架构师如何助力企业IT在经济危机中的生存？

Roger Sessions是ObjectWatch的CTO。他在EA邮件列表中的一个邮件分享了自己关于企业架构的独特观点，非常令人印象深刻，无疑可以给大家带来很多思考。下面我将自己做了稍许翻译+编辑的段落分享给大家。

Roger认为EA企业架构是可以在经济危机萧条时代生存下来的，甚至能够进一步发展。但是前提是EA不再将多少年后的收益、长期的远景目标当作自己的价值定位。而是必须定位为给企业带来立即的、切实的、甚至急迫的。
EA can survive hard times, even thrive. But first we must make some major changes in how we view EA. No more poorly defined payoffs that are years in the future. The payoffs must be immediate. They must be real. And they must be compelling.

Roger认为EA企业架构可以实现的所谓“立即的、切实的、急迫的价值”就是降低项目的复杂度。复杂度是IT成功的最大的障碍，也是IT成本中最 大的一块。减少复杂性，IT成本就会大幅降低，效率则会大幅上升。在经济危机萧条时期，这才是真正的“立即的、切实的、急迫的价值”。
I believe that the immediate, real, and compelling value that EA can provide is reducing project complexity. Complexity is the single biggest barrier to IT success and the single biggest factor in IT cost. Reduce complexity, and you greatly reduce IT costs and greatly increase IT efficacy. In hard times, this is value that is immediate, real, and compelling.

根据Roger展示的数据，系统功能增加25%将会导致系统的复杂度增加一倍，除非采取额外的措施来管理复杂性。
Why is complexity such a problem for IT? Several studies (and numerous personal observations) have shown that increasing the functionality of a system by 25% increases the complexity of that system by 100%, unless steps are taken to manage the complexity.

当系统功能增加时，希望不增加复杂度基本上是不现实的。但是，如果架构设计上可以将指数增长的复杂度改变为线性增加的复杂度，将会是个很大的成功。
It would be nice to add functionality to a system without adding complexity. This, of course, is unattainable. But what is attainable is to add much less complexity as we add functionality. Mathematically, we would like to go from a exponential relationship between functionality and complexity (which we see in most systems) to a linear relationship between functionality and complexity (which we can achieve with a strong strategy for complexity control.)

What does it mean to go from an exponential relationship to a linear relationship? It means a lot! From an IT perspective, it means that when going from a 10 function system to a 100 function system we increase the cost by a factor of 10 rather than by a factor of 1000. This is a huge reduction in the cost of the system.

In brief, the way we can use enterprise architecture to control complexity involves breaking a large project down into smaller, selfcontained sub-projects, each of which is autonomous with respect to the other sub-projects, but which interacts with other sub-projects in well defined ways. In the SIP (Simple Iterative Partitions) methodology, these sub-projects are called autonomous business capabilities (ABCs).

企业IT架构师则是控制降低IT项目复杂度的最佳人选。沿着这个方向，架构师们就能够向企业或组织展示自己的巨大的、具有时效性的价值。
So it is the enterprise architect who is best positioned to have a major impact on overall project complexity. And is it the enterprise architect who can demonstrate huge and timely savings for an organization.

Roger给架构师们分享了下面三点忠告：
1. It must change its vision from long-term to short-term.
必须把目光和专注点从长期改到短期
2. It must re-invent itself from supporting strategy to supporting projects.
必须重新定位，从支持战略给为支持项目
3. It must clearly demonstrate how and why EA is going to help IT – and the business – survive hard times.
必须很清晰地展示为什么以及如何EA可以帮助IT，进而帮助业务，在经济危机萧条时代生存。

附注：什么是企业架构

IBM关于EA的定义：
As a key planning discipline, EA helps guide and optimize an organization’s IT investments and translate business strategies into technology solutions. It bridges the gap between systems and application discovery, development and deployment — linking IT activities to agency mission, integration and systems modernization efforts, and ensures deployment of resources in the most efficient manner.

另外在“Enterprise Architecture as a Strategy”中关于EA的定义：
The enterprise architecture is the organizing logic for business processes and IT infrastructure, reflecting the integration and standardization requirements of the company’s operating model (where the operating model is defined as the necessary level of business process integration and standardization for delivering goods and services to customers). The enterprise architecture provides a long-term view of a company’s processes, systems, and technologies so that individual projects can build capabilities – not just fulfill immediate needs.