Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Anyone one? Or know of a freelancer?

Got some work needing doing

Sonic'

What kind of work Puff ?

Might be able to help, PM details if you wish

DemonDave

iTrader: (13)

YHPM

NWMark

funnily enough i got the details of a job im applying for sent through on friday with that exact job title

Mark

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

I'm an Enterprise Architect - what are you after?

ian_sadler

I designed the Enterprise, beam me up

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

LMAO

doobiedoo

I am a freelance contractor and do architecture work. PM me some details if you are still looking for someone

andys

It is me or is everyone in IT a bloody Architect these days?

KiwiGTI

Yes, it seems to be the trendy term these days. Most would only be systems engineers or developers in reality.

Surprised if you could find a real Enterprise Architect that was available.

Sonic'

Funny thing really I havent heard it called Enterprise Architect, unless it is a job vacancy for a large company willing to offer lots and lots of money for the job

What they really want (is not an enterprise architect) is a SE or consultancy

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

Being an IT Architect usually means being a solution architect. That is, they work on a project or programme and make sure all the different IT designs can integrate technically and provide a platform for delivering the requirements.

An Enterprise Architect is a bit different. They usually sit outside projects and programmes and look at what the target state for the organisation should be. The focus for these guys is striking a balance between simplifying things and providing the flexibility necessary for an organisation to gain an edge. They concentrate more on aligning IT with the business and the strategic direction of the organisation than on any one project's objectives.

If you think about any business and the changing environment they operate in there is a constant state of flux between speed, cost and quality and any business reserves the right to change direction at any time. So the biggest challenge for an Enterprise Architect is staying one step ahead so if there is a direction change plans can be quickly put in place (ie, you know what the key changes should be) to make things happen without having to rip all your systems and business models apart.

Anyway, lots of stuff on the 'net about what EA is. But as usual most vendors put a spin on things to highlight their own products or services.

Sonic'

Ahh so you mean someone who basically has no knowleadge of how to put all this lot together, but knows people who do?

This isn't a dig btw, but in what you have described all the places I have seen these kinds of people, don't usually know what IT stands for let alone anything else, they tend to heavily rely on everyone else around them to feed them the info they need.

These people were rife in the NHS a few years ago, and seen quite a few in the Legal sector too

DemonDave

iTrader: (13)

Sonic - you involved in NHS IT ??

Sonic'

I was a few years ago until I changed jobs

Did quite a bit of work the National Directory stuff, or rather put in solutions that would get everything in a nice format from AD/eDirectory/HR systems to upload to the National Directory

Also put systems in for the Smart ID solutions that we developed, and numerous Exchange Clusters, AD Migrations etc

KiwiGTI

This is probably one of the better descriptions :

Enterprise architect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But, yes, unfortunately in reality it's a very well paid position and especially in government positions it's often a case of "jobs for the boys". An EA will be at least involved at CIO level and in many cases dealing with other heads (finance/HR) or even director level.

This means that communication skills, blagging and establishing rapport with that level of person is far more important than any real IT or technical skills. And frankly they don't need them, their job is to get that information from specialists and be able to combine/interpret it.

Sonic'

Kiwi, yes that sounds just right

I wasn't knocking anyone in my previous post, their job really is to collate the information and feed to board level to make or assist with decision making

Many many years ago (when I was 20) I was a Project Manager, using 'some' Prince2 methodologies, working on Store Refits, 4 stores at once all a week staggered on an 11 week project

I was responsible for the store launching on launch time within time and budget, half a million pound per store, I had to deal with local councils, fire regs, H & S regs, staffing, Builders, Electricians, Refrigeration Engineers and store Management and Directors, Quantity Surveyors, costsings, writing the scope of works and ensuring it was all carried out etc etc

Did it all really well, every store came in under budget, and launched on time, when I started that job I didnt know the first thing about half of the above, but I knew who to speak to, and who to organise etc to get the job done

molko

This is bang on the money, there is way too much 'bigging oneself up' in IT, everyone i know is an architect nowadays, it just pi$$es me off when you find out there barely know how to write a 'HelloWorld' program.

Then i get looked down upon for being honest when i say i am a J2EE software engineer...."what are you not an architect ?"...I have only ever met one true IT architect in my IT career, the rest are just fly-by-nights who are blagging there way to big money !!!

James Neill

iTrader: (1)

Well I have no problem saying that I'm an architect. I started out writing Cobol, C and then Java developing mainly banking systems. The reason I progressed in to Enterprise Architecture is partially because of what you describe above.

The folks with budgets and the board level decision makers generally do rely on people around them to present joined-up options and recommendations so that they can make decisions. Having people that can bridge the gap between Business and IT is inherently valuable (whether it means planning, budgeting, delivery or operations). And any EA should have skills and capabilities on both sides of the fence.

The NHS situation you mention is probably a good one. Too many people jumping on a bandwagon (ie, EA in the ascendancy) with no real knowledge or depth of capability and critically a total lack of any relevant governance and control in the NHS. You see it time and time again whenever the next big thing is touted.

molko

I work at the DWP and again you are correct, the EA's there are a waste of space of whom about 80% are contractors/consulants.