Many a meetings later, one has to wonder if enterprise architecture review is really generating anything meaningful.
So, how do you do EA review?
If you are one of the unfortunate people who have attended an enterprise architecture review, and are scheduled for another one, my heart goes out to you! If you are a core team member, you are out of luck and you know it!
Perhaps the most boring – not counting Al Gore’s speeches and John Kerry’s press conferences – meeting in the world has to be an architecture review. One has to sit through an endless drone of technical jargon and other drivel that has little to do with enterprise architecture or its impact on business value. The meeting might as well be a “show and tell” of each participating members’ technical vocabulary. Yikes!
Why does this immensely interesting topic get so nauseating?
Perhaps the most meaningless – not counting George Bush’s press conferences – meeting in the world has to be an enterprise architecture review. Not a word of what is discussed has to do neither with enterprise architecture – the ignorant call a solution review, enterprise architecture review – nor with the impact on business value. One drowns in endless debate on technology.
Why does this critical milestone elicit these yawns?
Perhaps the most political – not counting George Bush’s visit to ground zero after 9/11 – gathering in the world has to be an enterprise architecture review. Every geek in the company struts around like a peacock and wants what is in their individual best interest – either ego satisfaction or pushing a pet project.
Why does this imperative for discussion turn into a U.N. style debating society?
I can go on but hopefully you get the point. Enterprise architecture review is critical to governance. If we do not get the endless “technology for technology’s sake” discussions and politics out of the mix and introduce a healthy dose of meaningful business value discussion, enterprise architecture will always be a great thing that never could.
