Computing at UW-MadisonDivision of Information Technology
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IT Architecture Services

Mission: Encourage the creation of an IT Architecture that is efficient, supports change and innovation and is consistent with the institution’s strategic direction.

Goals

  • To solve business problems through the application of technology and technology-related process.
  • To develop solutions that can be successfully constructed, implemented, operated and managed. Focus on the entire lifecycle of a solution.
  • To develop solutions that support institutional policies, governmental regulations and industry standards.
  • To support the enterprise architecture taking an evolutionary view of the entire ecosystem.
  • Focus on the interaction of project to project, project to legacy systems and system to system.
  • Reduce and/or avoid redundancy ensuring efficient use of resources and reduction in complexity.

What we do

  • Solve business problems primarily using technology, policy and the relation of technology to policy.
  • Identify and involve as appropriate stakeholders for initiatives.
  • Identify patterns to help the organization focus on the important.
  • Requirements discovery and analysis.
  • Formulation of the solution context.
  • Identification of alternatives.
  • Assessment of alternatives.
  • Technology selection/recommendation.
  • Architectural configuration recommendation.
  • Basic as well as applied research.
  • Facilitate and support executive decision making and decisions.

How we do this

  • Use formal methods (UML, use cases, etc.).
  • Focus on process.
  • Identification and framing of the problem.
  • Collection and integration of information.
  • Employment of good communication.
  • Clarification of business as well as technical concepts.
  • Negotiation/facilitation.
  • Conduit for communication between projects and departments.
  • Provide consulting skills.
  • Provide knowledge.
  • Connections with national and international initiatives.
  • Provide leadership.
  • Focus on enterprise data.

Includes information from: Jim Phelps's blog (http://www.jimphelps.info/work), The Open Group's IT Architect Certification Program (http://www.opengroup.org/itac), Carnegie-Mellon's Software Engineering Institute (http://www.sei.cmu.edu/architecture/).