Read the Foreword by Allen Brown for 2nd new book “Building Digital Ecosystem Architectures” out now

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Allen Brown, President of Enterprise Architects Association EAA, Founder and former CEO of The Open Group

Over the past century, technology—primarily in the form of computing systems—has evolved at a pace never before seen in human history. These changes have not only made life simpler for most people, but have also brought great convenience and immediacy to everyday activities. One need only to consider our new-found dependence on smartphones—devices that barely existed before the iPhone was introduced less than ten years ago in 2007—to realize just how rapidly technology is changing our lives.

The new digital landscape has also pervaded nearly every system and organization across the globe. Despite the simplicity digitalization has brought to business processes and structures, the technology systems themselves have become increasingly complex over time. This is particularly true in large enterprises, which now require entire buildings placed strategically across globe to maintain the company “infrastructure.”

To better manage these systems, Enterprise Architecture emerged over the past thirty years as a discipline and profession that provided a necessary bridge between the IT department and the business. It has been adopted by companies, partnerships, government departments and agencies, charities and non-profit organisations: in effect, every type of organisation that exists.

Enterprise Architecture addresses the complexity of information technology systems and the need to integrate new capabilities with the existing legacy in heterogeneous environments. Initially Enterprise Architecture was justified as a cost saving tool. It soon moved to being recognised, not only as a means to control cost but also to enable new capabilities. Now it is becoming a critical business discipline, alongside other essential business functions such as accounting, finance, legal or marketing, no matter whether the business is a commercial organization, a government agency or, as in the case of The Open Group, a not-for-profit enterprise.

Every organisation that exists today has become its own system with a mission (whether explicit or implicit), people, processes, technology and ecosystem of partners, each of which are constantly changing at an ever increasing pace and becoming more and more complex in their own right. As such, many enterprises today are being inundated with the digitization of their business models: products and services, processes, changing costs, revenue and profit models, new subscription and incremental models in capital expenditure and operating expenses, new operating value chains and shifting market position and channels. Boundaryless Information Flow™, the vision of The Open Group, conceived over a decade ago by our members, is even more of a business imperative today, from the macro-scale of connected markets and nations to the micro-economy of trading, social media and personalized mobile services and wearables.

That vision also recognized the need for information to be secure, reliable and timely. Today, new cyber threats and challenges, together with new opportunities for ecommerce have created the need for tradeoffs in the flow of information among and between organizational systems, the need for new global standards and the need to minimize regulation, which by definition is bound by geo-political constraints.

As the march toward digitalization has gained momentum, some organizations have become trapped by their brand (how they are perceived), by their culture (how they think), by their processes (how they get things done) or by their technology (in both what they make and the tools they have) and become the victims of significant shifts in their industry. These are the areas where Enterprise Architecture can help organisations adapt to this new landscape.

As with any discipline, Enterprise Architecture also must evolve to meet the needs of the digital economy. Like other professional disciplines, Enterprise Architects need to adopt a culture of continuous learning. For accountants working within enterprises, the basic methods of book-keeping and accounts have hardly changed in hundreds of years. But the standards of financial reporting are constantly evolving, the needs of the business for information are constantly evolving, and the tools available to accounting professionals are constantly evolving, not to mention the complexities around taxation as governments seek to catch up and close loop-holes that have appeared as a consequence of new ways of managing an enterprise.

The tools of Enterprise Architects, standards such as TOGAF® and ArchiMate®, both standards of The Open Group, are relatively stable although they too will evolve over time. The real issue facing Enterprise Architects is how to apply standards in a world where the pace of change and complexity will only continue to accelerate. Enterprises are turning to “Agile” or “DevOps” in an attempt to accelerate their own pace of change, and Enterprise Architects have a valuable role to fill as part of the Scrum or DevOps teams.

Enterprises are also increasingly moving towards a new platform that represents the convergence of Social, Mobile, Big Data, Cloud and the Internet of Things. This new platform represents a kind of paradox that organisations will be grappling with for years to come. How can you harness this mass of data and networks and mobility to empower employees and business activity while at the same time trying to protect value, survive new digital competitors and be able to scale and grow business performance and the value outcomes for customers, citizens, donors, members or beneficiaries?

Both continuous learning and constant change are about remaining relevant and having an edge. For Enterprise Architects, the opportunities of the future lay outside of the boundaries of the current ecosystem in which we operate from day-to-day. This book is an important contribution to thinking about the critical role Enterprise Architecture must play in the new digital era.

Dec 2015

Allen Brown