EA Q&A : Who are the potential stakeholders in an Enterprise Architecture program?

Here are a couple of recent questions that came to me from an online forum -

Question 1> Who are the potential stakeholders in an Enterprise Architecture program? 

 My response follows

The potential stakeholders in an Enterprise Architecture (EA) program may include:

• The Sponsor of EA program - The business, functional or technology sponsor of the EA program will be a key stakeholder
• The Sponsor’s direct reports - Those people will generally be engaged directly or indirectly in EA reviews
• The Sponsor’s reporting managers/executives - The sponsor will engage his/her reporting executives in the EA program
• IS and Technology stakeholders - The CIO/CTO may engage key people from their team for the EA program
• Functional stakeholders - The term ‘functional’ or ‘Business’ is generally broad and may include operational leadership and functional leaders who drive strategic initiatives across the organization
• Functional and operational team members - Do not underestimate the tacit knowledge that can exist in pockets across the enterprise. EA’s may have to engage with a wide spectrum of subject matter experts (SMEs) from across the organization

This is not an inclusive list, but just intended to guide you to explore the list of stakeholders.

After you identify your stakeholders, you will need a Responsibility assignment matrix (RACI) to ensure you engage and communicate with stakeholders.

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Question 2> What kind of personal/technical skills are required for an information architect (IA)? I major in information science and planning classes for next semester.

 My response follows

There are many ways of looking at Information Architecture (IA).

• In many organizations, Information gets granular when you engage with specific business, functional or technology Domains. Each will have a specific vocabulary, taxonomy and other business dimensions that you will have to gain expertise in. For example, an IA for a Finance domain may be different from that in Legal or Commercial areas.
• The TOGAF Standard, Phase C: Information Systems Architectures - Under IS Architecture, TOGAF takes into account Data and Application Architecture.

As you plan to major in information science, you could broaden your knowledge by taking some courses in functional domain areas.