Enterprise Architecture Trap

Trap #7 – Asking the Easy Question Enterprise architects are in the room to address hard questions. Questions whose answers serve divergent outcomes. Crash and burn stories Too many EA teams are low functioning. Literally

Trap #53 Starting From Scratch High functioning EA Teams are efficient. They aggressively use other people’s reference architectures. They leverage an EA repository. Crash and burn stories Low-functioning EA Teams. One anti-pattern after another. If

Trap #67 Confusing Roles Enterprise architects know their role is to facilitate a better decision. Their value proposition comes from analysis. They support people who own complex decisions – the stakeholder. Crash and burn stories

Trap #16 Just the Architecture Diagram Architecture Diagrams are a communication technique not an architecture development tool. Enterprise architects at the top of their game develop architecture. An enterprise architecture is useful while it is being

Trap #2 Not Making Progress There is a frankly alarming trend in the EA profession: short-lived EA Teams. High functioning EA teams align their deliverables to the business cycle and use a structured repository. Low-functioning

Trap #1 Trying to Own Decision Rights Stakeholders own the enterprise architecture and all decision rights. They approve the target architecture. They decide how to address compliance failures. Crash and burn stories Low-functioning EA Teams.