Daily Archives: May 7, 2009

Alan Mather’s 2003 ‘Enterprise Architecture in Government’ white paper available online

5 Replies · 07/05/2009 · 48 of 54 reads (last 12 months vs since 2024)

Alan Mather has just released his excellent “Enterprise Architecture in Government” white paper from 2003. This white paper has mythic status in UK Government IT circles because of it’s visionary roadmap of an implementation for Enterprise Architecture (EA) for the UK. Pre-dating the “Cross Government Enterprise Architecture” (XGEA) work of the CTO Council (who hadn’t even been formed at the time, but nor had the CIO Council who commissioned them either) this is the earliest attempt at applying an EA vision to the co-ordination of the UK’s IT and IS portfolio.

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Enterprise Architecture Case Studies presentation on Friday the 8th of May in Aberystwyth

Leave a Reply · 07/05/2009 · 33 of 69 reads (last 12 months vs since 2024)

This Friday I’ll be presenting on the topic of ‘Enterprise Architecture Case Studies’ in Aberystwyth, in an event organised and hosted by the South Wales branch of the BCS.

For more information the event is advertised here with the BCS. The core details are:

  • Date: 8 May 2009
  • Time: 17:00 Refreshments / 18:00 Start
  • Location: The finger buffet is in the foyer of the Computer Science Building and the talk itself will be in Lecture Theatre `A’ in the Physical Sciences Building, both on the Penglais Campus, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth.
  • Cost: Free, open to all (including non-members of the BCS or IET), no registration required.

Here’s what I generally say as an overview of this talk:

The case studies presented explore my experiences with Enterprise Architecture in three major customer engagements. They include an Enterprise Architecture team which led its company into a £70+ million ‘pitfall’; the use of Enterprise Architecture to define a Service Oriented Architecture; and an example of how much Enterprise Architecture is about achieving the proper governance model.

Key takeaways:

  • Enterprise Architecture best practices drawn from multiple engagements.
  • How to use good governance to avoid and limit the ‘Ivory Tower’ syndrome.
  • How to combine Enterprise Architecture and Service Oriented Architecture to deliver sustainable Transformation.

Given the current downturn I’ll also go into some of the issues facing EA programmes due to the credit crunch and what can be done to ensure that they continue to receive executive sponsorship and funding.

Happy to answer any and all questions; please consider that I’ll be attempting to condense three major and very large scale Enterprise Architecture case studies into a talk lasting an hour and a half or so, therefore I will definitely be around to speak with afterwards. ¨C13C

‘Many Thanks’ to Fred Long (of Aberystwyth University) for organising and co-ordinating this event and for Clive King (of Sun) for initially brokering the relationship.

Links to the BCS page for the event: ¨C14C

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EURIM 2009 Annual General Meeting at the House of Lords

1 Reply · 07/05/2009 · 34 of 78 reads (last 12 months vs since 2024)

Yesterday I was at the Palace of Westminster, or rather the House of Lords, for the 2009 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of EURIM, the European Information Society Group, which “brings together politicians, officials and industry to help improve the quality of policy formation, consultation, scrutiny, implementation and monitoring in support of the creation of a globally competitive, socially inclusive and democratically accountable information society”.

I brought up three points with the EURIM Board, firstly the disparity of R&D; spending by Industry sector (and the fact that in the UK 75% of all business R&D; is done in the manufacturing industry alone, an industry provides just 13% of the GDP of the UK), secondly I asked what EURIM’s position was in response to EU Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding’s call for the US to hand over control of ICANN so it can be overseen by an independent international tribunal, and thirdly in regards to the UK stimulation package and it’s support, or rather lack of, the UK’s ‘Digital Infrastructure’ (more on this topic in a separate article as I’d planned for it to be one of my pieces on the economic recovery of the UK).

All three were well received, and I especially enjoyed a discussion that arose around the ‘Professionalism in IT’ agenda, and it’s likely resurgence as a topic of interest across the major stakeholders in the UK after a relatively quiet period of activity.

After the meeting I continued the conversation about IT Professionalism with Michael Gough, Head of Government Affairs at EDS and ex-Chief Executive of the National Computing Centre (NCC) where he spent eight highly productive years (Steve Markwell has taken over the reins of CEO). Of course during his tenure the NCC was one quarter of the “Prof IT Alliance“, an alliance of interested parties looking at supporting the IT Professionalism agenda (along with Intellect, the BCS, and the e-Skills Council UK, the sector skills license holder for IT and Telecoms skills).

I also spoke with industry friends and peers (including those from IBM, Microsoft, Atkins, and others), as well The Lord Renwick, EURIM President, and Dr David Wright, EURIM Deputy Secretary General.

Almost everyone asked about the Oracle acquisition of Sun, and I had to say that due to SEC rulings we wouldn’t be seeing any integration until the deal was sanctioned by the US Government. This sort of thing is the norm in large scale mergers and acquisitions born out of the US and everyone who asked were understanding of this.

The next EURIM event I’m due at is with the Conservative Technology Forum entitled “The Future of the NHS IT Program” event, where we are due to partake in a forum hosted Guy Hains, EMEA CSC Alliance, Pearse Butler, Dir UK Healthcare CSC, Dr Glyn Hayes, President of the Primary Health Care Specialist Group of the BCS, and Stephen O’Brien MP, the Shadow Minister for Health. More on the CSC Alliance here: https://www.csc.com/cscalliance

I took a few photographs yesterday whilst around and about Westminster and from within the Main Hall (the only place guests are allowed to take photos whilst in the Houses of Parliament), and thought that I’d share them with you too.

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