Like anything however I am always keen to find a new way to do what I do, and this has led me to reviewing a number of well known approaches to those issues we all so dearly battle with when producing a technical product. These methodologies are:

• Rational Unified Process (RUP)
• Zachman Framework
• The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF)
• Extended Enterprise Architecture Framework (E2AF)
• and a few others not really worthy of note.

I am determined to become TOGAF certified, but I have found all of these approaches except RUP quite good and I often borrow a little bit out of each to enable a vision.

But to the reason for this post… The following quote is taken from the Institute for Enterprise Architecture Developments web site and I found it quite meaningful so I decided to blog it here:

• No Strategic Vision, No EA: If you know where you are, but you don’t know where to go. Don’t plan a journey.
• Good is Good Enough: An Enterprise Architect knows he has achieved the perfect solution not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is, nothing left to take away.
• The Only Constant is Dynamics: Dynamics is the only constant while adaptiveness is the natural variable, so plan for this constant.
• Pure Logic is the ruin of the Spirit: Pure logic is the ruin of the spirit and creativity delivers unexpected opportunities, so use your creativity.
• Be Enterprising: If you want to create an Enterprise Architecture, don’t drum up the architects to collect information and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless value creating possibilities of the enterprise.

BTW – I would rather be behind the camera than behind a sequence diagram!