus on cost reduction There will be a larger focus on inter-domain SOA technology Jig will be up for poor SOA governance solutions out there Most failed SOA projects will be traced to ... Read Full Story

What happens when you combine the thinking of enterprise architecture with partial adoption of SCRUM, you get something along the lines of making chocolate chip cookies but without the chocolate chips... I was talking to an architect down the road and realized that the buzzword of SCRUM is the latest word to be abused in large enterprises. When folks are talking about SCRUM, they are talking about socialization constructs and not necessarily management practices. All of the agile methods advocate the principle that everything is important but something is more important yet most enterprise architects have no framework that guides them in this regard. ... Read Full Story

In a recent article from CBR it states that research shows evidence that many organisations are focussing their modernisation initiatives around BPM and SOA technologies and approaches. CIOs are abandoning the rip-and-replace culture in favour of modernising existing systems, research from Software AG has revealed. The research, which quizzed over 150 IT directors, revealed an appetite for implementation of BPM and SOA initiatives as organisations try to cut costs and improve service delivery in the tough economic climate. “Strategic investment in modernisation will deliver cost cuts and free-up talented IT staff to concentrate on business critical projects and fight the downturn,” Jim Close of ... Read Full Story

The adjective "enterprisey" is sometimes used to imply the software recommendation is overly complex even for large organizations and simpler, proven solutions are available... Alan Pelz-Sharpe asked who loves the incumbent vendor and talks about this scenario from the perspective of relationship where over time legacy products grow features that aren't really that useful. Consider the scenario of the average user of Microsoft products. How many of us truly need the features that Office 2007 provides? For me, I am satisfied with Office 2000 and haven't found a compelling reason to upgrade. Of course, sooner or later, Microsoft like all vendors will force an ... Read Full Story

Have you ever considered some of the worst practices of enterprise architects? I bet Gunnar Peterson, Nick Malik, James Tarbell, Chris Swan, Todd Biske and others could make the list even larger... 1. Instead of focusing on perception management, concentrate on becoming a skilled negotiator. We need to strike balance between technical complexity and business needs. Don't just change perception, focus on reality. 2. Spread the wealth. Enterprise architects who are the single source of knowledge on a given topic within an enterprise is dangerous. We all need to plan for when we all get thrown under the bus and the best way to ... Read Full Story

Tibco is offering a real-time service called iProcess Spotfire that allows business users to manipulate data and produce reports from their business process management (BPM) software. Tibco's do-it-yourself (DIY) service represents one of the promises of the real-time enterprise. The task of updating and fine tuning BPM software usually requires the help of IT personnel. It's reminiscent of how the web has made the most complex tasks fairly doable by people with little expertise. Tasks that once required experts now can be performed by people with few technical skills. Sponsor The Tibco service is designed for all levels of business users. Professionals can use ... Read Full Story