Topic 7 – Evaluating emerging technologies; influential technologies and the future

Evaluation!

In this week’s blog, I would like to focus on how organizations link their EA strategy to the business context. EA models show the capabilities and business functions. The lesson describes the common requirements vision process which shows the relationships among business requirements. Business and IT needs to plan how to identify the implications of any strategy they plan to pursue. Each organization looks at what drives their business and how the EA program can support those business drivers. Each organization has to strategically evaluate their markets and what technologies they can produce. Strong evaluation measurements need to be put in place to ensure that the right innovations are the ones that organizations move forward with. This involves brainstorming, communicating change requirements, and analysis of the business strategy.

Future is Bright!

In an article from ZD Net, the author describes Capgemini’s Ron Tolido insights from his experience in technology and enterprise architecture. He provides ways EA architects can tackle the uncertain future with these suggestions:

“Recognize that enterprise architecture does more than bridge IT and the business. Tolido says the time has passed that EA serves as the bridge between IT and the business. Why? “Because in the next generation of IT — the era of the platform — there is no distinction between business and IT. They are one and the same.” With IT as the business and the business being IT, the roles of enterprise architects are elevated.

EAs need to assume business leadership roles. This elevated business role of enterprises architects calls for identifying and nurturing leadership talent among EA ranks. “The single biggest reason for failed EA programs is lack of leadership skills within the core elements of the guiding coalition and the EA team,” Macgregor says.

Have a strong EA team in place. Macgregor says this team should be “led by a strong guiding coalition and steering committee, the team needs to consider how to manage the work, how to control delivery against the plan, how any blind spots will be identified, and how they will engage with the rest of the organization” (McKendrick, Joe).

McKendrick, Joe. “5 Key Qualities of a Modern Enterprise Architect.” ZDNet, ZDNet, 29 June 2016, www.zdnet.com/article/a-new-roadmap-for-enterprise-architects/.

Here We Go! 

In order to move forward in the forward the first step is to embrace the potential for change. “Change is all around us, pervasive and ubiquitous. Organizations need to get better at dealing with it, and ideally, leverage both internal and external disruption for competitive advantage. Once they discard the outdated notions of present and future state, EAs can finally move forward, architecting their organizations to embrace change as a core competency” (Bloomberg, Jason). The successful organizations adapt to changes in technology, markets, customer bases, and leadership.

Bloomberg, Jason. “Change As Core Competency: Transforming The Role Of The Enterprise Architect.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 16 June 2016, www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2016/06/16/change-as-core-competency-transforming-the-role-of-the-enterprise-architect/#292bcf18164a.