10 indicators that should be examined in order to understand how an EA capability can be successfully deployed.

Louw Labuschagne:

"I love my job. I can’t say exactly why, but maybe it is because I cannot explain exactly what I do in a 30 second elevator pitch, so my best answer to anyone asking is normally; “I am an Enterprise Architect, I solve problems”.

My job is unpredictable; I mostly work on projects, but sometimes get thrown into the trenches next to the operational staff to fight business fires that seem to jump out of nowhere. I normally don’t have to wear a suite when discussing application lifecycle issues with the dev teams or when I am doing a Business Intelligence application comparison for the data warehouse team, although I do have to put on a suite when asked to present or review business value chains, role definitions or solution project overviews with senior management teams. I understand technology and keep abreast of changes in the ICT industry, but also have a stack of business books all over the house that gets read on a piece meal basis (the stack are getting smaller, thanks to my iPad with Kindle and Audible apps) to understand the challenges faced by businesses in the 21st century

As a project manager, I can keep a team of professionals in line and deliver on time (most of the time), but will not try and compete with construction project managers. While as a trainer, I can explain and mentor information management professionals, but will not claim to be an educationalist that can teach any subject at the drop of a hat.

A typical day in my life can be anything from facilitating a workshop, modeling a business process, coaching an architect to managing a project, configuring a data mart, building a web application or presenting an architecture training course.

As a consultant, one of the more frequent projects that I am asked to lead or participate in is the establishment of an architecture capability in an organization. In a previous white paper I described the key steps to follow when establishing a capability, but sometimes an organization is not mature enough to sustain a full-blown EA capability.

In this white paper I will focus on the key indicators that I use to guide my decisions with regards to the level of formalisation that the EA capability can achieve. As a consultant and trainer I have the privilege of meeting a large number of architects and other professionals that are adopting Enterprise Architecture practices in their organizations and are facing several challenges in creating a sustainable EA capability.

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