Our Beliefs

BTE Consulting was founded to enable business transformation through the effective use of technology.

BTE Consulting believes that sound architecture – Business, Operational Processes, Systems and Technology – is the best approach for enabling business transformation through technology.

To that end, we follow and adhere to a set of core beliefs. Our beliefs permeate our methods, and guide us to sound solutions.

 
We Believe …
Architectures are Business-Driven and Customer Focused.
1 Key business drivers and business imperatives drive BTE architecture development processes. If there is to be an architectural vision, it must be based on the business vision. Architecture development is an ongoing process that must be in lock step with business needs.
The Business Must Be Fixed First.
2 The needs and concerns of the business must be addressed first. Business solutions should not be delayed by the architecture. The architecture can provide tangible business value, and must be deployed in a manner that maximizes its value contribution. Migration and implementation plans that roll out early – and identifiable – business benefit must be established and followed.
IT Organizations Must Have Technology Guiding Principles
3 The key component of an enterprise’s architecture is its Technology Guiding Principles. Technology Guiding Principles are the set of architecture values that the entire enterprise accepts and follows. Technology Guiding Principles cover major technology positions that are not, or are no longer, open for discussion. Technology Guiding Principles are statements of shared values, endorsed by the business, and are followed by all IT personnel to ensure proper alignment with the architecture.
Open Architectures Must Be Promoted.
4 Open, non-proprietary architectures protect the business from vendor-specific proprietary architectures. This provides for reduced risk of exposure to a vendor’s business troubles and reduced reliance on potentially scarce vendor-specific skilled resources.
Reliability, Availability and Scalability Must Be Promoted.
5 Architectures must be built with an eye towards providing a reliable and available computing resource for the business. In addition, the architecture must provide scalable components and processes to respond to increasing business needs and requirements.
Architectures Must Be Unified with the IT Organization and the Business.
6 The success or failure of an enterprise’s architecture depends on the cooperative efforts of all business units across the enterprise. The enterprise’s architects must coordinate their designs, standards and guidelines with the entire IT organization, to promote cross-organization consistency and leverage potentials.
Architecture Plans and Progress Must Be Communicated with the Business.
7 The plans, goals, and benefits of the enterprise’s architecture must be communicated across all business units. This ensures proper business alignment of the architecture at the outset of the program or project. Also, to ensure the ongoing alignment with the business, the status and progress of the enterprise’s architecture programs must be regularly published. This allows for on-going discussion of concepts and ideas as they arise.
Architectures Must Be Standardized.
8 Standardization of critical IT assets is vital to designing robust yet flexible architectures that can adapt to change. The ultimate goal is to minimize the large number of customizations often associated with disparate technologies, as well as configurations that inhibit change. The elimination of incompatible technologies will leverage existing IT services, skill sets, training, and support.
Architectures Must Be Flexible.
9 Even the most well thought-out projects require some changes along the way. If a business unit prefers a technology that goes against Technology Guiding Principles, a suitable alternative will have to found that will satisfy the business-unit requirements.
Architectures Must Be Implemented in Incremental Steps
10 Architecture projects must be initiated with realistic expectations in mind. The organization’s architects must adopt a philosophy by which the architecture is developed in an evolutionary way, via a series of time-boxed implementations. The implementation builds on the previous ones and incrementally provides value to the enterprise’s business units. Using an evolutionary style as opposed to a “big bang” approach dramatically increases the chance for success.
The People using the Architecture will Determine its Success
11 Business users and technicians will use the architecture. These two groups will realize the architecture’s value. The complexity or ease-of-use will become evident as people use –or don’t use – the architectures components. Therefore, technicians should be continually trained and the required skills developed to use the architecture to its fullest extent.


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Our Beliefs

BTE Consulting was founded to enable business transformation through the effective use of technology.

BTE Consulting believes that sound architecture – Business, Operational Processes, Systems and Technology – is the best approach for enabling business transformation through technology.

To that end, we follow and adhere to a set of core beliefs. Our beliefs permeate our methods, and guide us to sound solutions.
Architectures are Business-Driven and Customer Focused.
1
 Key business drivers and business imperatives drive BTE architecture development processes. If there is to be an architectural vision, it must be based on the business vision. Architecture development is an ongoing process that must be in lock step with business needs.
The Business Must Be Fixed First.
2
 The needs and concerns of the business must be addressed first. Business solutions should not be delayed by the architecture. The architecture can provide tangible business value, and must be deployed in a manner that maximizes its value contribution. Migration and implementation plans that roll out early – and identifiable – business benefit must be established and followed.
IT Organizations Must Have Technology Guiding Principles
3
 The key component of an enterprise’s architecture is its Technology Guiding Principles. Technology Guiding Principles are the set of architecture values that the entire enterprise accepts and follows. Technology Guiding Principles cover major technology positions that are not, or are no longer, open for discussion. Technology Guiding Principles are statements of shared values, endorsed by the business, and are followed by all IT personnel to ensure proper alignment with the architecture.
Open Architectures Must Be Promoted.
4
 Open, non-proprietary architectures protect the business from vendor-specific proprietary architectures. This provides for reduced risk of exposure to a vendor’s business troubles and reduced reliance on potentially scarce vendor-specific skilled resources.
Reliability, Availability and Scalability Must Be Promoted.
Reliability, Availability and Scalability Must Be Promoted.
5
 Architectures must be built with an eye towards providing a reliable and available computing resource for the business. In addition, the architecture must provide scalable components and processes to respond to increasing business needs and requirements.
Architectures Must Be Unified with the IT Organization and the Business.
Architectures Must Be Unified with the IT Organization and the Business.
6
 The success or failure of an enterprise’s architecture depends on the cooperative efforts of all business units across the enterprise. The enterprise’s architects must coordinate their designs, standards and guidelines with the entire IT organization, to promote cross-organization consistency and leverage potentials.
Architecture Plans and Progress Must Be Communicated with the Business.
7
 The plans, goals, and benefits of the enterprise’s architecture must be communicated across all business units. This ensures proper business alignment of the architecture at the outset of the program or project. Also, to ensure the ongoing alignment with the business, the status and progress of the enterprise’s architecture programs must be regularly published. This allows for on-going discussion of concepts and ideas as they arise.
Architectures Must Be Standardized.
8
 Standardization of critical IT assets is vital to designing robust yet flexible architectures that can adapt to change. The ultimate goal is to minimize the large number of customizations often associated with disparate technologies, as well as configurations that inhibit change. The elimination of incompatible technologies will leverage existing IT services, skill sets, training, and support.
Architectures Must Be Flexible.
9
 Even the most well thought-out projects require some changes along the way. If a business unit prefers a technology that goes against Technology Guiding Principles, a suitable alternative will have to found that will satisfy the business-unit requirements.
Architectures Must Be Implemented in Incremental Steps
10
 Architecture projects must be initiated with realistic expectations in mind. The organization’s architects must adopt a philosophy by which the architecture is developed in an evolutionary way, via a series of time-boxed implementations. The implementation builds on the previous ones and incrementally provides value to the enterprise’s business units. Using an evolutionary style as opposed to a “big bang” approach dramatically increases the chance for success.
The People using the Architecture will Determine its Success
11
 Business users and technicians will use the architecture. These two groups will realize the architecture’s value. The complexity or ease-of-use will become evident as people use –or don’t use – the architectures components. Therefore, technicians should be continually trained and the required skills developed to use the architecture to its fullest extent.

 
   
© 2007 BTE Consulting