Oracle Magazine - January/February 2012

Tools of the Trade
What’s in your architecture toolbox?

It is said that there’s a tool for every job. But when that job is I T architecture, in all its permutations, the definition of tool can be a bit fuzzy.

When I set out to get a sense of what community members consider the most important tool in their respective architectural toolboxes, I intentionally left the definition of tool open. I was curious to see how those who responded to my questions would interpret the term.

One of those respondents was Farzad Pezeshkpour, head of architecture and engineering for market and credit risk technology at the Royal Bank of Scotland. His personal choice for the most important tool is Enterprise Architect from Sparx Systems.

“In order to do enterprise architecture
well,” Pezeshkpour says, “there must be
a consistent way to represent it, using a
number of different views at different levels
of detail, including logical static, logical
dynamic, and deployment. There also must
be a consistent naming and referencing
mechanism to tie together all the architec-
ture views. And finally, there must be an
enterprise architecture repository to store
and cross-reference these artifacts. Having
these three core elements in our toolset and
processes gives an architectural manage-
ment information view that helps govern our
estate more efficiently and intelligently.”
Architecture is deeply connected to the
specific business and technological environ-
ment in which an organization operates.
Pezeshkpour works at one company, in
one environment—which is challenging
enough. But what happens if your work as an
architect takes you into a variety of different
environments?

If you find yourself in that situation,
Vennster Managing Partner Ronald van
Luttikhuizen advises adaptability when it
comes to tools. “Especially if you’re a con-
sultant working for various clients, it greatly
helps to use the tooling that is available
and already in use by clients and stake-
holders, instead of rigidly sticking to your
own toolset,” says this Oracle ACE Director.
That can mean dealing with a variety of
Unified Modeling Language (UML), Business
Process Model and Notation (BPMN), and
other modeling and design tools. As for his
personal favorite, van Luttikhuizen also lists
Sparx Systems’ Enterprise Architect. “A great
tool at a great price,” he says.

“In order to do
enterprise
architecture well,
there must be a
consistent way to
represent it.”

—Farzad Pezeshkpour, Royal Bank of Scotland

But van Luttikhuizen’s toolbox also con-
tains some more-basic applications to help
him get his message across. “In the end,
architecture is about communication,” he
says. “So in the beginning of an architecture-
oriented project, the most important tools
are a whiteboard, Microsoft PowerPoint, and
Microsoft Word.”
Karina Ishkhanova, a solution architect
and technical lead for payment systems
at School-Day Solutions, agrees with van
Luttikhuizen about the importance of basic
communication tools. “The first stage in
defining the future architecture happens in
close collaboration with business depart-
ments,” she says. “Whiteboards, paper, and
markers are indispensable. Sometimes we
even cut paper into components to move
them around to help visualize the varia-
tions on proximity to other system parts.”
For modeling, Ishkhanova uses UMlet, an
open source UML tool, which she values for
its simplicity. “At more-advanced stages, I
move to Oracle JDeveloper,” she says, “to
take advantage of its integration and auto-
mation features.”
Communication tools are also vital for
Lambda Software President Aki Iskandar.

Bob Rhubart
(bob.rhubart@oracle
.com) is manager of the
architect community
on Oracle Technology
Network, the host of the
Oracle Technology Network ArchBeat podcast
series, and the author of the ArchBeat blog
( blogs.oracle.com/archbeat).