Why Architecture?

Sorry no posts in a while. My blog was under attack by Chinese spammers. While Google and others work on a possible solution to this problem, I thought I'd make a quick post. 

The World Wide Marketing Manager of our team asked this question recently. Here, for your flames, was my answer:

When large (enterprise-level) projects fail the cause of failure is not always apparent. While the failure is usually blamed on poor project management or inexperienced developers, the actual cause is most likely a misalignment of the solution architecture with the business objectives. This happens far too often - in the rush to develop a solution the architecture is often treated as a technical design rather than the underlying foundation of the design itself. Simply put, enterprise architecture is not design - design should not begin until after the architecture work has completed. The architecture is a realization of the organization's business objectives, not a framework of web services or layer-cake diagrams. The services and diagrams are part of the enterprise architecture, but these parts come much later in the process. The first (and most important) steps require the architect to work with business analysts, executives, domain experts and other stakeholders to ensure that expectations, business processes and performance-based management objectives are established and aligned with the goals of the organization. Once this task is completed the architect adopts an "agile" approach, capable of incorporating potential shifts in organizational objectives. The architect designs and manages the processes and components that make up the solution architecture, balancing the investment and development of the architecture with the needs and goals of the organization - all while trying to maximize existing investments and minimize the disruption upon the organization itself. The final architectural solution should meet or exceed stakeholder business objectives, streamline/minimize operational costs and provide measurable improvements to the efficiency of the organization.  

PS: After learning more about nofollow I believe its a very bad idea. See the link below for reasons why nofollow should not be supported.