Inside Architecture

Notes on Enterprise Architecture, Business Alignment, Interesting Trends, and anything else that interests me this week...

Where Is Nick Blogging Now?

Hello Enterprise Architects!  If you are seeing this post, you probably have your RSS feed set to my...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 09/13/2016

Never Waste A Good Crisis

The title of this post is a bit of advice I first heard many years ago, while working on an...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/16/2015

Sharing the Solution Domain Taxonomy

Sometimes, Enterprise Architecture efforts fail.  This is no surprise to folks in the EA...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/23/2015

Alternatives to the EPSC Model

The Enterprise Partner Supplier Customer (EPSC) Model sits as a core concept of Enterprise...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 02/16/2015

How brand-thinking can kill you, and capability thinking can save you

I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that business strategy work is often about constrained...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 01/29/2015

Moving Towards a Theory of Enterprise Architecture

I’ve been asked a number of times over the years if I can explain the theory of Enterprise...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 01/16/2015

Do you perform Information Architecture or a Data Architecture?

So, full disclosure, I care about Wikipedia.  Call me dumb, I know.  Wikipedia has been...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 11/21/2014

The Architecture Manager – the Forgotten Enterprise Architecture Role

I’ve met many Architecture Managers over the years.  Sometimes they go by the title of “Chief...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 11/11/2014

When does EA start to care about sociocultural influences?

Organizations do not work, in real life, like they work on paper.  On paper, there are...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 08/13/2014

Call to survey – Is your EA program valuable?

This is the first time I’ve done this, so I’m hoping that my friends will contribute your opinions:...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/23/2014

Being Forgotten in the Internet of Things

We all know that Google lost a landmark legal case recently.  As of now, a citizen of Europe...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 06/30/2014

EA Debt

(Note: I've added an addendum to this post) It has been many years that we have lived with the...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 06/24/2014

Enterprise Initiatives – A Train Built By Monkeys

Business leaders demand alignment, right?  Many folks frame enterprise architecture (EA) as a...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 06/03/2014

Does anonymity promote ill-informed consensus?

There are a spate of new Social Media apps that have emerged lately, all of which allow people to...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/05/2014

Business Architects: What’s at the “core”?

I made an interesting mistake, today… one that comes up from time to time.  I used a business...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/04/2014

Climbing the ladder from EITA to EA

One of the most common problems in Enterprise Architecture, and one I get asked about routinely, is...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 03/10/2014

Enterprise Architecture as Story

One of the most compelling things that an EA can do is frame the vision of a better future as a...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 12/11/2013

Diversity Versus Replication of Organizational Processes and Information

I recently had the pleasure of joining a discussion among organizational development professionals....

Author: Nick Malik Date: 10/23/2013

The Purpose of an Enterprise Architecture Framework

Can Social Media create new ideas? Here’s an example where the answer is “yes.” I...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 10/14/2013

What makes models interesting

Since 2009, when I first published my open source metamodel of enterprise architecture (the...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 09/30/2013

Ten Ways to Kill An Enterprise Architecture Practice

Have you seen practices that you know could kill an Enterprise Architecture practice?  I...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 09/05/2013

Enterprise Architects are more than “problem solvers”

One of the most common mistakes that people make about Enterprise Architects is the notion that we...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 09/04/2013

Business Architects: Do Not Start With Strategy

Frequently, when reading articles or books on business architecture, the following advice emerges:...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 08/24/2013

Business Models in Business Architecture

It still surprises me to see various discussions of business architecture where there is a poor...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 08/19/2013

We do what you say we will do – Integrity By Architecture

One of the chief complaints of senior executives in midsize and large companies is that their...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/06/2013

Placing Architecture Properly into Scrum Processes

As I’m about to complete my share of a longer engagement on using Lean principles to improve the...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 06/11/2013

A practical set of EA deliverables

A question on LinkedIn recently reminded me that, as the team leader for Segment Architecture in my...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 05/31/2013

The “Right” Representation of the EA Value Cycle

In the world of Enterprise Architecture, we are still creating “shared” understanding of how to tell...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/29/2013

Accelerating Business Architecture

I have, on occasion, been asked to spend time with an Enterprise Architecture team to help that team...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/26/2013

How to Become a Hero for Growth

One thing that happens when you work to develop change across an organization: you detect the...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/22/2013

Unraveling the Developer Bias in Agile Development Practices

There is a contradiction that shows up in many books and articles on agile software...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/16/2013

Has in-person communication become the unwilling victim of technology?

In Enterprise Architecture, one of the most important aspects of the job is not only to communicate,...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/08/2013

AGILE architecture vs. agile ARCHITECTURE

As an architect involved in an agile implementation (my current gig), you can imagine how interested...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 04/05/2013

Humility and the Art of Enterprise Architecture

As a lot, Enterprise Architects are not terribly humble people.  We name frameworks after...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 02/26/2013

Should Business Architects use the Business Model Canvas at the Program level?

In the Open Group conference at Newport Beach, I listened to a series of presentations on business...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 01/31/2013

Rumination on the concept of “best practice”

I heard some very interesting talks today from Len Fehskens and Jeff Scott at the Open Group...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 01/28/2013

All Effective Enterprise Architects Are Agile

I explained to one of my clients recently that there is a perception of animosity between the...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 01/15/2013

The most important personality trait of an Enterprise Architect

The video below, from RSA Animate, is not about Enterprise Architecture.  At least, on the...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 01/10/2013

Steps To Create a Core Diagram

To be fair, these are steps to create a solid understanding of the architecture of a business, but...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 12/19/2012

Everything you’ve read about IT Project Failure is wrong

I did a scan around the web to figure out what many of the leading thinkers were saying about IT...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 12/09/2012

The Story behind “Stories That Move Mountains”

There is a new book available that I’d like to let everyone know about.  It is called “Stories...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 11/04/2012

Is Enterprise Architecture accountable for improving customer experience?

A recent experience with poor customer service has got me thinking about the role of EA in...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 10/02/2012

Many (flawed) Definitions of Business Architecture

Not long ago, I attempted to create a refined definition of “business architecture.” I...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 09/11/2012

Taking a Careful Slice – Defining Business Architecture

I’m putting together my presentations for TechEd New Zealand, one of which is titled...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 08/27/2012

Podcast on the Enterprise Architecture profession–Interview with CIPS’s Stephen Ibaraki

Way back in April, I announced the first of two podcasts with the Canadian Information Processing...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 08/26/2012

The EA Metamodel behind the Business Model Generation

Back when Alexander Osterwalder was first working on the book “Business Model...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 08/22/2012

Aligning the EBMM with Archimate

I just recently had a conversation with a talented enterprise architect who had brought together the...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 08/10/2012

Speaking at TechEd New Zealand on Business Architecture

Haven’t  been to New Zealand yet, but I will be there soon… From September 4 through 7 in...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 08/01/2012

Will Enterprise Architecture Ever “Cross the Chasm?”

The profession of Enterprise Architecture is beginning to emerge from its early stages of...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/26/2012

Positioning an Enterprise Architect for Success

As I found in our Enterprise Architecture team in Microsoft, each time an Enterprise Architect is...

Author: Nick Malik Date: 07/09/2012

Next>