Atlanta ITARC 2010

One of the presentations that really got me the most was from Bill Cason's Enterprise Architecture 2.0. He works for Troux Company. I thought he was phenomenal in terms of unveiling key ideas in making an IT organization successful in meeting business needs.

He didn't talk about technologies and trends but mainly focused on how should an enterprise architect treat his relationship with the business people and how he should realize things that matters most to the business. Here are some concepts he shared worth noting.

10 Critical Success Factors For Enterprise Architecture

1. Seek expert help to setup an Enterprise Architecture practice
2. Have Executive Sponsorship
3. Clear Roll-out Plan
4. Strong Internal Program Leadership
5. Focus on Enterprise Architecture Adoption Process
6. Laser-focus on business value
7. Leverage the wider data team
8. Automate the data collection process
9. Market your success internally
10. Flexible Enterprise Architecture Technology to enable successful Enterprise Architecture

10 Lessons Learned

1. Focus on what is important to the business NOW
2. Align with allies, don't waste time with disbelievers
3. Seek funded, complex initiatives
4. Careful when "moving cheese". Consider politics in play.
5. Create sustainable process
6. Publicize your results
7. Recognize stakeholder needs
8. Avoid being the bottleneck. Federate and participate.
9. Leverage established best practices
10. Implement incrementally

Also, IT must show cost transparency and must know what compliance the business supports.