Enterprise Architecture is not technology selection

Now that I have extolled the virtue of standards like muscle building and listed our current set I wanted to post a bit on why I believe having a consistent Enterprise Architecture is important.

First and foremost on the list of why an Enterprise Architecture is important is that for a company to be successful it needs must build IT Solutions, not IT Capabilities. What is the difference you ask... (or even if you didn't I am going to tell you anyway) Capabilities can survive in non-integrated verticals but Solutions require integration. An End to End view of paths and functions is required to get a solution. An IT Capability is something like storing a customer information record in a database. A Solution provides the customer with value because it can use that information and to customize a trip.

One of the fundamental rules of development is breaking things up into smaller, solvable pieces. At the individual system level this makes perfect sense. However, when you start to look at things at the enterprise level, things implemented in pieces build piecemeal solutions. Then, these piecemeal solutions need to be integrated. This is what I have referred to in previous conversations as the fiefdom effect. Essentially, this is where individual systems or areas have their own fiefdoms and protect their system boundaries and "control their own destiny". While this may be fine a micro level, the independent pieces work fine after all, at the macro level this increases the integration burden and decrease overall company agility.

This is where we get to what Enterprise Architecture is all about... Enterprise Architecture's (and Engineering, YAY Engineering!!) job is to take a long term view so that teams can build capabilities not just fulfill the short term order of the day. If we have a solid base upon which to build (and this is an art in itself, not building the Taj Mahal or better yet the Winchester House when an outhouse will do the job) we enable everyone to move much faster and make integration between components that much simpler.

Yet another argument for a seamless SOA infrastructure. Or at least that's what the vendors are touting as the latest Technology Software solution for this problem... but we will save that post for another day.