The role of the enterprise architect is elusive to most employees of an organization and sometimes to the enterprise architect him or herself. To understand why an enterprise architect is needed we have to approach it from another angle that of the city. The majority of humans today live in cities and it defines modern human existence.
A city is similar to an organism with a metabolism, an insight first made by Albert Wolman in his 1965 article The Metabolism of Cities:
“The metabolic requirements of a city can be defined as all the materials and commodities needed to sustain the city’s inhabitants at home, at work and at play. Over a period of time these requirements include even the construction materials needed to build and rebuild the city itself. The metabolic cycle is not completed until the wastes and residues of daily life have been removed and disposed of with a minimum of nuisance and hazard”Like an organism the city constantly replenishes and regenerates itself and the conditions for its future existence. But unlike an organism this process is maintained, not by itself, but by something else, namely the people that inhabit the landscape that defines the city. They orchestrate the metabolic processes, such as distributing water, energy and waste disposal.
For a city, this orchestration of metabolic processes can be more or less managed. If growth is not managed urban sprawl results. If waste is not managed, the conditions for the people living there will deteriorate. If energy is not available and distributed, the means of production will suffer. As should be clear from these examples, the management of the city’s processes has direct consequences for whether it will thrive. That is why most cities today have city plans.
One of the most illustrative metaphors for enterprise architecture is city planning and an Enterprise Architecture always exists. Like city development the question is only the degree to which it is known and the extent to which it is managed. That is the key insight of Ross, Weil and Robertson’s seminal work Enterprise Architecture as Strategy.
Organisations are similar to cities, they also have a metabolism and structure whether that is conscious or not. They need to organise, not so much water, waste and energy, but the flow of money, people, material and information. Like the city, the orchestration is done by the people who inhabit the organisation, that is, the employees. The processes happen whether one wants it or not and whether it is actively managed.
This is where the enterprise architect enters the picture. Like the city planner, he helps the organisation orchestrate the metabolic processes of the organisation in particular the flow of information.
Ideally the enterprise architect doesn’t decide anything. Much like the city planner he or she advises and recommends those in charge of the processes and help them understand what the consequences of decisions may be. The enterprise architect therefore needs to understand a wide range of disciplines and integrate these insights to create a holistic view.
The CIO manages the infrastructure and application estate of the company and signs off on invoices and procurement. The CTO usually leads the technical direction and choice of tools and development practice. The enterprise architect is the only one tasked with the flow of information in the organisation in general. Consequently the enterprise architect will be particularly interested in knowing and managing the flow of information. This is why documentation and governance is such a central part of the job.
Documentation increases the knowledge of the information systems through which data and information flows. This is captured in documents and EA tools. When the enterprise architect starts making lists it is not just an academic exercise, it is similar to the city planner drawing maps of the city, utility lines and sewage systems. This knowledge may be known locally but consolidated information is necessary for meaningful future organisation.
Governance relates to how decisions are made. The city planner would want to make sure the zoning plans and building codes exist and that there are processes put in place to make sure that they are followed. Architecture governance helps manage and guide the development of information systems so as to provide the optimal support for the purpose of the organisation.
Like city planners, enterprise architects don’t give press conferences and make bold decisions. Rather they live a quiet life in the background. They are, however, probably some of the most important people to make sure that modern organisations succeed, since information technology pervades everything.
Photo by Art Institute of Chicago on Unsplash
Danish 
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