Business Architecture is a part of Enterprise Architecture

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The article is about how EA is applicable only in IT though it is spread across stakeholders,business information,technology and solution architecture.There are wide gaps seen in the approach of developing EA.

Some of the gaps are:

• Developing a business context:
• The IT-Investment Decision Making process
• Creating a governance and assurance mechanism

Also a common trend seen is when EA conflates the business architecture viewpoint of EA.The business context of EA is said to be formed of A vision of the future state,an anchor model and a set of guiding principles.However it is a common mis interpretation of neglecting the business context,treating the business architecture as a separate entity and narrowing down EA to only IT.

Mature practitioners understand the business context and work towards relating it with EA.They focus on the interdependencies,the relationships and how it can drive the actual process.Also experienced personnel in this field look at the view that only when business architecture is engaged does assurance and governance come in place.It is indeed necessary to understand and go into details to see how every business action has a role to play with EA frame.It is sad to see people over look these at most instances but by setting practices it can be brought into picture.Thereby it will be a very good methodology to incorporate the business architecture well inside the enterprise architecture framework or rules to be played.

A Challenge to Enterprise Architects - Think Innovation

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The article highlights how Enterprise Architecture is used in many aspects of business but less thought to be a catalyst for innovation especially in the areas of SOA and cloud computing.EA is used as a measuring stick for SOA infrastructure and solutions.EA not only serves as a fundamental baseline for SOA elements but its capabilities can be extended to business process modeling,modeling,mobile and wireless.

There are three entry points into service-oriented architecture:

1. Business Process:Enabling an operation or agile process as a measuring tool to know if SOA is successful or not.
2. Governance:Aligning services to the business process and managing the services in the most streamlined and efficient way.
3. Web Services:Ea comprises of loads of artifacts which can be employed through information matrix exchange to build the web service to contribute the business goal

EA is being encouraged to become a competitive advantage and be a way to advance innovation which can optimize capabilities and minimize innovation.It serves as a means to utilize the business process as a criteria to build the services in SOA.Also using EA to determine which part of the business might be served by the cloud.

A very interesting read to know how EA is instrumental to drive the different forces of business and evolve innovation as a means to create alignment,governance and provide worthwhile services to the industry.

Differences between Architecture Roles

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People often confuse or don't find any difference between various Architect roles.However each role have their unique role to play in day to day work.In this article they have picked out the roles of Solution Architect,Technical Architect and Enterprise Architect.

There are three dimensions or axes that constitute the architecture roles:
1.Life cycle disciplines:Set of activities performed in a particular stage of project or program .
2.Level of details:Amount of specific details required to fulfill the objectives of the role.
3.Focus:A particular work stream where the above are relevant to.


Technical Architects:Main focus is on implementation technology.Works across projects and pays attention to the complete software lifecycle of the product.Requires hands-on knowledge on technology thereby specializing in a particular stream.
Solutions Architects:Overlooks the technical integrity and consistency of solutions in a project.The solution architect acts as a Project Manager for the project along with perceiving the technology related risks involved in the project.
Enterprise Architects:Concerned with the holistic view of the Information and technology within the enterprise.Responsible for whole set of life-cycle disciplines and prospective IT.


Technical Architect works within a solution,Solution Architect translates a problem to a solution and finally Enterprise Architect defines which problem need a solution.This articles gives a clear view of what each role comprises of.Informative for many who might not have direct experiences working with or for such roles.

Business Architects:Do not start with strategy

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 "Business architects start with the strategy of an organization.  They take that strategy and map it to the capabilities of the enterprise to clarify the capabilities that must be improved or matured in order to effectively execute."

This article ponders on how business  takes on working on strategy first which might not be fruitful.The best thing would be to have a business model in place and then work on building the strategy.The strategy is meaningful within context.Analyzing the organization's business model helps to determine what to expect and how to frame the needs of the business.This is where Strategy comes in role.The strategy directs the business model to help achieve the future business expectations.

     

Strategy depicts one of the two possibilities:

• Incremental improvements in the business model (cut costs a little more.  Improve customer satisfaction a little more.  etc), or
• Adding a new business model to the organization.

I agree that understanding the value of business is important and to layout a model to be able to put in place a methodology to work it out.But at the same time it might not work for all organizations.A intuitive and calculated decision might help in determining whether strategy comes first or after adopting a business model.

Launch of the Cybersecurity Framework

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The Obama administration announced the launch of the cyber security framework.The framework is a key deliverable from the Executive Order on “Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity”  that President Obama announced in 2013.

The framework is said to provide existing global standards and practices to help organizations understand,communicate and manage their cyber risks.For the organizations that do not know where to start it serves as a roadmap.It also provides a better way to communicate with their CEO's and suppliers about cyber risks.

The framework components(the framework core,profiles and tiers) reinforces the connections between business drivers and cyber activities.The Framework Core is a set of activities and informative references-The activities are grouped into five segments:Identify,Protect,Detect,Respond,Recover.The Profiles can help organizations align cyber activities with business requirements,risk tolerances and resources.The Tiers provide a way to view their approach and processes for managing cyber security which range from Tier 1 Partial to Tier 4 Adaptive.

It is a good approach to help organizations build their security infrastructure.The Program is a voluntary one which helps organizations connect with companies and share experiences .The Critical Infrastructure Cyber Community (C3) Voluntary program will help increase awareness.It is interesting to find out how many organizations have got involved in this move and what effects it has brought to an organization.I will need to search more on this to see the effect.I am sure this is beneficial for many companies especially start-ups and small scaled to get support and build upon a framework for securing their environment.

Defining an Enterprise-wide Security Framework

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This article defines the knowledge management system -the Enterprise  Security Architecture System  (ESAS) developed by PriceWaterhouseCoopers.The ESAS is primarily built upon the PPT(People,Policy & Technology).

What is PPT methodology?

PPT methodology can be depicted in the
form of the venn diagrams showing the 
controls as three core elements. If the issue is broken down into the three core elements, action items can be determined for each core element. In this manner, control coverage can be moved from one element to two, and ultimately to coverage by all of the elements.

Understanding the Security Framework:

The Information security framework provides the overall model for developing comprehensive security programs.The framework illustrates an enterprise approach for security.
The key elements, also referred to as the "Four Pillars" to Information Security, include:

• Solid Senior Management Commitment
• An overall Security Vision and Strategy
• A comprehensive Training and Awareness Program
• A solid Information Security Management Structure including key skill sets and documented responsibilities

                     

This indeed serves as a good base to frame a security model for any organization.Keeping the phases as a guideline to incorporate the business functions and levels of security will serve to make a difference in protecting the organization's valuable assets and enable the security team to work on improving every bit of the model.