Recap: Penn State Enterprise Architecture Education & Research Initiative

In this session at the Open Group Conference, Dr. Brian Cameron walked us through Penn State Enterprise Architecture Initiative at the College of ISTEA IST. I have blogged about this program before (Enterprise Architecture Goes To College, EA Becoming Academically Recognized and Offered) where I provide a listing of the other college institutions that offer EA in some form or another.

I learned a few additional interesting facts about the program. Specifically some of the key areas that Dr. Cameron is planning on expanding:

• Launch of online Professional Masters in EA
• Launch of undergraduate focus in EA
• Growth of the research portfolio
• Expansion of the Center for Enterprise Architecture

 

Below is the recap of the session.

 

Overview

The holistic nature of research endeavors aimed at understanding and improving the craft and practice of EA would mean that a number of disciplines will be implicated in defining the problem domain as well as contribute perspectives, approaches and techniques that will be valuable for addressing EA research concerns. Research on EA can benefit from these perspectives contributed by a number of allied disciplines.

• Enterprise Architecture Advisory Board, over seventy organizations from seven countries
• First Advisory Board Meeting conducted September 2009
• Creation of an undergraduate EA degree focus
• Creation of an online Professional Masters Program
• Creation of a professional development portfolio
• Creation of an EA Research Center

 

Dr. Cameron also established the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations (FEAPO) that is an association of professional organizations whose members have an active interest in the practice and professionalism of Enterprise Architecture.

FEAPO provides a forum to facilitate collaboration and coordination of activities of among Enterprise Architecture (EA) related professional organizations, to work toward a better integrated community and “one face”for the advancement of the profession of Enterprise Architecture. The advent of FEAPO has been welcomed the world over because there is a strong desire among practitioners and organizations in many countries to professionalize and advance the field of enterprise architecture.

This group consists of the following members:

• Data Management International
• International Association of Software Architects
• International Council on Systems Engineering
• International Standards Organization (ISO)
• The Association for Enterprise Information
• The Association for Enterprise Architects
• The Association of Business Process Management Professionals International
• The British Computer Society
• The Business Architecture Guild
• The Business Architects Association
• The Center for the Advancement of the EA Profession
• The EA Shared Interest Group from the Industry Advisory Council
• The Integration Consortium
• The Object Management Group
• The Open Group
• The National Association of State CIOs

 

Four Main Areas of the Program

• Undergraduate Education committee
  • Defining the competencies that an undergraduate student graduating with a focus in Enterprise Architecture should possess.
• Masters Education committee
  • Defining what competencies should be built into the new online Enterprise Architecture Professional Masters Program.
• Professional Development committee
  • Defining what type of continuing education offering should be developed in the area of enterprise architecture. Offerings could include certificate programs, executive education, and customized programs for specific organizations.
• Research committee
  • Defining what research streams should be developed and enhanced in relation to Enterprise Architecture.
  • Helped develop a straw man participation model for the new EA Center.

 

Key Research Areas

1. EA career path development
2. EA framework development and usage
3. EA maturity assessments
4. EA Stakeholder analysis & engagement
5. Understanding EA styles
6. Value measurement frameworks for EA
7. Application of EA to areas outside of IT (e.g.: supply chain)

 

 

Organizations Involved

Alfabet, Germany Applied Research Lab/ Penn State Air Force Research Laboratory Armstrong Process Group Assoc. of Enterprise Architects (AEA) Association for Enterprise Information BAE Systems Inc Bllue Cross Blue Shield Association Boeing Booz Allen Hamilton Business Architecture Guild Center for the Advancement of the Enterprise Architecture Profession (CAEAP) CIGNA Computer Aid Inc. (CAI) Computer Sciences Corporation Cutter Consortium DAGH,LLC Department of Homeland Security Data Management International (DAMA International) Defense Intelligence Agency Deloitte Consulting EMC Corporation Ernst & Young FEMA Forrester Research Gartner GEICO IBM Innoveer Solutions Integration Consortium Iteraplan, Germany International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Johnson & Johnson Kaiser Permanente Kingdee Research Institute, China

LMI Lockheed Martin Mathet Consulting, Inc. Meraka Institute, South Africa NetApp Northrop Grumman Object Management Group (OMG) Oracle PA. State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) Pfizer Pinnacle Business Group PNC Financial Services Group PricewaterhouseCoopers Progressive Insurance Raytheon Smartsphere PPM and EAM Solutions State Farm Insurance Company TATA Consultancy Services , India The Confiance Group The Enterprise Architecture Shared Interest Group from the Industry Advisory Council The National Defense University The MITRE Corporation The Open Group TONEX Trout Technologies Unisys Corporation U.S. Department of Defense U.S. Department of Interior U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) U.S. Air Force, Chief, Enterprise Architecture Division, Office of Warfighting Integration and CIO Verizon Telecom -Information Systems Virginia Information Technologies Agency Wipro Technologies