Inside Architecture
Notes on Enterprise Architecture, Business Alignment, Interesting Trends, and anything else that interests me this week...
The cost of “SOA-fication”
No, Virginia, there is no SOA Santa Clause. SOA is not free. That said, if I’m changing a...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 02/15/2010
Business Architecture --- includes process architecture?
Debasish Mishra, a colleague of mine, posted recently that we should let Business Architects out of...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 02/09/2010
Job Description for Business Architecture
As the result of reading some discussions on the responsibilities of Business Architecture, I got to...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 02/03/2010
When feasibility of integration is a measure of capability…
One of the jobs of an enterprise architect is to evaluate the business capabilities of an area of...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 01/29/2010
When Traceability is a “Bridge to Nowhere”
One thing that many Enterprise Architects agree with: traceability matters. If your job is to...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 01/23/2010
Architects Working Alone
An old friend called me up today and shared a tale of woe. He is a Business Architect, with...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 01/05/2010
Read A Little Blasphemy
Not an architecture topic, to be sure, but a human topic. I am a firm believer in the freedom of...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 01/03/2010
Why the Zachman Framework is not an ontology
John Zachman has been making an interesting claim in the last few years… he is claiming that the...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 12/18/2009
Does IEEE-1471 Define Enterprise Architecture?
Michael Poulin recently blogged on EBizQ some of his challenges with applying IEEE-1471 to...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 12/13/2009
Modeling User Experience Scenarios
I’m working on modeling some requirements for a document management system. I’m a big fan of...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 11/10/2009
How to Develop a Governance Program (that doesn’t suck the life out of your organization)
Enterprise Architecture has a role to play in both developing a vision of the future, and in...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 11/06/2009
Collaboration without common values is fruitless
One thing that any new Enterprise Architect realizes, on or around their first day of work, is that...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 10/19/2009
The most difficult things
The single hardest thing to get a person to do, is think. If you can get a person to think, the next...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 10/13/2009
The Value of Enterprise Architecture
“Waiter, Waiter!” The customer sat in the corner of the busy cafe, with a seaming bowl of soup,...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 10/03/2009
Does EA need a name change?
Recently, Tim Westbrock asked, in his blog, if we should drop the term “Enterprise Architecture”...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 09/16/2009
Microsoft annual Day of Caring becomes part of National Day of Service
Now that the president and the United Way have teamed up to proclaim that 9/11 shall be honored,...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 09/14/2009
On becoming and being a Mensch
I mentioned to a Christian friend of mine, yesterday, that I consider him to be a “mensch.” He...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 09/11/2009
SOA Optimistic Data Synchronization considered harmful
Let’s say that you have two systems: Adipose and BellyFat. They both need the same information....
Author: Nick Malik Date: 09/04/2009
Why Business Capabilities are not in the Zachman Framework
The Zachman framework for Enterprise Architecture is often compared to the periodic table of...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 08/13/2009
Work-back Enterprise Architecture
We are all familiar with the notion of a work-back schedule: a date driven schedule where we start...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/27/2009
When is the “flow” in a use case part of the system requirements?
There is an odd relationship between the concepts of a use case and a requirement. A use case...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/23/2009
Very Funny – Trailer for Office 2010 – The Movie
Even non-geeks will get a huge kick out of this, and I’m betting that most of the folks who follow...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/10/2009
Why strategy statements are necessary, but insufficient, solutions
I had the opportunity recently to review an excellent article in the Harvard Business Review (HBR)...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/03/2009
Should some requirements be called out as “architectural” requirements?
Some methodologies of software architecture, including EWITA, attempt to describe architectural...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 06/26/2009
The Semantic Language of Architecture
For most of the last decade, we’ve seen a steady growth in the use of a simple “recommended...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 06/19/2009
Suggested Curriculum: MBA in Business Architecture
About a month back, I asked if it was time to create an MBA in Business Architecture. I’m going to...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 06/11/2009
reworking my Architecture blogroll
Many of the folks on my Architecture blog roll have been inactive, so I've dropped them. There are...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 06/03/2009
Test yourself: 25 most dangerous security programming errors
The SANS institute has published a list of the top 25 most dangerous programming errors. Not...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/31/2009
Why “good” doesn’t happen
On a blog post titled “what good looks like,” Alan Inglis detailed a list of “project...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/30/2009
Make IT appear as simple as possible, but not simpler
Sometimes I hear a complaint from an IT architect who wants to have direct conversations with “the...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/22/2009
Architecture makes Agile Processes Scalable
As many of you may know, Microsoft has a vocal and thriving Agile Software Development...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/19/2009
When Johnny comes marching home medicated
Off topic for architecture… but startling nonetheless: In other words, thousands of American...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/19/2009
Are we ready to prove the “Architecture hypothesis?”
Science progresses on the willingness to take widely held beliefs and test them. It is one...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/13/2009
The Process of Strategic Planning
I'm a process guy. I'm not a big fan of the claims of process management software, but I'm a huge...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/07/2009
ouch
I started two good blog posts today. Both will wait for another day, as I take this space to say...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/05/2009
Rubik’s Enterprise Architecture
In many ways, the task of creating a complete roadmap for the evolution of an enterprise...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/29/2009
Why Agile Development Requires Agile Architecture
The dark cloud of the economic downturn has produced a silver lining within Microsoft IT: an...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/27/2009
Towards an Enterprise Business Motivation Model
Today marks the end of a long dry spell. As of today, I’m back in print with an article in the...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/22/2009
Reducing IT overhead by managing the list of IT standards
In tough economic times, we tend to look for ways to cut costs and reduce overhead, so that we can...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/22/2009
Will there be a battle between Archimate and the UML?
A friend was kind enough to remind me, this morning, that Archimate is still kicking around and...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/17/2009
All the questions fit to answer
As we look to using tools for Strategic Planning in IT, I am constantly reminded of the fact that...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/01/2009
Systematic Simplification
When you want to find an answer to a problem, it is critical that you ask the right question. ...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 03/23/2009
An interesting EA Maturity Model
Just a quick note. I ran across this interesting post from Leo de Sousa, an Enterprise Architect in...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 03/15/2009
Collecting requirements from business processes
Ah, the sweet sounds of success. I got the opportunity, this week, to collect a list of...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 03/13/2009
How do you measure Enterprise Architecture?
One thing that I've come to truly appreciate: the balanced scorecard. Don't get me wrong: I've...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 03/06/2009
Is it time to create an MBA in Business Architecture?
Assuming that “Architecture” can be generically defined as “the art and science of designing or...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 03/05/2009
Update to root cause analysis for poor software requirements
Just a quick note. After reading through some of the feedback on my recent post on "the root causes...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 02/28/2009
Understanding the root causes of poor software requirements
If I had a nickel for every time I've heard a developer complain about poor quality requirements,...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 02/18/2009
Architecture in a hot air balloon
There is a joke that I sometimes like to refer to, more as an allegorical story than anything...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 02/11/2009
A first look at TOGAF 9.0
Well, it is February 2nd, and today, the Open Group is announcing the general availability of TOGAF...
Author: Nick Malik Date: 02/02/2009