NASA Deputy CIO says EA really help control of IT-related costs

NASA deputy CIO mentioned that implementing EA had really helped his agency develop a mature IT organization and control IT-related costs.

Is mention in open paragraph of this


http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9137306/Building_your_enterprise_architecture_program_the_right_way?taxonomyName=Enterprise+Applications&taxonomyId=87

I had to laugh at what followed.

It started with

"I had to agree, " [once senses the author is reluctant to agree to so a prosaic goal as cost reduction]

It continued with

"...but the topic of EA is far more complex ... far more difficult to properly implement than most IT professionals realize" [whereas in fact it properly implement EA initiatives can be implemented quite simply and progressively delivery value]

It then proudly proclaimed

"...there are four main areas of EA, covering business processes, data, applications and technology. ..." [seemly forget about the bulk of the actual enterprise e.g. it goals and constraints, its products and organisation etc.]

Yes these things are important:
- capabilities, functions and processes
- business decisions/questions, information and data
- applications and services
- technologies

But the facts are that costs are directly associated with products and services (i.e. applications, services, technologies, standards and projects that change them and the organistions that support them) and only indirectly related to BP and data.

That income is related to the companies: products/services.

So if you don't understand the where the goes and where the money comes from all the knowledge of what lies in the middle is hard to apply.

Contemporary solutions IT strategic in many cases provide out of the box solutions for many of these EA issues that deliver value quickly.

Sooner or latter these EA people who saying everything is so hard and so complex (and reference obscure abstractions and methods) are going to need to realise that these thing have not worked.