Samuel Holcman: Thank you for tuning in to Real Talk. Be sure to join your host Sam Holcman again for another edition of our program. We'll have more Real Topics of discussion then. How do you sort out the so-called jargon from Enterprise Architecture and Business Architecture practices that work? Do the members of your organization find some business or technology advice utterly confusing? Welcome to Real with Sam Holcman. ⁓ In this program, we the record straight ⁓ and in terms that business people and technology people can understand. Now, here is host, Sam Holcman. ⁓

Sam Holcman: What has your team been able to hand to a business leader from your TOGAF or other enterprise architecture work that they could read and make a strategic decision from without an architect in the room to explain it? That's the question almost always surfaces the gaps EACOE is built to fill. I'm Sam Holcman, and this is the edition of Real Talk with Sam Holcman. Let us understand what is actually going on in the enterprise architecture world today. What we need to think about is being business understanding led, not IT led. TOGAF and other enterprise architecture approaches varies enterprise architecture as a peer to IT domains applications, information, technology. EACOE flips this. It starts with Business language and business intent, and then does technology enter the conversation as a make-to-order technology implementation approach? For someone frustrated that their enterprise architecture work keeps getting pulled into information technology project execution, this is a core message. What are the other issues we're facing? What is required is a step-by-step methodology versus a toolkit you have to interpret. TOGAF's ADM, as in other base of knowledge approaches, tells you what you may do, but not how. Practitioners must cross-reference extensive documentation and make judgment calls. This is true, especially the first time an enterprise architecture approach is attempted. How do we expect someone to do this if they've never done it before? EACOE provides a fully detailed, executable, step-by-step methodology, a recipe, so teams know exactly what to produce at each stage and in what sequence. This dramatically reduces ramp-up time, builds a solid repeatable foundation, and eliminates interpretation inconsistencies across the team. One of the most important things is the concept of human consumable deliverables that business leaders can actually use. EACOE artifacts are explicitly designed for non-architects, stakeholders to read, challenge, and act on, of course, as well as technology specialists. TOGAF and similar approaches develop artifacts that are framework native and generally require translation before a business leader can actually use them. Ask your stakeholder the following question. Can your CFO or COO or business manager pick up one of your current enterprise architecture deliverables and make a decision from it? If the answer is unfortunately no, that's exactly the gap EACOE closes. What is the output we're actually looking for out of enterprise architecture? It's business initiatives that are structured. And deliverable as output. EACOE defines a business initiative as an integrated composite of business goals, processes, materials, data, roles, locations, and events, all organized to drive strategy to a specific desired outcome. TOGAF's ADM and similar approaches do not treat business drivers' goals and objectives as core to its content model. They are listed as extensions. The organization has likely been producing IT project lists, not true business initiatives. That's enterprise architecture. That's what EACOE produces. One stable frame of reference is required. The enterprise framework. TOGAF and similar approaches are a hybrid that combine framework and methodology elements without fully being either, and is continually modified and revised. EACOE's enterprise framework is a stable frame of reference, a thinking tool, grounded in actual decades of enterprise architecture practice. And the work of John Zachman and John Sowa. The same organizing structure applied regardless of the initiative, regardless of the industry, and regardless of the project. One framework. And of course, multiple methodologies that can operate on top of it. Methodologies are not frameworks, and frameworks are not methodologies. But every methodology is dependent upon a framework, whether it's explicitly defined or not. This gives the enterprise a durable institutional knowledge base rather than a moving target as versions continue to change. Evergreening architecture that compounds its understanding over time. Enterprise architecture is not a static one-off situation. Enterprise architecture actually ends when the enterprise ceases to exist or ceases to change. TOGAF-based EA And related approaches often produce point-of-time deliverables that expire when a project ends. EACOE's enterprise architecture is designed to be kept evergreen. Each successive project or initiative contributes to and enhances the enterprise knowledge base so that the architecture increases in robustness over time rather than being rebuilt from scratch each cycle. Enterprise architecture leads change. Documentation occurs after the change is made. Unfortunately, most architectures are actually documentation. What about practitioners? The focus should be on practitioner certification versus exam-based certification. For team members who are TOGAF certified or have related certifications, that exam-based certification certifies and validates. That they have read TOGAF. EACOE trained practitioners consistently identify 26 specific capability gaps that their TOGAF certification left unaddressed, including foundational skills like producing business initiatives, applying traceability across architecture layers, and customizing the methodology to original context. EACOE certification is earned by doing EA in a workshop. Seventy five plus percent of the workshop time is hands-on production of real enterprise teloves. If this broadcast rings a bell with you, please reach out to us. It'd be our pleasure to speak with you. Let's have a conversation about where you are today and where you need to go. We can be reached at my email, sam at eacoe.org, sam at eacoe.org, or set up an online appointment with us at www. dot eacoe dot org. Thanks for tuning in and listening.