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Careers: Interviews
Brian Cameron: Professor and Executive Director, Center for Enterprise Architecture, Penn State, Founder FEAPO – Part 1 of 2 interview series

This week, Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P., ITCP/IP3P, MVP, DF/NPA, CNP has an exclusive interview with Brian Cameron.

Brian CameronBrian Cameron is Executive Director of the Center for Enterprise Architecture and Professor of Practice in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at the Pennsylvania State University. Within the College of Information Sciences and Technology, he works with a wide portfolio of companies on a variety of consulting engagements, ranging from systems integration projects to enterprise architecture planning and design. Through his academic work, Cameron has consulted with organizations such as Avaya, AT&T Wireless, Raytheon, Accenture, Oracle, EMC Corp., NSA, U.S. Marine Corps, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, and many others.

His primary research and consulting interests include enterprise architecture, enterprise systems integration, information management and storage, and the use of simulations and gaming in education. The main focus areas for his teaching efforts are on senior-level capstone enterprise integration, enterprise architecture, and information technology consulting & storage architecture courses. Dr. Cameron is currently developing new curricular materials for enterprise integration (through funding from NSF), including a textbook to be published by Wiley & Sons Publishing. He has also designed and taught executive education sessions for senior IT executives. Session topics include Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Business Process Management (BPM), Strategic Alignment of IT & Business Strategies, IT Governance, and IT Portfolio Management.

Dr. Cameron is TOGAF and Zachman certified and has developed an extensive background in the DoDAF, FEAF, and Gartner frameworks. He is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Center for the Advancement of the Enterprise Architecture Profession and Business Architecture Guild, the founding president of the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations, a co-chair of the Academic Alliance Committee for the Special Interest Group on Enterprise Architecture for the Industry Advisory Council of the US Federal Government, and a member of the editorial review boards for the Journal of Enterprise Architecture, the International Journal on Cyber Behavior, Psychology, and Learning, the Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Management, the Journal of Information Systems Education, and the International Journal on E-Learning.

Dr. Cameron currently leads corporately funded research efforts in the following areas: service-oriented architecture and business process modeling, risk analysis and management of enterprise systems integration projects, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation best practices, enterprise storage & information management architecture design, and performance measurement for Enterprise Architecture.

Link to More information on Brian

Link to Feb 2011 FEAPO News Release – Penn State

Link to Information on Introduction to Enterprise Architecture course

To listen to the interview, click on this MP3 file link

This is the first part of a two part interview series: Part 1 focuses on FEAPO and Part 2 focuses on the Penn State EA initiative, both led by Brian.

The latest blog on the interview can be found in the IT Managers Connection (IMC) forum where you can provide your comments in an interactive dialogue.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/cdnitmanagers/

DISCUSSION:

Interview Time Index (MM:SS) and Topic

:01:07: Brian, can your outline your background and your areas of interest?
"....I've been on all sides of the enterprise architecture equation. Starting my career as a systems analyst with IBM, later as a member of an ERP team of a defense-related organization, and eventually assuming a senior IT leadership role where I led a team that designed and implemented the national infrastructure for a large storage corporation...."

:02:00: You have a focus on Enterprise Architecture or EA. Why should CIOs care and can you comment on the first World CIO Forum?
[Ed. Note: The first World CIO Forum (IFIP WCF 2011), is being hosted in China November 1-4 2011 in ShenZhen, China (innovation center of China), with participants from the Global Fortune 1000 CEOs, CIOs, C-level and IT executives; international government officials and industry decision makers including the top China-based companies. Senior executives and industry decision makers are encouraged to participate in the first World CIO Forum. English is the official language of the IFIP WCF 2011 and simultaneous translation between English and Chinese is available. The WCF is supported by IFIP and hosted by the CIE for 2011....more]
"....The forum is going to be a great venue for the presentation and discussion of key issues of importance to researchers and IT executives from across the globe, and also for the discussion of the emerging role of enterprise architecture organizations throughout the globe...."

:02:43: You will be speaking at the event and will also be on one of the Boards or Councils. Can you give the audience a brief picture of what you are going to talk about?
"....I'll be talking about our Enterprise Architecture Initiative and our new Center for Enterprise Architecture here at Penn State, and will also provide an overview of the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professionals Organization (FEAPO). I'll talk about larger issues in enterprise architecture that are of importance to CIOs and some of the critical functions and critical capabilities that enterprise architecture is bringing to organizations throughout the world...."

:03:48: You founded an Enterprise Architecture (EA) advisory group. What is the purpose of the group and can you outline members of the group and how they are contributing?
"....Through our Enterprise Architecture Initiative at Penn State we have an EA Advisory group of over 70 international corporations, industry associations and government agencies that work with us in our new Center for Enterprise Architecture on a variety of educational and research initiatives surrounding enterprise architecture...."

:04:36: What is the genesis of the idea behind FEAPO?
"....The idea arose from my desire to do something about the current fragmentation between the many enterprise architecture related professionals organizations. Over the last 2 years I've been invited to serve on a number of working committees in many of these organizations and I've seen a lot of good work conducted in these working groups but also much duplication of effort...."

:06:59: What is the vision, mission, and goals of FEAPO and how will this be accomplished?
"....FEAPO is an association of worldwide professional organizations whose members have an active interest in the practice and professionalism of enterprise architecture. The mission of FEAPO is to provide a forum to discuss cross organizational activities, standardize, professionalize and otherwise advance the discipline of enterprise architecture...."

:08:44: Can you further define what enterprise architecture is?
"....Enterprise architecture has its roots in the IT architecture of the organization....Our view at Penn State and the view that most or all of our member organizations hold is that enterprise architecture is evolving and in many cases has evolved beyond its roots in the IT organization to extend throughout the enterprise...."

:10:51: In regards to FEAPO, who were the initial groups involved and how has this matured?
"....The initial organizations were the Association for Enterprise Information, the Association for Open Group Enterprise Architects, the Business Architecture Society, the Center for the Advancement of the Enterprise Architecture Profession, the Enterprise Architecture Shared Interest Group from the Industry Advisory Council with the US Federal Government, and the Integration Consortium....The list of organizations is growing to be international and currently includes over twenty professional organizations. A complete list of the organizations can be found on the FEAPO website...."

:14:45: How does FEAPO benefit and provide value to the different stakeholders: industry, governments, business, clients, employers, academia, society, computing, the profession, the computing professional, and internationally?
"....The discipline of enterprise architecture is currently at a critical juncture and the type of communication and collaboration opportunity that FEAPO offers is important to the continued maturation of the profession...."

:15:35: What are the next steps for FEAPO in 2011?
"....FEAPO is currently refining and ratifying a charter for the group, a governance structure, and developing short term and long term goals for the organization...."

:15:59: Can you profile the roadmap for FEAPO into 2015 and then beyond?
"....This is tough to predict and will be driven by the voting members of the organization....We hope to ratify the Charter in May 2011 and then establish tactical working groups. Two areas of need in my opinion are in Competency Standards review and consolidation in Body of Knowledge project coordination...."

:17:56: How does FEAPO tie into your work and research?
"....One of our goals at Penn State is to have enterprise architecture mature into a mainstream academic discipline. In my opinion, unless the professional organizations begin to come together in this nature, EA may never coalesce as a true profession. This was one of my main motivators for the FEAPO organization...."

:18:24: Which are your top recommended resources and why?
"....Professional resources for enterprise architecture are not plentiful at present....On the professional side I utilize Gartner and Forrester research, Architecture & Governance Magazine, CIO Magazine....various EA conferences....Journal of Enterprise Architecture....Journal of Enterprise Transformation...."

:19:48: Brian shares some stories (something surprising, unexpected, amazing, or humorous) from his work with FEAPO.

:22:21: What are your thoughts on computing as a recognized profession like medicine and law, with demonstrated professional development, adherence to a code of ethics, and globally recognized credentials? [see www.ipthree.org for more details]
"....FEAPO will actively act with groups like IP3 to increase the stature and professionalism of enterprise architecture and the computing industry in general...."

:24:04: If you were doing this interview, what 3 questions would you ask and then what would be your answers?
"....What is one of the greatest challenges you've had in the formation of FEAPO?....What are the greatest challenges to FEAPO going forward?....If FEAPO fails to coalesce as an organization what will this mean for the profession?...."

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