As many small to medium organisations grow, they soon discover that some of the foundational technology capabilities they need to support their business functions start to run out of steam. One of the places this shows up first is at the core foundational functions that support the business, such as Finance, HR, Customer Relationship Management, Sales, Project Management, Inventory Management, Order […]

The topic of the architect being hands-on is a timely piece considering a lot of my recent discussions. I have seen many articles outlining why architects should code or be hands-on, which may work for very technical application architect roles, but from an enterprise and solution architecture perspective, is an oxymoron. The broader view needed for the architect, compromises the […]

Business transformation is about making significant, perhaps even radical change to a business. Most companies look at this from a digital transformation perspective, but it doesn’t always need to be about digitisation. Transformation centres around introducing significant change across the people, process and systems landscape in a business to achieve the target end state as per the strategy. I want […]

It’s 2020 now and I think it might be time to address the business vs technology (or IT) divide better as it has been going on for far too long. Large companies waste enormous amounts of time and money due to the ‘Us vs Them’ cultural divide and mentality between business and technology. I want to highlight that this article […]

Working in the Solution Architecture space, our architects increasingly deal with complex business processes and correspondingly, complex technology solutions. However, is this increase in complexity holding your business back? A key observation that we see frequently is the lack of willingness to challenge the business process complexity. The business, architects, and vendors take on the challenge of introducing a complex […]

First, let me set the stage correctly. This might sound like I am an anti-agile architect having a rant, but I am not – far from it. I am a fan of agile delivery when done properly and when the delivery model fits the solution it’s trying to deliver. In fact, we develop our solution architecture management and governance product (SAM)completely […]

A little while back I had the opportunity to be part of a discussion with a number of IT leaders from some of Australia’s largest companies from varying industries. The discussion echoed one of the key pain points with their IT solutions I believe Solution Architects forget to focus and provide sufficient thinking around. When looking at solutions, as expected, the […]

In a fast changing and disruptive business environment, becoming an effective Solution Architect can be challenging. The following are some key points that make an effective, pragmatic and a business value focused Solution Architect, who can make a difference to a business.  Avoid Perfection – One thing I frequently say to people is that I am not a purist architect. I do […]

Having worked across various architecture practices, I am convinced that having clearly defined architecture layers and boundaries for each architecture discipline is crucial for driving successful outcomes. On many occasions, architects stray across these boundaries, making the accountability and decision-making lines unclear. This can lead to conflict and confusion where Enterprise Architects (EA) deep dive into too many solution level […]

Many organisations invest millions of dollars on their IT application portfolio to address business needs and goals. In a complex environment, how can we make sure these IT investments (outlined in the IT strategy) align to the overall business strategy? In essence, are the dollars allocated to each application capability proportionate and representative of the return it delivers against the […]