2019-03-08 New2EA Meeting notes

Introductions

•  We agreed our first open session will be a discussion of "what is EA" from the perspective of different participants

• We discussed how to structure this session
• We agreed to prepare some viewpoints beforehand to share
• It could be helpful to provide a template with questions
• What questions should we ask?
  • What was/is the motivation for starting EA at your institution?
  • What type of EA are you considering?
    • Architect over a big system/solution architecture – for example an ERP program
    • Head architect for an IT organization – how the technology pieces will fit together; might run an Architecture Review Board
    • City planning metaphor – looking ahead, setting strategy, not limited to strategy, laying out where others will build something
    • Business process outcome – primarily with working with business stakeholders
    • Note: An EA practice could fit in several
  • Also, before that, more of an icebreaker – what are you thinking about, what are you shooting for? Let's hear more about each individual and their context – then move to their "flavor" of EA (above)
  • What challenge do you think EA is going to resolve for you? Or help you do better?
    • Or: What is your sense of what the value of EA is, that you are hoping to get or that you are describing to others in your organization?
  • Where have you been looking to learn about EA? What external organizations, publications, have you been looking at and what's been helpful?
• Think of the whole meeting as an icebreaker/getting to know each other, with some questions just for a little structure – for most participants, this is only the first meeting
  • Goal is for people to feel like the topic and the group is worth coming back to again
• This could be a recurring theme every year – we could be doing this meeting again to welcome people
  • It could be "who is new to EA", or "welcome to EA"
• So should we provide a template/advance work?
  • If it's an icebreaker, less formal is better
  • The steering group participants can be prepared to speak, giving time for others to think and then jump in
• Closing the meeting
  • Show people a little of where we're headed
  • Include/show more of the themes from the survey
  • Mention that there will be a panel; there will be other resources/people and perspectives coming to the working group

• Two week schedule is still fine with everyone
• Fridays are pretty loaded on the Itana calendar between regular calls, Steering, Business Architecture
• Consider the international participants - e.g. Ceri Davies at Cardiff

• See below