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The Ups and Downs of Enterprise Architecture
When enterprises invest in IT, they invest in enterprise architects.
by Jeff Tash

November 29, 2004

Everyone talks about total cost of ownership (TCO). Product vendors and service providers love to make claims about TCO that invariably involve promises to deliver great bottom-line savings. But, sadly, after all is said and done, usually a lot gets said but not much gets done.

Who are the executives responsible for managing the effectiveness and TCO of their enterprise's IT technology investments? How do they communicate with the diverse constituency of people who use, develop, operate, manage, evaluate, or purchase technology offerings?

If anyone is even paying attention to the fundamental communications problem between IT and the people who use IT, it's probably because an enterprise architecture team exists somewhere within corporate IT. But, regrettably, serving as an enterprise architect might be hazardous to one's professional health.

If the prestigious Oxford English Dictionary, the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language, were operated based on a Google-like algorithm, then I fear the term enterprise architecture would today be synonymous with reorganization. That's because many enterprise architects have been reorganized so frequently that they feel like pawns on a corporate chessboard, getting shifted this way and that, or worse, like a flea clinging onto the end of the lashing tail of an ornery corporate beast. It's not fun.

I have listened to enterprise architects tell countless tales about how they and their colleagues have had their jobs reorganized out of existence. Then, after some new need arises, or a new CIO is hired, or some other external event occurs that triggers an immediate demand for architectural information, suddenly another enterprise architecture initiative begins. Of course, the new team is only safe until the next round of cost cutting and reorganization begins.

Being an enterprise architect means spending your professional life like a pinball constantly ricocheting back and forth. Interest in enterprise architecture comes in waves. During the good times the money flows. Expensive consultants are brought in. Products are purchased. Staffs go through extensive training. But, when the bad times start, the cost cutters quickly eliminate nonessential functions and EA teams frequently find themselves totally disbanded.

Plainly, money is the lifeblood that fuels IT. Back in 2000, more than 45 percent of all U.S. capital expenditures went toward investments in IT. Then, suddenly, the bubble burst. IT budgets plummeted. IT unemployment soared. Silicon Valley tanked.

Slowly, beginning in the last quarter of 2003 and continuing into the first two quarters of 2004, the Great IT Depression of 2001 finally subsided. But with that came a power shift of seismic proportions. Purchasing decisions that used to fall within the purview of IT now fall under the domain of individual business units. Distressingly, this has led to a lot of decision-making occurring inside a vacuum. The people making the decisions are often clueless about what they already have. How can people make wise decisions moving forward if they can't even understand where they're starting from?

The second half of 2004 has been particularly disturbing for IT. After finally getting back to where enterprises were once again beginning to invest in IT, albeit slowly, the economy unexpectedly hiccupped. IT managers who failed to sufficiently freeze spending quickly enough often found themselves reorganized out of existence.