Inside Architecture
Notes on Enterprise Architecture, Business Alignment, Interesting Trends, and anything else that interests me this week...
Where Is Nick Blogging Now?
Hello Enterprise Architects! If you are seeing this post, you probably have your RSS feed set to my...
Date: 09/13/2016
Never Waste A Good Crisis
The title of this post is a bit of advice I first heard many years ago, while working on an...
Date: 05/16/2015
Sharing the Solution Domain Taxonomy
Sometimes, Enterprise Architecture efforts fail. This is no surprise to folks in the EA...
Date: 04/23/2015
Alternatives to the EPSC Model
The Enterprise Partner Supplier Customer (EPSC) Model sits as a core concept of Enterprise...
Date: 02/16/2015
How brand-thinking can kill you, and capability thinking can save you
I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that business strategy work is often about constrained...
Date: 01/29/2015
Moving Towards a Theory of Enterprise Architecture
I’ve been asked a number of times over the years if I can explain the theory of Enterprise...
Date: 01/16/2015
Do you perform Information Architecture or a Data Architecture?
So, full disclosure, I care about Wikipedia. Call me dumb, I know. Wikipedia has been...
Date: 11/21/2014
The Architecture Manager – the Forgotten Enterprise Architecture Role
I’ve met many Architecture Managers over the years. Sometimes they go by the title of “Chief...
Date: 11/11/2014
When does EA start to care about sociocultural influences?
Organizations do not work, in real life, like they work on paper. On paper, there are...
Date: 08/13/2014
Call to survey – Is your EA program valuable?
This is the first time I’ve done this, so I’m hoping that my friends will contribute your opinions:...
Date: 07/23/2014
Being Forgotten in the Internet of Things
We all know that Google lost a landmark legal case recently. As of now, a citizen of Europe...
Date: 06/30/2014
EA Debt
(Note: I've added an addendum to this post) It has been many years that we have lived with the...
Date: 06/24/2014
Enterprise Initiatives – A Train Built By Monkeys
Business leaders demand alignment, right? Many folks frame enterprise architecture (EA) as a...
Date: 06/03/2014
Does anonymity promote ill-informed consensus?
There are a spate of new Social Media apps that have emerged lately, all of which allow people to...
Date: 05/05/2014
Business Architects: What’s at the “core”?
I made an interesting mistake, today… one that comes up from time to time. I used a business...
Date: 04/04/2014
Climbing the ladder from EITA to EA
One of the most common problems in Enterprise Architecture, and one I get asked about routinely, is...
Date: 03/10/2014
Enterprise Architecture as Story
One of the most compelling things that an EA can do is frame the vision of a better future as a...
Date: 12/11/2013
Diversity Versus Replication of Organizational Processes and Information
I recently had the pleasure of joining a discussion among organizational development professionals....
Date: 10/23/2013
The Purpose of an Enterprise Architecture Framework
Can Social Media create new ideas? Here’s an example where the answer is “yes.” I...
Date: 10/14/2013
What makes models interesting
Since 2009, when I first published my open source metamodel of enterprise architecture (the...
Date: 09/30/2013
Ten Ways to Kill An Enterprise Architecture Practice
Have you seen practices that you know could kill an Enterprise Architecture practice? I...
Date: 09/05/2013
Enterprise Architects are more than “problem solvers”
One of the most common mistakes that people make about Enterprise Architects is the notion that we...
Date: 09/04/2013
Business Architects: Do Not Start With Strategy
Frequently, when reading articles or books on business architecture, the following advice emerges:...
Date: 08/24/2013
Business Models in Business Architecture
It still surprises me to see various discussions of business architecture where there is a poor...
Date: 08/19/2013
We do what you say we will do – Integrity By Architecture
One of the chief complaints of senior executives in midsize and large companies is that their...
Date: 07/06/2013
Placing Architecture Properly into Scrum Processes
As I’m about to complete my share of a longer engagement on using Lean principles to improve the...
Date: 06/11/2013
A practical set of EA deliverables
A question on LinkedIn recently reminded me that, as the team leader for Segment Architecture in my...
Date: 05/31/2013
The “Right” Representation of the EA Value Cycle
In the world of Enterprise Architecture, we are still creating “shared” understanding of how to tell...
Date: 04/29/2013
Accelerating Business Architecture
I have, on occasion, been asked to spend time with an Enterprise Architecture team to help that team...
Date: 04/26/2013
How to Become a Hero for Growth
One thing that happens when you work to develop change across an organization: you detect the...
Date: 04/22/2013
Unraveling the Developer Bias in Agile Development Practices
There is a contradiction that shows up in many books and articles on agile software...
Date: 04/16/2013
Has in-person communication become the unwilling victim of technology?
In Enterprise Architecture, one of the most important aspects of the job is not only to communicate,...
Date: 04/08/2013
AGILE architecture vs. agile ARCHITECTURE
As an architect involved in an agile implementation (my current gig), you can imagine how interested...
Date: 04/05/2013
Humility and the Art of Enterprise Architecture
As a lot, Enterprise Architects are not terribly humble people. We name frameworks after...
Date: 02/26/2013
Should Business Architects use the Business Model Canvas at the Program level?
In the Open Group conference at Newport Beach, I listened to a series of presentations on business...
Date: 01/31/2013
Rumination on the concept of “best practice”
I heard some very interesting talks today from Len Fehskens and Jeff Scott at the Open Group...
Date: 01/28/2013
All Effective Enterprise Architects Are Agile
I explained to one of my clients recently that there is a perception of animosity between the...
Date: 01/15/2013
The most important personality trait of an Enterprise Architect
The video below, from RSA Animate, is not about Enterprise Architecture. At least, on the...
Date: 01/10/2013
Steps To Create a Core Diagram
To be fair, these are steps to create a solid understanding of the architecture of a business, but...
Date: 12/19/2012
Everything you’ve read about IT Project Failure is wrong
I did a scan around the web to figure out what many of the leading thinkers were saying about IT...
Date: 12/09/2012
The Story behind “Stories That Move Mountains”
There is a new book available that I’d like to let everyone know about. It is called “Stories...
Date: 11/04/2012
Is Enterprise Architecture accountable for improving customer experience?
A recent experience with poor customer service has got me thinking about the role of EA in...
Date: 10/02/2012
Many (flawed) Definitions of Business Architecture
Not long ago, I attempted to create a refined definition of “business architecture.” I...
Date: 09/11/2012
Taking a Careful Slice – Defining Business Architecture
I’m putting together my presentations for TechEd New Zealand, one of which is titled...
Date: 08/27/2012
Podcast on the Enterprise Architecture profession–Interview with CIPS’s Stephen Ibaraki
Way back in April, I announced the first of two podcasts with the Canadian Information Processing...
Date: 08/26/2012
The EA Metamodel behind the Business Model Generation
Back when Alexander Osterwalder was first working on the book “Business Model...
Date: 08/22/2012
Aligning the EBMM with Archimate
I just recently had a conversation with a talented enterprise architect who had brought together the...
Date: 08/10/2012
Speaking at TechEd New Zealand on Business Architecture
Haven’t been to New Zealand yet, but I will be there soon… From September 4 through 7 in...
Date: 08/01/2012
Will Enterprise Architecture Ever “Cross the Chasm?”
The profession of Enterprise Architecture is beginning to emerge from its early stages of...
Date: 07/26/2012
Positioning an Enterprise Architect for Success
As I found in our Enterprise Architecture team in Microsoft, each time an Enterprise Architect is...
Date: 07/09/2012