Keynotes

Using Business Architecture to drive value and alignment across IT and Business

J. Kevin Brown, Director of Information Systems, Daisy Brand, LP.

Microsoft Services Business Architecture methodology provides a unique and effective means to make decisions around business change; whether to resolve a complex issue or leverage an opportunity using terminology that both business and IT people can understand. Generating a stable and re-usable work product, Business Architecture is distinctly different from, and complementary to other methodologies such as Six Sigma, business process re-engineering, TOGAF, Zachman, and others. The business architecture mapping techniques have been developed to support and enable objective decision-making regarding the value of a proposed change, while the project teams produce deliverables that include prescriptive guidance around transforming inconsistent people, processes, and technologies to manage cost, increase benefit, and decrease risk.

The patent-pending business architecture model has proven to be an SOA enabler, both in terms of helping the business understand the value of SOA, as well as helping IT map and prioritize the migration of specific technology services to the needs of the business.

This unique and interactive session explores the MSBA methodology from the perspective of the customer’s business challenges to help inform decisions that quite simply lead to accelerated time to value.

The Evolving Role of the Enterprise Architect

Allen Brown, CEO and President - The Open Group

To effectively align IT with business goals organizations must increasingly adopt a "city planner" perspective of the enterprise. This perspective has created strong demand for a new class of highly skilled professionals called enterprise architects who can communicate effectively with every level of their organization. In addition, companies are seeking enterprise architects whose skills have been professionally certified, demonstrating the need for both large and small businesses and public sector organizations to embrace industry standards as a basis for assuring the capabilities of their enterprise architects. In this presentation, Allen Brown, CEO of The Open Group, a vendor- and technology-neutral consortium focused on open standards and global interoperability, will address the evolution of the enterprise architect, new demands on enterprise architecture professionals, and the role of industry certification programs in helping both architects and companies meet these challenges and find the right talent.

Driving Enterprise Architecture through the Strategic IT
Planning Exercise

Steve Davis , Chief Architect and Vice President, IT Walt Disney Studios

The IT profession recognizes the risk imposed by applications or systems currently platformed with declining technologies. One way to mitigate this risk is to identify in a systematic way declining technologies and the associated applications or systems that rely on those technologies. This discussion proposes a methodology that incorporates creating mandatory investment initiatives in a five-year strategic planning process. The Enterprise Architecture Framework (EAF) breaks down the various technological products, methods, and standards into a hierarchical classification. Within each lower-level classification associated choices are categorized into these designations: emerging, under evaluation, core, declining, and specialized. We can identify and publish declining technologies in the EAF. By insinuating the EAF into the five-year planning process we can ensure that declining technologies will be addressed by IT and the business units in the form of planned investments. Resources and funding can be allocated to reduce overall risk and provide an opportunity to address technological refresh in synergy with investments driven by other value propositions, such as market share penetration, revenue growth, and efficiency.

Software + Services: Towards a Model of Differentiated IT

John deVadoss , Director of Architecture Strategy – Microsoft

The model of “one size fits all” is now seen by most IT organizations as being flawed as they become ever more global, transparent and partner / supplier network based. The Software + Services model promises the ability to support the wide range of IT users in a much more agile and cost effective manner – a Differentiated IT model (as opposed to a ‘one size fits all’ model).  In this session we will present our thinking on the architecture model and how we can exploit this model to create value for the business.