Help Me Decide

Can anyone enroll? Yes, the class is an open enrollment workshop, but we limit the class size.  The Enterprise Architecture class is targeted at practicing enterprise architects and aspiring enterprise architects, and managers of enterprise architecture teams, including CTO's and CIO's.

What does the Enterprise Architecture Workshop cover? See the class overview.

Does the class apply to other architecture disciplines? The Enterprise Architecture Workshop, as the name implies, focuses on enterprise architecture, covering the disciplines of Business Architecture, Enterprise Applications Architecture, Enterprise Technology (or Infrastructure) Architecture, and Enterprise Information (or Data) Architecture, from the point of view of enterprise architecture.

Is the class full? Cancelled. This class has been slow to gain momentum, and we have to free up the time for in-house workshops and consulting work.

The last several open enrollment enterprise architecture workshops have been full and wait listed. It is also true that the classes have filled later than in previous years. But we can't keep this on the schedule if we don't reach critical mass very soon.

Help My Manager Decide

What is the value of this class?  Our approach to Enterprise Architecture starts with creating a firm foundation in Architecture Strategy that is aligned with the business strategy. We advocate creating a Business Capabilities Architecture, as the cornerstone to Enterprise Architecture. This supports the business strategy process as well as the Enterprise Architecture process. Now business leaders can focus on what business capabilities are key to achieving strategic objectives, and enterprise architects can focus on creating and enhancing business capabilities identified by the business strategy as critical priorities. This, together with the Minimalist Architecture Principle, ensures that the Enterprise Architecture is focused where it will make the most significant impact on business success. This helps the Enterprise Architecture team focus on achievable, yet highly strategic, objectives.

Hundreds of very talented and experienced architects have taken our classes. They find our classes both inspiring and practical, giving them solid techniques and concepts to apply on the job to make their architectures, and their business, more successful. Even the most experienced architects consistently identify key steps that they have missed on their architecting projects. They also identify much that they have been doing right, and value this confirmation of their use of best practice. 

Doing the right steps, in the right order, to the right extent, with good techniques and sound principles, saves architects time and makes them more effective. Yes, there is some strength to the argument that architecting skills are learned from experience--but the lesson is always much less costly when it is from someone else's experience! We have focused exclusively on architecture, effective architectural practice, and architecture teaching since 1995, and arguably lead the industry in synthesizing architecture experience into our approach to architecture and our training classes.  

Who else should take this class? We firmly believe that individuals can bring about significant organizational change, but it takes effort and attention. It would behoove your team to focus this leadership and effort on making the architecture successful, rather than on figuring out a common team approach to creating the architecture! Having the entire team take the class is obviously the most effective way to establish a solid foundation of architecture concepts and practice.  

Please let others know about this workshop--you can email this page using the "File/Send/Page by Email" option on Internet Explorer!

Workshop Logistics

What is the location for the workshop? The workshop will be held in the San Francisco/Bay Area (most likely Palo Alto or close by).  Note: We have contacted several venues in the Bay Area and have several suitable options. The hold-up on the venue is the enrollment level. We pay significant cancellation penalties if low enrollments force us to withdraw the workshop. So, if you're uncomfortable about the meeting venue status, get signed up for the class--only enrollments will resolve the uncertainty there! We have protected the week on our schedule, which is otherwise booked through May!

When does the class start and end? We will begin at 8:30am and end at 5:00pm each day. We serve lunch, and morning and afternoon snacks.

How do I enroll? Please fill out our online enrollment form. We will email the invoice to you so that you can arrange payment. Please note that payment is required to complete your registration before we can confirm your place in the class.  

Where should I stay?  Please note that accommodation is not included in the workshop price, and you need to make your own reservations.   More to follow...

Where should I park?

• TBD

Area Information

What is there to do in the area?  

• Visit San Francisco, 30+ minutes to the North. 

• Visit the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (see http://www.nps.gov/goga/sites.htm) and hike in the Marine Headlands (http://www.nps.gov/goga/maps/pdf/map-mahe.pdf). Drive up to Point Reyes and go hiking.

• Rent a kayak and see the Bay from the water. See Seatrek, Sausalito. http://www.seatrekkayak.com/

• Rent a mountain bike and head for the hills. There's a number of great trails. See http://mtb.live.com/mtb-sfbay.html for links to bike rental sites and trails. 

• Head over to Princeton-by-the-Sea (just north of Half Moon Bay) for lunch or dinner at Mezza Luna. 

• Check the tide tables and visit the tide pools at the Fitzgerald Marine Preserve in Moss Beach. Have lunch or dinner (or better still, Sunday brunch) at the Moss Beach Distillery.

• Come a day early, or stay a day late, just so you can have breakfast at Bette's Ocean View Diner in Berkeley (no ocean view, but great food)!

• Visit Yosemite Valley, 3 hours or so west. If you can stay on for a few days, head for Yosemite. It is spectacular, and if you've never made it there, you owe it to yourself to do so on this trip! 

• Take in the Big Sur coastline. Spectacular! Wonderful places to camp and hike. Truly scenic drive.