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about the EACOE™

the Enterprise Architecture Center Of Excellence™

EACOE.org (a subsidiary of The Pinnacle Business Group, Inc) provides a universal understanding and competence forum on Enterprise Architecture for General Management, Technologists, Academicians, and Practitioners interested in implementing Enterprise Architecture. We are a practitioner-based firm advancing the Enterprise Architect profession, discipline, and base of understanding - since 1972.

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Who We Are | Where We Come From | What We do | What We Offer | FAQ


WATCH: Overview Introduction to EACOE.org

WATCH: EACOE Enterprise Architecture Informational Session

Who we are

The Enterprise Architecture Center of Excellence (EACOE) is a vendor-neutral, practitioner-based organization solely dedicated to Enterprise Architecture and the Enterprise Architect.

We are the definitive source for all aspects of Enterprise Architecture.

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We provide the Enterprise Architecture communities with continuing evolving best-practice holistic environments for the practice of Enterprise Architecture. Enterprise Architecture for Practitioners by Practitioners™. The Enterprise Architect Industry Practitioner Standard.

EACOE Mission: to advance understanding and implementation of Enterprise Architecture

Assumptions

  1. The profession of Enterprise Architecture requires a source of understanding that is based on actual practitioner experience and successes.

  2. Enterprise Architecture is fundamental for the successful participation of enterprises in the “new” world, and the base of knowledge of Enterprise Architecture that these Enterprises rely upon requires professional administration, skills verification, and continuous professional development.

  3. Enterprise Architecture is the principal structural mechanism for:

    1. Addressing continuing and accelerating rates of change through the use of Architecture Models

    2. Explicitly Visualizing, Developing, Presenting, and Understanding Enterprise Strategy

    3. Aligning Technology and Application Strategy with Enterprise Strategy

    4. Providing Technology and Application Implementation Models based on Architecture Models for Enterprise Management and Systems Management

    5. Reuse of Data, Processes, and Technologies

    6. Managing the Knowledge Base of the Enterprise

  4. Enterprise Architecture best practices have been proven to be best developed by looking at the past “ages” (Nomadic, Agrarian, Mercantile, and Industrial) and understanding the similarities and differences. The “Information Age / Knowledge Age” can gain significant insights from these past learnings as it matures. There is no proven “special privilege” of the Information Age / Knowledge Age that would suggest otherwise.

5. An understanding of Enterprise Architecture requires the following components to be considered to be complete:

  1. A Process

  2. A Classification, Taxonomy, and Framework

  3. A Work Breakdown Structure and Methodology

  4. An Enterprise Architect Maturity Model

  5. An Organization Change Model, Process, Methodology and Work Breakdown Structure

  6. A Set of Business Understanding Components

  7. A Set of Technology Understanding Components

  8. An Understanding of Architecture Models

  9. An Understanding of Implementation Models

  10. Components geared toward “short term value”, that can be built upon to provide “long term value”

  11. Templates and tools to provide immediate practitioner guidance

  12. Criteria to allow practitioners to be recognized for growing competencies, as their experience grows, based on actual Enterprise Architecture activities


Overarching Goals

  1. Be the definitive source of Enterprise Architecture communication, research, and implementation understanding.

  2. Provide a universal understanding and competence forum on Enterprise Architecture, for General Management, Technologists, Academicians, and Practitioners, that have an interest in implementing Enterprise Architecture concepts.

  3. Advance Enterprise Architecture practices to be recognized as a profession, similar to the Engineering and Manufacturing professions.

 EACOE Board of Directors

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Mike Boeselager

Director, Enterprise Architecture
Briggs and Stratton

James F. Rudisill

Director, IT Architecture
Citigroup

Michael DeChambeau

Vice President
Fidelity Investments


Hong Zhang

Chief Architect
General Motors Corporation

Peter Milligan

Director, Enterprise Architecture
GlaxoSmithKline

Carol A. Delbene

Technology Director, Global Technology Solutions – Architecture
Information Technology Services
Johnson & Johnson


Joshua Stalker

Director Strategic Management
Lockheed Martin

Kaz Okada

Consultant
NTT DATA AgileNet

Mohammad Dadashzadeh

Professor of Management Information Systems
Director of ATiB – Applied Technology in Business
Oakland University


Rolf Siegers

Architecture Institutionalization and Sustainment Lead
Engineering Fellow
Raytheon Company

Steven I. Cooper

Former CIO American Red Cross, Federal aviation authority, Department of Commerce & Department of Homeland Security
Partner, Strativest

Gary E. Rivord

Deputy Director, Computer Systems and Technologies
Sandia National Labs


Ed Rybicki

Enterprise Information Services Leader
Delphi automotive

John Roach

Enterprise Strategy and Architecture
Microsoft

Jeff Gades

Manager Architecture
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts


Thomas (Tom) F. Signor

Team Leader, Systems Architecture – Information
Systems Architect, Enterprise Architecture Team
Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield

 

We only have ONE facilitator who is the leading practitioner in Enterprise Architecture...

Meet Sam

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SAMUEL B. (Sam) HOLCMAN is the Chairman of the Pinnacle Business Group, Inc., the Managing Director of the Enterprise Architecture Center Of Excellence (EACOE), and the Business Architecture Center Of Excellence (BACOE), and the President of the Zachman Institute for Framework Advancement (ZIFA). He is considered the “practitioners practitioner” in Enterprise Architecture and Business Architecture, and the leading implementer and worldwide educator and trainer in Enterprise Architecture and Business Architecture methodologies and techniques.

The Pinnacle Business Group, Inc. and its associated organizations provide its clients with innovative, yet practical solutions to a range of business and systems-related challenges and activities. Mr. Holcman conceptualized and constructed a unique look at system development methodologies, which resulted in the highly regarded ForeSightTM methodology and methodology management product.

Sam Holcman

Sam Holcman, Chairman of the Enterprise Architecture Center of Excellence (EACOE)

He has developed a strategic planning process that is used by many Fortune 500 companies and is the co-developer of the widely used accelerated analysis (JAD-like) technique known as Rapid Analysis. He has also developed an innovative approach to Business Process Re-Engineering known as Business Process VisualizationTM and Organization Network Analysis™.

In association with Mr. John Zachman, he formed The Zachman Institute for Framework Advancement (ZIFA), to explore, explain, and share the concepts of enterprise architecture. He has developed the Intellectual Capital Maturity ModelTM and the Enterprise Architecture Maturity Model. He has also developed and published works on Cooperatively Optimized Relationships (COR). To better understand an organization’s “DNA”, Sam led the development of The Enterprise Framework™ and The Business Architecture Framework™. Both The Enterprise Framework and The Business Architecture Framework have received worldwide acclaim for their understanding and usability while maintaining theoretical purity. He recently published “Reaching the Pinnacle—a Methodology of Business Understanding, Technology Planning, and Change”.

Sam was with Ford Motor Company for 11 years, Vice President of a robotics and factory automation firm for two years, a senior member of a technology delegation to the People’s Republic of China, and a member of a technology delegation to the Commonwealth of Independent States (Soviet Union).

Sam has a Bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering and Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has been elected to Eta Kappa Nu (electrical engineering honors society), and Tau Beta Pi (engineering honors society), and is a member of numerous societies and professional organizations, and is a frequent speaker at seminars around the world.

Where We Come From

EACOE And ZIFA

ZIFA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pinnacle Business Group, Inc., was formed by John Zachman and Samuel (Sam) Holcman.

ZIFA’s published mission statement was “…to exercise the Zachman Framework for advancing the conceptual and implementation states of the art in Enterprise Architecture”.

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How EACOE And Its Enterprise Architecture Has Evolved From ZIFA

John Zachman devoted his efforts to advancing the understanding of his framework (conceptual states), and Sam Holcman devoted his efforts to understanding and implementing the framework concepts through methodology development, framework elaborations, and actual client-based Enterprise Architecture consulting engagements (implementation states). Under ZIFA, John and Sam conducted numerous annual conferences and education seminars.

John maintained a “neutral” stance to all, including not “endorsing” works and efforts in Enterprise Architecture that are not his direct personal efforts. He felt that he could not “endorse” any approach, methodology, or technique. The general marketplace was and is still somewhat confused as to the separate but related understandings of the differences between frameworks and methodologies. This situation resulted in numerous organizations developing their own framework/methodology hybrids – a very unfortunate situation for the Enterprise Architecture profession and marketplace. People interested in Enterprise Architecture were continually asking not just, what is a framework, or what is Enterprise Architecture, but how do we actually develop an Enterprise Architecture.

Without a strong coupling between a framework and a methodology, there is significantly less value to those that want to “do” Enterprise Architecture. Enterprise Architecture advancements have come and will come from both theory and practice – with practice enhancing and validating the theoretical basis of Enterprise Architecture. John decided he could not “partner” directly with any individual and maintain his neutrality.

John continues to advance his framework understanding. Sam continues to advance Enterprise Architecture through research and practice in both frameworks and methodologies. Therefore, there was no reason to maintain the ZIFA entity.

The Enterprise Architecture Center Of Excellence (EACOE), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Pinnacle Business Group, Inc., maintains the mission of advancing the conceptual and implementation states of the art in Enterprise Architecture.

What We Do

Set The Global Standard in Enterprise Architecture

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The Enterprise Architecture Center of Excellence (EACOE and its predecessor/parallel organizations) have invested over 40 years in developing a robust base of knowledge for executing architecture and model-driven business and technology planning, business process engineering, and application development.

These techniques, methodologies, and processes are recognized as best practices and are used globally.

We Benefit The Practitioner and The Enterpise.

While nearly all enterprises build information systems, the end objective is not just an information system, but a flexible, changeable, and reusable asset that will meet current and future business needs. Few organizations today use model-driven approaches that truly separate Architecture (Engineering) from Implementation (Manufacturing).

Throughout recorded history, as complexity increases, separating Architecture from Implementation becomes imperative. These experiences can now be provided through our course of study.

As human beings, we are naturally “visually” oriented.

We cannot “see” the essence of a problem or solution in one thousand pages of text. As importantly, one representation that suits both business personnel and technology personnel is not possible in disciplines outside of Enterprise Architecture, so it is probable that the same difficulty of looking for “one representation” for Enterprise Architecture will occur. The EACOE and its base of knowledge, through actual Enterprise Architecture training, practitioning, courses, workshops, consulting, and practitioner professionalization activities, provides the only holistic and comprehensive environment for the Enterprise Architect. This environment allows the Enterprise Architect to follow an experience-driven disciplined architecture process, using models to help enterprise stakeholders envision, plan, and develop cohesive, flexible, and adaptive solutions that deliver high value and become enduring Enterprise assets.

The Architectures Center Of Excellence and EACOE are the leading practitioner-based associations for the Enterprise Architecture professions. We set professional standards, conduct research, provide information, and promote professional and career development. We offer practice-based certification, professional networking, and knowledge development opportunities.

In this era of Enterprise change, the need to link sound corporate strategy and information strategy has never been greater. Technical strategies alone are not capable of ensuring alignment and providing business value. To benefit from the information resources that are key to your organization's growth, it is essential to have an Enterprise Architecture aligned with your Business Strategy that aligns with your Business Goals and is capable of effectively addressing and managing risk. Our Certified Enterprise Architecture professionals can help ensure your enterprise’s success. Organizations employing or contracting EACOE Certified Enterprise Architects understand the need for professionals who have credentials that are known and respected around the world.

Our Certified Enterprise Architects have the proven ability to perform Enterprise Architecture activities with globally accepted standards and guidelines to ensure that the enterprise’s information technology and business systems are aligned with Business Goals, are capable of change in continually changing business and technology climates, can reuse enterprise systems assets, and are cost-effective. Enterprises are in search of practitioners that are up to date with current proven practical practices and are committed to their profession. Enterprise Architects with EACOE Certification are these practitioners, and these professionals maintain skills that are imperative in today’s competitive environment.

EACOE Certified Enterprise Architects have committed to maintaining skills, following a professional path that continually allows for skills enhancement and demonstration, knowledge gain, and professional development, and are distinguished from other Enterprise Architects. Our Enterprise Architects with advanced certifications have demonstrated Enterprise skills, attended a rigorous education and training course, continue to demonstrate skills by periodic re-certification, and have the desire to be leaders in their profession.

What we offer

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Enterprise Architecture training and certification

You and the members of your team can become trained and certified with the EACOE Enterprise Architecture four-day workshops. Learn more about what the workshop consists of and how the training and practice will benefit your career and organization.

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Executive Briefings

We offer management-level briefings about Enterprise Architecture – from four hours and up, depending on your needs.

These sessions provide a management understanding of the central issues from a business and/or technology perspective, and to discuss the potential opportunities of Enterprise Architecture for your organization.

The sessions may be tailored to specific areas of management interest. Please contact us for pricing.


Consulting

Enterprise architecture and strategic planning is a kind of a master blueprint for charting out the inter-alignment of business planning, operations, automation aspects as well as technological infrastructure. Enterprise architecture defined thus, has to link together business strategy, everyday processes and the IT strategy of an organization, using models to show the current states as well as how it can move to a desired future state.

Our enterprise architecture consulting services lets you draw in from an experienced pool of knowledge and services to optimize your business and IT strategies. We will help you provide a roadmap whereby both business and IT can fuel each other’s strategies.


Virtual EA Services

This service gives you access to the expertise of our consulting Enterprise Architects, either on-site or remote, so you can achieve your EA Goals more quickly, efficiently, and economically.

We become your virtual Enterprise Architect, providing the guidance and expertise when you need it.

Applying expertise gained from Enterprises across a wide range of businesses, industries, and government organizations, we will ensure your Enterprise Architecture efforts are optimized and aligned with your strategic goals.


Application Portfolio Rationalization and Optimization 

Maximize the value of current application assets and lay a firm foundation for future growth.

We will help address your current problems:

  • Aging technology base

  • Skyrocketing maintenance budget

  • Growing need for security

  • Scarcity of skills needed to support outdated technologies in place

  • Escalating costs of data centers

  • The enormity of application portfolio

  • Continuous reduction in IT budget

And, address your current challenges:

  • Deciding where to start

  • Validating current portfolio to secure adequate IT budget

  • Examining the “health” of the existing application portfolio

  • Identifying Process redundancies

  • Identifying Data redundancies

  • Measuring the value of each current application

  • Understanding the extent and result of ongoing “redundancy creep”

Portfolio Rationalization

Enterprise Architecture Assessments

Drawing upon the methodologies and best practices of the Enterprise Architecture Center of Excellence (EACOE) including The Enterprise Framework™, the Pinnacle Business Group, Inc. will help you to discover what lies at the core of your business, clarify the relationships, and document observations that suggest valuable steps forward, evolving your Enterprise Architecture to work for you.

Enterprise Architecture Health Assessment Brochure

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Why the Enterprise Architecture Center of Excellence (EACOE)?

The Enterprise Architecture Center of Excellence (EACOE) is a vendor-neutral, practitioner-based organization solely dedicated to Enterprise Architecture and the Enterprise Architect. We provide the Enterprise Architecture communities with continuing evolving best-practice holistic environments for the practice of Enterprise Architecture. Our certification approach is simple and straightforward – learn the practice of Enterprise Architecture, actually perform Enterprise Architecture, have that performance reviewed by the worlds most experience Enterprise, and receive the appropriate level of certification. You gain experience, use your knowledge and the knowledge of other practitioners, add to the knowledge base, and continue to grow the profession.


Why Should I Care?

EACOE provide the recognized practitioning standard for Enterprise Architects and Business Architects. As you review the workshop outlines, you will see the most comprehensive and complete body of knowledge in the profession. Certification through EACOE will provide you with a referenceable standard, and is the benchmark for the Enterprise Architecture practitioning professions. You will be recognized for your achievements – now and in the future.

Certifying against a defined body of knowledge is crucial to advance the profession. All professional disciplines begin with a body of knowledge as a reference point. The EACOE Enterprise Architecture Certification processes follow this professional discipline. Without this body of knowledge, the results of the Enterprise Architecture will be inconsistent, and difficult to verify. As an example, chemistry was alchemy until Mendeleev defined the chemical periodic table of elements. Once the periodic table of the elements was defined, a body of knowledge was developed. From this body of knowledge, alchemy could be transformed to chemistry and “chemical engineering”. The chemical engineering profession then flourished. Numerous other parallels in other disciplines can be drawn with the same positive conclusions.

Our advisory Board of Directors are from the partitioning community – we are truly vendor neutral. EACOE accept no funding or support from outside concerns – we are strictly here for the Enterprise Architecture Practitioner community. Of course we welcome software vendors and service vendors to our community – all should practice from the same body of knowledge.

Finally, with EACOE, and only with EACOE, you get a consistent instructional experience. We provide a single consistent practitioner-based workshop environment, guaranteed to be consistent – one instructor, one consistent and timely body of knowledge, and the highest possible learning experience.


Who is Eligible for Certification?

By packaging all requirements in one comprehensive workshop (with the exception of the advanced certification requirement of actual Enterprise Architecture practice), all guesswork and inconsistencies are taken out of the process. The Certification received is consistent and practice-based. Everyone is measured against the same criteria and body of knowledge – the only way to assure professional results across the community.


Can I Benefit from the Certification workshop if I am not Seeking Certification?

The workshop will provide valuable insight for all that manage, interface, or desire an understanding of Enterprise Architecture & Enterprise Architects. Certification is an option for those attending this workshop.


What Does it Cost?

Please see our registration page for current pricing. The workshop fee includes:

  • An Enterprise Architecture Process

  • An Enterprise Architecture Classification, Taxonomy, and Framework

  • An Enterprise Architecture Work Breakdown Structure and Methodology

  • An Enterprise Architect Maturity Model

  • An Organization Change Model, Process, Methodology, and Work Breakdown Structure

  • A Set of Business Understanding Components

  • A Set of Technology Understanding Components

  • An Understanding of Enterprise Architecture Models

  • An Understanding of Enterprise Implementation Models Components geared toward “short-term value”, that can be built upon to provide “long-term value”

  • Templates and tools to provide immediate practitioner guidance

  • Criteria to allow practitioners to be recognized for growing competencies, as their experience grows, based on actual Enterprise Architecture enablement activities

  • Classroom presentation and workshop materials


How do People Know I am EACOE Certified?

All EACOE Members will receive a certificate, lapel pin, and a membership card, colored to denote the appropriate classification, and noting the expiration date of the classification certification.  The appropriate certification logo can be used by the Certified Enterprise Architect in correspondence.


How Long will it take to get my Certification?

Initial Certification takes place at the end of the Certification workshop, upon successful completion of the extensive classroom exercises. Senior, Distinguished, and Fellow designations require additional submissions and reviews. Certification of these advanced designations usually takes thirty days after successful submissions are received, and the evaluation criteria met. Each candidate for advanced Certification submits an individualized plan for these certification levels.


Who is Reviewing my Work and What are their qualifications?

You will be evaluated by Certified Enterprise Architects that have at least ten years of experience in Enterprise Architecture and the body of knowledge represented by the EACOE Certification workshops. Our objective it to get you certified, not to prevent certification. All of our staff are practicing Enterprise Architects – the EACOE is in existence for practitioners, and run by practitioners.


What Should be in my Individualized Plan for Advanced Certification?

An individualized plan should contain a profile of how the candidate intends to demonstrate advanced Enterprise Architecture skills. The focus is on the defined artifacts that are an Enterprise Architecture. Additionally, project management, business understanding, and organization skills demonstration should be in the individualized plan. All of these components are part of the EACOE Certification workshops, and part of a seasoned Enterprise Architecture skill set.

EACOE Advanced Certification require demonstrating actual Enterprise Architecture artifacts. As examples, this would include models, project plans, benefit testimonials, Enterprise Architecture documents, surveys, etc. EACOE will accept materials with some redaction. Confidentiality agreements can be executed.


Do I have to renew my Certification?

Professional Certification in most professions are limited in time. EACOE Certification is consistent with this concept. EACOE Certification for an Enterprise is valid for two years. Advanced categories of EACOE Certification are valid for three years. Certification renewal has the same requirements as initial Certification.


Can I Display my EACOE Certification on My Own Web Site, Business Cards, Etc.?

Yes, as long as the Certification remains valid.