Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Enterprise Architecture and substituting process for competence
Figured I would share thoughts on how enterprise architecture teams can detect when they have too many processess...
Each member of the enterprise architecture team should ask themselves:
On another note, please check out Mark Dixon and his wonderful blog on Rationalization and Transformation...
| | View blog reactionsEach member of the enterprise architecture team should ask themselves:
- Your boss asked you to communicate the latest strategy to a list of folks, only that the list also the company phone directory
- When was the last time you talked with a developer? When was the last time you talked with a real business customer? Now, when was the last time you talked with someone in finance...
- Your executives use the word agile in their presentations yet have never actually read the Agile Manifesto
- You have bought into the hype of CMMI because your outsourcing firm brainwashed you into it and have reached CMMI Level 7 which allows you the ability to document reasons for the project failing before the kickoff
- You assembled a standards committee to discuss whether you should endorse the phrase too many chefs spoil the pot or the more interesting one of: Too many sheep spoil the eggs but you didn't actually decide anything because you didn't get management buy-in
- The process weenies have determined that what the enterprise needs is a checklist to determine if you have completed a dozen other checklists
- Even your IT executives have Dilbert cartoons hanging in their offices
- Take deliberate efforts to hide processes by calling them best practices and apply them to training programs, hierarchies and even corporate jargon. For every task you do, immediately followup with a survey
- You have seen lots of things other architects have been doing that are just bad, but you are encouraged to avoid taking a colleague aside and telling him/her as you will end up in HR if they are offended when in all reality the folks practicing incompetency should
- Other architects use the phrase about the blind men and the elephant, but never have thought about what it takes to pull an estimate out of an elephant.
On another note, please check out Mark Dixon and his wonderful blog on Rationalization and Transformation...
