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Business Ecology Initiative (BEI): Business Architecture Day, Sept 22, 2010 in Cambridge, MA

Are you interested in Business Architecture?  Want to hear from leading practitioners and thinkers?  Then check out the Business Architecture Information Day, co-sponsored by the Business Ecology Initiative and OMG’s Business Architecture Working Group.  The day features practitioner and analyst keynotes:

Capitalizing on Business Architecture in the Pharmaceutical Industry by Deb Boykin, Business Process Management, Director, Pfizer, Inc. 

Pfizer Inc. is a research-based global pharmaceutical company applying innovative science to improve world health. It discovers, develops, manufactures and markets prescription medicines for humans and animals. Pfizer markets its pharmaceuticals directly to health care providers and patients; with the majority of sales conducted through wholesalers including McKesson and Cardinal Health. At Pfizer, Business Architecture resides within the Business Process Management (BPM) group and is a critical component in delivering Business Process value. This presentation will first examine the approach used to develop a robust and agile Business Architecture structure and will then discuss how content is leveraged and sustained to ensure business value.

Trends & Emerging Strategies in Business Architecture, by Jeff Scott, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research, Inc.

Business architecture's time has come. While EAs have talked about business architecture for years, not much has really happened. But now a confluence of events is driving renewed interest - and action - in the business architecture space. Forrester sees three significant trends driving this change: a shift towards business led IT initiatives particularly in social technologies, EA disintermediation in technology decisions as IT organizations outsource more of their role, and renewed interest in strategic planning as business models and organizations become more complex. This presentation will explore these trends and the challenges and opportunities they bring. Key takeaways include trends that are challenging the traditional EA model, trends in developing business architecture and challenges every EA will face on the road ahead.

Find the complete agenda here.  Hope to see you there!

 

[Disclosure: The Business Ecology Initiative is a client of my firm, Elemental Links.]

6+1 Secrets of Successful SOA

The deck from my Open Group Conference session, 6+1 Secrets of Successful SOA, is now on Slideshare.  The deck is a revision of the original 6 Secrets of Successful SOA talk delivered in May at ATA/ITLC.  If you’ve seen the original deck, jump to slide 24 for the +1.

6+1 Secrets of Successful SOA

View more presentations from Brenda Michelson.

Come to my session at IBM Innovate: Smarter Business Planning and Analysis: Business Architecture as a Foundation

Are you going to IBM Innovate?  The Rational Software Conference.  Then plan to attend my session on Wednesday afternoon!  I’m speaking with IBM’s Robert Shields on Business Architecture as a Foundation to Business Planning, Analysis and Change. 

My part of the presentation, combines themes and outcomes from the SOA Consortium’s EA2010 group, with my own business architecture and enterprise architecture work and point-of-view.  I’ve got something new I’m excited to share.

As always, expect a fair amount of business talk and definite traceability to business motivations. 

If the session is anything like the planning call Robert and I had in May, the session could end with a (positive) call for Enterprise Architecture revolution!

The details:

Session: EAM-2259: Smarter Business Planning and Analysis: Business Architecture as a Foundation
Date/Time: Wed, 9/Jun, 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
Room: Dolphin - Oceanic 7
Co-presenter(s): Robert Shields, IBM, Senior Market Manager, Enterprise Architecture, Brenda M. Michelson, Elemental Links

Hope to see you next week! 

 

[Disclosure: IBM is not a client of Elemental Links.  However, IBM is a sponsor of the BPM/SOA Consortium and the Business Ecology Initiative, which are clients.]

@ Forrester IT Forum: Crafting Your Technology Strategy For Business Impact, Randy Heffner

Boosting The Value And Impact Of EA, Crafting Your Technology Strategy For Business Impact by Randy Heffner, Vice President, Principal Analyst, Forrester

Randy opens with “Technology strategy is fundamentally about dealing with change”.  Historically, technology strategy has been technology focused – applications, data, boxes and networks.  That is not a recipe for business impact.  You need to keep track of the business – traceability of business scenario across technology portfolio [my interpretation of Randy’s message].

Need to begin with the end (business end) in mind.  Want to improve business outcomes.  Improving business outcomes is CEO agenda.  Four major metrics, categories, of business outcomes: balance sheet, income statement, cash flow and market influence (broad set of softer metrics – customer sat, sustainability, market share, market perception, etc).

Two technology strategy goals then: (1) improve business outcomes and (2) deal with change.

Areas/ways to improve business outcomes: optimize, extract more value, add to/enhance products, deepen market penetration, expand to adjoining markets and/or reframe the markets.

Randy’s thesis: Business gets better outcomes building on what they currently do.  Build on current capabilities. 

Now, Randy is re-iterating business capability mapping from Alex Cullen’s keynote this morning.  Business capabilities fundamentally changes the nature of the business – technology conversation.  However, we also need to drill from capabilities to implementation.  Strategy, according to Randy, is about business implementation.

Business implementation is through business capability architecture.  Nascent industry term and conversation.  Goes beyond the business capability map.  Reframe your thinking on implementation. 

The scope of a capability implementation: CEO’s physical world, digital world.  “Business becomes embodied in our technology”.  An integrated, operational, measurable combination of people, process, technology and physical resources.

Business change design principles: (1) measured (2) connected (capabilities) (3) modular (4) optimized

The middle two – connected and modular – are old hat for architects.  The first and last are quite new for architects. [I would say, not new for all architects].

Focal points of capability implementation:

1. Portfolio: what set of apps and assets support the implementation and operation of a capability?
2. Platform: Upon what integrated set of patterns and technologies do you implement your capabilities?

From here, Randy is showing the reference architecture pattern for business capability implementation.  He has also referenced Forrester’s Digital Business architecture.

[Editorial note: There is no magic leap from capability map to reference architecture/digital business architecture.  Lots of business architecture, business analysis, and business to technology capability matching work in the middle.]

Randy reminds us: Don’t design solutions, design your business.  Define your technology strategy with the end in mind.

@ Forrester’s IT Forum: The Business Technology Transformation: Cullen on Business Capabilities, not Projects

For the next few days, I’ll be at Forrester’s IT Forum in Las Vegas. The conference is centered on Forrester’s Business Technology agenda:

“…a time for some soul searching in IT, a time to learn from past lessons and create a better way. Forrester calls this new mandate business technology (BT), where every business activity is enabled by technology and every technology decision hinges on a business need.”

The goal of the conference is to enable a real-world transformation to Business Technology. 

Tom Pohlmann, Vice President, Forrester is setting the stage for the conference, describing the drivers and timing for organizations to move to Business Technology.  The time is now.

Pohlmann introduces the 5 Pillars for Business Technology Firms:

1. Create intelligent business processes
2. Connect people fluidly to drive innovation
3. Build capabilities, not projects
4. Deliver Services, not systems
5. Simplify always and everything

Alex Cullen, VP and Research Director of Enterprise Architecture Practice is the first keynote speaker.  He is going to elaborate on pillar #3 – Build Capabilities, not Projects.

Cullen opens talking about Business-IT Alignment.  He describes the problem of business-IT alignment as a “hardy perennial”.  Something we can’t kill.  Until now.  The way to fix the business-IT alignment issue is via a capability based approach.  Leading organizations, such as Pfizer, are closing the gap by focusing on business capabilities, rather than projects.

Capabilities describe your business.  Capabilities are all the stuff necessary to perform an act.  The stuff: processes, information, business functions, business goals, key metrics and key gaps.

There are 3 views of a capability map: enterprise view, individual capabilities and technology view. 

Cullen walked through an example for an insurer.  The enterprise view map had 3 sections” sales & servicing, product administration and business management.  Alex drilled into a customer service capability.  Showed the purpose of capability maps along the way. 

Why capability map?

1. Clarify what is important to the business
2. Focuses investment plans and project portfolios
3. Connect business processes, information and systems.  Forrester research shows that business process improvement projects are often divorced from data architecture and knowledge.  This is a huge risk.
4. Identify potential common services

In addition, Cullen points out that capability maps enhance other planning models, such as business strategy, business process, and IT Services. 

Cullen calls out Henry Mintzberg’s emergent strategy work. 

Game plan for closing alignment gap:

• start with your own business, not one off the shelf
• keep your capability maps simple
• bring into all conversations and management processes
• use to educate IT staff
• use it (capability map) to guide innovation

To follow the entire conference conversation on twitter, use hashtag #ITF10.  Follow me on twitter @bmichelson.