Architecture is quickly showing itself to be the differentiating factor in enterprise systems development by providing faster time to market, lower overall IT costs and greater overall business flexibility. In all cases, architecture has shown itself to be not only required for medium to large companies but a competitive advantage.

In most IT departments there are numerous existing systems, products, platforms and custom frameworks. Maximizing these resources is difficult at best. Worse, there are an ever-growing number of new technologies to evaluate based on competing platforms. Microsoft .NET, J2EE, Oracle, IBM, Linux, and a host of other technologies make the architect’s job more exciting, but also more difficult. We believe this diversity is beneficial, as it allows the architect to sculpt a solution which best meets their companies needs.

There are many ways to advance the state of software and enterprise architecture. Research, committees, publication, knowledge sharing, and standardization are all viable approaches. However, there is a serious flaw in these approaches. The architecture community, meaning the thought-leaders, industry, vendors and architecture practitioners, is fragmented and difficult to reach. There is no standard definition of software architecture, no metrics on the number of companies practicing architecture, no standard architecture development process, few metrics on the number of practicing architects, and little or no understanding of what an architect should do.

In today’s environment any centrally run organization will have a difficult time organizing and achieving discernible advancement. This has been tried many times with respect to software architecture. WWISA, GEAO and EAIG are all giving the completely centralized approach a try and have had numerous years to develop a stable separate architecture community. IASA cannot see any real momentum building behind their approach. The ISO-1471 committee contains both thought-leaders and large sponsor participation and has been functioning for many years. Yet still most practicing architects know little about the ISO specifications and standards. Worse yet, most IT departments do not see any direct benefit from the organization.

IASA is committed to fixing this problem. Our plan is simple; create a global architecture community of practicing architects and allow that body to drive standards, according to their needs and issues. In essence, get the actual architects together, drawing in the vendors and enterprises, coordinate this community with the thought-leaders and then allow the community to decide what standards make the most sense for the industry as a whole.

Obviously, creating a cohesive architecture community will not be easy. Architects are generally overburdened or ineffective. People in this position are generally in “fire-fighting” mode, leaving little time for interacting with a community. Thus we have a chicken and egg problem. It is difficult to form an effective set of standards without the architecture community and yet it is difficult to get access to the architecture community without an effective set of standards. IASA has developed a process, which draws in architects, thought-leaders, vendors, education and ultimately the enterprise into the community as a whole.

The solution is simple, tiered individual involvement. A practicing architect is challenged with process, technology and business issues everyday. Generally they have little time to participate in time-consuming centralized organizations. IASA's business model matches individuals skills and desire to participate in the architecture community with a set of membership benefits. IASA is able capture these individual’s interest and participation by providing local monthly meetings, preferably from the experiences of architects within their own community.

When you get hundreds (or thousands) of architects together, the vendors (consulting and product) want to participate. When large vendors and practicing architects participate together, the IT departments get interested, as they are ultimately responsible for the purchase of products and the hiring of architects. Once a significant amount of participation is in place, IASA will be in a position to discover and promote processes, standards, tools, and frameworks for the entire architecture community.