Every three to four years finds me on the phone with EA Principal arranging another TOGAF or ArchiMate training course for my staff.  Inevitably, I am working at a new company helping to build an architecture program supporting digital transformation.  Typically, the architecture team is enthusiastic but lack a strong grounding in the enterprise architecture practices that will take them to the next level.

Recently I was having dinner with Steve Else.  We were reflecting on his multi-decade career helping teams across the globe deliver value through architecture.  Reviewing my 13+ year in architecture leadership, I realized the impact Steve and EA Principal have had some my career and my team’s successes:

• At General Services Administration (GSA) in 2010 I was a new Chief Architect with little formal architecture experience beyond the skills I learned building large systems at the Federal Aviation Administration.  EA Principal provided TOGAF 8 training, and my team used that expertise to support business capability modeling, IT strategy development and decision support across GSA.  We started leveraging the TOGAF meta model in all our work.  In fact, we had a practice that every time we were asked to provide architecture recommendations we’d start by asking “which parts of the TOGAF metamodel” apply to the problem I am trying to solve.  In 2012 my team was awarded a GTRA EA award – in big part due to the practices Steve instilled in our team.
• Later at Arizona Public Service (APS) I called EA Principal again.  I had a strong team of former infrastructure and application engineers.  To get to the next level our team needed a structured approach to analysis and modeling.  Steve provided a comprehensive class in Archimate that shifted the team’s thinking.  I could see the staff change their mindset as they realized they could now express concepts linking business strategy to the underlying information technology.  As a result of this training our team-built business acumen including a robust approach to business capability analysis that won us award and recognition by Forrester in 2019.
• Crown Castle, a leading provider of telecommunications infrastructure in the United States faces digital transformation challenges that require strong architectural thinking.  Years of acquisitions have led to a complex technology landscape that needs to be optimized.  New opportunities in virtual networking, cloud, and 5G / IoT technologies require new products and step changes in our approach to information technology.  A strong enterprise architecture practice basement on a foundation of TOGAF and Archimate is needed to help advise the right investments to meet Crown’s objectives.  Once again, I have reached out to EA Principal to provide training and best practices.

More often than not I meet enterprise and solution architects with a strong technology background but limited skills at strategic planning and analysis.  The consulting and training provided by EA Principal provides architecture teams a framework and structure for leading organizational through the digital transformation.

Authored by Dr. Brett Brunk, Ph.D., Director Architecture, Crown Castle