Yesterday it was announced that the Penn State professional masters program for enterprise architecture was approved last week by the board of trustees. The program is officially green lit for the industry. This is truly exciting news.
There are a few really good reasons as enterprise architects why we should all be excited about this:
A learning path for aspiring architects - today there are limited to no options for EA's who want to get a professional education for a reputable education institution. Now individuals can start their career in the architecture field rit away with training while before it was a role that was achieved through other roles and lengthy experiences in IT.
EA profession is real - with worldwide EA academic programs springing up continuously it is showing that there is not only steady demand for EA but we are at a tipping point of where this discipline is has enough demand and sustainability that an academic base is needed.
New perspectives - The EA industry has been dominated by analysts, large vendors, consultancies and some standards bodies to date. With the ground swell of academic institutions participation in this field there is another important perspective that brings with it necessary rigor, repeatability and research principles.
According to Penn State this is the first enterprise architecture masters program in North America and the first online EA program in the world. This program has moved at light speed for academia. They did this in about 2 ½ years compared to other programs elsewhere taking upwards of 7-10 years to develop.
Through the MPS/EA program, professionals will learn how to:
• Understand and apply foundational concepts, issues, and best practices in the field of enterprise architecture.
• Develop and maintain the many components of an effective enterprise architecture.• Evaluate and select appropriate enterprise modeling approaches.
• Understand approaches for measuring and communicating value.
• Explore EA framework evaluation and development.
• Develop an understanding of the different layers of the enterprise information technology landscape.
• Develop an understanding of the best practices for effective leadership, decision making, and communications for enterprise architecture.
• Examine organizational theories and processes of organizational behavior.
• Understand best practices and approaches to manage costs and value of enterprise projects.
• How to link projects to overall corporate strategy.
• Follow interdisciplinary approaches and techniques to manage projects in a modern business environment.
• Deliver a clear advantage in today’s highly competitive and dynamic environment by continuously learning, analyzing, applying new trends, issues, and innovations in the field of enterprise architecture to the overall organization.
For more information:
Center for Enterprise Architecture: http://ea.ist.psu.edu/
The Federation for Enterprise ArchitectureProfessional Organizations (FEAPO): http://www.feapo.org/
Supply Chain Research: http://www.smeal.psu.edu/cscr
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