Avenger EA with V&V

1. Enterprise Architecture (EA) Professionals have to shift their focus from technology
standardization and cost reduction to customer-driven technology capabilities.
To succeed, you must execute on a business technology agenda focused on delivering
superior customer experience to drive growth; utilize agile, stakeholder-driven
methodologies; and adopt wider people, process, information, and technology
competencies.
The purpose of enterprise architecture is to create a map of IT assets and business
processes and a set of governance principles that drive an ongoing discussion about
business strategy and how it can be expressed through IT. There are many different
suggested frameworks to develop an enterprise architecture, however, most frameworks
contain four basic domains, as follows:
• Business architecture: documentation that outlines the company's most important
business processes
• Information architecture: identifies where important blocks of information, such
as a customer record, are kept and how one typically accesses them
• Application system architecture: a map of the relationships of software
applications to one another
• The infrastructure technology architecture: a blueprint for the gamut of hardware,
storage systems, and networks.
The business architecture is the most critical, but also the most difficult to implement,
according to industry practitioners.
Enterprise Architecture
• Business architecture—Describes the processes the business uses to meet its goals
• Application architecture—Describes how specific applications are designed and
how they interact with each other
• Data architecture—Describes how the enterprise datastores are organized and
accessed
• Technical architecture—Describes the hardware and software infrastructure that
supports applications and their interactions
Job description: An enterprise architect (EA) takes a company's business strategy and
defines an IT systems architecture to support that strategy. EAs must understand a
company's business and be able to dive deeply into technology issues. In recent years, the
role has moved to align business goals and the IT infrastructure that supports the business
and helps achieve those goals.
Why you need one: With more than 50 percent of IT projects typically not achieving their
stated goals, having someone to ensure a company's technology objectives are aligned to
its business goals is vital. The EA role becomes more important as companies adopt
service-oriented architecture (SOA) approaches toward application development. To

2. realize significant cost savings with SOA, issues of software quality and reusability are
key. An EA must be able to see whether the application has been built with quality and
with reuse in mind. "They don't need to know how to program, but they need to be able to
recognize patterns.
What to look for: Communication is a key skill; self-confidence is a must. Enterprise
architects have to talk to both technical developers and business managers. They need to
be able to stand up in a meeting and tell the most senior person in the room unwelcome
news, like an IT project won't make its deadline. EAs also need to demonstrate they're on
the cutting edge of enterprise software and SOA.
Elimination round: Buckholtz says to be leery of candidates who claim their IT projects
have been 100 percent successful. Look instead for interviewees who willingly discuss
projects where they didn't achieve the goal and tell you what they learned from the
experience.
Software Validation
1. User Requirements Document - Create a user requirements document that contains a
quick list of one or two-line sentences identifying the functionality that is required for
your business.
2. Project Plan - In creation of the project plan you will identify who, what, where, and
when the validation will occur
3. Functional Specifications Document - Create a functional specifications document that
is an extension of the user requirements, but contains slightly more information.
4. Gap Analysis - A review of the functional specifications occurs and a gap analysis is
created. The gap analysis is used to determine risk, or the difference between the desired
performance and the existing performance.
5. Installation Protocol - The installation protocol document outlines how the software
should be installed.
6. Installation Report - This document serves as evidence that the software was installed
correctly according to the vendor recommendations and design.
7. Testing Protocol - The testing protocol document outlines the specific objectives,
procedures, data sets, test scenarios, expected results, and acceptance criteria for the
system testing process.
8. Testing Report - The testing report is an outline of the testing that has occurred.
9. System Release/Go-Live - The system release allows the software to be used in
production.
10. Validation Complete - Once the validation is complete, the system must be
maintained in a validated state. Maintaining this state requires that standard operating
procedures are in place for addressing problematic concerns and resolution,