EA 872 Week 4 It's all about the people!

Hello again!

This week has been a wild one! I am jumping into class team assignments, which are always a little tricky at the start. One has to get organized and establish some level of communication with the team, while never meeting any of them face to face!  For me, this tends to be easy as I telecommute and work with customers/sites remotely a majority of the time.  Given this, I started thinking about how it might affect the other team members.  Are they used to working with remote teams in their working environments or are they more comfortable face to face? My guess is that it is probably a mix and also dependent on the culture of their organization. As I was thinking through this, I thought I might as well write about culture and the impact on EA this week.

To start with, how does one define culture? Or more precisely, how is organizational culture defined? The Business Dictionary states that it is "The values and behaviors that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization."
Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/organizational-culture.html#ixzz3zE2OAIrA

I would say that organizational culture is shared thoughts and actions. It is these values and beliefs that tend to govern how people act in an organization. Given that this is a reflection of the business, there can be subcultures within a working business unit or team or even within a LOB.  Take a minute and think about the different groups within your organization. Do you all have the same goals and value in the workplace? Maybe, but probably not.  Since every organization and team is different, one of the first things we, as EA practitioners, need to identify is the culture and the best way to interact within the cultural boundaries of that group or team.  I am sure you have heard the saying "You catch more flies with honey than vinegar"  Well the same theory applies to starting your EA initiative. If you are considered an outsider, getting anything accomplished is going to be a challenge. The best way to come across as understanding or "one of us" is first to understand the culture of the group you are going to be engaging.  If you do not do this first, then you risk all of the team's EA efforts will be for naught.  Don't get me wrong, I think there is tremendous value in all the artifacts that are produced but remember, EA is about transformation. If the organization, LOB, or team is not "culturally" ready to accept the transformation effort, then the EA effort is headed towards failure.

This may seem like a heavy-handed statement to some of you. However, the Gartner article "Psychology May Hold Key to Successful Enterprise Architecture" from December 2005 by Robert A. Handler illustrates this point. Mr. Handler explicitly states that " Failure to address the human aspects of EA leads to EA failure." The problem is not getting the data, process, or state defined correctly. It is not about anything technical. It is about understanding people, at least, that can become the single biggest point of failure. Addressing the people issues means understanding the culture. When you do that, you will better understand how to be viewed as "one of the team" and that, in my opinion, will direct you towards success in your EA initiative.

Have you ever experienced an issue with culture and your EA efforts? If so how did it affect your initiative or project?

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read!