IT may be good at operating a good service to business, but is particularly bad at doing the very thing that gave IT such great success … innovation. There may be no IT / Business gap, but things could be better, highlighted by some compelling research.
I attended a vendor conference yesterday and the topic was ‘Watch the Gap’, where several invited speakers and the hosts went through the familiar ritual of donning sackcloth and wailing about the growing gap between Business and IT. But I wondered what’s the gap? In fact, what’s this thing called the Business that is so much at odds with IT?
Compliance at the project level is essential for enterprise architecture success. Without compliance, investment in enterprise architecture design will be wasted as it fails to gain traction at the level where it really matters. Therefore, since compliance in any context is rarely an outcome of random decision-making, some form of governance is required to help encourage the right behaviours and decisions, even where there’s no brazen defiance of the enterprise architecture guidelines.
I received my Forrester alert this afternoon, top of which was a teleconference ‘The EA Team: Size and Structure‘ – it got me thinking. Does every enterprise need a permanent enterprise architecture team? If you’re constantly architecting something, doesn’t that mean it never reaches a stable state of operation?
Solution Architecture has a reputation for producing output that is largely engineered for function, often lacking a creative flair that would produce an aesthetically pleasing outcome. Does this mean that architecture is a balancing act? If so, what are the polarities that need to be balanced?
It doesn’t take an architect to marvel at architectural wonders, such as the Sistine Chapel – the genius and creativity combined with constructive energy and skill are instantly recognisable. Similarly for technology architecture, when we experience a well-designed IT system we can feel it through all our sense. But what is the essence that separates good architecture from bad?