Changing role of architects - title

The changing role of architects

Even though the discipline of architecture is decades old (and if you look at the discipline of process management, even hundreds of years), there is no consensus of what an architect actually defines. And the practitioners have not been helpful as well in their self-positioning. “Back in the day” a lot of architecture groups held […]

Content import part 2 title

Model import into your architecture tool (part 2)

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 […]

Existing content import title

Import of existing content (part 1) – a blessing or recipe for chaos?

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available, that might be in various statuses – from “current” to “horribly incorrect”, “cannot be found anymore”, or “outdated”.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 […]

Method config title

How to set up the Technical Governance – part 3: creating the architecture method configuration

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 […]

How to set up the Technical Governance – part 2: meta model

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 […]

Data model title

How to set up the Technical Governance – part 1: data models

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 […]

EA Capabilities - Title

Which capabilities do I need to build my EA practice?

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. […]

Architecture Database Setup - Title

Architecture database setup and structure

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 - title graphic

Enterprise Architecture Frameworks, Methods, Notations, Reference Content – some clarifications

Enterprise Architecture Frameworks is one of many keywords used by EAs. This article looks at it, methods, notations and reference content.

Architecture tool implementation approach

How to get your architecture implementation off to a good start

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 […]

Custom meta model and apis

Selecting an Enterprise Architecture tool (part 2)

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 […]

Selecting an Enterprise Architecture tool (part 1)

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 […]