Software View

Training Description:

Pervasive nature of information technology has modernized the style of corporate management. Boards of directors and key business executives can no longer delegate their responsibilities in driving strategic IT initiatives to others – steering IT has become part of corporate governance.

IT Governance focuses on business performance optimization and risk reduction through strategic use of IT. Enterprise Architecture describes the central and detailed plan that analyzes a business both in terms of business processes and information generation/transformation/consumption.

While information and information technology have been at the focal point for quite some time, many businesses are yet to learn the value and full potential of them. To some extents, this is justifiable since now only we see accumulation of related knowledge which was previously seen scattered everywhere. Furthermore, present day enhancements in computing power and software innovations bring affordable and innovative solutions for both big and small businesses alike. What many have not spent sufficient time for is to understand the link between business performance and information technology beyond mere automation.

This training brings a wealth of knowledge to you and your business. While illustrating the values of information and information technology in solving business problems and enhancing performance with lots of real world examples, the training focuses on key concepts behind IT Governance and Enterprise Architecture which enables a participant to see the full spectrum of processes in deriving the value in modern enterprises.

Training Objectives:

1. Recommend strategies for a business to gain and sustain competitive advantage through not commonly perceived Information Technology utilization.
2. Describe how IT can be used for behavioral changes of employees and hence to converge their efforts towards a unified vision, reduce or eliminate fragmentation and inertia for organizational transformation and enhance organizational culture.
3. Define what IT Governance processes an organization should establish to use IT to enhance the performance of its services and operations.
4. Take high level initial steps towards defining an enterprise architecture for a business that aligns present and future IT and business operations.

Target Groups:

1. Key decision makers in organizations (Directors of Boards, CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, CTIOs, Division Heads, IT Managers, ...). You may be working in food, apparel, finance, health care, chemical, education, entertainment, telecommunication, ... or any other industry.
2. Enterprise Architects, Software Architects
3. Business Analysts and Sales Professionals in software outsourcing and software offshore businesses
4. Senior Software Engineers with a business focus
5. Anyone having a business management with IT focus who need to strengthen the education (e.g. relevant degree holders)
6. Read "Do I fit for that training?" if you are interested, but need help to determine whether you should participate or not.

Prerequisites:

1. General familiarity with software systems and how they work in business environments.

Communication Language:

English

Duration:

1 Day

Facilitator:

Kamal Wickramanayake (Profile)

Notes:

1. This training is delivered in a seminar/workshop environment where participants will not be using computers for exercise or anything else.
2. To facilitate easy understanding, the order in which content will be covered during the training may differ from the order of the content given below.

Training Content:

1. Introduction
   • Challenges faced by modern enterprises
   • Value of an informed IT strategy
   • Why driving the IT strategy is part of corporate governance (a board responsibility)?
   • Business values, risks and control - from an IT perspective
2. Directional Strategies And Information Technology
   • What are directional strategies?
   • Organizational performance and the power of directional strategies
   • Leader's role in steering an organization with directional strategies
   • Typical problems faced by organizations in realizing the vision
   • Capacity of IT as an enabler of directional strategies
3. Pervasive IT Beyond Mere Automation
   • Information as a capital
   • Capitalizing on opportunities
   • Maintaining competitive advantage
   • Areas of a business for high IT usage and high ROI
   • Employee empowerment: Harnessing the brain power of employees at all levels
   • IT as a catalyst for business transformation
4. IT Governance
   • What is IT governance?
   • Need for IT governance
   • IT governance focus areas
   • IT governance life cycle
5. COBIT Framework
   • What is COBIT?
   • What are the problems taken care of by COBIT?
   • What are the values generated by COBIT?
   • COBIT components
   • COBIT products
   • COBIT processes
6. IT Investment Governance With Val IT Framework
   • What is Val IT?
   • What are the problems taken care of by Val IT?
   • What are the values generated by Val IT?
   • Val IT principles
   • Val IT processes
7. Enterprise Architecture
   • What is enterprise architecture?
   • What are the problems taken care of by enterprise architecture?
   • What are the values generated by enterprise architecture?
   • Enterprise architecture breakdown (sub architectures)
   • Enterprise architecture and business value realization
8. Overview Of Some Enterprise Architecture Frameworks
   • US Department of Defense Architecture Framework
   • Federal Enterprise Architecture: Practical Guide
   • The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF)
   • What else is there?
9. The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF)
   • TOGAF and its applicability to our businesses
   • Architecture Development Method (ADM)
   • Enterprise Continuum
   • Resource Base
10. Enterprise Architecture Principles
    • What are enterprise architecture principles?
    • What are the problems taken care of by enterprise architecture principles?
    • What are the values generated by enterprise architecture principles?
    • Classification of principles
    • Sample set of principles
11. Zachman Framework
    • What is Zachman Framework?
    • What are the problems taken care of by Zachman Framework?
    • What are the values generated by Zachman Framework?
    • Interpretation of cells
    • Where and how to use Zachman Framework?
12. Benchmarking
    • Why benchmarking is required?
    • Process maturity models
    • Architecture maturity models
13. Implementation Road Map
    • Phase by phase implementation
    • Integrating multiple frameworks together (COBIT, Val IT, TOGAF, Zachman)
    • Required organizational structures
    • Roles and responsibilities
    • Federated enterprise implementations