At the risk of sounding completely nerdy, I was very pleased to have met Jeanne Ross, co-author of the book, Enterprise Architecture as Strategy. Everyone gives Zachman a lot of credit and deservedly so. But it is Jeanne who answered the question, "So what?" Her book told us why we should care about Enterprise Architecture. From the first pages you start to understand the concepts of the "Core Diagram" and the type of operating model your business either is, or strives to be. Then you leverage this information to focus on projects that help to realize the core diagram. Periodically come back and revise the diagram and stive to keep projects and activities consistent.
In my current job, this is one thing that is gaining traction, but I had to plant these seeds a long time ago. The core diagram should be something that everyone in the organization recognizes as obvious. As such I began to talk about things like how specific commodities are at the center of everything we do. That notion was picked up by other people and now there is a common understanding about the commodities at the center of everything we do as an agency. The next aspect I hope to introduce is that organizations, specifically state agencies, Indian Tribal Organizations and local agencies are another core component. This is essentially our CRM content.
This type of change doesn't happen over night. This is a long and gradual road, but not painful. People already know and understand these concepts. If they challenge you on them, then the architect better really think about it. There is no square peg - round hole situation here. This understanding must be immediately obvious to everyone who has visibility across the organization. Thanks Jeanne and keep up the good work!!!
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