INTEGRATE iT - Productivity Methods, Techniques, Tools, and Training for Business Agility.

"A business architect supports business leaders to enable strategic alignment of outcomes by defining why, who, what, when, where, and how to improve value chain, customer journey maps, information, and process gaps. A business architect leverages people skills and business modeling techniques to deliver improved “target” business operating models using transformation roadmaps. A business architect works to develop an integrated view of the enterprise using a shared knowledge management framework to ensure transformations, initiatives, and projects align with the strategic vision." - Ramsay Millar, Business Architect

Every sector today is being led by the wealthiest technology business leaders in history because those leaders embraced technology as a strategic capability. Eighty percent of executives believe “their business models are under attack” according to McKinsey Research. Leading organizations need business architects to build better business solutions.

Organizations who plan to survive rapid technology, cultural changes, cyber security threats, artificial intelligence, and demands for more business agility must find skilled business architects who guide, analyze, recommend, communicate, and guide high risk transformations.

Download Webinar: Elements of Business Modeling
Download Slides: Elements of Business Modeling

Resources for Business Analysts

Every organization today is a software company, and the role of the business analyst has never been more important. Stakeholders are demanding better software, delivered faster, and with low tolerance for business outages and security breaches.

Scott Ambler, a founder of the Agile movement accurately stated, "If a requirement was misunderstood, all modeling decisions based on that requirement are invalid, the code written is also in question, and the testing efforts are now verifying the application under the wrong conditions".

Business Process Improvement and Requirement Analysis skills continue to grow in importance. Leaders are learning that when their IT organizations ignore requirements quality, reuse, and traceability their products fail.

Download Webinar: Requirements in Context
Download Slides:
Requirements in Context
Why Enterprise Architect for Requirements Management

Resources for Enterprise Architects

"An Architect, in the subtlest application of the word, describes one able to engage and arrange all elements of an environment to create a harmonious whole" - Charles T. Betz

The purpose of a TOGAF Enterprise Architecture capability is to produce business value and to identify and manage the people, process, and technology elements of an organization. All elements need to be clearly understood and available in an interactive model which can then be used to evaluate existing operations and manage change over time. The advantages that result from a good enterprise architecture bring important business benefits, which are clearly visible in the net profit or loss of a company or organization.

CIO Insight Summit, Frankfurt, Germany - "68% of CIOs agree that agile teams require more enterprise architects, project managers and business analysts. From defining strategy, to championing requirements to ensuring development teams stick to the rules of the game, the role of the enterprise architect is sorely missed in the agile space."

We endorse Sparx Systems Prolaborate, ProCloud Server, and Enterprise Architect to our clients looking for tools to manage very large scale business and cloud transformations. Our methods, techniques and tools provide Dashboard Line of Visibility to greatly improve business agility and productivity.

Prolaborate

Line of Visibility across the Digital Enterprise
Architecture and Patterns for IT - Charles T. Betz
How CIOs Can Navigate the Post-Agile Era – 6Point6 European Research

Resources for Project Managers

Skilled Project Managers in collaboration with enterprise architects and business analysts ensure a tactical approach for organizations to align initiatives with business objectives, create value, and reduce risk. Project visibility traceable to business leaders, business architects, project managers, solution architects and Dev Ops outcomes are mandatory to avoid further IT project failures and waste still at industry highs 15 years after agile was first introduced.

Agile IT the good, the bad, and the ugly – “British business is set to waste an estimated £37 billion on failed IT projects in the next 12 months. The situation is worse in the US, where the rate of failure is higher and Agile IT projects last longer and are more expensive.

Over half of CIOs in a recent European study regard Agile development as "discredited" while three-quarters (75%) are no longer prepared to defend it. Almost three-quarters (73%) of CIOs think Agile IT has now become an industry in its own right. Half (50%) say they now think of Agile as "an IT fad".

United Kingdom study reveals 37 billion on failed agile IT projects – Information Age

Resources for Solutions Architect

The Information Technology Architecture Body of Knowledge (ITABoK) is a free public archive of IT architecture best practices, skills, and knowledge developed from the experience of individual and corporate members of IASA, the world’s largest IT architecture professional organization.

ITABoK provides the tools and resources needed by individuals and organizations to set industry standards for professional career development and well as hiring practices and incorporation of IT architects into established or developing institutions.

Our plan is simple; create an international community of practicing architects and allow that body to drive standards according to their current needs. The IT architecture profession is continuously evolving, and architects everywhere are eager to learn about the latest technology and best practices. IASA helps make this possible for thousands of practicing architects around the globe.

An Association for all IT Architects

Resources for Software Developers

Software delivery organizations have a value chain per product, application or service.

Value chains put the customer at the center, which helps transition organizations from an internal focus to customer-focused thinking, a cornerstone of providing greater value.

Thinking in value chains also helps zoom in and out of the details and takes a macro look at capabilities, processes, requirements, and information to identify not only tactical but also strategic ways to improve.

Lean and value chain thinking originated in manufacturing - Toyota car manufacturing, to be precise - but have become highly popularized in software delivery by the DevOps movement: With developers releasing code changes in iterations according to Agile practices, DevOps set its sights on getting higher quality business code changes running in production faster.