Architecture Principles

Establishing a set of baseline principles for your architecture group is an important first step in define the 'essence' or 'spirit' of architecture. In many cases, they are generic and I share some here:

• Drive systems priorities and architecture from business outcomes not from technical purity
  
• Architecture is not set in concrete – it needs to be continually updated with changing business strategy and project learning
  
• Architecture should not mean stifling organisational innovation or champions of ideas – it should encourage these and provide these with some acceleration
  
• Systems priorities and major architectural strategies should always be owned, sponsored and directly applied by the business, not be large technically excellent ICT owned philosophies
  
• Architecture does not always mean new stuff. It can mean how we reuse old stuff or simply extend it.