Architecture, whether at the enterprise level, domain level, or solution level often describes a target / ideal state. Yet the leap from the as-is landscape to the future state is often significant and requires intermediate architectural states. Getting these transition architectures right can mean the difference between future state success

Mergers and acquisitions can represent unnerving territory. Yet by borrowing some hard-won lessons from product management, M&A can become both manageable and predictable using the tools explained here. 

Most EA practices are adequate. A select few are outstanding. Some are downright beacractic and frankly not useful. So is there a secret sauce for making EA outstanding?

David Norton and Robert Kaplan once noted that 90% of organizations fail to execute their strategies successfully.  The reasons strategic plans fail can be diverse, but many of them are tied to common traits of a weak strategic plan, such as a: Lack of purpose (developed “to have one,” but

Of the many challenges I observe CIOs endure– perhaps the most painful is proving the efficacy of IT itself. IT leaders must constantly educate their peers around what IT actually does in the 21st century, and how these IT capabilities are crucial to the health and success of the business.

A 360-degree view of the customer lifecycle is both more possible today than it ever has been and more critical. Businesses have long grasped the need to identify their ideal customers—demographics, pain points, motivations—but modern digital disruption and “big data” have completely changed the meaning and methods of the process. Prospective

An underutilized resource, benchmarking is often lost in the shuffle of opinions from internal leaders and external consultants. Yet benchmarking is a powerful tool which leverages inexpensive observation over costly trial and error. 

The Pain of Corporate Purchasing Making a significant purchase within the enterprise can be challenging. Justification of new software, infrastructure, or consulting may necessitate many iterations of grueling explanations. Yet it doesn’t need to be this difficult. 

More Extremes and Pendulum Swings In the past four years or so, I’ve been fortunate enough to work on numerous projects involving modern infrastructure. I’m referring to 100% cloud-based storage/network/compute environments used to drive customer-facing products. Some of these infrastructures were transformational (moving from legacy data centers to the cloud)