It Cries For Urgent Attention. Do You Hear It?


In response to my posting “Deficiencies and Defects In The Systems”, one of my students responded as below, confirming my observations.

“Hi Sir,

All of your posts make very much sense in current scenario, in my organization current mantra is automation , AI, digital and all big terms which we are hearing these days. I am not saying problem lies in going with the wind but the top managers who are taking these decisions should do the study and analysis on the very ground level the worlds are coming from top management and when it passes to the developer level its just building frustration rather than some efficient product.

 

There is no analysis of whether what you are trying to implement makes sense or is required or not and however we the very people who are implementing the projects who are architecting the designs are not even consulted for taking the decisions.

Yes the chaos is increasing day by day, no one knows what happening where are we moving and what’s the future , our career relies on people who are not stable by their own.

 

And what I feel basically today we are missing are the leaders in these organizations , you sir have seen best of management from your time and we come from the time of Ratan Tata , Narayan Murthy , Nandan Nilekani and Azim Premji who were the pillars and who exactly knew what they were doing and had connect with people. Now I am not sure who are sitting on the driver seat , the management is not even present  in India they are sitting somewhere in other countries and driving the companies in India forget about the connect with people they even don’t know the company in and out here.

 

However these are purely my thoughts. I might be wrong but I feel totally insecure and unhappy working in current scenario.

Regards,

(Sd/-) “

 

Another student responded  “ Very true Sir”.

 

I received a few phone calls from my readers expressing similar sentiments. All these point to the fact that it cries for urgent attention. Before getting into solution to the problem, let us quickly recap the problem itself.

  1. Most of the systems and processes obtaining today or deficient and defective.
  2. Organisations are indulging in self-deceit.
  3. Too many systems operating too few processes resulting in a) duplication, b) wastage and high financial overheads c) inaccurate and unreliable data and information d) bad or no governance e) rendering the organisation to unethical exploitation by unscrupulous elements f) uncertainty about everything
  4. No ownership. Even where there is ownership, lack of clarity dilutes the effectiveness.

 

Therefore, to address these anomalies the way systems and processes are designed and implemented, needs attention and correcting. Call this effort by any name. I call it `Enterprise Architecture’. But do it. Do it who? Obviously, the Top (Strategic) management. Unfortunately, when the top management itself is either oblivious, or in some situations indifferent what do we do? This is the moment for the wise-men, influencers to come forward and create awareness. To my mind, Open Group is the organisation with the reach and influence to take this task.

About Open Group, I have these observations. Open group has a comprehensive framework called The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF). But Open Group, somehow, have ended up projecting TOGAF as an IT framework. There are enough frameworks in IT like ITIL, COBIT, etc,. TOGAF is not in that league. It is a management framework. It is abstract. It is behavioural. Open Group calls TOGAF is a Standard. To me TOGAF is a framework and not a Standard. In the preliminary phase of TOGAF, it is suggested to tailor TOGAF. Something that needs tailoring to situation can not be a standard. TOGAF is a suggestive framework, unlike say COBIT or ITIL, which are definitive and prescriptive. Therefore, they are Standards. At almost every step TOGAF suggests, to fit the framework to the situation. Since it is a management framework, it is first a Business Framework, it is abstract. IT is only an enabler. Even on a cursory look, it is evident that TOGAF also says the same thing.  And explicitly so.

 

Recently, an article by Terry Blevins, Fellow of The Open Group, Enterprise Architect at Enterprise Wise LLC titled `ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE – WHY YOU SHOULD THINK ABOUT THE ENTERPRISE CONTINUUM!’ has been published in Linkedin. He is one of the authors of TOGAF. In the article he discusses the evolution of TOGAF from the beginning in 1994. He says, I quote

  • “The TOGAF framework was never intended to be a recipe or step by step prescription.”
  • “ We were really thinking hard about whether TOGAF should stay in the Information Technology (IT) space versus the “enterprise” space. Most of us thinking we need to go beyond IT architecture. When we agreed to proceed in the enterprise direction many things emerged as important including thinking about services – not just IT services, but business oriented services.”

TOGAF itself in the `Executive Overview’ says, I quote

  • “ The purpose of enterprise architecture is to optimize across the enterprise the often fragmented legacy of processes (both manual and automated) into an integrated environment that is responsive to change and supportive of the delivery of the business strategy”
  • “Today’s CEOs know that the effective management and exploitation of information through IT is a key factor to business success, and an indispensable means to achieving competitive advantage. An enterprise architecture addresses this need, by providing a strategic context for the evolution of the IT system in response to the constantly changing needs of the business environment”

 

Therefore, needless to say that the purpose of TOGAF is to design appropriate Business Architecture and enable it through IT system. It is imperative to promote TOGAF as a management framework to achieve business success through efficient exploitation of IT capabilities.

 

Since, TOGAF, somehow got projected as an IT framework, the business management, never got to know about it. In my many interactions with business managers, business consultants, corporate directors and so on, I find that they have not even heard about TOGAF. At the same time, IT fraternity has been wrongly exploiting the situation. For example, there are job advertisements asking for solution architects with TOGAF certification, while the job description was for a JAWA Coder. I asked one such candidate as to why he is called a solution architect, his answer stumped me. He said that he was only a JAWA Coder. But his management told him that he being TOGAF certified his time can be billed at $200 per hour instead of $150 per hour. It is a case of a good product, badly marketed that too to wrong audience, There seems to be a lot of thought gone into developing TOGAF. But that is, in my opinion, getting wasted.

 

It is the responsibility of Open Group to correct this perception. They must make the business management understand that TOGAF is a management framework. Only when business managers appreciate the relevance of TOGAF would there be all pervading embrace of TOGAF. In fact, when this happens, the major beneficiary would be IT. IT would be put to use for relevant and useful purposes, which in turn would open up new opportunities for IT.

Open Group must organise Seminars, not webminars, for CEO’s from non-IT companies to highlight the importance of Enterprise Architecture. They must be made aware of current conundrum prevalent in their respective organisations. Open Group should use the services of Chambers of Commerce and Industry Associations to reach the CEOs. Open Group must work to ensure that EA is talked about in every business seminars.

Open Group should reach out to business schools and make  them to introduce Enterprise Architecture as a specialisation in their curriculum.

 

 

 


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