Blog - BiZZdesign EA and Business Process Management Software

Making the Case for Enterprise Architecture

March 14, 2019/0 Comments/in BiZZdesign, Blog, EA Business Case, Enterprise Architecture Software, Enterprise Architecture Tools /by Marc Lankhorst

Making the case for Enterprise Architecture in your organization is not always straightforward. That’s because management and, generally speaking, business stakeholders tend to want numbers up front, which is impossible to calculate beforehand. Now, there are plenty of studies that have been done that prove the value of Enterprise Architecture, but that’s only possible after engaging in the practice.

Business Architecture with ArchiMate

March 6, 2019/0 Comments/in ArchiMate, Blog, Business Architecture, Business Capability, Business Model Management, Business Process Management, Business Process Modeling, Capability Based Planning, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Architecture Software, Enterprise Architecture Tools /by Marc Lankhorst

Today, organizations need to move at speed and adapt their business to a volatile environment, while at the same time dealing with many inside and outside stakeholders and influences, ranging from customers and partners in the ecosystem to regulators, competitors, and the uncertain effects of politics (viz. Brexit or the US-China trade war). To be an adaptive enterprise, business architecture is an indispensable discipline. Without an architectural approach to your business, you will quickly get mired in the myriad changes and effects, without a clear path forward.

Agile and EA

February 27, 2019/0 Comments/in Agile, Agile Development, BiZZdesign, Blog, Enterprise Architecture Software, Enterprise Architecture Tools /by Marc Lankhorst

It seems like an unlikely pair, doesn’t it – Agile and Enterprise Architecture? Yet, as Agile awakens to the reality of having to move fast but in concert with other parts of the organization, and EA itself becomes more engaging and business goals-oriented, it actually makes a lot of sense to want to combine the two. Both practices bring significant benefits to an organization. Together they promise to unlock efficiencies that would increase business performance to a whole new level. Who could say no to a mix of organizational agility and solid strategic decision making? That would boost any business or digital initiative.

How Enterprise Architects Can Contribute to Innovation

February 20, 2019/0 Comments/in Adaptive Enterprise, BiZZdesign, Blog, Business Model Management, Business Process Management, Business Process Modeling, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Architecture Tools, Innovation /by Marc Lankhorst

In our ongoing series on high-speed organizations and the Adaptive Enterprise, we have written several times about the need to foster innovation in your organization. So how can enterprise architects contribute to that innovation?

Analyzing and Changing your Enterprise – Game vs. Play

February 13, 2019/0 Comments/in ArchiMate, BiZZdesign, Blog, Business Process Management, Business Process Modeling, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Architecture Software, Enterprise Architecture Tools, Enterprise Studio, Resources /by Marc Lankhorst and Peter Matthijssen

Much of what we do in the world of enterprise architecture and business process management is based on pre-defined analysis and design techniques, like a game that has a well-defined set of rules and operates within a bounded, predictable universe. You know what the aim of the game is (check-mate your opponent, or reduce the cost of your application landscape, for example) and follow the rules to get the optimal outcome.

5 Biggest Mistakes EAs Make

February 7, 2019/0 Comments/in Adaptive Enterprise, BiZZdesign, Blog, Enterprise Architecture Software, Enterprise Architecture Tools /by Marc Lankhorst

Enterprise architecture done well holds terrific benefits for organizations dealing with the challenges of an increasingly digital world. All enterprise architecture initiatives are not created equal, however. While some grow and develop into important business success enablers, others may simply flounder after a while.

APIs – Managing Challenges with a Portfolio Management Approach

January 22, 2019/0 Comments/in API, API Economy, API Management, Application Portfolio Management, BiZZdesign, Blog, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Architecture Software, Enterprise Architecture Tools, Portfolio Management, Project Portfolio Management /by Nick Reed

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) have emerged in recent years as a key enabler of digital transformation and enterprise agility.

Agile Architecture: Using ArchiMate® with the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®)

January 9, 2019/0 Comments/in ArchiMate, BiZZdesign, Blog, BPM, Business Process Management, Business Process Modeling, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Architecture Software, Enterprise Architecture Tools, Gartner, TOGAF /by Marc Lankhorst

In the past I’ve written several blog posts on enterprise architecture in an agile world, most recently together with my colleague Fabian on our tool support for Agile and DevOps, and a bit longer ago on the use of ArchiMate in an agile context. In this blog post, I want to revisit the latter subject and add some newer insights and ideas with SAFe®.

The Digital Twin Organization: Can Enterprise Architecture Help?

November 21, 2018/0 Comments/in ArchiMate, BiZZdesign, Blog, BPM, Business Process Management, Business Process Modeling, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Architecture Software, Enterprise Architecture Tools, Gartner, TOGAF /by Raz Mitache

One of the more interesting developments in the tech space taking place right now is the emergence of digital twin technology. For those of you asking What is a digital twin? right now, allow us to elaborate.

Combining Structure and Data: Business Intelligence 2.0

November 15, 2018/0 Comments/in ArchiMate, BiZZdesign, Blog, BPM, Business Process Management, Business Process Modeling, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Architecture Software, Enterprise Architecture Tools, Gartner /by Marc Lankhorst

In previous blog posts, we have written about various analysis techniques that help you get more value from your models, as well as dashboarding techniques to visualize data in all kinds of ways. These two topics point to a more general theme: the new possibilities you get from enriching your models with various types of external data. We call this Business Intelligence 2.0.

100 Questions to Ace an Enterprise Architect Job Interview

November 1, 2018/0 Comments/in ArchiMate, BiZZdesign, Blog, BPM, Cloud, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Architecture Software, Enterprise Architecture Tools, Portfolio Management, Project Portfolio Management, Roadmapping, SaaS, Security Architecture, TOGAF /by Raz Mitache

Interviews are where jobs are won or lost. A résumé – especially a strong one – will ensure you get your foot in the door but to actually secure the position you need to shine during the interview, which means being prepared. Preparation makes you look knowledgeable and relaxed, two traits that people generally prize in their work colleagues.

Planning and Roadmapping: Advanced Functionality for Time-Based Analysis

October 24, 2018/0 Comments/in ArchiMate, BiZZdesign, Blog, Business Process Modeling, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Architecture Software, Enterprise Architecture Tools, Roadmapping /by Marc Lankhorst and Sven van Dijk

In the two previous installments, we discussed planning and roadmapping in the context of enterprise architecture, and how you can use the concepts of the ArchiMate language to model your roadmaps. We showed how you can model the evolution of your enterprise at coarse-grained level, using concepts such as ArchiMate’s ‘plateau’. In this installment, we will discuss more fine-grained modeling of change in Enterprise Studio. Specifically, we will show you how you can model the lifecycles of individual elements of your architecture. Moreover, our platform supports analysis based on life cycles and the dependencies between elements, for instance, to find conflicts in your transition plans.

Behavioral Economics & Enterprise Architecture (2): Improve Decision Making

October 17, 2018/0 Comments/in BiZZdesign, Blog, Business Process Management, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Architecture Software, Enterprise Architecture Tools /by Tim Vehof

The promise of enterprise architecture is that it helps improve decision making. Typically, the role of the enterprise architect is to advise and enable other stakeholders to make better decisions. Therefore, Enterprise Architecture – more than anything else – is a social discipline, in that it demands social skills and interaction in order for practitioners to successfully engage with stakeholders and change their behavior. Read more

Planning and Roadmapping : Modeling in ArchiMate

October 9, 2018/0 Comments/in ArchiMate, BiZZdesign, Blog, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Architecture Software, Enterprise Architecture Tools, Roadmapping /by Marc Lankhorst and Sven van Dijk

In our previous blog post on planning and roadmapping, we discussed the general idea of planning and roadmapping in the context of enterprise architecture and capability-based planning. We addressed different levels of roadmaps, ranging from short-term sprints of a few weeks to long-term, multi-year roadmaps. We also provided some first insights into the use of ArchiMate concepts for modeling roadmaps. In this installment, we want to go deeper into different ways of modeling the evolution of your architecture.

Planning and Roadmapping : Introduction

September 25, 2018/0 Comments/in ArchiMate, BiZZdesign, Blog, Business Process Management, Business Process Modeling, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Architecture Software, Enterprise Architecture Tools, Roadmapping /by Marc Lankhorst and Sven van Dijk

A key driver for management in general and enterprise architecture in particular is to get a better grip on the future, on the evolution of your enterprise. A common technique to support this is roadmapping. A roadmap is a strategic plan that shows the main steps or milestones needed to achieve a desired outcome. It articulates the strategic direction of your enterprise and shows the path forward. It helps you identify what is needed and what the main dependencies and priorities are, and serves as a communication instrument to align the organization along a common course of action.

Organizing Architecture Governance With Workflow And Forms

September 12, 2018/0 Comments/in BiZZdesign, Blog, BPM, Business Process Management, Business Process Modeling, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Architecture Software, Enterprise Architecture Tools, Security Architecture /by Marc Lankhorst

In a previous blog post on the features of our collaboration platform, we have explained how you can support people in working together on architectures and other models via structured workflows. In that post, we looked ahead at future features to support this kind of collaboration. Time to update you on the latest developments!

– Marc Lankhorst, Fabian Aulkemeier

Data Analysis with Dashboards in HoriZZon

August 15, 2018/0 Comments/in Application Portfolio Management, BiZZdesign, Blog, Business Architecture, Business Model Management, Business Process Management, Business Process Modeling, Decision Model Management, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Architecture Software, Enterprise Architecture Tools, Enterprise Portfolio Management, Enterprise Studio, Infrastructure Architecture Management, Portfolio Management /by Marc Lankhorst and Rob Kroese

In my recent blog post on stakeholder communication, I described various basic forms of communication about architecture, with diagrams, tables, heatmaps and the like. What I did not touch upon in that post is how you can enrich your architecture (and other) models with additional data and display the results in various dashboards. That is the topic of this post.

Practical ArchiMate Viewpoints for the Application Layer

August 8, 2018/0 Comments/in ArchiMate, BiZZdesign, Blog, BPM, BPMN, Business Architecture, Business Capability, Business Model Management, Business Process Management, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Architecture Software, Enterprise Architecture Tools, TOGAF /by Bernd Ihnen

In my previous blog post (https://bizzdesign.com/blog/a-pattern-for-sizing-archimate-diagrams) I described why it is useful to reduce complexity when creating architecture diagrams. It supports the architect by guiding the creation of diagrams and it supports the reader by not creating overly complex diagrams (too many different types of concepts). Each viewpoint addresses a specific concern, e.g. a capability map to show what the capabilities of a company are. In this blog I will focus on the application layer to provide practical examples using the viewpoint creation pattern described in the previous blog post. The examples are quite generic. They are meant to be used as a starting point for professionals looking to learn more on the subject so they appeal to a large audience.

The Consumerization of Enterprise Architecture: Everyone’s an Architect!

August 1, 2018/1 Comment/in BiZZdesign, Blog, Business Process Management, Business Process Modeling, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Architecture Software, Enterprise Architecture Tools, Portfolio Management, Security Architecture, TOGAF /by Marc Lankhorst

Enterprise architecture is often perceived as an abstract, conceptual, and somewhat esoteric discipline practiced by ‘high priests’ who provide guidance with their lofty ‘architecture principles.’ It’s true that architects are often concerned with overarching, cross-cutting concerns that are not always visible to the people ‘in the trenches,’ but this view of enterprise architecture is misguided at best and increasingly misses the mark.

Agile/DevOps Support in Enterprise Studio & HoriZZon

July 26, 2018/0 Comments/in Adaptive Enterprise, ArchiMate, BiZZdesign, Blog, Business Architecture, Business Model Management, Decision Model Management, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Architecture Software, Enterprise Architecture Tools, Enterprise Studio, Resources, Roadmapping /by Marc Lankhorst

In our previous blog post, we outlined why Enterprise Architecture and Agile/DevOps are key in becoming an adaptive enterprise. We also described several use cases where EA can strengthen Agile and DevOps practices. Now, we want to focus on the ways in which you can connect these in practice, using architecture models and appropriate tool support.