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Such a model often assumes that IT is the hub from which the organization s various business activities, functions, and processes radiate outward, forming the spokes of a wheel. This is not to advocate a stovepiped view of the organization; but rather recognition that different parts of the organization have differing IT needs and that IT is central to supporting all the activities of the enterprise. At the end of these spokes, an outer ring representing the strategic goals of the organization provides for the integration of the individual spokes into the overall strategy of the enterprise. Thus, implies this model, IT aligns itself with strategic goals through its support of the various activities of the enterprise. </p> <p class="text"> However, information technology in and of itself holds only the potential to be a force for alignment. Just as IT can be used to foster either a centralized or decentralized management style, the use of IT can result in alignment, misalignment, or any other objective or its converse. Moreover, experience suggests that an IT-focused core (hub) may not be the best way to conceptualize the role of IT within the organization or to foster business-IT alignment. This makes sense since integration and alignment, independent of the means or mechanisms used, must first begin with an integrated and aligned conceptualization of the enterprise shared by the people who manage and work in it. </p> <p class="text"> In other words, true alignment begins with the alignment of the concepts and ideas of the people, and then with the alignment of resources, activities, and technologies&#151; from thought to action, from the logical to the physical. In organizations, enterprise architecture holds the potential to be the mechanism for this alignment of concepts and ideas so that the people can align themselves and the organization s things. </p> <p class="text"> Thus, it makes more sense to recognize IT as not only one of the fundamental activities of the enterprise (i.e., a spoke), but also an integral part of just about every other activity of the enterprise. Or as John Zachman often says, &#034;The system is the enterprise.&#034; In other words, properly managed IT is an inseparable part of the enterprise much like the human nervous system is inseparable from the human body. </p> <p class="text"> Enterprise architecture holds the potential to align the intangible concepts and ideas about the enterprise so that the enterprise s tangible things can be aligned, synchronized, made one. This is the view we have depicted in our version of the hub-and-spoke model shown here as Figure 1. We use this model in this publication to help provide context to the various theories, case studies, prescriptions, opinions, research findings, articles, and other resources we offer you in this publication. This particular depiction of the &#034;Enterprise Wheel,&#034; as we call the model in Figure 1, identifies eight spokes; however, any number of business activities, processes, or functions can be represented using this conceptualization. Strategic planning, purchasing, and treasury are examples of critical activities that are not represented as spokes in the Figure 1.1 version of the Enterprise Wheel. </p> <center> <img src="http://ittoday.info/ITPerformanceImprovement/Images/2011-03KappelmanFigure1.jpg" border="0"> </center> <p class="text"> <b>Figure 1.</b> The Enterprise Wheel </p> <h3> IT Starts between Your Ears </h3> <p class="text"> As the Enterprise Wheel suggests, strategic and comprehensive alignment can best be achieved through the organization s overall enterprise architecture. Moreover, in order for the ideas about the enterprise captured in its EA to be aligned, the processes and activities for creating that EA must first be directed at achieving such an alignment of the organization s people and their ideas about the enterprise, and thereafter of the things managed by those people. </p> <p class="text"> EA done right provides the capability and the road map for alignment of everything one wants aligned in the enterprise, including the alignment of its IT infrastructure and other subsystems that provide the requisite support for all of the activities in the enterprise. Sure EA is about modeling a &#034;comprehensive picture&#034; of the enterprise that captures all of the knowledge about the enterprise. But much of the value of EA comes through the processes and interactions of its creation, and value realized through its use. The architecture of the enterprise, properly created and properly captured, is not only a thinking, conceptualization, and design tool, but a management tool as well&#151;perhaps the most critically needed management tool for this Information Age we are living and working in, and at the present time a tool that is largely unavailable. </p> <p class="text"> In other words, doing EA is key to the culture change needed to become the &#034;Information Age Enterprise.&#034; Nearly sixty years of experience gathering and meeting business requirements makes IT professionals particularly well positioned to lead this enterprise evolution by building their EA capabilities upon the foundations of their up until now stovepiped system requirements capabilities. After all, specifying system requirements (more generally called &#034;systems analysis and design&#034;) is presumably all about applying systems thinking to enterprises while building shared vision with shared models, all the while working in teams to bring about said shared vision (more generally called &#034;systems development&#034;). Sure the end object up until now has been to build and run information systems. But if, as Zachman opines, the end object is to reengineer and remanufacture the enterprise (typically described as making it more aligned, agile, lean, nimble, effective, efficient, competitive, or whatever the design objectives may be), then it would seem that no other group is better prepared to facilitate this evolution of the enterprise into the future than IT professionals. </p> <h3> But IT Doesn t Stop There </h3> <p class="text"> But just how capable are IT professionals when it comes to determining and communicating business requirements? Is the IT profession s ongoing fixation on alignment a sign of their strength or weakness, success or failure? After more than three decades, one would think that misalignment or a lack of alignment of IT with the business would be all but a fading memory. Is the annual reminder that alignment remains paramount on IT s collective mind a sign of the inherent difficulty or of deeper problems with how IT approaches the goal of determining and meeting the organization s requirements? It s probably some of both, but there is little doubt that the IT profession s ongoing obsession about alignment is not unlike an obese person obsessing about his or her weight&#151;standing on the scale will not solve the problem, but a change in attitude and behavior will. Likewise, a change in attitude and behavior is needed to achieve alignment (or any other objective) within the enterprise. We believe that EA represents a major part of that change. </p> <p class="text"> Moreover, EA as we see it includes many things IT and the business are already doing, such as IT strategic planning, requirements analysis, network design, and standard setting. <i><b>But,</i></b> we recognize that EA is much, much more than that. EA is about a different way of seeing, communicating about, and managing the enterprise and all of its assets, including its technologies. We believe that EA is the key to achieving business-IT alignment and a seat at the strategic table. We believe that EA gets to the essence of IT success. We believe that EA gets to the essence of enterprise success. EA holds the potential to be the tool for creating and communicating that shared conception and for managing the execution of its achievement. &#9830; <br> <br> <b>Read more <a href="http://ittoday.info/ITPerformanceImprovement/index.htm"><i>IT Process Improvement</i></a></b> </p> <!--DISCLAIMER NOTICE AND COPYRIGHT--> <p class="copyright"> <br> <br> Certain names and logos on this page and others may constitute trademarks, servicemarks, or tradenames of <a HREF="http://www.crcpress.com"TARGET="_parent">Taylor & Francis LLC.</a> Copyright &#169; 2008&#151;2011 Taylor & Francis LLC. All rights reserved. </font> </p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </td> <td width="300"> <table> <tbody> <tr> <td> <table style="background-color:#E0E0D1;"cellpadding="10"margin="5"border="0"valign="top"> <tbody> <tr> <td colspan=2> <h4>This article is an excerpt from:</h4> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100"> <h4> <a href="http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781439811139?AF=WAUER"target="blank">The SIM Guide to Enterprise Architecture</a> </h4> </td> <td> <center> <img src="http://www.ittoday.info/catalog/images/covers80w/K10555.jpg"Border=0> </center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <p class="text"> A project of the Society for Information Management s Enterprise Architecture Working Group and edited by Leon A. Kappelman, <b>The SIM Guide to Enterprise Architecture</b> provides insights from leading authorities on EA, including John Zachman, Larry DeBoever, George Paras, Jeanne Ross, and Randy Hite. The book supplies a solid understanding of key concepts for effectively leveraging EA to redesign business processes, integrate services, and become an Information Age enterprise. Beginning with a look at current theory and frameworks, the book discusses the practical application of enterprise architecture and includes a wealth of best practices, resources, and references. It contains the SIM survey of IT organizations EA activities, which provides important metrics for evaluating progress and success. </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <h3>About the Author</h3> <p class="text"> <b><a href="http://www.simnet.org/?EA_Welcome" target="blank">The Society for Information Management s Enterprise Architecture Working Group</a></b> is is a SIM Community of about 70 individual members from over 30 organizations. The group identifies and shares processes, methods, tools, concepts, and best practices to enable IT organizations to understand, create, and manage EA in partnership with the business. This will in turn helps these same IT organizations substantially enhance the way they manage change, reduce complexity, reengineer processes, plan, strategize, govern, manage projects, and deliver value. <br> <br> </p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </table> </body> </html>