by 2012 40% of today’s enterprise architecture programs will be stopped

I’ve just read this prediction in the next Gartner summit announcement. I am feeling really desperate since I’ve just discovered that I  may lead my customers to wrong decisions. They may find themselves in right to complain saying : you are leading us in bad ways  without ROI hopes and worse toward failures. OK.  Do I consider enterprise architecture projects should go beyond IT departements and help to solve business challenge ? Yes for years, since I am an Architect. Moreover, all architects I know share the same way of thinking.

But what’s wrong then ?

In one of its posts,  SOA ROI in Question ? , Dave Linthicum quote the study of Nucleus Research stating that only 37% of enterprises have achieved a positive ROI from SOA deployments. It is even worse.

The question is in both cases how to achieve a positive ROI. I am very curious to discover the approach Gartner group will promote in a way to avoid usual biaises with shared resources (post in french). But not only ! The question belongs as well to software editors who have used extensively SOA marketing and have in the same time provided poor features, not too far from the old RPC (Remote Procedure Calls). They should be as well questionned since they have misleaded CEO’s regarding some of their investments.

Close to Enterprise Architects, software editors have to provide not only fondation components but business software wich may be iintegrated into  an Enterpise architectured system.

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Processes or Leadership in Enterprise architecture field

When a company would like to join the information revolution, it needs to rely on new breed of professional able align Business and IT Transformation. This is the Enterprise Architect as Allen Brown wrote in the Align Journal.

Even if CIO is an important player, it needs to be seconded by an IT City Planner who plan and drives the moves to break silos.

For many years, big french companies have started implementing IT City Planning processes. But, so far, we don’t see any information revolution happening. US are always considered as leading the field. It will be interesting to realize a survey regarding Enterprise Architecture processes maturity and effects on companies IT and business.

One of the points maybe that french companies tends to trust more processes than leadership. But, I don’t see how to succeed undertaking organisational changes without leadership.

To see their actions recognised and approved, City Planners develop the strategy of supporting IT silo teams since they are visible by the Business. In the same time, some CIO’s balance the change in IT with respect to risks on silos which may impact Business.

In this landscape, I wonder how French Conception of City Planning may fuel information revolution toward Business Transformation !

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