There is an impending change coming. In many ways this change is being driven by the move into The Cloud, (the commoditization of IT) and the move to Bring Your Own Device, (the consumerization and of IT and the diversification of platforms).
It is great to see Jeff Scott (formerly of Forrester) back in the Blogosphere and his recent post “The EA Force Field – Factors Shaping the Future of Enterprise Architecture” includes a wonderful summary of how the commoditization and consumerization of IT will affect technology architects. Here’s an exceprt, please follow the link above for the full post.
“architects who choose to remain technically focused will be challenged to change the way they operate. Their role will shift from:
- understanding technical details of specific technologies – to – understanding component configuration
- helping IT meet business demand – to – helping business leverage IT
- driving standards – to – managing diversity and promoting technology innovation
- analyzing technologies – to – analyzing technology providers
- developing future state architectures – to – developing adaptive patterns.”
Brilliant!!
I couldn’t agree more – as a non-technical EA, I see my skills in high demand from business people who want someone who understands both their business and what technology can do. More technical skillsets are being sloughed off to outsourcers and (cloud) service providers.