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Re: [caf-forum] comments - CAF EA glossary comment

To: Chief Architects Forum <caf-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Santana Andrea <santana_andrea@xxxxxxx>
From: "Ira M Grossman" <Ira.M.Grossman@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 16:36:00 -0400
Message-id: <431371B0.4020509@xxxxxxxx>
Matt

Thanks.  I cut and pasted your proposed change to the wiki for consideration.  Please refer to http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Federated_Architecture

Ira

Newman, Matt wrote:

 

Ref:   http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Federated_Architecture#nid2VTH

 

 

Suggest changing technical definition of Federated Architecture


Proposed:

 

Federated Enterprise Architecture: A collective set of organizational architectures (as defined by the enterprise scope), operating collaboratively within the concept of federalism, in which governance is divided between a central authority and constituent units balancing organizational autonomy with enterprise needs. The central authority’s architecture focuses on the dynamics of economies of scale, standards, and the well being of the enterprise, while constituent units’ architecture has the flexibility to pursue autonomous strategies and independent processes. 

 

Rationale:

 

To the point why was the verb “federated” added to enterprise architecture? To address a complex or multi-mission enterprise that has multiple enterprise architectures functioning as a collective.  A Federated Enterprise Architecture embraces the concept of Federalism – “A system of government in which power is divided between a central authority and constituent political units”       Webster

 

The principles of Federalism can be gleamed from the Federalist Papers  or, for a more contemporary view, from an excellent discussion of Federalist concepts in business, Charles Handy’s “Balancing Corporate Power: A New Federalist Paper”, Harvard Business Review, Nov-Dec 1992.  He proposes guiding principles that embody Federalism.  With great liberty, these principles have been interpreted in the context of Enterprise Architecture as -

 

  • Heightened emphasis on Governance – Shared Power
  • Integration and acceptance of multiple Enterprise Architectures
  • Focus on cross-functional processes and standards by the “Parent” organization
  • Focus on unique or less frequently occurring functions by supporting organizations

 

The key characteristic is the balancing of control (i.e., power) between “Headquarters” and the quasi autonomous organizational units with the implied goal of a flexible and adaptive pluralistic enterprise that is sustainable.  This requires an alliance based on trust and common goals (Handy, 1992). 

 

In the author’s opinion there are two Federated Enterprise Architectures that faithfully embrace the concept of Federalism these are:

 

 

In addition there is an interesting discussion of Federated Architecture in support of supply chains –

 

 

 

While the definition originally proposed in the CAF does embrace some of the key characteristics of Federalism, the focus on LOBs is misguided.  While a LOB can have an architecture, it is not an Enterprise Architecture.  The term “Enterprise” is more expansive and is organizationally based (see definition for Enterprise in the glossary forum).  The whole concept of Federalism is a collection of organizational units operating collaboratively not a line of business.  Further there is insufficient emphasis on Governance.  In a separate topic, an alternative definition is proposed for consideration.

 

 

 

Edward Newman (Matt)

Information Resources Management College

National Defense University

(202) 685-2693

 


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