Enterprise Initiatives

I posted my opinion on CIO.com (The Role of the Enterprise Architect). Here is a summary...

The EA should know how to code and should have spent many years developing, designing, and managing technical projects. So when I say that the EA should not be coding, that does not mean the EA doesn't know how to code.

With that said, the EA's focus should be on strategy and vision. The architects below the EA should turn the strategy and visions into reality.

I have read many blogs that argue both sides of this question. James McGovern's article states:

You probably have ran across architects that don't code. Hopefully you aren't one of them...

I am hoping that he truly means architects and not Enterprise Architects (EA).

Colin White has a good article called Architects don’t code, they whiteboard. I tend to agree with his stance on this topic.

Here is another article by Simon Brown who has a similar opinion.

On Bill Barr's blog, Agile Enterprise Architecture, Bill phrases it slightly different. He says that EAs should not write production code but...

When it comes time to talk to people about a new idea, get feedback and even sell the idea, that's when a page or two of some clearly written examples are worth a thousand powerpoint slides.

What do you think?