09.22.11
The Private Club of Information Technology
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Each year there are multiple conferences and summits for IT professionals to share and learn about advancements in concepts, hardware, software, and methodologies. Attendees to the sessions speak in the techno languages of IT and share stories about their organizations that only others in the same profession would understand. It is like being in a special club. It is a club of professionals that everyone else in their organization is dependent upon and excluded from joining.
These fraternal events are very useful for those that desire to stay current within the IT industry and bring the best solutions to their organization. Many of those who return from these sessions will lay out plans to move towards solutions introduced to them while in attendance.
These fraternal events can also be a great deal of fun. Besides just being among peers, vendors will make their case for their solutions and often finance some aspect of the event. Vendors usually have fantastic booths to show off their products with consultants on hand to answer questions. Vendors may even market to their specific clients with free drinks, dinners, and giveaways.
Most professions have their fraternal events, so IT is not acting out of the normal or are they? I believe they are not acting out of the normal, but they are acting exclusively. They are being exclusive at a time when anyone should be able to participate. Today, everyone is a player in the IT process of automation and change. This makes everyone a potential member of the club.
Enterprise Architects bridge the divide between the fraternal members and those that are excluded. It is the EA’s job to offer a visualization of the business so clearly that IT can understand its value to the organization. More importantly, the Enterprise Architect provides the visualization so the organization can understand the value of IT.
The visualization of the business opens the doors to the IT club so anyone can come in. Anyone can see how all the components work together. Anyone can see how information technology is used to store and process information for the organization. Anyone can be a member of the club.
The Enterprise Architects can see what is coming and are already preparing. They know that this will be their time. Corporations will be able to completely focus on their business, and automation will be viewed as an agile enabler. Automation will finally become the self-service contributor that the Corporate Office has always wanted it to be. –Enterprise Architects Masters of the Unseen City
Closing the Business / IT gap.
