Apply to Join

Please describe your chief architect, architect management or chief technology officer experience along with the number of direct/indirect architect FTEs you lead or led
Please provide city, country so we can best respond to your request.
In the role with the single-largest span of directly managing architects in your career history:
• When you worked as an Architect or Chief Architect
    ° Roles managing the Chief Architect are invalid
• The number of architects who directly reported into you
• Include skip-level architects
• Include only architect FTE
• Do not aggregate, use the maximum team size reached
• Architects must be employed in the same company
    ° Managing architect consultants
       when employed by that same consulting firm
    ° Working as a consultant leading the client's employees does not qualify
In the same role as above with the single-largest span of managing architects in your career history:
• When you worked as an Architect or Chief Architect
    ° Roles managing the Chief Architect are invalid
• The number of architects who indirectly (dotted line) reported
• Include architects in your practice.
• Must have performance review influence on these FTE.
• Do not aggregate, use the maximum team size reached
• Architects must be employed in the same company
    ° Indirectly managing architect consultants
       when employed by that same consulting firm qualifies
    ° Working as a consultant leading employees does not qualify
What topics are you interested in hearing about? What value do you hope to achieve?
What topics can you speak about? What contributions excite you that you can share with other chief architects?

The purpose of the Chief Architect Forum is to test, challenge and support the state of the art and science for Business and Technology Architecture and its evolution over time.

Our ambition is to become the preeminent, cross-industry, global meeting place for Chief Architects*, the leaders of Architecture organizations.

We believe dialog is needed across those with a shared accountability for an EA practice’s outcomes in order to grow our profession. Additionally, we felt that collaboration across this peer group would help build support for architecture practice across organizations. Now in practice, we have discovered that a peer forum helps our member Chief Architects fulfil their obligation to drive results for their CIOs at a larger scale.

Our purpose of building a peer forum has required us to create membership criteria to ensure we are creating a resonant environment where similar span and scope serves as a baseline for our discussions.

Membership to our primary forum is open by self-application to Chief Architects meeting the following criteria in their most expansive current or previous role:

  • Leading or having led an EA practice at a Fortune 500 sized company, equivalent business line or sub domain
  • Leading the equivalent of 10 direct architect FTEs concurrently (or 30 indirect architect FTEs)
  • Interested in active participation and sharing in a forum of their peers (not just listening)

Membership to our emerging forum is open by self-application to Chief Architects meeting the following criteria in their most expansive current or prior role:

  • Leading or having led an EA practice at a Fortune 1000 sized company, equivalent business line or sub domain
  • Leading the equivalent of 5 direct architect FTEs concurrently (or 15 indirect architect FTEs)
  • Interested in active participation and sharing in a forum of their peers (not just listening)

An invitation to join the forum follows our Board of Directors’ review of recent applications submitted to the left. A CAF member may also nominate prospective members with the form to the left, but invitations always come from our Board.

The CAF is only open to Chief Architects with no sales agenda.
While architects from vendor organizations may be invited, only those who have no sales or marketing basis in technology will be admitted.

Vendors may be invited to speak, train or participate in some CAF activities, but not in a selling capacity. This includes consultants and other individuals with potential conflicts of interest.

* An unexhaustive list of related titles often include Head of Enterprise Architecture, Architecture, Business Technology, Strategy and Innovation and other variations.