Categories
Architecture and Strategy

Useful resources for Enterprise Architecture

Since attending the Seminar by Gartner on Enterprise Architecture last year I have been focussing on formalising my IT Architecture skills (well when time allows!!). TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework) 9 appears to be the way to go. You can think of it much the same way as PRINCE2 is to Project Management – its something that provides the core principles but it needs to be tailored to the organisational specifics.

Came across “TOGAF 9 in pictures” available on http://www.orbussoftware.com/downloads which is a really effective way of getting to grips with the core concepts.

Also (on the same site) found a stencil for ArchiMate; Archimate is a means of standardising the way that Enterprise Architecture is defined at a high level. Chapter 2 of the specification makes good reading – has a nice summary on why EA: http://www.opengroup.org/archimate/doc/ts_archimate/index.html

From my research IT Architecture (in particular Enterprise Architecture) still seems to be something that different people and organisations view differently – in particular role definitions / responsibilities seem to vary massively. I also fear that often the goal behind EA initiatives aren’t clear enough and some organisations just want to “tick the EA box” rather than get true value from it.

Categories
Technology

Microsoft OneNote with a Tablet PC to reduce paper usage

I am seriously impressed by Microsoft OneNote and the HP Tablet that I am now using. I realised I was creating quite a bit of waste paper from my notes – so have moved them electronically.

I have a workbook for work and one for personal tasks and sync the workbooks between my home and work folders which is really neat. I have been using this setup for several months (mostly using the keyboard although sometimes in meetings the stylus is a faster and easier way of capturing thoughts and diagrams).

Visio 2010 is pretty cool tool, I would have to say that Windows 7, Visio and OneNote are my top 3 Microsoft products right now!

Visio 2010 even has support for Inking and Multi-touch – http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visio/archive/2009/12/18/visio-2010-better-with-windows-7.aspx and the MS blog  has some other pretty handy tips: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visio/