Dear Enterprise Architecture, 

Thank you for taking the time to answer my whirlwind of questions and requests the other day. It was great to get to know you a little - I think I understand you a lot better now!

To be fair (to me), I think you’ve made it slightly difficult in the past. Assuming that the business knows what, you do, doesn’t always help your case. If I am being completely honest – and I hope you don’t take this the wrong way – it may even make you come off a little bit arrogant, which I now know that you are not. 

But I think I get it now. You are working hard to keep the broad overview and ensure that my colleagues and I have the tools and guidelines we need to make solid IT decisions. 

And all you want to do, is help us navigate IT challenges and complexities in a way that benefits the organisation as a whole – it’s just hard for you to articulate sometimes. Have you tried talking with change management about that?

Anyway, I am writing to you because I have a confession to make. The other day, when I asked if we could have an IT tool for task management, and you told me that we already have solutions to support that capability… 

Well, I might have smiled and reciprocated with an “ok, thanks”, but truth be told, it didn’t make much sense to me. In my mind, capabilities are something I just filled out in the “how I would like to improve”-part of my performance review. 

Then you told me to reach out to the solution architect… I mean sure, but I don’t think I am the only one who doesn’t really understand the difference here. Enterprise, domain, and solution – aren’t you all architects?

Anyways, I will just go ahead and buy the tool myself, I guess that’s fine with you?

Let me know what you think. 

 

Best regards, 

Confused team leader