Monday, April 07, 2008
Enterprise Architecture: Smoke and Mirrors
If you can't deliver working software on time, then you should consider smoke and mirrors instead...
Demonstrating to executives is an important sales tool frequently used by enterprise architects yet it is almost guaranteed that they will get it twisted and think the demo is representational of production-quality capabilities. A management team, eager for new business, sometimes (inadvertently) encourage these misperceptions and makes commitments beyond the capabilities of the organization to deliver operational technology.
Every time an enterprise architect does this, it results in throwing some poor developers under the bus as they will be pressured to deliver the capabilities as promised. Of course, while we are busy aligning IT with the business, we are ultimately causing the business to lose in the long run. The best alignment strategy I can think of is not about marketing nor perception management, but is all about giving the business the expected capability at the promised cost and time.
If enterprise architects keep delivering hastily crafted stovepipe architectures that resemble the demo environment, how can you truly expect for the business to trust you? Minimally, you may get lucky and convince the business that they got what they asked for and may never be discovered, but have you considered what headaches you have caused for your own shop? Demonstration systems are exactly that. They usually are the least maintainable over time...
| | View blog reactionsDemonstrating to executives is an important sales tool frequently used by enterprise architects yet it is almost guaranteed that they will get it twisted and think the demo is representational of production-quality capabilities. A management team, eager for new business, sometimes (inadvertently) encourage these misperceptions and makes commitments beyond the capabilities of the organization to deliver operational technology.
Every time an enterprise architect does this, it results in throwing some poor developers under the bus as they will be pressured to deliver the capabilities as promised. Of course, while we are busy aligning IT with the business, we are ultimately causing the business to lose in the long run. The best alignment strategy I can think of is not about marketing nor perception management, but is all about giving the business the expected capability at the promised cost and time.
If enterprise architects keep delivering hastily crafted stovepipe architectures that resemble the demo environment, how can you truly expect for the business to trust you? Minimally, you may get lucky and convince the business that they got what they asked for and may never be discovered, but have you considered what headaches you have caused for your own shop? Demonstration systems are exactly that. They usually are the least maintainable over time...
