The Strategic Enterprise Architect's Dilemma

The Strategic Enterprise Architect's DilemmaThe Strategic Enterprise Architects Dilemma captures and extends many insights gained in developing, practicing, and teaching Solution Architecture and Enterprise Architecture. It presents a theoretical basis and a practical methodology for architecting flexible enterprise capabilities in a disruptive context. The book includes many examples from the authors work with clients, research, courses they developed and taught, and communities of practice

The Strategic Enterprise ArchitectÕs Dilemma captures and extends many insights gained in developing, practicing, and teaching Solution Architecture and Enterprise Architecture. It presents a theoretical basis and a practical methodology for architecting flexible enterprise capabilities in a disruptive context. The book includes many examples from the authorsÕ work with clients, research, courses they developed and taught, and communities of practice they led at major high technology companies. It develops a framework and approach based on the following key ideas:
1. Technology and enterprise architecture are indeed strategic to many enterprises, but what this entails needs to be reconsidered.
2. Sudden, disruptive changes in the context require rapid adaptation. Enterprises need to embrace just-in-case thinking and build in flexibility to adapt capabilities for plausible scenarios.
3. Day-one mistakes can have large and lasting consequences. A major day-one mistake is to act before understanding the uncertainty inherent in the context.
4. Strategic enterprise architecture begins with people, not technology. Every successful architectural initiative starts with engaging key stakeholders, including those with different technology-adoption profiles, and reaching a consensus.
5. Architects must balance fitness for todayÕs purpose with fitness for tomorrowÕs disruptive context. Fitness is the key to surviving and thriving in disruptive times.
6. Because ongoing fitness is key, enterprise architecture must focus on adaptability! This requires a methodology that highlights fitness for context and a set of architectural views that outline what the enterprise needs to consider to be viable in todayÕs and tomorrowÕs contexts.
7. Adaptation must be rapid enough to deal with disruptionsÑboth sudden and prolonged.