At the end of February, Gartner analyzed the trends in Enterprise Architecture for 2012 and summarized their focus for research in 2012.
By chance, I read the report at work and made some notes. One key issue, mentioned by Gartner was “The change of focus for EA in 2012 is on delivering strategic business outcomes.” Since this aspect is often forgotten by consultants and architects, I really appreciate this statement by Gartner (Julie Short and Philip Allega, see [ShAl12]). And, in addition, this is the focus I am heading within this blog, www.generate-value.com. I do not want to go into all the facts of the report, but some outcomes are:
- Gartner has done a survey. One outcome of this survey was, that “(…) the 2012 focus has moved from business and IT alignment toward concrete business transformation efforts to deliver business outcomes.” (see [ShAl12])
- “Functional roots and core competencies of EA” have to be used “to deliver business outcomes”
- “Key business trends impacting organizations today” have to be addressed
- “EA practitioners must understand how to position their efforts to contribute competitive advantage for their organizations.” (see [ShAl12])
Gartner will research some methods to gain competitive advantage. EA practitioners should have a look at the reports, since there are some other aspects worth reading (e.g. “disruptive business and technology innovations, including social collaboration, mobile computing, cloud and big data”) that I cannot mention in this blog post.
I am convinced, that some of the IT-focuses EA architects and consultants will not like my following statement, but this is my personal opinion.
Gartner’s report might be declared as a theoretical fragment. Nevertheless, this paper shows the trends EA architects and specialists have to focus to gain added value. EA has to focus to business value to implement a successful and sustainable strategy for business owners and not to setup a strategy that will become a self purpose to justify IT investments. EA specialists have to shift their focus as of today.
References:
- [ShAl12] Short, Julie; Allega, Philip: “Agenda for Enterprise Architecture, 2012″, G00232198.
Stamford: Gartner, Inc. 2012