1. What’s your understanding of EA? What role does EA play in the progress of enterprise information?

Chris Forde：Enterprise Architecture is a statement of scope, Information Architecture is also a statement of scope so is IT Architecture. Taking an architected approach to an opportunity or problem is a management discipline. This discipline is applied to deliver business value through effective creation and management of complex dynamic systems; I don’t just mean IT systems but systems in its broader context.

Information (data in context) is critical for informed decision making at many levels in any organization. It is also critical for gaining insights not previously understood or seen.

In most organizations data is created and referenced by many, many people and systems that are internal and external to the organization.

Using an EA framework and method to improve organizational understanding of the importance and relevance of information at the strategic, tactical and operational day-to-day level can improve decision-making. Informed, including insightful decisions, are generally better decisions in my opinion.

2. How does TOGAF® increase business efficiency, as well as business value?

Chris Forde：TOGAF an Open Group Standard is a set of best practices in Enterprise Architecture. It should be customized to take advantage of the culture and the existing best practices within an organization. TOGAF is a Framework and Method that organizations can use to accelerate their implementation of an Architecture practice.

Organizations can also use TOGAF to bring together the many different practices they contract with 3rd parties for. Reconciling the deliverables of multiple consultancies and service providers is a hidden burden and missed opportunity for most organizations. This is a very sophisticated use of EA.

An EA program can have a dramatic effect on the efficiency of an organization when it is applied effectively. By effectively I mean moving beyond strategic top design and driving through to tactics, execution and delivery across the organization for the right scope.

Most organizations need to deliver value by improving their business capabilities while driving down costs. That is not an easy problem and you need a proven framework and method to help start the journey to deliver that value.

3. What’s the international recognition of TOGAF? Is there any achievement? Could you share with us some successful case studies and experiences overseas?

Chris Forde：TOGAF is the basis of EA programs in 80% of the Global 50 and 60% of the Fortune 500. At this time there are more than 30,000 individuals around the world certified in TOGAF. In North America TOGAF Certified Architects could expect to be paid a premium of 8-13% above their non-certified colleagues.

A really important point is TOGAF is based on proven best practices contributed from and agreed upon by many multinational organizations and smaller companies including government agencies. The Open Group employees do not decide what is a best practice or should be a standard, our member companies decide what is proven best practice and should become a standard.

The Open Group is vendor and technology neutral so I will mention an organization that The Open Group classifies in the category of “customers” of services rather than “suppliers” of services from our perspective. Also this “Enterprise” is not what people typically think of when that word is used as a part of EA.

The Republic of Korea (South Korea) is ranked #1 in the world for e-government services by the UN DESA survey for 2012. They began their EA journey by understanding and using TOGAF in 1997. At that time TOGAF was primarily IT focused. In 2003 they were ranked #13. By 2010 they ranked #1. The agency responsible for driving EA in The Republic of Korea joined The Open Group Architecture Forum in 1997, which is the group of member’s organizations developing TOGAF inside The Open Group.

4. What’s the Chinese enterprises’ acceptance of EA? Did you have any issues or challenges while introducing this concept to the CIOs in China?

Chris Forde：China is a big place with many organizations I have not yet met with all of them… I have met with a mix of people; people who have some awareness of EA but limited to no experience in directly applying it comprehensively, and people with sophisticated Architecture practices, and highly skilled and knowledgeable people but who are struggling with certain aspects of EA. EA maturity in China varies widely as it does outside of China.

Awareness of EA is relatively good and interest in TOGAF strong. TOGAF is generally accepted because it is globally the most widely adopted and useful framework of EA best practices. There are many cases of EA delivering business value through TOGAF.

I think the largest issue I see is that some organizations expect a prescriptive guide saying exactly what they need to do to be successful immediately in their own specific company or department; this is not a realistic view of managing a complex and dynamically changing business environment. Best practices and methods are very important accelerators but they are not an immediate solution to be opened like a pot of instant noodles.

On the other hand there is quite a substantial eco-system of vertical industry specific material about applying TOGAF, this material goes beyond what you find in the published standard. Some of these materials are published by The Open Group some of it through other organizations leveraging TOGAF. We often collaborate with other standards bodies and authors on such material. Presentations at our events are filled with such cases.

5. There are many types of EA frameworks available to the Chinese market such as TOGAF, FEA, DODAF etc. Could you give your suggestions to the Chinese enterprise while making decision?

Chris Forde：I understand that considerable research has been done in China regarding EA frameworks. My suggestions are:

1) Recognize that no matter what choice you make you are going to need to do a lot more work than declaring a “framework winner” in the decision. The important thing is choosing well and starting.

2) Think about how EA fits to the rest of what goes on in your organization. Often I see a blended approach to framework uses, which is something TOGAF addresses in the first few chapters. TOGAF rightly assumes it will not be the only framework and method in use and it needs to be interoperable with if not integrated with other areas of practices (DoDAF, MoDAF, eTOM, BIAN, SABSA, PMI, COBIT etc).

3) Be very clear about what outcomes and scope you have to deliver against and in what timeframe. It may not be necessary to adopt and implement every sentence in these frameworks.

4) Do not delay. Start your EA journey now. Your competition is not delaying; you may be surprised to learn that you are already 5-8 years behind your competition or leading companies in China relative to EA.

5) Be prepared to start and learn from mistakes, persevere, build the practical experience of your employees, and adapt quickly in changing the frameworks to meet your organizational needs currently and in the future. Organizations are dynamic and changing constantly, your Architecture approach also needs to be flexible

6. Some emerging information technologies has taken the enterprise management to the era of cloud, such as cloud computing, Internet of things. What problems will enterprises encounter if regulation of architecture and enterprise information standards are not available? How does EA solve those issues?

Chris Forde：The Open Group members are working on the interrelated areas of Cloud, Big Data, Social, Mobility and IoT in a forum called Platform 3.0. In March of this year specific to cloud computing and EA they published a Cloud Ecosystem Reference Model.

The Cloud Ecosystem Reference Model defines the major actors and their relationships and a minimum set of Architecture Building Blocks (ABB’s). The model describes the architectural capabilities to be realized and facilitated by at least one of the new or existing participants of an enterprise Cloud Ecosystem. The model establishes a common language for the various participants of an enterprise Cloud Ecosystem that supports the validations of Cloud Service Providers’ solutions to achieve architectural integrity of business solutions of an enterprise.

The Cloud Ecosystem Reference Model should be considered as an extension of an Enterprise Architecture Model. The reference model can be used to define architectures for any specific scenario applicable for an enterprise utilizing Solution Building Blocks (SBBs) implemented by any new or existing participants of an enterprise Cloud Ecosystem. The visibility of these capabilities will vary according to the role(s) of the participants.

EA helps organizations make informed choices. One of those informed choices is using standards and in leveraging emerging technologies where standards have yet to be settled. Emerging technologies represent an opportunity for differentiation; they also represent an area of risk. EA helps manage risk and opportunity.

7. In your opinion, what should Chinese enterprise pay attention for implementing enterprise architecture? What are the bottlenecks? How to get better performance?

Chris Forde：Pay attention to reality. How ready is the organization (department or Enterprise level) to engage in EA practices. Pay attention to the time and investment required to start and build these EA capabilities. EA is not only about Information Technology EA is a management discipline. Identify good leaders and managers not just technicians to lead and operate your EA practice. Pay attention to where you place the EA team and the level of sustained executive sponsorship it has. Look at the EA function in the same frame of mind you would your HR or Finance team or R&D team, in the long term it is that important.

8. As we known, The Open Group has working with many suppliers, consortia and standards bodies to capture, understand and address their current and emerging requirements, establish policies, and share best practices. How does The Open Group keep neutral during this process?

Chris Forde：Openness and neutrality are core values of The Open Group. We have our brand promise and our reputation to uphold. We have clear published policies, procedures and a deterministic standards process based on a consensus approach, which promotes collaboration normally voting is not necessary. These things enable the staff and members to reinforce appropriate behaviour in real time with each other.

It is important to understand that multiple commercial suppliers of services who are direct competitors are working on developing these standards in the same (virtual) room with their actual or potential customers. Often these organizations are contributing Intellectual Property developed over decades. Everyone is watching the behaviour of the others. It is a very interesting dynamic. No matter how large or small the member company, every member company has the same voice. The quality of the idea and practice is important, not the size of the organization.

Additionally The Open Group does not compete with its member organizations. We do not provide training or consultancy services. We deliver membership, certification and event services.

In terms of governance all publications of our standards from any forum are subject to a review by all member companies for content and then finally a board review for compliance to our policies and standards process.