At Semantech, we view Enterprise Architecture differently than most other EA providers - we see EA as an Agile, Actionable and Relevant Foundation for all follow-on architecture and solution activities. In far too many cases, EA has become a compliance checkbox rather than a facilitating medium for IT. This has occured because for too many EA has become too complex and too disconnected from the normal IT lifecycles to actually serve the purpose it was intended for. At Semantech, we have found a way to reverse that trend. We believe that Enterprise Architecture can be reconnected to the enterprise solution Lifecycle and we have developed a methodology specifically designed to achieve just that.
Architecture Complexity can lead to Architecture Silos / Stovepipes...
Every Semantech Enterprise Architecture project shares the following characteristics:
It must be Rapid ... in order to add value
It must be Productive ... in order to add value
It must be Relevant ... in order to add value
For EA to work it must serve as the real actual blueprint and as the true foundation for solution governance. EA was meant to serve this role, not be a checkmark. EA ROI will only be realized if the EA is being actively exploited.
At Semantech, our principals have supported Enterprise Architecture projects at several of the largest organizations in the world including the USAF, Cisco Systems, The DHS and US Army. We understand how to create value rapidly even in the most complex scenarios and we've applied that experience to our unique "Agile" EA methodology.
Capabilities
EA Strategy
EA Business Architectures
EA Systems, Services Architectures
EA & Requirements Alignment
EA + SOA Inventory Design Correlation
EA Outreach
EA Reconciliation & Mapping
EA Governance Rulesets
Deliverables
SOA Roadmaps & Conops
BRM, OVs, BPMN, BPEL
SVs, TVs, SRMs, DRMs etc.
Automated Requirements Solution
Blueprints, SOA Patterns
Web 2.0 Portal [wikis, blogs etc.]
Semantic Mapping across Artifacts
Process maps & automation
What are Frameworks ?
An Enterprise Architecture Framework is a formal semantic construct designed to allow architects to comprehensively characterize or describe an enterprise environment. Most EA Frameworks support specific products, views as well as their own metamodels.
The DoDAF Framework is composed of products within three distinct "Views."
Architecture Insights...
What is Enterprise Information Architecture ?
One of the primary challenges inherent within the practice of Enterprise Architecture is that different industries or domains have different approaches to it.
This complexity goes beyond the fact that there are multiple EA Frameworks to choose from (each with their own communty of support), there are also different design paradigms implied. For example, some people advocate Model Driven Architecture (MDA) or Event Driven Architecture (EDA) and each has its own implications on design.
Enterprise Information Integration (EII) is dependent on the concept of information architecture - in our industry this type of architecture is most often associated with UI tier focused application development in the commercial sector. It is now expanding to include aspects of Master Data Management and SOA but it still has a significant focus on user experience and ecommerce applications.
Enterprise Architect - Role Description
The term "Architect" is often abused or misunderstood within the IT industry these days. An architect is not an engineer, not a designer, not a modeler, not a lead developer, not a hardware or datacenter configuration expert - an architect is in fact all of these at once. An Architect is someone who can balance multiple disciplines and practices in order to solve problems.
An Enterprise Architect is someone who can address enterprise issues and challenges at the proper scale. The true cost of enterprise IT hinges on the universal inability to manage complexity from both the strategic and tactical level.
The one person within the enterprise structure who can link all parts of a lifecycle together - to link multiple lifecycles together - is the Enterprise Architect. We know this because we've been asked to do this and succeeded - we've also seen many instances where no such role is provided and the results are costly.
