OAD has been developing Application Architecture and Enterprise Architecture modeling frameworks since 1999. The frameworks have been built using popular design tools, most of which were based on UML. In 2005, OAD created its first framework for Sparx Systems' Enterprise Architect (Sparx EA) and has continued to hone the framework into a toolset that helps make your enterprise architecture models complete, consistent, and easy to create. OAD has focused on Sparx EA because Sparx has provided a complete implementation of UML 2.1 and because Enterprise Architect is the most stable, intuitive UML design tool we have used. Sparx has shown a commit to product improvement second to none.

You can find more about (EA)2 at its own web site, www.EA2.us.

NJ IIBA - Thursday March 18, 2010, 7:00 PM. Registration Required.

Location: UPS, 435 South Street, Morristown, NJ

Topic: Business Architecture's Role Within Enterprise Architecture

Abstract:

Enterprise Architecture consists of four key architectural views: business architecture; application architecture; data architecture; and infrastructure architecture.

This presentation will introduce all four, but will focus on the business architecture. In fact, many of the techniques to be discussed can be used for business modeling alone. However, the benefits increase exponentially when the business architecture is incorporated into the overall enterprise view.

Topics include:

• How to formally model the business architecture in precise and unambiguous manner so that it can be related to the other architectural views.
• How to map the business processes to the underlying technology for both current and future state plans.
• How to include business requirements and use cases in the business model, making them first class architectural elements.

• How to trace use cases to the technology elements that realize the use cases.

Project Summit & Business Analyst World - April 20, 2010, 11:30 AM. Registration Required.

Topic: How Architecture Can Help the Project Manager

Click here for a copy of the presentation.

Abstract:

Many organizations are realizing the importance of modeling their enterprise architecture, from the business processes down through the applications and databases used to automate the processes, and finally to the IT software and hardware needed to run the applications. Doing so provides a valuable tool to help to ensure that business needs are satisfied in the most efficient and flexible manner. Enterprise architecture is also being used to create roadmaps to the future state of the architecture that will be required to meet the ongoing needs of the organization and to ensure adherence to the future direction at the project level.
What does this mean for the project manager? To provide a better service to the organization, the project manager must understand the trade-offs that are made when deciding between tactical vs. strategic directions on the project. To ensure a smoothly running project, the project manager must also understand all of the paths the project will take throughout the IT organization and be able to anticipate resource needs from the various departments. To ensure acceptance of project deliverables, the project manager should know how to determine the allowable IT products that should be used on the project. All these needs and more can be resolved by tapping into the enterprise architecture and the best resource for that will be the architect assigned to the project.

Learning Objectives

• What deliverables to expect from an architect and how they will help set up the success of the project.
• How architecture leads to a more enterprise level solution that provides greater business benefit and reduces project costs.
• How a good design tool not only helps drive implementation, but can provide a mechanism that will allow the project manager to track the progress of key design components.

Presentation Summary

Enterprise architecture helps organizations meet business needs in the most efficient, economical, and flexible manner. It also provides roadmaps to the future state of the architecture to ensure business needs continue to be met. This session will discuss how the project manager can leverage architecture by working closely with the project architect. In the absence of an architecture model, the session will provide the questions you need to ask.

Terry Merriman is the President and Chief Architect of OAD Consulting, Inc. He has over thirty years in software development and founded OAD in 2000 to provide consulting and training services in the enteprise architecture space. He has consulted with fortune 500 countries in the US and Europe, providing training, on the job mentoring, and "front-line" consulting services on multi-million dollar projects. For the past ten years, he has also worked with clients to create architectural principles and guidelines and supporting toolsets to make designing systems that conform to the principles and guidelines the easiest path to take.

IASA Webinar - April 27, 2010, 11:00 - 12:30 AM EDT (US)

Click here to download the self-running presentation (Click on Read-only when prompted).

Click here to see a video of the presentation on the IASA site (full members only)

Topic: A Model-based Approach to Enterprise Architecture

Abstract:

Enterprise Architecture must address the needs of a multitude of stakeholders in terms they can understand. It should leverage existing information sources, such as configuration management systems, to get up-to-date current state information and merge it with future state planning. To ensure the success of any enteprise architecture effort, the architectural direction, guidance, and conforming principals must be readily available to project teams implementing the architectural vision.

This webinar will walk through a sample model to show how UML was extended to create a modeling framework specific to each of the architectural views (Business, Application, Data, and Infrastructure) and how to leverage those views for project work.  It will then show how these "horizontal slices" of the enterprise architecture can be used to show a "vertical slice" that illustrates all of the key architectural assets needed to realize a given business process. Finally, it will show how the vertical slices can be managed with roadmaps and roadmap phases to show the current state of the architecture and the state at any given point in the future.

Learning Objectives

• How to address the needs of the various stakeholders through the use of architectural views so the stakeholders can evaluate the value provided by the architecture
• How to build an over-reaching framework that ties the different architectural views together while permitting drill down capabilities into the details of each view in a manner that is natural to that view
• How to represent the current and future states of the architecture and track progress against the plan