January 04, 2009

Enterprise Architecture in Denmark 2009

This blog entry roughly outlines the status of EA in the Danish public sector based on a framework I developed with Marijn Janssen in 2005. Other researchers have used our framework to compare national EA programs – you can download the original article here.

Policies, actors, and structures:
The main vision for Denmark’s EA efforts was formulated in a white paper published by the National IT and Telecom Agency in 2003. Today, the IT and Telecom Agency heads the cross-public sector IT-architecture committee where most nationwide technical standards and IT-architecture principles are coined.
Local Government Denmark (the municipal cooperation) participates in the IT-architecture committee and (by and large) endorses the decisions made here.
The Digital Taskforce in the Ministry of Finance also participates in the IT-architecture committee and work with reference models, mandatory business cases, and IT-investment principles in general.

Governance:
The EA governance setup in Denmark is largely driven by incentives, i.e. there is no legislation or regulations governing standards and principles for EA development in the Danish government. Thus, the adoption of EA is largely based on voluntarism and it is up to each public organization to assess their need for an EA and decisions related to it.
At the state level a business case model for large IT-projects was made mandatory by the Ministry of Finance in 2008. Reference models are included here.

Architecture frameworks and methodologies:
Since the publication of the EA white paper in 2003, a handbook on EA implementation has been published by the National IT and Telecom Agency. The handbook defines a generic architectural process for EA development similar to e.g. the Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework. The handbook also includes an EA framework based on the Zachman Framework.
A business reference model was developed in 2007 for the entire public sector (see more details here). A service and technology reference model is under development.

Architecture principles and standards:
The EA process model deals with non-mandatory principles and the selection of standards. In the white paper published in 2003 five categories of principles were suggested: interoperability, security, openness, flexibility and scalability.  A new set of IT-architecture principles are under development.
The National IT and Telecom Agency is also responsible for national technical standards and data-standards.

Implementation:
As the Danish EA governance model is based on incentives rather than laws and regulations, the implementation of EA in Denmark’s public agencies is still rather fragmented. My prediction is that this will change in 2009 ;-)

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September 02, 2008

Thought Leaders

Cisco IBSG just released a case study about Denmark’s business architecture program. My boss (Denmark’s version of a public sector CIO) and my self are quoted in the case study. A good read I think :-)) Download here – or find here.

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April 09, 2006

Enterprise Architecture the Danish Way

If the Cartoon Crisis hurt Denmark’s reputation around the world, maybe our national Enterprise Architecture (EA) program can improve it a little. After visiting a range of “EA best practice” agencies, IBM and Booz Allen Hamilton with my colleagues from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation in Washington DC last week, I am very optimistic about national EA progress. We still have some challenges with the organizational anchoring of the program in the central government, but our methodology and framework is looking better and better.

The Danish EA program was kicked off with a White paper in 2003. After that I helped co-write a Handbook on EA implementation in 2004 and we are now working on a virtual EA guide, a national EA repository and a range of reference models and patterns. One of my colleagues, Michael Bank Kjeldgaard is heading the effort. My role will be to assist him in the process of integrating our methodology, artefacts, tools and repository, best practices and consolidating our framework. Some of the things that I will be looking for are mutual dependence or interdependence between the involved groups, the quality of the shared information, getting the right EA artefacts implemented, and securing the long-term commitment of the program. It is exiting to be part of building EA the Danish way!

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