Serge Thorn

As a strategic activity for IT, communication is important for the effective management of both internal and external relationships. The IT function in many organizations operates with highly diverse stakeholders from different parts of the world. The situation has evolved rapidly over the last years through (standardization, globalization, and optimization…). Communication significantly impacts how IT is perceived by the organization, and therefore it plays a crucial role in the successful positioning of IT as an internal partner. Moreover, given the competitive market pressure the position of IT within the company is the same that of an external IT provider. Hence the same level of professionalism in terms of quality and efficiency are demanded. Communication concerns a... (more)

Enterprise Architecture, TOGAF and Solution Architects

Quite often people wonder where a Solution Architect fits within the TOGAF Framework and it is not obvious that there is a single answer. I suggest we look first at a generic profile for a Solution Architect. Companies such as Oracle, Cisco, SAP and others have roles called Solution Architect but with little apparent agreement to what that role is. Some commonalities between various skills a... (more)

IT Architecture Is Not Enterprise Architecture

For many years I have observed lots of confusion with some basic definitions such as IT and Enterprise Architecture among other terms. I will not try to define the meaning of Enterprise Architecture by myself (despite I have my own view on this) as this is something being right now redefined by the Open Group (which by the way used to call their events “IT Architecture Practitioner Confe... (more)

Service Management and Enterprise Architecture

Governance is currently a key topic for many IT functions. Its definition varies, but its key themes are true for all companies: effectiveness, efficiency, and reliability. Business value and risk mitigation are also at its center and represent a significant part of enterprise governance overall. Due to the horizontal nature of IT, where almost everyone in the enterprise uses IT assets t... (more)

TOGAF 9, a new era in Enterprise Architecture

TOGAF 9 has been announced at the Open Group 21st Enterprise Architecture Practitioners conference in San Diego. The Open Group, a vendor- and technology-neutral consortium, in early February delivered TOGAF 9, an enterprise architecture framework. TOGAF 9 introduces significant enhancements to the previous version of the standard and represents a departure for enterprise architecture fra... (more)