Mike Walker's Blog

Who took over Microsoft’s Certified Architecture Program?

In one of my previous posts I shared an email and press release from IASA on the subject. Now I am seeing that the Open Group is debating that fact.

So did Microsoft name IASA's CITA-P certification replacement for the MCA program?
According to the Open Group, No. Microsoft will fund a three year membership in AOGEA, or a one-year membership in IASA and the opportunity to be IASA certified. AOGEA does not recommend that MCA certified individuals replace their certification with any other certification because it still entitles you to the same benefits and privileges, now with the added value of being a part of the AOGEA community.

See the Open Group FAQ for more details: http://www.aogea.org/membership/mca.jsp

So what does this mean? Not one group took over the MCA program to begin with. It’s simply a conversion program for certifications. Microsoft needed to put them somewhere so they diversified. It looks like the terms of the conversion with IASA is a bit different in that it really isn’t a conversion but rather the door in for another test to becomes a certified IASA architect.

The Open Group looks like they are respecting the merits of the MCA program and accepting MCA architects with arms wide open.

No these architects have to ask themselves, which one is more appealing?

ArchiMate 1.0 from Open Group, first global language for modeling

It’s official, ArchiMate version 1.0 under the control of the Open Group will be released at the London event in a week. It looks like that is when all the materials will be released publicly online.

Press Release: http://www.opengroup.org/press/21apr09.htm

ArchiMate NEW Home Page: http://www.opengroup.org/archimate/

 

If you are a follower of my blog you will see that I have been watching ArchiMate for some time now. I am very excited that this has been embraced in a larger standards body and am looking forward to it’s growth and maturity.

Right now ArchiMate snaps nicely with the B. Business Architecture, C. Information Systems Architecture, and D. Technology Architecture. But there is more coverage needed across the ADM and detailed aspects of phase B, C, and D.

 

I sat in a great overview session of ArchiMate yesterday from Remco Blom at BiZZdesign where they talked through a lot of this and showed how extensible the standard is. I do hope that they share the webcast to everyone.

One area they focused on was “ArchiMate +” which is what you can do to extend Archimate. See the example below:

 

There was also a thread on Nick Malik’s blog regarding a potential conflict between UML and ArchiMate. I commented on this thread but as of right now it isn’t showing. It may not of been approved yet. But the reader digest version of it is that I think the there is no conflict as ArchiMate is all about the macro-level modeling whereas UML and other standards like it are about the micro-level modeling details. They are complementary in that sense. Could there be overlap, sure. But I think it is up to the architect to draw the line where he/she wants to stop as far as modeling abstraction is concerned. The only area I do see potential conflict is with MDA/MOF, but frankly I haven’t seen a whole lot of uptake of that lately. Personally, I am not a big fan of MDA but rather more of the loosely coupled MDD approaches that allow for multi-views and viewpoints.

 

Previous ArchiMate Posts:

• ArchiMate - The Emerging Architecture Modeling Standard?
• http://www.mikethearchitect.com/2009/03/mapping-current-state-architectures-across-the-enterprise.html
• TOGAF 9 Release and Impressions

 

Technorati Tags: Enterprise Architecture,ArchiMate,Modeling

Open Group merger with the Global Enterprise Architecture Organization (GEAO)

 

There is more big news on the Open Group front these days with the just announced a merger with the Global Enterprise Architecture Organization (GEAO) that will affect the worldwide Enterprise Architecture (EA) professional community.

The union between the Association of Open Group Enterprise Architects (AOGEA) and the GEAO forms the largest professional body for Enterprise Architects in the world, serving more than 9,000 members in 72 different countries. Please see the below press release for further details. 

According to various Forrester research reports on Enterprise Architecture  there is growing acknowledgment and interest in EA and its ability to assist business leaders in making critical business decisions that align an organization’s business and technology strategies. Given the growing awareness of the EA profession and the role it plays relative to IT and business, the merger between The Association of Open Group Enterprise Architects (AOGEA) and the Global Enterprise Architecture Organization (GEAO) is expected to have a great impact on global businesses and the EA professional community--bringing increased job opportunities through expanded certification programs (TOGAF and ITAC), ongoing advocacy and education services, and peer networking opportunities at local chapter meetings and international events.

Technorati Tags: Enterprise Architecture,Open Group,Community

TOGAF 9 Release and Impressions

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of talking with Allen Brown, president of the Open Group regarding the latest TOGAF release. Thanks to Allen and his team for taking the time to chat about the new aspects of TOGAF 9. All the details of this release will be available today on the Open Group website. Additionally, there will be a great deal of information given out at the 21st Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Conference.

I will share with all of you the highlights of the conversation. I will not be able to give a full analysis of the framework. Rather, touching on the major components, impressions, opinions, areas of improvement and concerns.

At version 9 there is quite a bit that is new. For the Open Group this is a significant milestone for TOGAF. Before we get into what’s new, lets look at current momentum behind TOGAF to date.

• TOGAF has more than 90,000 downloads. All documentation for TOGAF is published online. While this doesn’t tell us that there are 90,000 people using TOGAF, but what it does tell us is that there is significant interest in what TOGAF has to offer.
• This year there are over 8,491 certified practitioners. This is largely due to the how architects are certified in TOGAF. The Open Group has a franchise model that allows independent trainers and companies to certify architects. This is a brilliant way of certifying architects as it doesn’t force everyone going through the Open Group channel directly.
• Grew 529% since October 2006, which also includes a solid stake in 80% of the Fortune 50.
• More than 180 corporate members of The Open Group Architecture Forum
• Over 20,000 TOGAF™ series books shipped
• The online forum Association of Open Group Enterprise Architects has had a significant impact and it membership is at more than 8,500

What’s New in TOGAF 9

Below are the new features of TOGAF 9. The bolded text is what was provided by the Open Group. The regular text is my commentary on it.

1. Modular structure – I am a firm believer that enterprise processes are modular pieces that should be orchestrated based on the specific set of concerns. It is good to see that TOGAF feels the same way.
2. Promotes greater usability & encourages incremental adoption – This is somewhat lofty and subject largely to implementation details. I do agree that the guidance provided does promote reusability. This is reinforced with the first bullet on the modular structure.
3. Supports evolutionary release management -
4. Content framework – This is a significant step in the right direction. The content framework provides architects with a map of information that is needed. From what I have seen so far there isn’t a great amount of detail here. But I am sure there is more to come.
5. Extended guidance on using TOGAF – The TOGAF book was expanded greatly with new guidance that extends the base concepts of TOGAF and supports new features.
6. Explicit consideration of architectural styles – In the guidance there are linkages between the TOGAF ADM and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). I am hoping that this isn’t a tight coupling. If you are interested in my thoughts on architectural styles I wrote a post on this not too long ago. See the post What is an Architecture Style?  
7. SOA and Security – This could be interesting. But only if done right. The Open Group needs to be careful at balancing out too much in the developer details (what OASIS & W3C provides) and high level / nebulous guidance (Analyst firms) that isn’t actionable. What could be of great value is if the Open Group embarked on true architectural patterns and styles that would aid SOA and EA architects on choosing the right architectural strategies.
8. Further detail added to the Architecture Development Method (ADM)

What Architects Will Care About

My first thought after talking with Allen and his team was just how much there is to the new framework. It is obvious to that there are positive contributions from the new members within the past couple of years. Below are the ones that you will want to know about/

1. The Content Framework

One such member is Cap Gemini. Cap Gemini donated most of the Architecture Content Framework. In my opinion, this was long overdue.

Content framework provides:

• Linkages and the information that is needed in the Architecture Development Method (ADM)
• Defines the work products that are needed
• Classifies information and shows high level relations. In the documentation it states there is a metamodel but I did not see one. There are high level entities defined but didn’t robust metamodel definition.
• More information is provided in the Architectural Principles, Requirements and Vision areas

2. Better ADM Guidance

The augmented crop circle diagram is a great example of new guidance that will aid architects in implementing TOGAF.

Other ways guidance is extended are:

• Applying iteration to the ADM
• Applying the ADM at different enterprise levels
• Security architecture and the ADM
• Using TOGAF to define and govern SOA

 

3. Restructured Modular Approach

The image above shows how the pieces of the existing standard have been restructured and have additional aspects. With the restructure existing pieces where used to ensure backward compatibility with TOGAF 8.1.1. Specifically it preserves:

• The core Architecture Development Method
• Existing investment in people - knowledge and skills
• Existing investment in tools

4. Architecture Modeling Notations and Architecture Markup

While I didn’t find mention of Archimate and ADML in the pre-release TOGAF 9 documentation I did however have a conversation with the Open Group folks about Archimate. It turns out that ADML and Archimate is converging and will be part of TOGAF 9. I would share more details but I just don’t have them. I do think that this important to keep an eye on.

If you are interested in my previous conversations regarding Archimate and TOGAF 9 you can find the post “ArchiMate - The Emerging Architecture Modeling Standard?” I wrote a few months back.

5. Playing Well With Others

It’s good to see that collaboration with other standards bodies and commentary frameworks is still encouraged. This is critical for the long term success of any Enterprise Architecture Framework.

6. Community Driven

TOGAF 9 was developed, reviewed and approved by a collaborative of 300 members from some of the world’s leading IT customers and vendors. One example of the contributions is Capgemini:

Mike Turner, TOGAF Development Lead at Capgemini explained: “We consider an architecture-based approach to be essential for enterprises to manage change across business and IT, even more in a period of downturn in which tangible business outcomes come first. The open standard nature of TOGAF allows our clients to truly collaborate with their partners in the definition and management of change by using shared concepts, content, processes and tools. TOGAF 9 is a huge step forward, particularly because it standardizes and materializes the content that architects work with. We were most happy to contribute to it, leveraging much of Capgemini’s established and widely respected architecture assets.”

 

Areas that Need Work

With the good comes the bad and in this case there wasn’t anything bad, just areas that I will be looking forward to see more progress on. Below are those areas of opportunity for TOGAF v-next.

1. Processes are Abstract

Many of the areas still seem to be very high level. While this is what I like about TOGAF, it is also a liability. I have seen the same issues in other standards bodies where the standard is so abstract it isn’t useful. I don’t think that is the cases here but what I do know is that it is subject to interpretation which can result in poor execution of the framework.

2. Metadata Repository

 

There still is a great deal of definition that needs to be done here. The first level of detail is good, there are linkages to the ADM and Content Framework but there is little in the area of real world implementation. I couldn’t find any schemas that would help companies build a repository in compliance with TOGAF.

The Open Group might be relying on vendors to define this for the industry. That can be problematic however.

 

3. Making the Framework Actionable

Getting started with any new framework is difficult. I was hoping with this latest release that there would be accelerators that would aid architects adopt the TOGAF framework. As I mentioned many times, TOGAF is a process framework that is abstract from a lot of the implementation details but I think it is time for the framework to become more grounded and more importantly provide immediate value through accelerators like:

• Templates
• Checklists
• Samples

4. Metamodels too High Level

TOGAF 9 does a great job at exploring the architecture metamodel at a high level. There needs to be a level or two deeper of consideration here. I was looking for more detail on:

• interaction between the architectural domains
• composition of the domains themselves
• non-functional requirements called out specifically
• organizational aspects spelled out such as geography, LOB, business unit/division, etc.

5. Limited Taxonomy and Ontology Defined

The framework has elements of a taxonomy and even borrows from some like IEEE 1471 but doesn’t have an all encompassing taxonomy to describe the structure nor an ontology to define information in that structure.

This isn’t a deal breaker for the framework. There are multiple areas where there are less formalized (from a taxonomy / ontology perspective) definitions throughout the documentation.

 

Conclusion

Whether you are using TOGAF in your organization or not TOGAF 9 is definitely a framework you want to evaluate. I didn’t find anything that was negative about TOGAF 9. Even though there are some gaps and some areas that could be more developed the bits that are refined were really good. Keep in mind that the focus for TOGAF is still mostly at the process level and dealing at a high level of abstraction should be expected.

 

Technorati Tags: Enterprise Architecture,TOGAF,Frameworks

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ArchiMate - The Emerging Architecture Modeling Standard?

At the Gartner EA Summit in London it seemed like there was quite a bit of talk on the solution showcase floor regarding an architecture modeling standard called Archimate. I'm not sure if this was due to the fact that this was a European event (ArchiMate derived from the Netherlands) or if there is truly significant reasons to have the buzz.

It looks like there are two primary drivers behind all the buzz:

• Open Group has now adopted
• Customer & Tooling Vendor up take

 

What is ArchiMate?

If you are not familiar with ArchiMate, it is open architecture modeling standard. It focuses on the visualization of viewpoints and notations on models. It was a result of a 4 million Euro Dutch Government project to create a unifying architecture modeling standard. The standard conforms to the traditional BAIT model (Business, Application, Information, Technology) for representing architecture descriptions.

There are some unique details to the ArchiMate standard which include how they implement behaviors. You can see this in the meta-model below:

There is a notion of the Structure and the Behavior aspects of an architecture. There is a clear separation in the ArchiMate implementation.

Another thing I like about ArchiMate is that it focuses on a core problem rather than trying to solve many problems in a not so great way. This of course is architecture modeling. The models are at a higher level of abstraction than design or development models. Do you see limited or no overlap with standards such as UML and BPMN. There are touch points in these other modeling languages. AchiMate can also be stitched into existing EA frameworks such as TOGAF. There are resources available that describe the touch points between the modeling standard and the EA process framework.

If you are not familiar with ArchiMate I would recommend the following sources to get caught up:

• ArchiMate Quick Reference & Using ArchiMate
• Open Group ArchiMate site
• Sethuraj Nair post "Archimate It's Time had Come"
• Open Group Research Work

 

Vendor Support of ArchiMate

Arguably one of the major deciding factors in a standard is the uptake and productization of the implementation of a standard. Surprisingly, there has been a great deal of recent activity with picking up this modeling standard.

There were a lot of vendors that claimed that they had support for it. These include:

• IDS Sheer
• Bizzdesign Architect 
• Casewise 
• Avolution Abacus (not at the conference)

 

For all the folks using Office tooling there is a solution for you as well. ArchiMate stencils for Microsoft Visio.

 

Open Group and ArchiMate

From what I can tell with talking with some Open Group members here at the conference is that the Open Group has indeed picked up ArchiMate. There is still discussion in the architecture working groups around how this will be positioned, aligned and evangelized by the Open Group.

As you can see from the agenda items for the upcoming Munich event, there is a great deal of planning that still needs to occur.

• ArchiMate Standard Version 1.0
• ArchiMate certification

• 2009 Planning and Discussion
• Formation of workgroups and standing committees
• Coordination status with other groups
• Charter discussion and approval

 

So back to the question, is ArchiMate the next big modeling standard for architecture? It has the potential to be so. As mentioned before, between the Open Group and the tool vendors the standard is coming out strong. It is hard to tell at this point. We really need to see this in the wild to really get a grip on if this is yet another academic standard or something that is adoptable by the masses. 

I think ArchiMate had found a good home at the Open Group. TOGAF does a great job at the process but needs more grounding standards to make TOGAF all that more actionable for enterprises.

Technorati Tags: Modeling,Enterprise Architecture,TOGAF,ArchiMate

Open Group Enterprise Architecture Conference - Day 3

Keynotes

Unfortunately I missed a good portion of the first keynote and then had other business that needed to be taken care of at the time of the last three keynotes.

• Of the three keynotes that I got to see today one really stood out to me. The "Unanswered Questions about the Enterprise Architect"
• Len Fehskens, walked us through the role of an EA similar to the whitepaper I wrote on MSDN, A Day in the Life of an Enterprise Architect
• One thing he pointed out that I agree with is that of hierarchy. Len asked the question if EA's should be at higher authority than other architects
• If do not thinks so, EA's have a role. Domain Architects have a role. Each play a key role in the greater mission. I will say that to be an architect of any flavor is an acquired skill that is based on a combination of knowledge and experience.

Wrap-up

I am heading back to Seattle later this afternoon and I would like to share my final thoughts on today's speakers and the overall conference.

• The customer case studies were great! I love to hear how people are dealing with EA and SOA challenges
• I enjoyed the other sessions I went to. The only request would be, less theory and more practice. I would love to see pattern overlays over the crop circle diagram to help guide EA's in common situations. It was mentioned that you could do it (and I have in the past) but it wasn't really shown. Maybe that would be a great working group...
• Overall as a Microsoft representative I was welcomed with arms wide open
• I had some great conversations with folks at the conference, defiantly an interactive crowd
• Met up with the ACORD guys and had some good technology discussions in the insurance space. Since ACORD was there it shows us that Open Group has ties into all manners of standards bodies.

 

Tags: Enterprise Architecture

OpenGroup Conference - Day 2

First, a big thanks to everyone that attended my session yesterday. It was a great crowd, even though I was the last presentation of the first day and was the only thing between the audience and the evening entertainment. So thank you for your attention and great questions afterwards. Additionally, thanks to David Linthicum on the "Plug" to my blog on his site. It's good to sync up with like minded architects.

Points of Note in Day 2

Keynote Overview

• There were two keynotes that real stood out. The first was more comedic  but provided some real good content. He made a funny "EA Jeopardy" parody.
• The second was from CGI. This session was one of the best of the day. He was able to clearly identify the close relationships between EA practices.
• There was a roundtable again today as well and this was very valuable. It has validated thoughts and also generated some new ones.

Advancements and Lessons of TOGAF Implementation

• Robert walk us through how enterprise processes are related to established industry standardized processes.

              

• This model really shows us how TOGAF is technology independent
• What is interesting here is that this is very similar to the Microsoft Operations Framework wheel. See below:

     

• He walked through a matrix of architect skills that has mappings to career paths, required skills and clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Keep an eye out for his presentation if OpenGroup publishes it.
• One thing that isn't commonly understood is that TOGAF is a generic architecture framework that defines the "How" (at the process level define how to apply the information that you gathered by providing a reusable process) rather than the "What" (the right questions to ask with a matrix style data capture). We have a lot of frameworks define the "What" such as: Zachman, DoDAF, TEAF, FEAF, etc.

 

TOGAF Customer Roundtable

• John Bell from Marriott and Chris Forde from American Express are both Enterprise Architects that walk through some of their challenges and how they address them in their organization.
• I'm not going to go through the entire conversation as some of it I have already talked about on my blog.
• What stands out for me out of the conversation is the very big differences between the EA models between American Express and Marriott.
  • This is a common question. I get this a lot from within Microsoft. It usually starts something like this: "Mike, EA is broken... There isn't even a constant way to do it. Look at X and Y company they have separate operation models and execution models"
  • I would assert that this is actually a very good thing. This came out indirectly in the session today

                   

• As you see above I would say that the majority of the EA organizations use very similar base process and methods, however.... They execute on those core EA capabilities in a way that is appropriate for their business.
  • For example: A Bank has specific constraints and business concerns. So for EA's in the Banking space Risk management will be a critical pivot point in the decision making processes.
  • For a Manufacturing company the higher order bit is agility
  • For a software company like Microsoft, enabling and fostering innovation is a key concern for EA's.
• These companies could have the same technology problems but how these architectures are orchestrated are different entirely. This is very similar to the examples given in the Jean Ross book where she compares FedEx vs. UPS and shows how the business has dramatic effects on what the technology implementation looks like. This is the same for non-technology aspects such as governance and process.
• I mentioned validation earlier and that is in terms that I am still in touch with the ongoing issues in the EA space. Some of the continuous challenges that EA's are facing:
  • Organizational Challenges - It's still about the people rather than the technology
  • Application Portfolio Mgmt - There has been a great deal of discussion both directly and indirectly. There seems to be a surge of people ramping up this activity.
  • Building EA Organizations and Solution Architectures - There is a great deal of success by starting small and iterating to the future state. This is similar to my talk on SOA about the "Middle Out Approach" an SOA approach that supports this concept.

             

 

Afternoon Sessions

There are some great customer case studies in the afternoon from the Automotive industry, Canadian Government and Micron. These were some great session to see past the theory and into the practice. I may provide some additional information on these at a later time.

 

Tags: Enterprise Architecture

Open Group Enterprise Architecture Conference - Day 1

I thought I would share with you a few of my notes from the Open Group conference. I have also added some of my thoughts on the topics.I will cover the Keynotes and Roundtables primarily and add some thoughts where appropriate on other sessions.

Keynote Highlights - Real World SOA (David Linthicum)

Overview

• Dave suggests to start with ROI first rather than architecture. I think that this is easier said then done, but I agree at a high level. I do agree that this should happen but as many architects know we are hindered by technology / strict business requirements, cost and deadlines.
• Start the Business case right away! Yes, yes yes!!! Ideally focus first on the capability and then figure out the downstream processes you want to enable to build that business case.
• Dave asserts that "the business" is not happy with IT. I agree and this is a perception that we need to change.
• Dave provides a simple cost calculator and suggests us to use our own if we have one
• He also talks indirectly about the importance of Application Portfolio Mgmt, but doesn't directly call it out. Rather he speaks of the value of having a catalog of SOA assets that provide iterative value
• BTW - I love the quotes:
  • "Managing SOA by Magazine" - Referring to what I lovingly call E-Weeker's that take the guidance from the trade publications to heart and build systems accordingly.
  • "Vendor Driven Architecture" - Organizations that have bought into one SOA stack and allows that vendor to drive their SOA strategy rather than their business concerns.

Dave's tips for getting things done:

• Get a champion
• Build a case
• Show the ROI

I couldn't agree more on these points. These very points are what I heard five years ago at the META Enterprise Architecture conference. 

Challenges

• Lack of data - I translate this to the failure to define the rights metrics and then ultimately create the mechanisms to capture. 
• Organizational barriers
• Organizations build SOA solutions when business requirements are not stable

 

Roundtable Interesting Tid-Bits

Below are some statements and questions discussed at the roundtable.

1. What is the biggest challenge to SOA?
   1. Organizational - Too many barriers, Lack of CxO support, etc.
2. The hype is over, now the world is focused on how to pragmatically implement.
3. How do I solve these organizational issues?
   1. No meta-data tools, vendors are dropping the ball. I agree we have some work to do here but I think the bigger issue here is architects that have the skill set to be change agents, there is a great need for EA's to have a tremendous amount of leadership abilities.
4. How real is SaaS?
   1. Look at SaaS when it makes sense, not an answer for everything. There is a very clear subset of solutions that are SaaS-able. The term - internal SaaS, behind the firewall. My former boss and Microsoft thought leader, John DeVadoss was referenced about his "My Cloud" concepts.
5. Do you think SOA and EA Tools will merge?
   1. Dave L. responded: Who has a real SOA tool, besides Visio??? I had a bit of a chuckle on that as it is the reality and glad to see someone actually say those words aloud!
6. What about BPM?
   1. There is a clear disconnect in the industry between these functions. This needs to be fixed

Tags: Enterprise Architecture

I will be presenting at the Open Group EA Conference

If you are at the conference I would love to see you at my session (http://www.opengroup.org/sf2008/walker.html) on Monday at 5:00pm.

A Practitioners Guide to SOA

In this session you will learn how Microsoft technologies enable enterprise architecture practices to be successful in Service Oriented Architecture. We will explore both the technologies that enable SOA and the tooling to govern the complexity in the enterprise. Introduced in the session is the flurry of new technologies released that integrate governance, reduce the complexities of integration and unify the workflow across all Windows applications. This session will demonstrate how Microsoft plays in today's more practical SOA world.