FEAPO- Nick Malik

For many years, I was involved with the Federation of EA Professional Organizations, or FEAPO. Started by Dr. Brian Cameron (founder of the Center for Enterprise Architecture at Pennsylvania State University), the goal of FEAPO was to create an international consensus body that could review, evaluate, and approve training programs and software systems targeted at Enterprise Architecture, providing a neutral third party “seal of approval” for programs and software that met a minimum standard.

The members of FEAPO were not individuals. They were representatives of organizations. Some large (such at the IEEE) and some small (such as the organization I was from, Mark Lane’s Center for the Advancement of the EA Profession or CAEAP). Each brought the credibility of their sponsoring organization and each organization had the opportunity to review, contribute, and collaborate on the deliverables and goals of the federation.

The first big deliverable of FEAPO was the Perspectives paper. Approved by each of the members, and published in the pages of the Architecture and Governance Magazine under legendary editor George Paras, the Perspectives on Enterprise Architecture paper was largely written by Dr. Brian Cameron and myself, Nick Malik, with extensive inputs and edits by the core members of the FEAPO team. This paper established the first internationally agreed description of Enterprise Architecture from a single reliable source.

That description is as follows:

Enterprise Architecture is a well-defined practice for conducting enterprise analysis, design, planning,
and implementation, using a holistic approach at all times, for the successful development and
execution of strategy. Enterprise Architecture applies architecture principles and practices to guide
organizations through the business, information, process, and technology changes necessary to execute
their strategies. These practices utilize the various aspects of an enterprise to identify, motivate, and
achieve these changes.

There were many deliverables I was involved with. I’m sharing some here for posterity.

A Common Perspective on Enterprise Architecture

The “perspectives paper” was published verbatim in the Architecture and Governance Magazine, the leading publication on Enterprise Architecture at the time. It represented a seismic shift away from the long involved arguments about “what is EA” and beginning the path to consensus on how to actually deliver the value of EA in organizations, companies, and government agencies. This document was accepted and promoted by seventeen international organizations, each of whom had a stake in the definition of Enterprise Architecture. They included the IEEE, the Canadian Information Processing Society, the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), the Australian Computer Society, the Business Architecture Guild, INCOSE, and many others.

Guide to Careers in Enterprise Architecture

One of the biggest questions we wanted to answer was not only “how do I become an EA” but also, “what skills are needed to be an EA” and “how would I go about finding or hiring an EA”? This exercise took over a two years and multiple international meetings to coordinate. I want to specifically thank Pennsylvania State University’s Center for Enterprise Architecture who gave us unwavering support and access to their excellent campus to hold some of our most important meetings.

Enterprise Architecture Ontology

An ontology is kind of a glossary on steroids. We defined terms of practice in a manner that is mutually exclusive, comprehensive, and exhaustive (MECE). The goal being to describe sufficient terms to allow architects of all stripes to actually agree on what terms mean and how to use them consistently across industries, organizations, and locations. This document was worked on for two years but I do not believe it was ever ratified by the member organizations.

At the time of this writing, I have not found the most complete version of this document. As soon as I do, I’ll update this section to include a link.

Enterprise Architects Code of Ethics

A surprisingly non-contentious document, this short guide lists the expectations for individual architects. It was rapidly adopted after being proposed by the Center for the Advancement of Enterprise Architecture.