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March 8, 2002

Architecture of the Enterprise

Filling the role of enterprise software architect can help your organization stay competitive

By Rich Newcomb

Does your software development organization have a technology road map? Do your development teams adhere to a standardized software development methodology, utilize reference architectures, and practice organizationwide reuse? Has your organization built symbiotic relationships with strategic technology partners? Do you methodically evaluate trends in technology, your industry, and your customers' needs?

Is your organization prepared for a more competitive economy? Is it really?

Many organizations have a strictly reactive approach to technology, allowing the prevailing market trends to dictate their activities. Organizations such as these treat every software development project as an entrepreneurial endeavor, giving the project's management carte blanche to discover and use the latest technologies, declare the development approach, and build anew from the ground up. This type of undercoordinated decision-making is extremely costly, stifling potential synergies across project teams and even organizations.

This column will define the role of enterprise software architect and describe why strategically fulfilling this role can yield many advantages, including: creating beneficial technology partnerships, synergies across project teams, organizational reuse, and decreased development costs.

THE ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT'S ROLE

The enterprise architect is responsible for establishing the software strategy for an entire development organization, answering the questions: How does this organization develop, use, and integrate software applications? It requires that the architect look across the entire organization rather than focusing upon a particular project. In practice, an enterprise architect focuses more on strategy than on tactics, defining a multifaceted software strategy, influencing aspects of product and tool selection, reuse, project management, and application design.

The enterprise architect spearheads an organization's reuse initiative. This responsibility has three significant aspects. The first is defining application frameworks and reference architectures that project teams will use across the organization. These reusable artifacts lay the groundwork for enterprise application integration. Next, the enterprise architect is responsible for working with project teams to identify and harvest reusable artifacts. Finally, the architect is responsible for creating policies and guidelines for common mechanisms that are used across the enterprise, such as security or distribution.

An enterprise architect prescribes, customizes, and evangelizes the organization-wide software development methodology. This isn't to say that every project should have precisely the same process implementation — with all projects producing an identical set of artifacts; rather, the architect selects or defines an organizationwide methodology and then customizes it for the needs of each project. The goal is that all projects are using the same "playbook," even if they vary in execution.

Finally, enterprise architects are responsible for creating and maintaining a technology road map. This road map addresses the needs of the organization, its customers, developers, or other stakeholders in terms of current technologies and technologies on the horizon. Their responsibilities include understanding emerging technologies and standards and recommending organizational policy and technology strategy in terms of that landscape.