You are what you eat. More appropriately, what your ancestors have eaten? This and other senseless theories explained.
Can Enterprise Architecture be standardized? I mean, develop an EA for say Prudential and take it as is to Metlife. This way companies in the same space can collaborate in more than price fixing and buying congressman. Is the time finally right for a lobby for EA!
It seemed like a far fetched idea: a single EA for all insurance companies. All oil and gas companies could have their own version. All manufacturers also get their very own EA. And then I saw it – a real life standardized Enterprise Architecture; one for each industry. My head spun with all the sound effects one sees in movies.
And then disbelief turned to glee. Finally, the world would be a simple place to live in with all these standardized architectures. The ultimate dream of “plug and play” was within reach – applications could be built to standards driven by these standardized EAs!
There is nothing odd about this concept. After all EA analogies often take us to the world of brick and mortar buildings. Isn’t every restaurant’s architecture the same? Every hotel looks the same to me. All this standardization has resulted in standardized implementation: from wall sockets to sheet rock and everything in between the components are standardized. Just go to home depot, buy something and you are assured that it will fit in.
Then I started to think – yes that is a problem some of us have. This annoying habit causes a lot of pain. If only one were like George. Report says: Iran has nukes. Ok, bomb them. Report says: Iran does not have nukes. Ok, bomb them. It is not facts that drive the conclusion but objective that drives the action!
Unfortunately, I had to let the facts in this good story.
EA is driven by business strategy – a basic assumption that is necessary to maintain IT Alignment. Business strategy is driven by business model – otherwise you have a very good hobby for it will not generate any value. So EA is driven by business model.
Business models are unique just like human DNA – each organization has its own unique business model. No two organizations can have the same business model even if they operate in the same industry or space. Well, not for long in any event because competitive differentiation drives success. If two companies have the same business model then they are the same and hence not able to compete with each other. This means either one goes out of business – or is bought over by the other – or changes its business model.
This brings us to a disastrous conclusion: No two Enterprise Architectures can be the same!
I don’t know about you but I am convinced that Iran is responsible for this catastrophe! They must be held accountable. You send your kids to take care of Iran while I, like George, will buy some stock in Lockheed Martin and Exxon to take care of mine.
