CTO Blog
There is something symbolic about it: organising an IT conference in the Central Hall in London. Right next to the Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, The Open Group’s Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Conference takes place in one of the landmark buildings of the protestant Methodist church. Established in the 18th century by John Wesley, the Methodist movement consists of people that aim to live a devout, serious life. Not some noncommittal philosophising about the heavenly glory and all that, but practicing faith every dag again, through dedicated, hard work. It’s only when you share your meal in the soup kitchen with the underprivileged of this world, that you start to experience the real essence of faith, so the Methodists believe.
Interesting thinking and at the very least, it gives an extra dimension to the panel discussion on the podium. The topic today is the eternal tension between the long term and the short term. In the panel team we find enterprise architects, IT strategists and a market analyst (no, not exactly the underprivileged). The hypothesis discussed is that the shallowness of today’s economic climate asks for a more careful, architected approach. That way, the requirements of the business can be much better aligned with solutions and it will be easier to achieve – and demonstrate – the value of IT.
A politically correct argument that nobody can really oppose to.
But one of the panel members, the CIO of Transport for London, is in no mood to be politically correct. “Yes, architecture and strategy” he pronounces these words with just the subtlest hint of disdain “all of that is absolutely crucial, but if the buses don’t run tomorrow because of a computer error nothing else matters much anymore; let’s make sure we master the basics first”. Being a seasoned manager of quite some IT departments, he is proud to tell the audience that he brought back the size of his architects team to just one fifth. “Anybody who doesn’t truly understand what happens in the everyday operations or fails to bring direct value to it, is of no use to me”.
Now that warms up the audience. John Wesley would be proud of it: how spiritual and high-aiming our ambitions may be, we can only truly live up to them through the sobering experience of daily practice. Dreaming about Business/IT fusion, perpetual innovation and Web 2.0? Fine. Just make sure my workstation functions every morning first.
And the one does not exclude the other. Having an extraordinary good grip on infrastructure and core applications motivates: it generates exactly the positive energy that is needed to explore new ways over and over again. The foundation of change therefore is in repetition, routine and control.
Wax On, Wax Off, as another spiritual leader would say. Change yourself, but always with both feet firmly on the ground. For that, you don’t need to be a Methodist to say hallelujah.
About the author
- More at
Ron
Interesting comments on the location, its history, philosophical pursuit etc. I know several teams within Opengroup have toiled over a lot of approaches for IT Architecture Excellence and hope this conference contents come out great influencing Architects around the Globe.
Thanks for reminding the movie Karate Kid in your closing phases.
@Sundar Thank you. And now let’s hope architects don’t think this post is a plea for more ‘methodology’ ….
I find myself agreeing with the CIO of Transport for London. The ticket for a CIO to talk at the business strategy table is a smoothly functioning enterprise. All too often is seems that architecture teams forget that the point of business is to be in business, and not to commission their next major transformation program.
In the end, creating good software is about keeping it simple. If it’s simple, it gets done quickly and can be maintained more readily.
@PEG, well I think there is a big point in that. Having a simple IT household that runs smoothly is much more than just staying out of trouble: it is a platform for innovation, it generates energy. Love this idea.
Do you want to know the new 2009 What are the sports shoes? Please come with me, there are both cheap and good-looking new models, in order to increase the visibility of our company are sold to 30 percentile, only you do not want, did not you buy!
http://weblog.tomgraves.org/index.php/2009/05/03/togaf-conf-summary/
Here is a summary of the TOGAF EA conference in London in a blog from Tom G. I almost agree and apreciate the frankness. The problem is that TOGAF like most frameworks are too general failing to provide a basic Enterprise business structure or even IT architecture reference templates.
I would suggest (sounds a bit like promotion but it has to be done) to have a look at the URL provided (http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/ea-matters/) for a blog on EA and a book (http://www.amazon.com/Enterprise-Architecture-Development-Framework-Practices/dp/1412086655/) that describes an an EA framework, metamodel, business and process reference maps, technology, organization architecture templates, an EA business case, development process, strategy design, the role of the EA architect and other. The business architecture starts with Value Chains, Business and Operating Models.
Yours
Adrian
of Transport for London, is in no mood to be politically correct. “Yes, architecture and strategy” he pronounces these words with just the subtlest hint of disda
Thanks for sharing your good blog with us!
The first day of the Chinese New Year, we all got up early. We said “Happy New Year!” or “Good luck this year!” to each other and get money from them. We visited our relatives all day.
Petition is pretty straight forward and is NOT intended to serve as a vehicle to extol the merits of Nike Dunks Low communications. (There is time enough to sing the praises of air jordan Internet Air Jordan Shoes Nike Jordan Shoes Jordan Retro Shoes Wholesale Jordan Shoescommunications, but we Air Jordans Shoes and Nike Kicks and wholesale nike shoes did not want this issue to be held back over a battle over preferred technologies.So I introduce to you the shoes are .Thank you for your attention.
you have an amazing blog right here! would you wish to make some invite posts on my blog?