|
Dublin, Ireland: April 27, 2005 – The
emerging profession of IT architecture, IT architecture methods,
and the upcoming skills-based certification program for IT
architects were at the forefront of discussions at The Open
Group’s
IT Architecture Practitioners Conference, which took place
at Jurys Ballsbridge Hotel in Dublin, Ireland, April 25-27,
2005.
The conference was opened by Tom Kitt, Minister of State,
Department of Taoiseach, Republic of Ireland, with special
responsibility for Information Society.
Allen Brown, President and CEO of The Open Group, spoke
about IT architecture emerging as a profession, discussed
its role, and emphasized that IT architecture and Boundaryless
Information Flow™ go hand in hand: “IT architecture
is critical to realizing the vision of Boundaryless Information
Flow™.”
Len Fehskens of the Worldwide Architecture Profession Office,
HP Services, shared his thoughts on what IT architecture
is as a discipline and clarified the difference between architecture
and design. He emphasized that architecture includes not
only technology but also people and processes, and that it
should be viewed as an explicit bridge between a business
need and its IT solution.
A practitioner’s perspective on The Open Group’s
IT Architect Certification Program, which is going to launch
in July at The Open Group’s Architecture Practitioners
Conference in New York (http://www.opengroup.org/new-york2005/),
was presented by Andras Szakal, Distinguished Engineer and
Chief Architect, IBM Federal Software Group. He gave an overview
of the program, the certification process, and the value
proposition, and invited members to provide input and feedback
on the proposed program. Szakal is a Senior Certified Software
IT Architect within the IBM IT Architect Certification Program.
Michael Sylvia, Distinguished Engineer and IT Architect
Profession Executive of IBM, shared his enthusiasm for the
new program: “The Open Group’s IT Architect Certification
Program, which will set a skill and experience-based standard
for all practitioners, is a sign of the maturation of the
industry. IBM is pleased to support it and is an active participant
in its development.”
Tim Murfet, Head of Global Architecture & Core Technology
- Europe, Accenture UK, spoke about the Accenture experience
related to key challenges in an enterprise architecture practice,
and discussed development of Accenture architects, where
the key focus is on a method. Murfet praised The Open Group’s
TOGAF methodology, which is similar to the Accenture approach.
Randolph Hite, Director of IT Architecture & Systems
Issues, US Government Accountability Office, who spoke about
the state of enterprise architecture maturity in the US Federal
Government, also emphasized the importance of using an architecture
development method. According to Hite, lots of agencies have
a framework and tools but lack a method, and TOGAF could
be very relevant for them.
Other speakers at the conference included Colm Butler, Principal
Officer of the Information Society Policy Unit at the Department
of the Taoiseach, Republic of Ireland; Juergen Bonn, Member
of the Board, alfabet, Germany; Eric Boulay, CEO, Arismore,
France; David Sprott, Founder and CEO, CBDI Forum, Ireland;
Frank Chatonda,VP and Senior Architect, Citibank Technology
Solution Group, USA; Rawls Whittlesey, Director, Enterprise
Architecture, Delta Technology, USA; Uwe Weber, Head of Group
Architecture Strategy, Detecon International GmbH, Germany;
Eugen Oetringer, EDS, Netherlands; Theo Vassiliadis, Head
of Interoperability Architecture & Methods, European
Commission; Michiel Malotaux, VP Consulting & Enterprise
Architect, Gartner Netherlands BV; Walter Stahlecker, Director
of Industry Initiatives, Hewlett-Packard Company, Jeff Wolfers,
Head of IT Strategy & Architecture, HSBC Holdings; Enrique
Castro-Leon, Enterprise Architect and Strategist, Intel Solution
Services, USA; Brian O'Byrne, Founder and CTO, Statesoft,
Ireland; Jonathan Gregory, Enterprise Architect, Sun Microsystems,
UK; Peter Hungerford, Senior Syngenta Fellow, Syngenta; Mark
O’Neill, CEO, Vordel, Ireland; Stan Locke, Managing
Director and COO of Zachman Framework Associates, Canada,
among others.
Presentations of speakers at the conference are currently
available at www.opengroup.org/conference-live.
The Open Group is a vendor-neutral and
technology-neutral consortium, which
drives the creation of Boundaryless Information
Flow™ that will enable access to integrated information
within and between enterprises based on open standards
and global interoperability. The Open Group works with
customers, suppliers, consortia and other standard bodies.
Its role is to capture, understand and address current
and emerging requirements, establish policies and share
best practices; to facilitate interoperability, develop
consensus, and evolve and integrate specifications and
open source technologies; to offer a comprehensive set
of services to enhance the operational efficiency of consortia;
and to operate the industry’s premier certification
service. Further information on The Open Group can be found
at http://www.opengroup.org.
Note to editors: Boundaryless
Information Flow is a trademark of The Open Group.
|
|
|
