This session provided the headline for a series of deeper-dives on various Enterprise Architecture Tools, and the full series ran as follows:

Agenda

  • Roll Call (East to West) Name and Institution
  • Call for a Scribe
  • Main Topic - EA Tools Introduction and Contextualization - Mary Stevens, Louis King, Henry Pruitt, et al
  • Working Group Updates
  • Close

Notes

  • The spring programming plan is to bring in 3 tool vendors and have higher education use cases but no sales pitches
  •  You will still need the essential tools for diagramming, excel, whiteboarding, etc

       

  • Most tools are Archimate-centric
  • Archimate is a free tool
  • Henry
    • Needs may drive your tool selection
      • If you have alliances in the business areas then BPMN diagramming would be a requirement
      • Switching cost is high
  • J.J.
    • UW Madison-Tool is not Archimate based




  • Think about being precise regarding terms (ie Product, Service, etc) and conditions before loading data
    • Henry 
      • Governance structure needs to be setup
      • Central IT
        • Schools and business use provides an opportunity to democratize the data-Louis King
          • Possible segregation may be needed
            • Use of standards
              • APQC standards
              • Higher Education Reference Model (HERM)

  • EA probably more of consumer of data than the authoritative source

  • Henry
    • Need to work with Collibra (Data Governance)
    • Trying to be source of truth for applications
      • Understanding how the terms will rate and interrelate
  • J.J.
    • Overlap with ITSM tools such as CMDB

  • Vendors can help build the business case
    • Building a case without vendor support?
      • Gartner
      • Other ideas?
      • ServiceNow?
        • Louis King-Yale

  • Henry
    • Value going though the detail of:
      • Business capability
      • Application capability
        • Better than spreadsheet hell
  • Louis
    • Not trying to capture the whole university
      • IT org and other players
      • Work with a small group to put the definitions in place
      • Yale is working from ServiceNow out

  • A big project can be a catalyst for the investment
    • Vendors can help with large efforts such as application rationalization
    • Henry
      • Some tools have vendors
  • jeff
    • Higher ed community
      • The Essential Project can help
      • Itana EA Maturity Model 
        • When does an EA tool become and configuration management tool?
        • Henry
          • NYU is focus is the tool is strategic rather than operational
  • Mary
    • Dashboard
      • Which applications have a Java vulnerability
      • The EA tool should not be the CMDB
      • If operations has value in the tool they will keep the data up





  • Use of student workers help with the data

Further Information

ZOOM Chat

  • 14:13:03 From jeff kennedy to Everyone: Archi is awesome (with the caveats Mary shared) = https://www.archimatetool.com/
  • 14:13:38 From jeff kennedy to Everyone: +1 for Gerben! = https://ea.rna.nl/mastering-archimate-edition-3-1/
  • 14:13:42 From J.J. Du Chateau (Wisconsin) to Everyone: Gerben also wrote "Chess and the Art of Enterprise Architecture" book
  • 14:13:48 From Stephanie M Warner to Everyone: Thanks, Mary.  That was my question.  What is the best way to learn Archimate?
  • 14:14:29 From jeff kennedy to Everyone: Replying to "Archi is awesome (and the official specification from The Open Group is at https://www.opengroup.org/archimate-forum/archimate-overview
  • 14:15:49 From jeff kennedy to Everyone:...if you grab a copy of Archi and then grab a copy of the Higher Education Reference Models we do include *.archimate files in the HERM distribution, so you can play! = https://library.educause.edu/resources/2021/9/the-higher-education-reference-models <<< new Version 3 coming next week.
  • 14:25:18 From henry to Everyone: louis - did you look at inspi?
  • 14:26:45 From jeff kennedy to Everyone:  Gartner's "critical capabilities" for EA Tools point to things we are discussing just now, like integration and framework support and presentation and repository...          * Analysis     * Configuration and Management     * Extensibility     * Frameworks     * Innovation Management     * Integration     * Intelligent Automation     * Modeling     * Presentation     * Publication     * Repository
  • 14:27:13 From jeff kennedy to Everyone:  Replying to "Gartner's "critical ..."   
        ^^ for those with Gartner access here is the latest on that: Frangou, A., Gianni, A., Steinmetz, A., & Jhawar, A. (2023) _Critical Capabilities for Enterprise Architecture Tools_, Gartner Research, Article ID G00784644, available at https://www.gartner.com/document/4953731 — Enterprise architecture tools support the delivery of business outcomes by providing a central repository for managing and analyzing enterprise data to highlight the impact of change. EA leaders need to assess the product capabilities of vendors in relation to five key use cases.
  • 14:29:08 From jeff kennedy to Everyone:  ITSM vendors are totally trying to get into this space, and (not in any way seeking to be dissonant with Louis!) the likes of ServiceNow are enormously expensive to have at all, and then to add in the other features and modules like APM brings more of that, and their own representation world (like the ServiceNow "Common Services Data Model") can be idiosyncratic to the point of being actually befuddling.
  • 14:29:37 From jeff kennedy to Everyone:  Replying to "ITSM vendors are tot....and somewhere in your own use cases is also the ability to model across $time like current and transitional and future states.
  • 14:32:29 From jeff kennedy to Everyone:  #fyi @henry and @J.J. Du Chateau (Wisconsin) = we're working with the Essential folk currently and will be offering *.DUP versions of HERM3.1 mid-year for {BRM, DRM, ARM, TRM}.
  • 14:33:41 From J.J. Du Chateau (Wisconsin) to Everyone:  Didn't mean to scare folks. For some tools the meta-model is very important,  others have flexibility and allow you to simplify as you like.
  • 14:35:18 From henry to Everyone:  that is good news Jeff.. wish it happened a year earlier!!
  • 14:35:31 From henry to Everyone:  it will make it easier for those behind us!
  • 14:36:08 From jeff kennedy to Everyone:  Replying to "that is good news Je...me too! < apologies!
  • 14:41:22 From jeff kennedy to Everyone ...beyond the IT estate, i'm also interested in how and where we link up things from the business-operations side of things, like business process mining, etc.
  • 14:47:17 From J.J. Du Chateau (Wisconsin) to Everyone:  For audience, there could be a difference between those using the tool, those seeing direct output from the tool (diagrams, reports, etc.), and those who get information from someone using the tool.
  • 14:48:36 From jeff kennedy to Everyone:...not to plumb only Gartner's depths here, from their "eight things" piece some of what Mary spoke to just now about implementation effort comes through as = "Organizations often underestimate the time and commitment required to deliver value from an EA tool." = and notes that vendor/consultant assistance is often installation-based rather than implementation-based.
  • 14:49:10 From jeff kennedy to Everyone:Replying to "For audience, there ..+1 and massive differences there between those two groups both for licensing cost and for learning curve!
  • 14:49:43 From Stephanie M Warner to Everyone: Is the Archimate language used in the 4 tools mentioned in the survey?
  • 14:51:48 From jeff kennedy to Everyone:  Here is a "licensed for distribution" copy of that Gartner MQ for EA Tools (this was shared in the CAUDIT EA community by a member who accessed from one of those very EA Tool vendors Mary mentioned just now!).
  • 14:52:57 From J.J. Du Chateau (Wisconsin) to Everyone:
        Replying to "Is the Archimate lan..."I know Sparx EA is a UML-modeling tool that supports ArchiMate. Essential doesn't use it as far as I know.
  • 14:53:03 From jeff kennedy to Everyone: Replying to "Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Architecture Tools Nov 23.pdf"...and for contrast here is a 2023Q1 device from Forrester = https://reprints2.forrester.com/#/assets/2/57/RES177674/report
  • 14:53:31 From Mary Stevens to Everyone: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVNsfhbh0=/?share_link_id=613838204071 To gather more info
  • 14:56:51 From Todd Schaefer to Everyone Thank you for the great information.
  • 14:58:57 From Dana Miller I UTA to Everyone:  Thanks, Mary, Henry, and Louis!
  • 14:59:02 From Stephanie M Warner to Everyone This was a fantastic session, Mary.  Thank you!

Attendees-19 on the call


Gartner Research

  • Jhawar, A., Miers, D., Hart, N., van der Heiden, G. (2021) _Toolkit: How to Construct a Winning RFP for Buying EA Tools_, Gartner Research, Article ID G00729425, archived but available at https://www.gartner.com/document-reader/document/4000496This Toolkit helps enterprise architecture/technology innovation leaders define and clarify EA tool use cases, and develop an effective RFP that differentiates vendors and their product offerings, driving better purchase decisions.
  • van der Heiden, G. (2023) _8 Steps to Select and Obtain Value From Enterprise Architecture Tools_, Gartner Research, Article ID G00784838, available at https://www.gartner.com/document-reader/document/4145899An enterprise architecture product is not “just a tool” — its features and functions support business and IT, making it an enterprise application. Enterprise architecture and technology innovation leaders must follow our eight steps to select the most appropriate EA tool and obtain value from it.
  • Frangou, A., Gianni, A., Steinmetz, A., & Jhawar, A. (2023) _Critical Capabilities for Enterprise Architecture Tools_, Gartner Research, Article ID G00784644, available at https://www.gartner.com/document/4953731Enterprise architecture tools support the delivery of business outcomes by providing a central repository for managing and analyzing enterprise data to highlight the impact of change. EA leaders need to assess the product capabilities of vendors in relation to five key use cases.
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