As mentioned in part 1 of this series, a model import as part of the implementation of an architecture tool can be a crucial success factor to get a new program off the ground and act as an accelerator for future projects. We discussed the first two phases (preparation and initial import) and will have…
One major point of the implementation of an architecture tool is the import of existing content. Organizations have years and sometimes decades of content in various formats available, that might be in various statuses – from “current” to “horribly incorrect”, “cannot be found anymore”, or “outdated”. However, it might be a worthwhile exercise to get…
After doing the “hard work” of figuring out what shall be captured and visualized in your architecture tool – manifested in the data model and meta model – it is now time to do the actual architecture method configuration of the tool. For this purpose I will describe this for ARIS. Your chosen tool might…
After creating the data models that are relevant for your technical governance, we will have a look at the meta model in this article. You will see the entities “come alive” in this activity, and the conversations with your stakeholders become less abstract and more “hands-on”. What is a meta model? While the data model…
Defining the Technical Governance as part of your implementation seems to be a quick exercise – why should you create data models and a meta model when configuring the method in your architecture tool? Isn’t that an effort that one can save and just run a report that spits out the details of the configuration…
Defining an EA capability model seems to be difficult, because the term “Enterprise Architecture” is such a loosely defined term, which has changed over the last several decades. This leads to confusion if EA is “just the tech stuff that I don’t understand” or if business people rather look for BPM (Business Process Management) instead….
Setting up your architecture database structure and the internal structure of an individual database is a task that is done very early in an implementation (and you are using a database-driven architecture tool, aren’t you?). It is defined in the “Technical Governance” phase, and typically is seen as an afterthought, even though it has a…
Enterprise Architecture Frameworks is one of many keywords used by EAs. This article looks at it, methods, notations and reference content.
Some clients think that buying software alone solves all their problems and that professional architecture tools are just ‘Visio on steroids’, which is a misconception that seriously can put the enterprise architecture implementation program into danger (for more details on the different types on architecture tools you might want to have a look at the…
This is the second part of a series on how to select an architecture drawing tool. If you haven’t read part 1, I suggest that you follow this link and learn about the different types of tools and the features you should have a look at when selecting a tool. The main purpose of the…
Setting up an architecture/process management capability is a large endeavor, and the choice of the enterprise architecture tool (or the refusal/delay of a tool selection) can determine the overall success of the program. If the tool does not provide the necessary functionality, the value can be diminished or not realized, and additional purchases might be…
The BPMN spec contains way over 100 different object types that can be used in the different model types. There are special rules about how to use them, which I will explain in later lessons. This article contains an overview of the available objects. BPMN Objects Overview Depending on your use case and point of…
