EA Ur-Skills

Friend of the Nerds Timo Elliott recently pontificated on The Required Enterprise Architect Skills of the Future. The opening salvo fits my thought on this role: Enterprise Architects "play a critical role in designing, maintaining, and evolving the organization's technology landscape". (Also a shout to the upcoming Next Generation SAP Enterprise Architect Learning Forum, Feb 24-27.)

The meat of Timo's piece is a readout of skills he finds necessary for those occupying this role. I strongly vibe with several of them: organizational guidance, connection of disparate systems, and technical architecture knowledge have been key pieces of the best EAs I've personally known.

I want to offer two further things that you should consider when either finding or becoming an enterprise architect yourself.

• I hate to be this guy, but a key ingredient is time and experience. But don't fret, young whippersnappers - time and experience are not strictly defined and measurable. Many folks live the same year of experience 10 times, and others can pack 10 years' worth of experience into one calendar year. It's not a precise science, but you have to get in your reps.

• Another is implicit in the aggregate: crafting a vision. It's like an ur-skill that feeds all the others. Craft a strong vision for the future of your organization, and the future of your role. This flows down into all the other skills.

It seems like "Architect" of some flavor has become more common in job titles lately. But if it's your ambition, these skills are the building blocks. PM