Short Programs

Architecting the Future Enterprise

Date: June 10-12, 2013 | Tuition: $2,500 | Continuing Education Units (CEUs): 1.7
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Course Summary  |  Learning Objectives  |  Who Should Attend  |  Schedule  |  Participants' Comments  |  About the Lecturers  |  Location  |  Updates

Course Summary

This course is about:

• Thinking holistically about enterprise
• Viewing the enterprise through multiple lenses
• Applying an architectural approach
• Evaluating alternative architectures
• Enriching your thinking

This course is not about: traditional IT-focused enterprise architecture, EA Frameworks (Zachman, TOGAF, DODAF, etc...), Clinger-Cohen Act, enterprise documents and databases, or designing IT systems.

Enterprises evolve over time, but the transformation efforts aimed at their evolution too often fail to achieve their intended outcomes. We teach a holistic approach to guide enterprise leaders in understanding their ‘as-is’ enterprise, generating and evaluating alternative concepts, and selecting a ‘to-be’ architecture concept. While some very good frameworks and approaches exist to develop detailed enterprise architectures, we move ‘upstream’ in the enterprise design lifecycle to the concept phase. Our holistic approach goes beyond a process-centric or information technology-centric perspective, critically important even when the transformation might specifically be related to process re-engineering or an information technology upgrade. Leaders need to be able to see the whole enterprise to effectively envision the path for change.

In discovery of this ‘right concept’ we explore the enterprise through ten fundamental enterprise elements, and their interrelationships. This is essential to broadening the leadership conversations needed to reach a strategic enterprise future vision. The ten elements are: ecosystem, stakeholders, strategy, information, infrastructure, process, organization, knowledge, products, and services.

Learning techniques for stakeholder analysis and for ‘future-proofing’ to evaluate fitness of architectures for alternative futures enhances the strategic enterprise decisions. We examine how the principles, practices, and heuristics of systems architecting are extended and adapted for enterprise architecting. We discuss the role of leadership in creating a vivid transformation vision, as well as transformation and communication plans.

In the fast-paced world in which modern enterprises operate, a sense of urgency can lead to a rush to take action. Yet applying a formal framework and best enterprise design practices can be futile unless time is taken to adequately explore and evaluate alternatives to find an ‘optimal’ concept for going forward. Other approaches in the industry focus on “doing enterprise architecting right.” Based on a decade of research and case investigations, our approach is aimed as the necessary prerequisite activity to ensure transformation is based on “the right enterprise concept architecture.”

Learning Objectives

The participants of this course will be able to:

1. Understand the motivation for and increasing importance of designing and transforming enterprises to meet contemporary challenges.
2. Have an appreciation for the emerging field of holistic enterprise architecting as distinguished from transformation based on a single perspective.
3. Understand how strategic drivers (business model, strategic focus, enterprise performance objectives, etc.) and desired enterprise “itlities” (flexibility, scalability, agility, etc.) influence enterprise decisions.
4. Use ten elements (ecosystem, stakeholders, stategy information, infrastructure, process, organization, knowledge, products, and services), and their interrelationships, to view the whole enterprise.
5. Understand methods that can be employed to generate, evaluate, and select an ‘optimal’ concept architecture for enterprise transformation.
6. Use ‘future-proofing’ to evaluate fitness of architectures for alternative futures to enhance strategic enterprise decisions.
7. Recognize leadership challenges, barriers, and enablers in designing and planning enterprise transformations.
8. Discuss strategic issues leaders face in planning and undertaking enterprise re-designs and transformation.
9. Have knowledge of the latest published literature in the field and insight into ongoing research.

Who Should Attend

This course is targeted for executives and professionals who lead and implement enterprise transformation efforts within and across an enterprise. The course will be of particular benefit to professionals who understand the value of taking a systems perspective in making strategic decisions in the face of a dynamic environment involving complex enterprise factors.

Course schedule and registration times

View 2013 Course Schedule

Class runs 9:00 am - 5:00 pm each day except for Wedesday when it ends at 4:00 pm.

Registration is on Monday morning from 8:00 - 8:30 am.

Instructors will host a networking dinner following the Day Two session (optional).

Participants' Comments

Senior Director Provider Operations, NaviNet
"The lecturers had an impressive amount of practical knowledge about the field and the lectures were engaging - even after two straight days."

Software Architect, SAIC
"The second day after I tried to map my enterprise to their architecture [it] made everything come to life."

Founder/Chief Editor, Editora ao Vivo Ltda
"I had considered going to Harvard or Stanford this summer, but only at MIT I have found a kind of knowledge built from scratch in a creative way that I would not find correlative in Brazil."

About The Lecturers

Dr. Donna H. Rhodes
Donna Rhodes is a Senior Lecturer in the MIT Engineering Systems Division and a Principal Research Scientist in the MIT Center for Technology Policy and Industrial Development (CTPID). She is the co-founder and research director of the MIT Systems Engineering Advancement Research Initiative (SEAri), and a principal researcher for the MIT Lean Advancement Initiative (LAI). Dr. Rhodes has research interests and advises ongoing research projects in advanced systems engineering methods; defense and commercial systems practices and case studies; value based decision analysis methods; systems principles and practices applied to enterprises; managing for complexity and uncertainty; systems-of-systems engineering; and strategies for high performing enterprises in the engineering systems context. Prior to joining MIT, Dr. Rhodes had 20 years of experience in the aerospace/defense systems, systems integration, and commercial product industries, where she held senior management positions at IBM Federal Systems, Lockheed Martin, and Lucent Technologies. Dr. Rhodes has been very involved in the evolution of the systems engineering field, as well as the development of several university graduate programs. She has served on a number of boards and study panels to advance systems practice and education and to address issues of national and international importance. She has published numerous papers and research reports in the field of systems, and has co-authored industry and corporate engineering policies, standards, and reports. She has been an invited speaker for numerous international and national events in the field of systems.

Dr. Rhodes received her Ph.D. in Systems Science from the T.J. Watson School of Engineering at SUNY Binghamton. She is a Past President and Fellow of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), and recipient of INCOSE’s Founders Award and several INCOSE Distinguished Service Awards.

For more information on MIT Lean Advancement Initiative, please see http://lean.mit.edu. For more information on the MIT Systems Engineering Advancement Research Initiative (SEAri), please visit http://seari.mit.edu

Professor Deborah J. Nightingale
Professor Deborah Nightingale has broad-based experience with academia, the private sector and the government. Professor Nightingale joined the MIT faculty in 1997 and holds a dual appointment in the Engineering Systems Division and the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. At MIT she serves as the Director of the Sociotechnical Systems Research Center (SSRC) as well as the Co-Director of the Lean Advancement Initiative, a joint industry, government, and MIT consortium. Her research interests are centered on complex enterprise integration, enterprise architecting, and organizational transformation. Her current focus on health systems is exemplified by her role as PI on several research projects, including an enterprise systems analysis of the DoD system of care for Post-Traumatic Stress, several systems studies for the Veterans Administration, and multiple projects in the civilian sector. In addition, Professor Nightingale has led several executive transformation engagements in both industry and government.

Prior to joining MIT, Professor Nightingale headed up Strategic Planning and Global Business Development for AlliedSignal Engines. While at AlliedSignal she also held a number of executive leadership positions in operations, engineering, and program management, participating in enterprise-wide operations from concept development to customer support. Prior to joining AlliedSignal, she worked at Wright-Patterson AFB where she served as program manager for computer simulation modeling research, design, and development in support of advanced man-machine design concepts.

Professor Nightingale has a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in Industrial and Systems Engineering. In addition, she holds M.S. and B.S. degrees in Computer and Information Science from The Ohio State University and University of Dayton, respectively. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, Past-President and Fellow of the Institute of Industrial Engineers, and co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Enterprise Transformation. She is a co-author of the books Lean Enterprise Value: Insights from MIT’s Lean Aerospace Initiative and Beyond the Lean Revolution: Achieving Successful and Sustainable Enterprise Transformation. Professor Nightingale serves on a number of boards and national committees, where she interacts extensively with industry, government and academic leaders.

 

Location

This course takes place on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We can also offer this course for groups of employees at your location. Please contact the Short Programs office for further details.

Updates

There are no updates at this time.