Many of the answers below focus on technology. What you really need to focus on is the goal of architecture management.
Who is the target audience? How will architecture management (however you have defined it) relate to the business goals of this audience? What are you enabling with this initiative?
You also need to look at how architecture management contributes to goals of the organization beyond this immediately identified target audience because to be relevant and stay funded you have to be seen as a valuable contributor and enabler and not just a costly documentation exercise (that in many cases is mostly only used by the IT group).
We work with many organizations that are focused on an immediate technical or direct business architecture need - we help them look beyond this immediate solution (band-aid?) to an expansive more encompassing scalable solution that is future-proof and reduces an organization's total cost of ownership.
Search for a product comparison in Enterprise Architecture Management
It'll all depend on your major focus: Enterprise Architecture, Solution Architecture, Software Architecture, Business Process Management etc.
In general I'd look on model verification, compliance with standard notations (UML 2.x, BPMN 2.0) and ea frameworks support (TOGAF, Zahman) along with extendability and manageability.
Data Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
2018-04-25T05:53:26Z
Apr 25, 2018
The question is rather vague .. here is my take.
Architecture Management does not track well with those who control the purse strings.
And yet transformations - e.g., digital transformation - invariably need changes to the underpinning architectures. While Exec-s aspire transformations - digital or other - they wont necessarily see or appreciate the need for infra-structure transformations.
So the single most important aspect is to engage with / sell to the Exec-s the fact that Architecture Management is essential in the digital age.
Needless to say that the while clean slate architecture (like building a brilliant house on a vacant land) is all too easy, transformation from a legacy world to a well-architected new world (like transforming a thriving city into more efficient city) requires vision, roadmap and dogged determination to execute, all the time navigating the prevailing funding and organisational context. Happy days. :-)
Vice President of Product Management at ASG Software Solutions
Vendor
2015-12-11T13:29:38Z
Dec 11, 2015
Define your terms! Are we taking about evaluating the quality of EA Management processes, or technology available to support EA?
In either case it's important to understand the maturity of current processes, state of current architecture, rate of change in the enterprise and perceived current "fit" of architecture to business activities.
With that knowledge in hand ... the better current architecture supports current business, and has been able to flex to support changes, the better the practice is. The tooling decision is critically tied to maturity -- don't buy a tool that you can't handle at your current maturity state.
Things I would specifically look for would be compatibility with business process, application and data design technologies. "Fit" with other methodologies (agile, for instance), and support for standards such as TOGAF.
Security, Feature and functionality, implementation of the product, maturity of product, future maintenance of the product, workforce availability for implementation
Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) solutions are designed to help organizations effectively plan, design, and manage their enterprise architecture. These tools provide a comprehensive view of an organization's business processes, IT systems, and their relationships, enabling better decision-making and alignment between business and IT strategies.
Many of the answers below focus on technology. What you really need to focus on is the goal of architecture management.
Who is the target audience? How will architecture management (however you have defined it) relate to the business goals of this audience? What are you enabling with this initiative?
You also need to look at how architecture management contributes to goals of the organization beyond this immediately identified target audience because to be relevant and stay funded you have to be seen as a valuable contributor and enabler and not just a costly documentation exercise (that in many cases is mostly only used by the IT group).
We work with many organizations that are focused on an immediate technical or direct business architecture need - we help them look beyond this immediate solution (band-aid?) to an expansive more encompassing scalable solution that is future-proof and reduces an organization's total cost of ownership.
It'll all depend on your major focus: Enterprise Architecture, Solution Architecture, Software Architecture, Business Process Management etc.
In general I'd look on model verification, compliance with standard notations (UML 2.x, BPMN 2.0) and ea frameworks support (TOGAF, Zahman) along with extendability and manageability.
Product maturity, product roadmap, existance of a industry vertical, similar industries references, is it compatibile with standards.
* organization and traceability of the technology components to serve the business
* communicate with the stakeholders in a clear and concise way
The alignment of business goals and IT capabilities.
The integration with the IT ecosystem.
Should be Easy to learn. Schould have Information modelling capabilities. A very Good information flow.
The question is rather vague .. here is my take.
Architecture Management does not track well with those who control the purse strings.
And yet transformations - e.g., digital transformation - invariably need changes to the underpinning architectures. While Exec-s aspire transformations - digital or other - they wont necessarily see or appreciate the need for infra-structure transformations.
So the single most important aspect is to engage with / sell to the Exec-s the fact that Architecture Management is essential in the digital age.
Needless to say that the while clean slate architecture (like building a brilliant house on a vacant land) is all too easy, transformation from a legacy world to a well-architected new world (like transforming a thriving city into more efficient city) requires vision, roadmap and dogged determination to execute, all the time navigating the prevailing funding and organisational context. Happy days. :-)
Hope this helps.
First, understand wahat means the Arquitecture Managemente, I think people is confuse with these term anda concept.
Feature and functionality, scailabilty for implementing
I think the performance of the process is the most important figure to look for.
Define your terms! Are we taking about evaluating the quality of EA Management processes, or technology available to support EA?
In either case it's important to understand the maturity of current processes, state of current architecture, rate of change in the enterprise and perceived current "fit" of architecture to business activities.
With that knowledge in hand ... the better current architecture supports current business, and has been able to flex to support changes, the better the practice is. The tooling decision is critically tied to maturity -- don't buy a tool that you can't handle at your current maturity state.
Things I would specifically look for would be compatibility with business process, application and data design technologies. "Fit" with other methodologies (agile, for instance), and support for standards such as TOGAF.
Product flexibility and conformance to the standards.
Security, Feature and functionality, implementation of the product, maturity of product, future maintenance of the product, workforce availability for implementation
Features and functionality which would include also the compatible platforms and direction of the software vendor for future releases.
having a well defined and up to data enterprise architecture blueprint in place
How the functionaility of tool meeting Current Requirement, Future Possibilities.
Before buying any product, we need to analyze what are all the platforms does that application going to support and how simple it is.