An
Enterprise Architect (EA) provides a blueprint that shows how the organization
is structured and how business strategies and IT infrastructure inter-relate. EA
also includes the people in the organization and how people interact with IT. Due
to the importance of EA, the need for a good EA is the thing that every
organization would like to have.
“Another major difference between a Business
Architect and a Business Analyst is that the Business Architect is a role on
the demand side and the Business Analyst is on the supply side.
The Business Architect identifies
the future demand for changes to the enterprise business model and
associated business operating model and plans the change initiatives
on the business part of the enterprise architecture roadmap.
The Business Analyst works in the here and
now on how to satisfy the current business requirements for a single change
project, where the project realises part of the supply schedule whereas
the EA roadmap represents the future demand schedule of strategic changes.
The demand /supply distinction is clearer if
the Business Analyst works in the IS/IT division since IS/IT often
represents itself as a business (‘IT as a business’)”.
(http://ingenia.wordpress.com/2011/06/12/demand-and-supply/)
If I were a CIO of a company, I will convince
my manager to support an EA initiative by some ways. Firstly, I will try to let
him understand the value
intangible benefits that EA brings by some examples. Of course, when I talk
about that, I put EA with the business model or business processes. Secondly, I
should compare the successes of 2 companies, one applies the EA well and the
other has poor EA; as a result, the first is more successful with more profits.
In terms of profits, for me, the most effective way to convince a CEO of the
value of EA is to suggest a change from excellent EA that modifies the total amount
of income. The change can be either a cost savings or a new source of revenue. I
will get their attention when I focus on obvious benefit. Once you have their
attention, the rest is up to you. Generally , the key is how EA market itself.
Nokia Siemens Networks has
applied a good architecture, so they have been successful. For more
information, please see the article from this link.