Teaching Enterprise Architecture

It's been more than 25 years since Dimitra Kane enrolled in Northwestern Engineering's Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) program. Since then, she's held senior information technology (IT) roles at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Allstate, Discover, Medline, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield, where she currently is senior business architect.

Among her many accomplishments, Kane (MSIT '99) remains adamant that enrolling in MSIT was one of the best professional decisions she's ever made.

"My career aspiration was to become an IT leader," Kane said. "The focus on developing both technical skills and soft skills such as leadership and communication has been incredibly beneficial."

Now Kane, a member of the MSIT Industry Advisory Board, is helping support the next generation of MSIT students. This quarter, she will co-teach a new Enterprise Architecture course with Raju Kanjamalai, senior enterprise architect at AbbVie.

The five-week class will dig into how to best design, implement, and manage a comprehensive enterprise architecture.

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Kane defined enterprise architecture as a strategic planning framework that aligns business goals and objectives with IT to improve efficiency, agility, and effectiveness within an organization. The purpose of enterprise architecture is to ensure IT investments and capabilities are in line with business goals.

"Enterprise architecture is critical to an organization’s success as it ensures that IT strategies and resources are fully aligned with the business goals and objectives," she said. "This alignment helps in making informed decisions that support the overall mission and vision of the organization."

Kane and Kanjamalai will explore case studies that highlight how organizations applied enterprise architecture concepts to their business. The class will also include guest speakers who will speak of their own case studies and use cases related to enterprise architecture.

Students will be tasked with applying enterprise architecture principles and frameworks to real-world business challenges. Examples of these projects include creating a complete strategy for migrating on premises applications to the cloud or proposing a transformation project that leverages emerging technologies — including artificial intelligence — to enhance business operations.

Kane hopes students leave the class understanding why enterprise architecture is important to an organization.

"Enterprise architecture provides a comprehensive view of the organization's process, systems, and technologies," she said. "Having a holistic perspective helps in understanding interdependencies and managing resources effectively."

Businesses with well developed enterprise architecture are able to be more agile, identify potential risks, and develop mitigation strategies. Perhaps most significantly, it creates a common language for business and IT stakeholders to communicate and collaborate.

"Enterprise architecture combines elements of business strategy, information technology and process improvement," Kane said. "Teaching students to see the big picture and understand how various components of an organization fit together is a rewarding experience."