Austerity and Enterprise Architecture

User-centric EA believes in planning for the future —often uncertain, but always full of potential.

Fortune Magazine, 20 August, 2007, identifies an important tenet of Carlos Slim (the richest man in the world) as follows: “maintain austerity in prosperous times (in times when the cow is fat with milk); it accelerates corporate development and avoids the need for drastic changes in time of crisis.”

While user-centric EA cares about the individual, it also must take into account the needs of the overall organization and “the greater good.”

User-centric EA is not about being miserly, but rather about being frugal. It’s not about being pessimistic about the future, but about having a plan to weather whatever may come. In user-centric EA, planning includes alternative analysis and looking at the spectrum of all options. User-centric EA is about diversifying capabilities and at the same time building competencies and differentiating.

User-centric EA adopts planning as the mechanism to “maintain austerity”, to “accelerate corporate development”, and to “avoid the need for drastic change in time of crisis”. EA is a stabilizing factor for an organization in an ever changing world.

Austerity and Enterprise Architecture