Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

Blog: Enterprise Architecture: The Model or The People?

According to The Economist, in a review of banks' strategies and the credit crunch, ‘what separates the winners and the losers is not models, but management.' Enterprise Architects, take note.

It's rare to see an article about Enterprise Architecture (EA) in publications such as The Economist. In this week's edition, however, is an article - also available online - entitled "No Size Fits All" which is indeed about EA, in all but name. It explores the extent to which it was banks' business models, or management, that were to blame for the credit crunch - and concludes it was the latter. Its central observation was that banks with similar business models have not fared equally.

The question the article raises is one which those of us directly involved in EA do well to consider. Firstly, to figure out the balance in our own organizations between having the ‘right' business model, and everyone's collectively ability to manage it. But also, much closer to home, to remind us to strike an appropriate personal balance between modelling our organization's EA, versus influencing the people who manage it in practice and invest in changing it.

The Economist's review of banks' business models is a reminder that replicating other organizations' models guarantees neither success nor failure. People - including Employees, Customers, Suppliers - make a particular model work, or not. The article concludes that ‘the structure of an organization matters less than the quality of the people who lead it. For bank regulators and shareholders, the question is less "what?" more "who?".'

For those that know the Zachman Framework for EA, this means starting with the right hand side (Who, When, Why), not the left (What, How, Where).

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • 10 Essential Steps to Web Security
    This short guide outlines 10 simple steps to best practice in web security. Follow them all to step up your organisation’s information security and stay ahead of your competitors. But remember that the target never stands still. Focus on the principles behind the steps – policy, vigilance, simplification, automation and transparency – to keep your information security bang up to date.
    Learn more »
  • Enterprise Buyers Guide for Cloud Storage
    Customer interest in public cloud storage is increasing, driven by the promise of affordable, elastic storage for archiving, backup/recovery, and disaster purposes. To understand the types of offerings available and to assist buyers with purchasing decisions Computerworld has prepared a public cloud storage buyers guide.
    Learn more »
  • Case Study: NZ Bus Develops Applications 60% Faster, Improves Database Performance by up to 35%
    Key Benefits: Developed applications 60% faster, Created development and test environments in minutes compared to days and weeks previously, Reduced server costs by 30% with server virtualisation, Saved NZ$40,000 in database administrator training costs, Provided high availability features that keep the database and core applications up and running in the event of a server failure, Introduced compression capabilities that improved database performance by 30% to 35%. Read on.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments

HP and IDG news, product videos and resources