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CIO Corner

Boundaryless Information Flow is Real and Relevant

Boundaryless Information Flow to Manage Our Safety

EA, Business Agility, and Boundaryless Information Flow

Enterprise Architecture: Return on Investment

Deciding on Open Source

Managing the Flow

Certification - A Part of a Virtuous Circle

Directories - If There Were No Directories I Couldn't Find IT

Boundaryless Information Flow & Enterprise Architecture

Thinking Strategically about Certified Products

Architecture: Make IT Work for You

Open Source and Standards

Architecture: An Essential Tool for the CIO

What Keeps CIO Awake

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Architecture: An Essential Tool for the CIO, An Essential Tool for Boundaryless Information Flow

In the September 2002 Issue of CIO Magazine there is an article that calls architecture "the CIO's most significant governance tool." Architecture is so important that in the US Government there is public law mandating the use of IT Architecture. The Office of Management and Budget actually judges departments and agencies on their development of architectures. Entire budgets are counting on the existence of architectures.

Architecture is an important governance tool, and architecture is also a tool to help communicate where you are and where you want to go. However, I need to clear something up. In the civil world we use the term architecture very loosely: we look at a building and refer to it as architecture, when it is not. A building is a result of architecture. This is the same in the I.T. world; the systems aren't architecture, they are a result of architecture. Architecture ensures that a system matches form, fitness, and function.

At The Open Group’s February Conference, Eliot Solomon presented an architectural framework that will capture the necessary architectures to guide Boundaryless Information Flow. This work is meant to engage our membership to consider and submit architectures in key areas such as:

1. Workflow Management
2. Messaging as infrastructure to carry the information
3. Security as an essential and pervasive quality
4. Directory as infrastructure to post what information is where and how to get at it
5. System Management as a core capability of any system
6. Information architecture as a subject one step above data architecture that demand attention
7. User Interface and Ontology as it holds the key to mapping information to the end- user
8. Transaction Management to maintain integrity in complex business transaction settings

To allow information to flow through a system, with the appropriate filters and channels, to get the right information to the right destinations requires attention in all these areas.

At upcoming conferences we expect to see continuing progress from our existing forums on these architectures. Already we have commitments from the Architecture, Security, and Directory Forums to participate in populating and communicating these architectures. Eliot and I would like to ask for any further input from any of our members. We look forward to hearing from you soon!