Attendees: Mona Guerra, Rich Cropp, Louis King, Jacob Morris

March 18th Meeting: Jim Phelps, Louis King, Jacob Morris

Topic/Theme Order:

ThemeDateTopicDetails
Being an "Architect" - shifting your focus and skills1/15 2020 New Year Architect Resolutions
  1. seeding the ideas, not blank slate
  2. proposed resolutions
  3. Give an overview of the Itana wiki
1/29

Prioritizing Your Time - making room for shifting your focus and skills

Jacob (facilitate)

  1. Defining what is Important (Institutional priorities, your team's, etc.)
    1. How does this align to the 3-5 work goals my organization has for me? (working backwards - mine < my team < IT org < university )
    2. Is this in scope or out of scope? For me? For my team? ... For the university?
    3. What about your professional development goals?
    4. How do you negotiate and codify this? Work plan?

  2. Important vs Urgent (quadrant) - how much time spent? (pie chart)

  3. The 4 D's (Drop, Delay, Delegate, Do)

  4. Defending your calendar (which pie slice are you working on?)

  5. What other examples do you have for prioritizing your own time?

2/12

Influencing Strategies & Difficult Conversations

Louis (present/facilitate)

  1. Saying No deftly
  2. Accepting No deftly
  3. Using influence over the long term
  4. Influence in those difficult conversations
  5. Importance of maintaining relationships for success
2/26

Storytelling 

Chris (present/facilitate?)

Done with Chris.

3/11Cancelled.Cancelled.

3/25Remote FacilitationTips and tricks - sharing what you've learned

4/8What does Higher Education look for in an Architect?Pre-read: Architect your Enterprise Architecture Practice before you hire an EA

4/22Wiki Workshop Kickoff

Bring in folks from the Face2Face where materials were developed to talk about that value - Rupert, JJ, others?

  • ACTIONS: Invite Rupert, JJ, Piet, Chris 
  • AGENDA:
    • Welcome, roll-call and introduction to what we are doing (7 minutes) - Jacob
      • Louis, Chris, and Jim as Steering Group Wiki Liaisons sharing their vision 
      • Time Frame is to do this over the summer
    • Discussion among guests involved in the last wiki workshop (value of this activity) // facilitated conversation with a few questions to each (10 minutes) -Jacob
      • Piet as table facilitator
      • Rupert as a new architect
      • JJ as an attendee
  • Human-centered design from the New2EA crowd
  • BREAKOUT (20 minutes) - JJ, Rupert, Piet, Louis, Jim, Rich
    • ACTION - Slide Deck with the questions built in available 
    • What are the problems that you are trying to solve as New2EA? 
      • phrases, customer journey - what are you going to the Itana wiki to find? 
      • explore the wiki - what currently solves this from wiki? what doesn't?
    • What are the materials that are available to solve them?
      • Names of groups members, emails, etc.
  • REPORT OUT (13-18 minutes)
    • Role up the findings into a list
    • If one or more of the "pain points" resonates with you, put your name and email under the topic
  • How this relates to the actual Workshop - Jim
  • END (0-5 minutes)
Growing an EA Practice5/6

Reflections on What You've Heard So Far...

And what are the questions you want to have answered?

How does what you've heard from the New2EA community relate to Growing an EA Practice

  • review the year-in-review
  • review the Being an "Architect" materials

What did you see? why does that connect?

What questions do you have for growing a practice.

  1. Being an "Architect" - shifting your focus and skills
    1. Next-level Facilitation (providing a structure to meet your end goal / outcome)
      1. Facilitate an exercise that yields an outcome
        1. analyze the parts
        2. the structure that worked or didn't
        3. the role as facilitator to move to the end, resolve conflicts, etc. 
      2. Other notes from prior meeting:
        1. Biz req's → approach and a specific use case
        2. Strategic thinking
        3. Facilitation on specific artifacts 
    2. Architect Job Skills Inventory
      1. Look at Job Descriptions (EA, BizArch, Solution, etc.) - a higher-ed job posting "inventory" of skills
        1. maybe one or two JDs for each (EA, Biz, Solution, Data, etc.) across
          1. Solution: Louis
          2. Tech Arch.: Rich
          3. Biz: Jacob
          4. EA: Louis (maybe)
      2. Some folks move from project/portfolio management => architecture
      3. Review the skills and discover the gaps, which will lead to certain trainings, etc.
      4. Less of a focus on specific tools or TOGAF training
      5. What opportunities exist to build these skills
        1. how to recognize those opportunities that may not be named exactly
        2. find a place to deliver value, deliver it and then more opportunities will present themselves.
      6. What are your action steps - what does this mean for you?
  2. Growing an EA Practice
    1. Strategy on a Page (SoaP)
    2. Capability Map (both for your EA Practice and your university) 
    3. Stakeholder Analysis
    4. Work Planning methodology (e.g. prioritizing the projects you take on)
      1. Exercise: Scenario - have to build an annual work plan (quarter by quarter)
        1. e.g. summer camp (scout projects, turn into firewood)
    5. Program Evaluation
    6. Maturity Assessment
    7. Methodologies (9-10 over 3 meetings)
      1. look at Itana library (e.g. strategic thinking, roadmaps, 25/10 crowdsourcing, etc.)
      2. Think of these methodologies as facilitation opportunities
        1. each has a structured way to reach specific outcomes
        2. can reduce variables of individuals and provide guidance to avoid blockers
  3. Fitting the Organization
    1. Architecting the IT Organization (Piet helped write the Educause Article)
  4. Architect Survival Kit (on the Itana wiki)


Action Items

Theme Ideas from December 2019 Meeting:

  1. 'Wrangling' engagements
    • Soliciting/eliciting requirements
    • Size/shaping engagements
  2. Shifting your skills and focus (from tech/analyst → Architect)
  3. Next-level Facilitation
    • Biz req's → approach and a specific use case
    • Strategic thinking
    • Facilitation on specific artifacts
  4. Managing/Growing an EA Practice
    • How to manage and grow your practice
    • Capacity-building models for the EA capability
      • how they have been used, models that people like
    • Determining your start-up outcomes to help deliver value to your institution
    • How to create a talent pipeline for EA and architecture skills
  5. Your EA Practice and Fit into your Organization
    • EA in ITSM
    • EA and IT Governance
    • EA and PMO
    • EA and the rest of IT staff (central, decentralized, etc.)
    • Roles and capabilities (Design Thinking, etc.)to help with change 
    • EA as a Service
    • Gartner: internal consultancy
    • Architecting the IT Organization: Clarifying the Contributions of Enterprise Architecture, IT Governance, and ITSM to the IT Value Chain
      https://www.educause.edu/architecting


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