Fernanda Baião: Question number 1

Context: Currently organizations have demands that would be easily resolved if they had already developed and shared their Enterprise Architecture. But to build this architecture, there needs to be: political will, clear vision of goals, definition of benefits to be achieved, and several cultural change and management processes.

Question: When starting a project from AE? What is the best motivator?

The only reason to model anything is in order to use it. Or more specifically to answer a question.

The best motivator therefore is a business question.

A question that currently cannot be answered or that can currently be answered but the organisation cannot rely on the answer because of a lack of data integrity.

Someone who knows what they are talking about regarding EA.

Fernando Botafogo: Question number 2

Context: There are several methodologies related to the frameworks of the market. We know: Zachman Framework, PEAF, TOGAF, ArchiMate and TEAF - which are represented and will be discussed here in the AE Rio 2011 Conference, and many others.

Since 1987, when Zachman introduced the first version of the Zachman framework, the market has matured and released many important proposals, coming from personal experiences of their developers.

Question: How to choose the framework that should be used? This is also an evolutionary process? The choice of framework depends on the level of maturity or the company's culture?
 

The first question you need to answer is “What do we/you mean by Framework?”.

For me, a framework is much much more than just an ontology, taxonomy, or Metamodel.

The second question you need to answer is “What do we mean by EA. EA or EITA?”

The third question you have to ask is: “How mature are we in our understanding/maturity with respect to EA?”

For me, the biggest hurdle to overcome is to take the first step - and so if that is your position you would need to choose a framework that allows you to take those first steps in the most pragmatic way possible.

Fernanda Baião: Question number 3

Context: Currently, the main software development methodologies have already indicated to the modeling of business processes as a method for requirements elicitation and systematic understanding of the environment.

In Brazil, companies which are beginning to practice the business architecture, in most cases, they are getting from IT.

With the modeling of processes starting in IT, business architecture is made with isolated initiatives within the context of each development project.

Question: How to motivate the organization to ensure the measures of model construction business started in IT, get the coverage needed to be a corporate model?

Start with business questions.

Start with Strategic, cross project, cross business unit questions.

The questions lead to the information required to answer them.

Once people see their questions answered (enabling them to make more informed decisions) they will chase you down.

Fernando Botafogo: Question number 4

Context: The enterprise architecture can be considered a resource to support strategic management, when the process of strategic decision making, using models as the basis for the business scenarios. May be a tactical resource, when the models are consulted to analyze the impact of corporate changes or the design of projects.
Question: Where do the resources of the Enterprise Architecture are more easily absorbed and used? Strategic management or the tactical level of organization?

Both.

EA is systemic and pervades the organisation, from strategy to execution. Indeed EA could be said to be the glue between strategy (the intent) and execution (the projects that change the organisation)

Strategic Management use it to formulate strategy and plan the project portfolio.

Tactical level (projects) use it to provide the context for what they do to identiy when they begin to stray from the strategic intent.

Everyone contributes to a centralized EA model. Everyone benefits from seeing their information in the context of others. It is this context that architecture in general provides and EA provides it to the organisation which is operating within the enterprise.

Fernanda Baião: Question number 5

Context: Before starting the construction of architectural models, it is necessary to define the standards of technology, knowing the information structures, knowledge systems and their components and to identify correlations between them.

It is also necessary to select and define a method and a language to represent the organization, its macro-processes, business processes and value chains. Undoubtedly it is a big job that takes time and effort to be performed.

All this must be combined with all the future users of the system of management that is the Enterprise Architecture. But the benefits are enormous and, with this work company will be given a great leap forward in enterprise management.

Question: Do you think this volume of work and the effort to keep the models are the main factors that cause such resistance in the implementation of an Enterprise Architecture in the company? Or this resistance occurs because of a doubt about this leap in quality?

Yes. This is one of the main risks with EA.

when modeling the correct process must be followed.

Essentially, adding information to an EA model is effectively a data migration exercise with all the attendant risks and problems related to quality etc.

In addition the process should include the “integration” of the Datasources - either to replace them and give whatever was using it access to the repository or to build an automated updated mechanism.

Fernando Botafogo: Question number 6

Context: The companies have both in their various departments, different levels of maturity, which are characterized by the practice, discipline and the institution of rules and standards in implementing their internal processes. The model-driven management requires a minimum level of maturity among users and maintainers of the information models to be effectively consulted and considered in decisions for adjustments, improvements, modernization and new applications.

Question: How to deal with the heterogeneity of levels of maturity within the company when the Enterprise Architecture system depends on these departments to stay current and up to date?

Again - it’s a question of why you populate the model and how you populate and how you keep it up to date.

Some people you leave with their spreadsheets and you integrate those into the model with automatic or semi-automatic linkages.

Others you provide them with the modelling tools.

Fernanda Baião: Question number 7

Contexto: An enterprise architecture model that correlates the four main architectures must have the following components:

• An associated methodology to guide the construction and maintenance of systematic AE system and its reports and issues

• A database that hosts a metamodel prepared to store and correlate all the information the organization's appropriate to answer questions raised in advance between the managers and users of EA,

• A tool that allows the feeding of this information and dynamic publishing of reports.

Are also necessary governance processes, roles and responsibilities, so that the various departments involved in EA feed the model with new information and keep it updated.

Question: In the process of Enterprise Architecture, what is the roles for managing: the demands of projects and the corporate changes? Where would be physically placed the maintenance function of EA.

This idea of “Reports” is very old and insufficient in today’s world of complexity and the increasing speed of change.

The model and the tool must allow dynamic creation of models and allow users to dynamically navigate around the data both up through levels of detal and abstraction (not there is a fundamental difference between decomposition/composition and abstraction)

The people who “own” information are the best people to maintain the information. HR “owns” the org structure. Finance owns the “financial data”. PMO owns project information, etc, etc.

So, the maintenance function of the EA model is pervasive and distributed.

The structure and consistency of the EA model is managed by the EA team.

Decentralize and federate maintenance of the EA model.

Fernando Botafogo: Question number 8

Context: It is not uncommon to find BPM modeling projects which, after shaping and improving business processes, get lost or broken. This causes some frustration among providers of processes, which consider that the modeling process only serves to optimize or automate business processes. Some organizations have structured the Process Offices to facilitate the management of these processes and organization improvement projects.

Question: What is the role of the Process Office in the enterprise architecture, and as has been their performance in organizations today?

The Process Office if one exists is to populate and keep current information in the business process models.

The point being that people maintain their own information but they maintain it in a centralized repository for it is only in a centralized repository where the information can me managed but much more importantly this is where information can be related to other information.

The value is not in the boxes, but in the lines.

Fernanda Baião: Question number 9

Contexto: One of the most significant failure of AE projects is the organization's executives do not know how to use the information in the AE system and not consider them in analysis for decision making. If decision makers do not realize the value of existing content models of the organization, projects tend not to reach your goals. Executives need to know to use the models to give them the importance that will ensure the usefulness and permanent evolution of the project EA.

Question: How is that learning about the use of the organizational model in more mature companies?

This comes back to modelling things based on the questions that need answers.

If you provide models that can answer the questions that Executives need answers to, then they will definitely thank you.

In terms of then being able to use a tool - senior executives may need/prefer canned reports or dashboards and these can be provided but again, it comes down to the questions they need answers to.

Fernando Botafogo: Question number 10

Context: In most cases, enterprise architecture projects consider the construction and operation, without giving much attention to the aspect of style. The style of a company reflects the cultural behavior, values, norms and principles of the organization so that it reflects the corporate values of the organization.

Question: How important aspect of style in architecture design Business?

Culture is massively important as is communication.

This is why you will see a separate section in some EA frameworks that address culture.

EA is a way of thinking, a way of working.

When the culture is right, people do things because they know why they should do them not because they are told to do something.

Fernanda Baião: Question number 11

Contexto: The use of models of AE as a resource for decision making on a daily basis requires that enterprise architects have technical and practical construction. And a lot of discipline for the maintenance of information.

Some changes are necessary for an AE project be successful. We may cite mainly the change of behavior by the executive that is going to make use of models and new tools that publish those models.

Question: A model-driven management is a very difficult change to be implemented?

Yes - this comes back again to culture.

Culture is massively important but culture is very difficult to change.

Only by constant attention to cultural and motivation modeling and communication can the culture be changed.

Fernando Botafogo: Question number 12

Contexto: Some companies have not yet begun to develop any project of enterprise architecture. They practice traditional management models, making decisions based on experience.

Question: With the market dynamics and increasing with each day more complex environments, how can you survive without a management model more organized?

You can survive.

But do you want your organisation to merely survive?

Even if you do survive, for how long?

Successful organisations today acknowledge that the old saying of “The Only Constant is Change” is out of date.

The saying for today is “The only Constant is the Acceleration of Change”.

Being able to change and adapt is becoming not a nice to have but a means to survive.

Like the dinosaurs and Mayans, being unwilling or unable to adapt and embrace change could kill you.