Chances are, if you’re trying to start an EA group, once you've decided what you want that organization to do, the discussion immediately turns to people. In this on-demand webinar, Cutter Fellow Ken Orr addresses what you should be looking for in an enterprise architect: What should the architect know? What kind of experience and organization skills should the ideal candidate have?

Ken discusses the many traits you should be searching for in your enterprise architect, including the ability to "abstract" -- to look at and be familiar with the big picture, but at the same time not get lost. Programming and business process are also important, but there is much more to the equation. Enterprise architects need experience at a systems level. They must be comfortable with modeling large scale systems and large scale databases. Understanding "objects" is useful, but not nearly as useful as understanding system-to-system data flow. Enterprise architects must also be able to listen to others and have a solid understanding of how to plan over rather long periods of time.

Ken goes into detail on EA certification and how it often leads people to believe that they can "do EA." "Doing EA" can be a difficult task since you have to be able to listen and model in ways that can be understood by both the technical folks and business folks.

Watch Ken Orr as he discusses the many complex issues that must be considered when building your enterprise architecture group.