June 29, 2009

Inquiry Spotlight: Developing

Architects, Q2 2009
by Jeff Scott and Katie Smillie
for Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Making Leaders Successful Every Day

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

June 29, 2009

Inquiry Spotlight: Developing Architects, Q2 2009
by Jeff Scott and Katie Smillie
with Alex Cullen and Mimi An

Execut i v e S u m ma ry
Whether youre an architect yourself or you have architects reporting to you, youve probably wondered:
What does it take to be an architect? We analyzed more than 60 inquiry questions from Forrester clients
related to the topic of the architects role and found that they fall into roughly three categories: defining
the architects skill set and job responsibilities, finding and hiring the right architects, and training and
developing architects. We also saw a number of questions specifically about architecture certifications.
The lack of standardized enterprise architecture (EA) roles across organizations is causing significant
difficulty in identifying, hiring, and growing top-notch EA talent.

tabl e o f Co nte nts NOT E S & R E S OURC E S

2 We Found Three Challenges In Developing Forrester analyzed more than 60 analyst
The Architect: What, Who, And How inquiries and accumulated insights from our
Your Peers Are Asking: How Do We Define The years of consulting with EA organizations.
Necessary Skill Set For Architects?
Your Peers Are Asking: How Do We Identify
Related Research Documents
And Hire Good Architects? Inquiry Spotlight: Enterprise Architecture Best
Practices, Q1 2009
Your Peers Are Asking: How Do We Develop Or April 9, 2009
Grow Architects Capabilities?
The Up-And-Coming Business Architect
Your Peers Are Asking: What Are The Pros And
Cons Of Architecture Certification? October 24, 2008

WHAT IT MEANS Best Practices: Improving EA Effectiveness

9 Finding And Selecting The Right Architect Will August 1, 2008
Remain Challenging Is EA Certification Important?
July 27, 2007

2009, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on best available
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2 Inquiry Spotlight: Developing Architects, Q2 2009
For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

We found Three Challenges in developing the architect: What, WHo, and How
When it comes to creating and developing the role of the architect in your organization, there are
three main areas where organizations typically find challenges (see Figure 1):

What is the architect role? The first challenge is creating a detailed definition of the role. This
includes not only tasks and responsibilities but also the specific skills needed to successfully
execute those tasks. Ideally, skills should be organized into must-haves and nice-to-haves. The
challenge many firms face is that every organization uses architects differently, from the
technology expert to the project team member to strategist. This challenge is compounded
by the fact that there are no industry-standard definitions for the various EA roles, such as
information architect or business architect.

Who is the architect? The next step: Armed with a clear definition of what the role should be,
identify and hire the right person for the position. This is more difficult than it sounds even
when considering candidates with architecture experience. EA practices have widely varying
approaches that drive significant differences in architects experiences. Even more daunting is
selecting an architect from a pool of candidates with no previous experience.

How can we grow the architect? Finally, once youve defined the role and found an architect,
you need to align the architects skill set with her job responsibilities. This includes identifying
development areas and creating a training plan to address them.

Figure 1 Forrester Clients Want To Know The What, The Who, And The How Of The Architect Role

Topic Percentage of inquiries concerning this topic

Defining the necessary skills set of architects 43%

Finding and hiring architects 23%

Training, developing, and educating architects 33%

Base: 61 user inquiry questions about Nearly one-third of the

architects from April 2007 to April 2009
(multiple topics per inquiry) questions in the training
category specifically asked
about architecture certification.

54793 Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

June 29, 2009 2009, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

 Inquiry Spotlight: Developing Architects, Q2 2009 3
For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Your Peers Are Asking: How Do We Define The Necessary Skill Set For Architects?
Our clients what to know what makes a good architect. Forty-three percent of our inquiry questions
about architects were related to the skill set, goals, and job responsibilities of architects, including
how to measure these skills in architects.

What you need to know: There are many sources you can use to develop a comprehensive (and
rather long) list of architectural skills. A quick Internet search will yield hundreds of returns,
including industry Web sites such as International Association of Software Architects, analyst
firms such as Forrester, community groups on sites such as LinkedIn, personal blogs about
architecture, and even job postings from sites such as Indeed.com.1 The biggest challenge youll
face will be narrowing down which skills are most important for architects in your organization.

What you should do about it: Each company will prioritize a different set of skills, so its
important to identify what skills architects should have in the context of your needs. Do you
need a business-savvy process architect who can decipher the needs of the business, a technical
guru, or a perfect balance of the two? What are your short-term needs, and what skills will your
architects need to be successful during their first three to six months on the job? What skills will
they be able to develop as they mature in their role? Is your architecture team evaluated more on
tactical work or more on the ability to plan long term and identify the big trends?

The answers to these questions can help you connect your objectives with the skills you need your
architect to have to meet those objectives. Forrester has identified a foundational set of architect
skills that fall into eight different categories. Ranking the importance of these categories as well as
the skills within them is a good exercise in identifying priorities (see Figure 2).

Figure 2 Forrester Divides Foundational Architect Skills Into Eight Categories

Technical Process Reasoning Executing

Computing platforms Modeling Conceptual thinking Decision-making

Data/information Facilitating Innovative Problem solving
Networking/internet Organizing/filtering Pragmatic Cost estimates
Tools Educating Flexible/open Documentation/editing
Security Completeness Fast absorption Project management

Interpersonal Leadership Business Team facilitation

Communication Political insight Creating value Identifying talent

Teamwork Influence without Business insight Motivating
Persuasion authority Marketing and sales Directing
Negotiation Visioning
Entrepreneurship Coaching
Multitasking Strategic
Risk management

54793 Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

2009, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited June 29, 2009

4 Inquiry Spotlight: Developing Architects, Q2 2009
For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Your Peers Are Asking: How Do We Identify And Hire Good Architects?
Once youve defined the architect role in context of your organization, you need to find the right
people to fill the role. Twenty-three percent of client questions on architects were about finding,
interviewing, and hiring architects.

What you need to know: If you decide to promote someone internally, you will get someone
familiar with your specific business and applications. Your task will then be to help him develop
the architectural skills that he may not have needed in his prior position. Similarly, if you hire
a seasoned career architect from outside your organization, she will already posses many
valuable architect skills, but youll need to train her on the technologies and processes particular
to your organization and get her up to speed on the organizational context. Sometimes deciding
which path to take is as simple as figuring out which would be easier given your situational
needs. Forrester identifies four different stages along an architects growth map. Familiarity with
the stages will help you assess where candidates are in their career path (see Figure 3).

What you should do about it: Consider what types of past experiences youd like to see in your
architect. For example, do you prefer someone with wide exposure to multiple technologies or
someone with deep knowledge of a particular technology? The most typical places to look for
architects are strategy and planning roles, particularly IT roles that have worked extensively
with the business. You might also consider business roles such as business analyst or process
modeler, as long as the candidates past experience relates back to the skills you defined. Keep
in mind that the term architect is widely used; it may mean something completely different
from one resume to another. Forrester has developed a list of interview questions for architect
candidates that may help you determine your candidates particular skills.2

Leadership skills are much harder to teach than most other skills, so it doesnt hurt to think
outside the box when looking for candidates with leadership skills. Look for technical leaders
and managers in your own IT organization. You might consider recent college graduates
for junior architects. Its very hard to unlearn bad habits from previous positions, so hiring a
recent graduate with a computer science degree or better yet, an M.B.A. may land you an
energetic, innovative thinker who is eager to do things the way you want them done.

Despite the numerous criteria to consider, dont get stuck trying to find the perfect candidate.
Chances are the ideal candidate is out looking for a more challenging role than the one you are
offering.

June 29, 2009 2009, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

 Inquiry Spotlight: Developing Architects, Q2 2009 5
For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Figure 3 Forrester Identifies Four Stages Along An Architects Growth Map

Build Design Architect Influence

Generalist Business insight

Core technical technical Interpersonal
know-how skills
know-how Strategic insight

Engineering Modeler Visionary Consultant

Technical skills Editor Thought leader Negotiator
Problem solving Industry expert Strategist Educator
Planning Project management Facilitator Marketer
54793 Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

Your Peers Are Asking: How Do We Develop Or Grow Architects Capabilities?

After defining the architects role and finding the appropriate individuals to fill it, the next step is
to train and develop the architects, a topic that came up in 33% of our inquiry questions about
architects.

What you need to know: The best way to approach training is to start with a gap analysis of
the architects current skills versus the desired skills for the role. Identify development areas
and match those areas to the appropriate training resources (see Figure 4). Before devoting
employees time to training, craft a clear and measurable development plan for each architect.
Work directly with architects to choose the training content and methods, making sure to
include their own interests as well as match their individual learning styles with the right type of
training.

What you should do about it: Use a combination of informal training including on-the-job
experience and team activities you can organize along with formal education provided by
sources such as your human resources department, outside EA community organizations,
industry organizations, and vendor training offerings.3

EA teams often find technical challenges easier to tackle than organizational challenges. A well-
rounded development program will focus not just on technical skills but also on leadership
and influencing skills. Business knowledge and training is another key way to strengthen an
architects effectiveness. Learning from the business worlds most innovative thinkers is often
free; it can be done simply through reading a number of reputable and informative business
books.4 Additionally, to guide interpersonal skills development, architects can seek advice or
mentorship from successful IT or business leaders.

2009, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited June 29, 2009

6 Inquiry Spotlight: Developing Architects, Q2 2009
For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Figure 4 Sample Architect Improvement Plan

Skills Assessment Sample Development Plan

Improvement area Approach

Technical
Interpersonal
Process Negotiation Internal training
Executing Communication On-the-job practice

Business Leadership
Influence Executive mentoring
Interpersonal
Visioning Peer mentoring
Leadership
Risk Create model
Reasoning
Business
Team
Management Marketing and sales Professional course
0 1 2 3 4 5
54793 Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

Your Peers Are Asking: What Are The Pros And Cons Of Architecture Certification?
The topic of architecture certification came up in almost a third of the inquiry questions that we
received about training and developing architects. These questions represent nearly 10% of the total
questions on architects development.

What you need to know: Certification is a hotly debated topic with valid points on both sides
(see Figure 5). One benefit of certification is that it allows organizations to sync a large group
of people around one approach or methodology. Certifications can help keep architects in
touch with the complex and constantly changing body of architectural information. The biggest
downside to certifications is that they do not guarantee skills in areas such as leadership or
communication because these are subjective areas that are hard to quantify. Also, more often
than not, certifications are structured around a particular way of doing architecture or are very
vendor specific rather than about architecture in general.5

What you should do about it: While certifications validate a certain level of architectural
knowledge or skill, keep in mind that the most important aspect of certification is the training
that participants receive during the process. This is most valuable when your architects are
being certified on EA frameworks or methodologies currently in use at your company.

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 Inquiry Spotlight: Developing Architects, Q2 2009 7
For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Also, do not rely exclusively on third-party certifications to guarantee a set of skills. If you are
interviewing a candidate with certifications, press them to give specific examples of how theyve
applied their knowledge to solve real problems. Weve identified some of the more popular
certification providers and provided guidelines regarding what each one offers. In addition to
this list, there are other certification programs available for data architects, solution architects,
infrastructure architects, and more (see Figure 6).

Figure 5 The Majority Of Organizations Do Not Rely On EA Certifications

Does your organization use EA certifications?

Dont know 2%
Yes
27%

No
71%

When hiring a new EA in your team, do you consider EA certification?

A mandatory criteria 1%
An important criteria 22%
A secondary criteria 14%
A criteria among the others 44%
Not important 18%

Base: 179 architects

(percentages may not total 100 because of rounding)
Source: December 2008 Global EA Toolbox Online Survey
54793 Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

2009, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited June 29, 2009

8 Inquiry Spotlight: Developing Architects, Q2 2009
For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Figure 6 EA Certification Programs

54793 Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

June 29, 2009 2009, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

 Inquiry Spotlight: Developing Architects, Q2 2009 9
For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

W H AT I T M E A N S

FINDING AND SELECTING THE RIGHT ARCHITECT will REMAIN CHALLENGING

Architects with exactly the right mix of skills are hard to come by. Many of the soft skills you
want your EAs to have are difficult to assess outside of day-to-day observation. Most training and
certification offerings are specific to an architectural methodology and do not address more-
complex skills development such as critical thinking, decision-making, and influencing. Before
you begin interviewing architects, spend time identifying exactly what skills your architects need,
which ones are nonnegotiable, and which ones are easy to develop. Given the breadth and depth
of skills needed to perform the EA function, architects will never have all the skills they need. For
each architect on your team, you should build a comprehensive development plan that balances
technical and architectural skills with business and interpersonal skills.

Endnotes
1
Through a series of articles on different architecture roles, Forrester has identified skills that are related to
the solution architect, infrastructure architect, and business architect. See the March 28, 2008, Leverage
Solution Architects To Drive EA Results report, see the July 16, 2008, Infrastructure Architects Link
Technology Strategy With Long-Term EA And Business Goals report, and see the October 24, 2008, The
Up-And-Coming Business Architect report.
2
Forrester addresses a related inquiry question about interview questions for architects in a recent inquiry
spotlight report on EA best practices. To view the full list of recommended interview questions, see the
April 9, 2009, Inquiry Spotlight: Enterprise Architecture Best Practices, Q1 2009 report
3
Continuously improving team skills was identified as a best practice in past Forrester research on the topic
of improving EAs effectiveness. For more detail about this best practice, see the August 1, 2008, Best
Practices: Improving EA Effectiveness report.
4
Forrester developed a list of recommended reading for business architects available at: http://
a964.g.akamaitech.net/7/964/714/cbd92e5c4014a2/www.forrester.com/imagesV2/uplmisc/BPALIST.pdf.
5
In 2007, a Forrester online poll revealed that 65% of respondents thought EA certifications were not
currently important, while 35% see some importance in them. The survey suggests that most hiring
managers dont rely on a third-party assessment of key architect skills. However if you do use certification
as a measurement of capability, dont rely on it exclusively. See the July 27, 2007, Is EA Certification
Important? report.

2009, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited June 29, 2009

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