Architecture: The Application Portfolio

The heat map from Aldermont's capability analysis put a red box around "customer management" and noted, dryly, that the bank delivers it three times over. That single red box hides a real mess underneath it: three CRMs, each inherited from a different acquired bank, each with its own database, its own integrations, its own small band of people who know how it works and are quietly nearing retirement. Leadership now wants to act on … Read More

Explained: Capability Mapping

Aldermont's leadership wants to know one thing before it commits hundreds of millions of dollars to the core consolidation: where is the bank actually weak? Not which team is understaffed, not which project is late, but which of the fundamental things the bank does are being done badly, expensively, or three times over. It is a simple question and nobody in the room can answer it cleanly, because every answer they reach for is really an answ… Read More

Explained: Choosing a Framework

The chief enterprise architect walks out of a vendor presentation holding a glossy deck titled "Your TOGAF Transformation Journey." A consultancy has just pitched Aldermont a two-year engagement to roll out a full formal architecture practice, complete with certifications, a documentation standard, and a review process for every project in the bank. It is thorough. It is expensive. And a quiet voice is asking whether the bank actually … Read More

Explained: The Zachman Framework

Aldermont's core consolidation program has produced a lot of documents. There is a customer data model from the data architects, a set of process maps from the business analysts, a network diagram from the infrastructure team, a project schedule from the program office, and a list of regulatory obligations from compliance. Each is correct. Each was made by a different group for a different reason. And no one can say whether, together, they d… Read More

Architecture: TOGAF and the ADM

Aldermont's board has finally signed off on the thing every engineer at the bank has wanted for years: consolidate the three core banking systems into one. The Calford mainframe, the Piedmont commercial platform, and the Northline cloud core will become a single core with a single definition of a customer. It is a multi-year, multi-hundred-million-dollar program that touches every part of the bank. The chief enterprise architect is handed the… Read More