The Challange - Architecture is like food because...……..!

On the discussion board for a LinkedIn group Andrew asked - Architecture is like food because...……..!

 

This is a scary thought after reading the Melissa Cook - chicken analogy! ; )

Doing EA is like carving chicken? I discovered this Nov 08 article by Melissa Cook while looking for an example Green IT EA principle - what do you think?
http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/it-business/it-organisation/opinion/index.cfm?articleid=1877&pn=1
It is an odd analogy, I don't agree as it is too simplistic but strangely I can see how she got here.

Mmmmmm……………. for me architecture is like……….

Vitamins – often we are not sure of their true value; experts are always disagreeing as to their worth; we (the general public) continue to take them (replace take them with do it for EA) just in case; for some the dose is for short-term benefit i.e. Berocca after a big night out; for others it is just a habit they never think about – got into it during a fitness kick and kept taking a daily vitamin and the true believers never miss a day and combine they vitamins, minerals and herbals because they know that they will provide a long term benefit.

Architecture is much the same:

• In many organisations they do it but are not sure of – nor do they care about – the true value. Others are doing it so they might as well, it won’t hurt.
• The experts are always disagreeing about architecture’s value – IT strategy experts will tell you it is all about the strategic roadmap; operations people will tell you it is about ITSM; project experts will tell it is all in the project management methodology etc. Most organisations will try all these things and keep doing architecture in all the wrong ways – bending and changing with the management fad of the moment.
• Architecture for short term gain is very common – solution architecture oft comes in this guise. I always cringe when I hear the phrase “we need a xxxx architecture – get someone in to do it”. There is this belief that you can create an xxxx architecture out of thin air in the 3 month consulting gig – no understanding that this is a long term process.
• I think the worst organisations are those that just keep doing it badly and never questioning why. The follow a framework of method religiously, plodding along in their architectural void never understanding where they can be adding real value. Never understanding their customers and tailoring their deliverables to suit. Giving the rest of us a bad name.

The true believers! This group are a small minority who really understand the value of architecture and apply it in day-to-day and strategically in their organisations.