Digital Transformation Depends Upon Next-Generation Architecture Tools
Jason Bloomberg
Managing Director at Intellyx > Top Digital Transformation, Cloud Native Computing, Low-Code, and DevOps Influencer
Over the years, the enterprise architecture (EA) and business architecture (BA) tooling market has had its share of struggles. As I’ve written about before, EA as well as BA have long faced questions about their relevance to the organization, and the tools to support these roles face similar concerns.
Both types of architects traditionally spend much of their time creating and updating elaborate diagrams, charts, and other artifacts that represent the business in all of its elaborate glory. But without a practical connection between the models and the business transformation that architecture purports to drive, such documents are little more than pretty pictures.
Now that so many enterprises are struggling with digital transformation initiatives, the efficacy of such architecture tooling has never been more important. But digital priorities have raised the bar for such tools. Simply keeping track of business entities is no longer sufficient.
Fortunately, there is light at the end of this long tunnel – both for the practices of EA and BA as well as the tools that support them.
The Importance of Holistic Tooling
Next-generation architecture tools are now taking a holistic approach to supporting the transformation needs of the organization – holistic in the sense that such tools combine EA, BA, and other planning disciplines including business process management, case management, and decision management into a seamless, business-focused platform.
At this week’s Building Business Capability conference, the annual shindig of the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), architecture tooling vendors go head to head, contrasting older technologies for architecture modeling to the more modern, holistic approach.
Read the entire article at https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2015/11/06/digital-transformation-depends-upon-next-generation-architecture-tools/.
Intellyx advises companies on their digital transformation initiatives and helps vendors communicate their agility stories. As of the time of writing, none of the organizations mentioned in this article are Intellyx customers. Image credit: Capsicum.
Data Steward at Bayer Crop Science (Consultant with Technology Partners)
9 年Applying semantics as a core part of the toolset to achieve a holistic architecture would seem to be a requirement in any case, but it is interesting that its core to the newer tools. This of course underscores the need to establish and manage an enterprise business & technical ontology, which is where often the perception of EA/BA being 'overhead' comes in, testing the commitment to architecture. Certainly no one is interested in just more pretty pictures. Do the tools provide a mechanism to track & depict a clear linkage to business outcomes & decisions, using their semantic framework? The other side of the equation is being able to use a tool to actually build things, which can also be a challenge with the quickly evolving technology stack.
Executive Director - Principal Engineer - Digital Marketplace Payments | Expert Engineer Coach | Lover of the impossible
9 年Fully agree - architecture has to drive clear business outcomes or it is effectively organisational waste.
SC Cleared Contractor: Enterprise, Solution, Technical , Security, Integration Architect
9 年Jason, I am interested that you believe these proprietary models and approaches will provide genuine long-term advantage.
Digital Transformation Professional, Enterprise Architect, Creator of Enterprise Evolver, and Chief Innovation Architect
9 年Try Enterprise Evolver - our focus is neither drawings nor frameworks but the data and connections to support decision making. Http://www.enterpriseevolver.com