Agile top down
The agile top down approach enable an enterprise to establish their common foundation rapidly in time for practical need without waiting for the traditional waterfall analysis. It is accomplished by align IT to business based on the lines of business in the enterprise.Agile top down approach is based on the concept of pattern adoption instead of pattern recognition. It suggests to establish the common foundation via pattern adoption from the established patterns the same lines of business.
John Zachman's has suggested that
" Based on the Framework for Enterprise Architecture, I would suggest that Enterprise Architecture is the set of primitive, descriptive artifacts that constitute the knowledge infrastructure of the Enterprise. ?Reuse or interoperabitliy does not happen by accident. It is the result of engineering " [15]
Enterprise Architecture have devoted to the engineering of reuse since its inception. Standardization using technical reference model has been the first step in the engineering of reuse, traditional EA approach such as the popular Enterprise Architecture Planning (EAP) approach establish the common foundation based on the waterfall concept to conduct pattern recognition. IBM have introduced the patterns for e-business to establish common business solution as describe in the following paragraphs.
Technical reference models (TRM) have been the most popular reference model to convey technology standard profiles to the stakeholders. The stakeholders of enterprise architecture need to know what is the standard profiles and where are the share resources before they can complying to the standards and access to the share resources. As the industry tend of services oriented architecture, the reference models have also evolved to incorporate the service reference model, the data reference models.
^ TOP
Abstract of learning experience of others
Human have the unique capbility to learn experience of others but it is also human nature in decline to learn exeprience of others. EA is the discipline to learn experience of the other. The principle to learn expereince from the others consist of :Nothing new under the sun
Learn experiences from the same line of business
Learn the common building blocks instead of entire solution
Learn the right experience using reference model
Buy experience of the others
^ TOP
Reference Architecture Framework
From Wikipedia: "A reference architecture provides a proven template solution for an architecture for a particular domain. It also provides a common vocabulary with which to discuss implementations, often with the aim to stress commonality.A reference architecture often consists of a list of functions and some indication of their interfaces (or APIs) and interactions with each other and with functions located outside of the scope of the reference architecture." 2/2/08
From the IBM Rational Edge: "A reference architecture is a resource containing a consistent set of architectural best practices for use by all the teams in your organization."
CEA suggest the Reference Architecture Framework to articulate the overarching relationship between the Business Reference Model, Performance Reference Model, Service Reference Model, Data Reference Model and Technical Reference Model based on the principle of business and performance driven concept in a three dimension presentation.
EA is the effort to align IT solution with business need. The effort of pattern adoption to learn the IT/business alignment experience from others has raised the question of “where to find the patterns for adoption ?” ERM is proposed to enable the stakeholders to find the patterns based on their line of business and performance requirements.
The concept to learn from other’s experience is not new and the question of where to learn the experience from others can be resolved by collecting the experience in one place. Many traditional engineering discipline such as mechanical and civil engineering have established engineering handbooks which document the patterns of best practice and solutions for reuse.
In the information age, there are different approach to learn from the past experience. A popular approach is to learn from your own experience from the exiting major application systems. The second approach is to learn from the other’s experience such as the IBM patterns for e-Business [] which have already accumulated significant repository of the solution patterns base on different business areas such as the banking and insurance industry.
5.1 The purpose
The purpose of ERM is to provide a reference model in establishing the Business/IT pattern repository to support the concept of learn the others experience. The ERM model is utilized to organize and accommodate the business alignment patterns which enable the stakeholder to locate and adopt the established and documented patterns for reuse.
5.2 Why ERM
The ERM is created to elaborate the business and driven aspect of the FEA CRM model. Although the FEA CRM have stated business and performance driven, it have not explicitly model the aspect the business and performance driven in the model. Most of the FEA PMO effort has devoted on pattern decomposition in each individual reference models without provide the vertical alignment between the solution patterns with line of business.
The values of FEA CRM has not been well recognized without the vertical alignment from the aspect of business and performance drivers which connect the stakeholders need to the solution patterns. ERM is suggest to provide an explicit model from the aspect of business and performance driven to accommodate the documentation of business/IT alignment patterns and enable the practical use of reference models to facilitate the stakeholder in learning from the other’s experience by adopting established solution patterns.
5.3 The scope
The scope of ERM focus on the common business patterns for the purpose of reuse rather than provide the finished turn key solutions. Reuse by definition is to reuse the common logic and building blocks. Although every enterprises are different from each other, there are common building blocks they can all share. The LoBs in ERM are the common business patterns which shared in business area. The solution patterns in ERM also only contain the common solution patterns.
The ERM must be kept simple. The purpose of the Business/IT alignment patterns is to align IT with business logic and performance requirements. It must be at the high level to clearly illustrate the Business/IT alignment rather get into the detail which may confuse the means to the end and resulted in “paralysis by analysis”. Without the criteria and thresh hold base on the purpose of Business/IT alignment, the decomposition effort can be addictive for many analysts to perform exhaustive analysis excise and resulted in the “decomposition for the sake of decomposition effort”.
The common foundation and building blocks enable the agility to support the uniqueness for each enterprise. As said before that very enterprise have its own unique characteristics to win the competitive edge. It is futile trying to make every enterprise looks the same for the convenience of management. The reuse patterns provide the agility to enable rapid automation development to support the uniqueness of each enterprise. The patterns are not a full solution. The application developer adopt the reusable pattern in the common area as the building block to support unique business need by different business owners.
5.4 Background
Enterprise Architecture was initiated to align IT to business and share and reuse common IT resources. John Zachman’s has suggested that
“ Based on the Framework for Enterprise Architecture, I would suggest that Enterprise Architecture is the set of primitive, descriptive artifacts that constitute the knowledge infrastructure of the Enterprise. …Reuse or interoperabitliy does not happen by accident. It is the result of engineering “ [15]
The are different approach to support the engineering of reuse. The popular effort in the engineering of reuse is standardization. Traditional EA effort conduct pattern recognition. The industry for example: the IBM patterns for e-business have initiate the effort to learn from the other’s experience. The FEA CRM have initiated the set of reference models for the purpose of reuse.
5.4.1 The FEA CRM reference models for engineering of reuse
In EA, reference models has been utilized for the engineering of reuse rather than describe the architecture. EA has used Technical Reference Model (TRM) to organizes and communicate the technology standards for many years. The difference between a reference model and a EA model is that EA model describe the architecture and reference model support the engineering of reuse. It is futile trying to describe the architecture with a reference model.
The FEA CRM is also for the engineering of reuse rather than describing the architecture. It is also futile trying to describe the architecture with the FEA CRM. Some EA projects which have failed to recognize the difference between a reference model and EA model have attempted to describe their enterprise architecture with reference models.
The FEA CRM is of great value. It is initiated with the vision to learn from the others experience based on business and performance driver. The vision is critical to make transition from the stove pipe and waterfall culture toward a more matured information age with reuse, sharing and interoperability. The FEA CRM is initiated from the aspect of enterprise architecture outside the box of application development. The IBM patterns is more application development oriented, which is business process centric and consider data as the products of business process. The FEA CRM has evolved from the Technical Reference Model to include the BRM, PRM, SRM, DRM and TRM and consider that information as the enterprise asset rather as a product of business processes.
5.4.2 The FEA CRM can not replace an EA model
Reference models can not replace EA model. The FEA CRM has devoted their effort on the reference model and overlook the essential need of the EA model. They have replaced the Federal Enterprise Architecture Frame with a set of reference models. The replacement has many EA professional confused. Not only the continuity of EA framework is disturbed but also failed to distinguish reference model from the EA models.
It is urgent for FEAPMO to establish a common EA framework for the government agencies. An EA framework is essential for all the agencies to share EA effort by learning the EA experience from the others without reinvent wheel over and over again.
Enterprise Architecture model and framework must incorporate the concept of learning the experience from the others. The traditional Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework. (FEAF) developed by the Federal Enterprise Architecture Working group is a waterfall model which resolve the challenge of stove pipe via pattern recognition effort within the enterprise instead of pattern adoption effort to learn the other’s experience. The Light Enterprise Architecture (LEA) approach has proposed a twin EA model which incorporate the concept of patter adoption to learn from the others experience.
5.5 The development of ERM
FEA CRM reference models is as abstractive as all the other reference model, the ERM elaborate the FEA CRM concept to develop an explicit model which articulate the overarching structure of BRM, PRM, SRM, DRM and TRM with the following effort.
· Leverage on the FEA CRM effort
· Replace performance measurement in PRM with performance requirements
· Illustrate the business driven vertical alignment between LOB and solution patterns.
· Establish an explicit 3D model to illustrate the overarching structure of the reference models.
5.5.1 Leverage on the FEA CRM
The ERM model leverage on the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) Consolidate Reference Models (CRM) which include the Business Reference Model (BRM), Performance Reference Model (PRM,) Service Reference Model (SRM) , Data Reference Model (DRM) and Technical Reference Model (TRM) as shown in the follow figure
Figure 2 FEA CRM reference model
The first version of FEA CRM was released on May 2005, and the FEA CRM version 2 has been just released in June, 2006. The BRM introduce the business areas and line of business (LOB). The SRM describe the category of service components. The DRM describe the business subject area , data patterns and standardization. The TRM describe the technology domain, and technology patterns.
The FEA CRM is a business and performance driven approach as stated in the left side of the model. The ERM elaborate the concept in the following effort.
5.5.2 Elaborate the business and performance driven concept
BRM and PRM are the specification to adopt the solution patterns. Business logic drives the logical architecture and workload and performance requirement drive the physical architecture. The ERM is created to illustrate the aspect of business driven by layout various LOBs in the model and demonstrate the concept of business alignment solution patterns in a vertical direction. The current version of FEA CRM have not clearly illustrate the business drive aspect of the business/IT alignment patterns. The current CRM model provide very decent analysis of the patterns in each reference model on the horizontal direction, but has not established the vertical link of the IT solution patterns to the business alignment with LOB. The detail pattern analysis in each reference model present fine work but have fall short to connect stakeholder need to fine work without provide the vertical link between business and performance requirements.
5.5.3 Replace performance measurement in PRM with performance requirement
The ERM model suggest that PRM is the effort to establish performance requirement pattern rather performance measurement patterns. The PRM is the performance requirement reference model rather a performance measurement reference model. It is analogy to shopping in the department store, to find the appropriate cloth it is not only a matter of style but also the size. In the same token, the criteria to adopt a suitable solution pattern does only relies on the LOBs but also on the level of workload and performance requirement. In the department store, there are many “sizing “ approaches. It is different for man, woman, close, pants, shoes and many others.
PRM as performance measurement is politically right but is not engineering sound. In the FEA CRM reference model, PRM is considered as the performance measurement reference model because it is politically correct among the many performance measurement initiatives such as performance-based management, procurement and many other .
It is not engineering sound due to the PRM as performance measurement appears to be a disconnection to the other reference models . The disconnection of PRM from the other reference models is due to that Performance Measurement is a management tool for enhancing decision-making and accountability. Performance Measurement as a strategic process is used to assess accomplishment of organizational strategic goals and objectives.
The subtle difference between performance requirements and performance is the reason for the confusion. Performance measurement is a management tool and performance requirements are the workload driver to the IT solution.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has defined the performance measurement as
“The process of developing measurable indicators that can be systematically tracked to assess progress made in achieving predetermined goals and using such indicators to assess progress in achieving these goals”
The PRM is an effort to establish level (patterns) of the workload and performance requirement. Performance requirement is derived from workload as the driver to IT solution . The PRM is the reference model of the common patterns of performance requirements. It can be as simple as the large , middle or small enterprise or very sophisticate based on different each layer of reference models.
It is analogy to the “size” systems in the department store. There are different size systems for cloth, pants and shoes. There different size for male and female. Although, the size system is complicate, the traditional industry have establish the common size patterns which can recognized by the customers to acquire their need. The PRM effort is to establish the performance requirement patterns and align IT solution patterns to the level of performance requirements.
5.5.4 Articulate the overarching structure of BRM, PRM, SRM, DRM and TRAM
With the suggestion that performance requirements in PRM, it close the gape between PRM and the other reference models. and it is possible to create an explicit mode to articulate the overarching structure of BRM, PRM, SRM, DRM and TRM as shown in figure 1. The Enterprise Reference Model describe the Line of Business on the X dimension to render the different line of business. It describe the level of performance requirement a the Y direction to render the level of enterprise workload and performance requirements. The Z direction illustrate the SRM, DRM and TRM. The reusable patterns can be organized and categorized in this model to enable the pattern adoption effort.
5.6 The practical utilization of ERM
The ERM enable the practical use of the reference models. The ultimate goal of ERM is to be useful and of values to the stakeholders. The EA industry populate and maintain the Business/IT alignment patterns in ERM . Factor in the business and performance driven aspects in ERM , the business owners can learn the experience from the other based on their line of business and performance requirement.
.
5.6.1 The collection of the common Business/IT patterns.
The ERM must be populated with the Business/IT alignment patterns to be meaningful. ERM is only an reference model to organize the logical structure without the content. For ERM to be useful and valuable to the stakeholder, it must be populated with the Business/IT alignment patterns.
The Collection of the common Business/IT patterns has a value of its own. It is an effort to preserve the others experience in the Business/IT repository. Without the effort to document and collect the other’s experience in a repository, the valuable experiences from the others will soon be forgotten and need to be rediscovers as a new concept again.
“ King Solomon points out that a lot of the inventions and achievements that we may come up with are soon forgotten by those who follow. Books are written pointing out a certain truth and the knowledge is enthusiastically received for a short while but soon it is lost too. There is much in the past that can help us today but it is buried there and ignored by a generation in love with the latest fads. “ [].
The effort to document and preserve the experience enable the past to help us today instead of buried there and ignored.
The collection of the Business/IT alignment patterns required an dedicate institutional effort with stakeholders participation. The effort of documenting past experience has been a collateral effort by difference organizations to collect the patterns. The Chinese says “ The expectation of harvest hinges on the effort of cultivation” . A collateral effort only provide the collateral result. Without a dedicate institutional effort, the individual effort also become a proprietary assets and will also soon be buried.
The collection of the Business/IT alignment patterns requires participation from the stakeholders. The common patterns are recognized by the stake holders rather than by the architects. The institution and the architects are the facilitator to populate the ERM. The stakeholders follow an established change management procedure to maintain the ERM.
The collection of the ERM requires the reference model repository. The traditional engineering disciplines such as Civil engineering and Mechanical engineering have preserve experiences in volumes of engineering handbooks. In the information age, the traditional handbook approach can no longer keep up with the rapid technology evolution, it requires a reference model repository for the engineering of reuse.
5.6.2 Architects use reference models for communication
To share and reuse common IT resource on the common platform for agile application development, a critical concern is how to communication the common IT resources such as the technology services, the data services and the application services to the stakeholders. Enterprise architect have use technical reference model to facilitate the communication between architects and stakeholders. Most of reference model use layers approach to organize complicate subject with simple layers and components and illustrate the relation between the layers.
5.6.3 Business owners adopt proper business alignment pattern from ERM.
The ERM enable to establish the business/IT alignment pattern repository. From the populated ERM repository, the business owners can learn the other’s experience from the similar line of business and comparable performance requirements. It is similar to walk into a department store and find the appropriate clothes and shoes based on your activity need and the size that fit to you. The difference is that in the department store you buy finish products but in reference model , the business owners find their building blocks to enable agile application development.
^ TOP
Learn the building blocks instead of complete solution
EA can establish the common foundation and building block from the same line of business instead of relies on waterfall solution to derive the common element in a stovepipe approach. There is nothing new under the sky, instead of reinventing the wheel in a stovepipe and water fall solution, Enterprise Architecture is the effort to learn experiences from the same line of business. Although every business are unique, the same line of business shares significant amout of common building blocks.
2.1 The uniqueness is superficial
2.2 The underline is nothing new
Learn the common building blocks instead of the complete solution
Learn the experience is different from buying the Comercial off the shelf (COTS) product or a turn key solution. LEA suggest to acquire the common building blocks from the same line of business and allow the stakeholders to customize the solution based on thier need.
“There is nothing new under the sun” as bible said, it is particularly true in the area of common foundation and building blocks. The notion of “There is nothing new under the sun” is that whatever your changes are, it is very unlikely that it is first challenge of this type in the human history, there must be someone else have the similar challenge before. Therefore, It is much easier to overcome the challenge by learning from similar experience instead of take on the challenge as if no one else have done it before.
^ TOP
Learn the right experience via reference models
A major concern in learing experience is to learn from the wrong experience. Reference models establish the common references or the language for the IT professional to communicate and learn experiences from each other. Without a common reference, people tend to compare apples and oranges. Or confusing dogs and cats. It does not serve well to learn the experience from the wrong place and outside the context. Particular in the complicate world of Information Age, experiences are very context sensitive. Reference models identify the correct reference point under the proper context.EA has introduced the Technical Reference Model (TRM) from the very beginning. Unfortunately, it has become the most confusing part of EA. Most application developers, under the stovepipe culture, get very confuses on what is a reference model because they do not learn experiences of the other in the stovepipe culture.
Reference models are introduced in EA as the reference points for the EA community to exchange reuse knowledge and learn experience of the others. In the EA community, we all talks about reference models, it has been the lesson 101 of EA. however, with a different degree of confusion. It is due to the fact the concept of reference models are new to the stovepipe culture where they do not have to learn experience from the others. The confusing occurs not in the IT communities but also in the EA professionals, it is a torture to watch an EA instructor to teach an EA course with complete confusion between Reference Model and Architecture framework.
Reference models are fundamental to EA. After the massive confusion of what is reference model, Some EA expert stat to simplify the reference models is merely the common taxonomy. Meaning it is not real architecture. The truth is that it is the most difficult part EA to get people to talk in the same languages. The U.S OMB, leverage on it governing power, has dedicated significant effort to establish the consolidate reference models within the federal government agencies. It does not serve well for government agencies but also for the industry.
3.3 Reference models
Technical Reference Model has been the lesson 101 of EA where many EA professional has launched their EA career. The following figure (figure 4) illustrate the evolution on reference model in EA. OSI model has been the most popular technology reference model to understand the structure in referencing the network technology , EA professionals have adopted the OSI concept to developed the EA Technical Reference Model (TRM) to organize standard profile.
The TRMS comes in several categories. It include the conceptual TRM , the cubic style TRM and the flat panel style TRM .
The OMB FEAPMO has extend the concept of reference model beyond the TRM to evolve the reference model concept to concept the business reference model (BRM) , performance reference model (PRM) , application service reference model (SRM) and data reference model (DRM). It only consist of the logical standards such as the industry and government standard but also the physical standard such as products.
The large size drawing in PDF
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Reference models are introduced to support the engineering of reuse. Technical Reference Models (TRM) has been the lesson 101 in EA , yet it has been the most confusing term in EA among the IT community even in between EA professionals.
EA is the effort to align IT solution with business need. The effort of pattern adoption to learn the IT/business alignment experience from others has raised the question of “where to find the patterns for adoption ?” ERM is proposed to enable the stakeholders to find the patterns based on their line of business and performance requirements.
1.1 The values of reference model
Reference models are essential in the engineering of reuse. It is not only serve as the reporting reference to OMB as some EA professional suggest. It may appears have little values in the stovepipe culture because they do not have to learn from the other. But it is critical in EA to enable the concept of leaning the experience of the others. The major challenge for the engineering of reuse is how to learn the experience from others. The concept of reuse to learn the experience of the others, eliminate redundant effort and enable ability is not hard to sell, the real challenge is how to exchange the knowledge of reusable resources to find the proper components for reuse.
1.2 It is new to the stovepipe culture
Reference models are new to the stovepipe culture. It requires a culture transition effort to understand the concept of reference model. In the self sufficient stove pipe application development culture, reuse is not a concern and there is no need to comply with any common standards. EA is initiated to resolve the challenge of stove pipe system.
However, outside the circle of EA professional, the term of reference model is rather intimidating. it is not unusual to see the blank expression from the stakeholders by mention the reference models. Instead of facilitating the EA communication, it has become a barrier that the EA professionals have to explain what is a reference model first. The concept of reference models is new to the application developers and unfortunately they are the most important customers of EA.
Reference models are particular useful to facilitate communication between the subject experts particular in the network communication area that it has been considered as the engineering language. But , the concept of reference model have not serve well in the application developers community because during the age of stove pipe system development, there is not much communication betweens each application development project. EA is initiated to align IT with business and resolve the challenge of stove pipe system, it is essential for application developers in different project to communicate with each other for the purpose of share and reuse. It is critical for the application developers to understand what are the reference models for
2.0 WHAT IS REFERENCE MODEL
Reference models are used to facilitate the exchange of reusable knowledge by using the same terminology and in the same context to assure the accuracy of communication to exchange the reusable knowledge. It establish a common language for the knowledge of reusable resources to learn from the experience of the others. Reference Models are introduced by EA as the reference to find the reusable resources. Reference models are used in the engineering of use for communicate standards in an organized approach
Reference model was introduced by the evolution of EA as the reference to find reusable resource
2.1 Reference model for the engineering of reuse
2.2 EA professional facilitate reuse via reference models
EA professional are trained to master the knowledge of reference model .
3.0 THE BACKGROUND
3.1 Initiate from technical reference model
OSI reference model has been considered as the most successful reference model. it is essential to facilitate the network engineering conversation.
3.2 Evolved to every architecture layer
The Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) Consolidate Reference Models (CRM) is the effort to enable the IT community to communicate and locate common reusable resources rather than a EA guide or a framework for Enterprise Architecture design. Without making transition from application development culture to EA culture, most of the IT community are looking into the different reference model for Enterprise Architecture guidance. To their dismay, they have conclude that OMB is on the wrong direction.
The FEAPMO consist of Business Reference Model (BRM), Performance Reference Model (PRM,) Service Reference Model (SRM) , Data Reference Model (DRM) and Technical Reference Model (TRM) as shown in the follow figure
Figure 2 FEA CRM reference model
The first version of FEA CRM was released on May 2005, and the FEA CRM version 2 has been just released in June, 2006. The BRM introduce the business areas and line of business (LOB). The SRM describe the category of service components. The DRM describe the business subject area , data patterns and standardization. The TRM describe the technology domain, and technology patterns.
4.0 THE MYTH OF REFERENCE MODEL
This article intend to clarify the concept of reference model by identify the myths of reference and distinguish the difference between reference model and EA framework.
Reference models are introduced in EA as the reference points for the EA community to exchange reuse knowledge and learn experience of the others. In the EA community, we all talks about reference models, It has been the lesson 101 of EA. however, with a different degree of confusion. It is due to the fact the concept of reference models are new to the stovepipe culture where they do not have to learn experience from the others. The confusing occurs not in the IT communities but also in the EA professionals, it is a torture to watch an EA instructor to teach an EA course with complete confusion between Reference Model and Architecture framework.
4.1 Myth #1 Confusing Reference Model and architecture framework
The major myth of reference model is using reference model to describe their architecture. Many EA professional try to use reference models to describe the architecture. Reference Models are not part of the architecture, it serve as the reference to find standards and communicate the reusable resource.
4.2 Myth #2 Confuse reference model with reference manual
Many organizations have made significant investment on Technical Reference Manual and claim that is their enterprise architecture. A technical reference manual describes the technology, the principle, the technology components and the best practice similar to an engineering handbook. The content of a technical reference manual is essential the same, it is a redundant effort for each organization to development a reference manual. Contractors love it, they can skin many time from the same technical reference manual. Some organization invested on the technical reference manual and claim that as their enterprise architecture. The truth is that an technical reference manual should not be considered as their enterprise architecture, similar to that an engineering handbook is an architecture design.
5.0 DISTINGUISH REFERENCE MODEL FROM FRAMEWORK
The following table conduct the analysis to distinguish a reference model from a architecture framework from the aspect of purpose, scope, consistency and simplicity.
5.1 What is a EA Framework
EA frameworks are initiated to describe and guide the EA architecture approach, it covers the entirety as the union set of enterprise architecture. Enterprise can use different EA frameworks based on their needs and available resources. EA framework can be very complicate to have different views as demonstrated in the Zachman framework, the TOGOF framework, the FEAF framework and the DODAF.
5.2 What is a reference model
Reference models are initiate to facilitate the exchange of reusable knowledge and learn the experience of the others. It is very different from the purpose of architecture framework. It identify the commonality for reuse as the intersection set of enterprise architecture. It is import to have a unified reference model with consistency in the EA community to achieve the goal of communication as a language. The reference model must base on a simple view to enable clear communication to avoid the comparison between apple and orange. It is not intend to illustrate the connectivity between the architecture component.
6.0 FEAPMO CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONFUSION
FEAPMO contribute to the confusion of Reference Models by making the abrupt change of course from the Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF). At 1990s, the Federal Enterprise Architecture Working Group has developed the Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF) and the Practical guides for architecture design approach. It takes a while for the EA community to settle down on the FEAF concept. However, without making a smooth transition in the EA community, the Federal Enterprise Architecture Program Office (FEAPMO) has made a sharp turn to switch their focus on FEAPMO referenced models. It is a very different direction which is enough to stir up the confusion of the EA community which just settle down on the EA framework
Although it is the logical step for FEAPMO to evolve the focus from architecture framework to reference models, their abrupt switch of focus from architecture design framework to reference model, without a smooth transition has contributed the deep confusion of reference model which is significant to cost the value of reference models. Some EA experts have declared that the Reference Models has little value but only serve the purpose to create reports to make OMB happy. Once again, the good intention of OMB has been received as the burden rather than the benefit.
7.0 THE FUNDAMENTAL ISSUE IS THE EA MODEL
EA model must explicitly incorporate the concept of reuse rather than implicitly embed the concept which defeat the purpose of modeling. The explicit modeling of reuse will enable the culture transition from stovepipe culture to the EA culture as shown in the following figure :
7.1 The traditional EA model embed the concept of reuse
The traditional EA model, evolved from water fall approach, without explicit modeling the reuse, has minor difference between EA and stovepipe application development. As a result, EA is better known as an enterprise scale application development.
7.2 The LEA model explicitly incorporate the engineering of reuse
The LEA model suggest the twin model to explicitly model the engineering of reuse to clarify the myth of reference model. From the LEA model, the EA community can clearly distinguish that the reference models are for the purpose reuse and Architecture frameworks are used guide the architecture design to consolidate resources
^ TOP