An Enterprise Architecture viewpoint on state government...

In the same way a parent coaches their children to save money and be fiscally responsible, I humbly believe that the federal government needs to do the same for the states and local government...



Instead of making fun of the government and its approach to enterprise architecture, today I will instead propose three ideas that can help save all of us taxpayers money. Many people know that I am a registered republican and fiscal conservative. I am also passionate about encouraging others to pray, fast and be charitable and will look at government issues through these lenses. So, here are the three ways government can save money:

Implement a volunteer police force: Consider the scenario of how much of our budget is spent on law enforcement. Now consider the fact how it could be reduced if we allowed for volunteerism to enter the equation. My own background includes being honorably discharged from the United States Coast Guard which is not only a military fighting force but the police of our waterways. I can volunteer to get shot at by foreigners by enlisting in the military, I can volunteer to die in a burning building as a fire fighter but I can't volunteer to do traffic duty at the annual Thanksgiving day parade nor sit in a parked car with my lights flashing at a construction site?

Make English the official language: Have you ever considered how much additional expenses associated with printing and translation occur to support forms in other than English? Allowing volunteers to serve as translators has several additional advantages. First, when you take someone from the community and put them into a role that helps out others, you allow the government to form a more cohesive bond and can even provide support for languages not officially supported. You also make it easier for people to get government jobs and therefore can lower the pay scale if you had less requirements related to language. For example, if you wanted a state employee who knew enterprise architecture, speaks Spanish, Arabic and COBOL then your pool is limited. Once you remove the language restrictions, the job pool is increased making it fairer to all the citizens of the government to apply.

Consolidate identification systems: In the State of Connecticut, I hold various licenses and permits. Don't you find it a big waste of process in that the State Police administer a separate photo ID than say the department of motor vehicles? Of course you are asking yourself why would the state police trust DMV to issue a permit? While there needs to be additional due diligence at initial application time, why do you need it at renewal? In the state of Connecticut at each renewal, I have to prove that I am a citizen. I was a citizen when I first applied and kinda think that the odds are pretty good especially for us folk that are born in the United States that we will be a citizen in the future. For those who will argue that I could renounce my citizenship, I guess I would ask the question of why does this even matter? After all, I already got weapons that I purchased when I was a citizen anyway.

Did you also know that in the state of Connecticut, permits related to the building trades are governed by the department of public safety who also runs the state police? Why can't I renew my electricians and radio repair permit at the same time and same location? Taking this one step further, did you know that the state of Connecticut has non-police officers at the handgun permit desk doing renewals but if you want to renew your boxing (pugilism) license, it is handled by a police officer? Does this feel backwards to you?

Is your CIO an Agile Leader or a Conservative Manager?

Being Agile is the antithesis to being conservative. Agility while focusing on short-term delivery does not mean that you cannot take a long range approach. Having a clear vision for the team to rally around and the need for managementleadership to think ahead to ensure that we're not just moving forward, but moving in the right direction is of utmost importance...



If Agile is the antithesis to being conservative, would it be a far stretch for us to acknowledge that annual planning is the antithesis to innovation? Agilists are out there, every single day, responding to change, creating things no one has before. Agile leaders are open to new ideas, willing to take risks and comfortable with agile's level of change. If your CIO believes he needs a PMO organization to govern planning cycles then is he responding to change or more focused on creating documentation that can impede yet undefined forms of innovation.

Agile teams are about trust and couldn't function nor deliver without it. Leaders encourage trust by enlisting team member's strengths to achieve results and giving the team autonomy to make their own judgments about the best way to meet objectives. Managers on the other hand are savagely focused on taking care of HR review processes where the focus resides solely on one's competencies.

Agile leaders are passionate in ways that make the masses feel good about themselves, their employers and society at large. Managers may also exhibit passion but the feeling of warmth is only felt by the priveleged few. One way to spread passion is by also spreading empathy and caring for others. The best amongst the Agile community care about the human condition and will enquire first about your health and well-being while managers will only care whether you got your timesheet completed on-time...

Are Enterprise Architecture Practitioners obsessed about the right things?

Many of the LinkedIn groups focused on Enterprise Architecture practices seemed to be overly obsessed metamodels, templates for documenting an architecture and coming up with the latest taxonomy/classification scheme for organizing work. If enterprise architecture is about helping the business realize its strategic intent through the use of technology, any rationale person would conclude that much of our conversation is wasteful in nature...



Too many practitioners wax poetic about the need for IT to align with the business but haven't developed a fundamental under of the business. This is honestly less about what your employer sells but in a more holistic sense what is business.

In my travels, I have seen lots of enterprise architecture artifacts and even a few attempts at business architecture artifacts and have came to a profound conclusion. Much of this work yields to perceptions that don't reflect present realities! How many architects of any flavor can point to any artifact they have created that demonstrates the full reality of their company, line of business or even organizational unit? Does it describe the situation, characteristics, culture and challenges the business truly faces?

Some enterprising architects may have familiarized themselves with SWOT analysis and they should get kudos. For those that haven't, then maybe they need to do some quick homework. While a SWOT analysis will demonstrate an organization's strategic advantages and disadvantages, what artifact is responsible for capturing an organization's myths and blind spots?



Have you been following the Occupy movement? The vast majority of Enterprise Architects I know are part of the priveleged 1% and therefore have focused on the fact that their message is confused. I believe though that there are some gems from this movement we can all learn from to make our own employers better, our outside of work life better and more importantly our communities in which we thrive better.

Let's face it, the masses of the Occupy movement as well the majority of Enterprise Architects have no awareness of the big economic picture. Blissful ignorance of the global reality of capitalism and competition isn't something that should be tolerated as it is a key requirement for alignment and sustainable innovation. We should as practitioners of the discipline of enterprise architecture understand how capitalism work, why capitalism won, how dynamic economies are created and destroyed and most importantly why it is raging across the planet!

If we can't understand macro-level trends, then how can we be certain that our micro-level enterprise-oriented recommendations are sound? Too many of us mistake innovation as being simply a proxy for doing things better, faster and/or cheaper. Even more of us think that process can be a sustitute for competence. Reality dictates that we should attempt to understand not just the changing people demographics and their purchasing habits but why some companies are winning and others are losing in the marketplace.

If a butterfly flaps its wings, does it cause a tsunami in Japan? If a dictator on the other side of the planet deregulates their marketplace, eliminates government monopolies and pursues open markets, do you think this should an impact on your enterprise architecture...