Top 10 Things an EA Should Be Thinking About (Part 2)

A couple of months ago, we published part 1 of Top 10 Things an EA Should Be Thinking About.  Now we add a few more, with considerations for the New Year.  To get started, I will repeat what we said in part 1 as the means of introduction…

…Our list represents the Top Ten (or so) things that we think true Enterprise Architects should be thinking about.  As always, this represents our thinking that Enterprise Architects should be focused on the whole of the enterprise, business and IT perspectives, long-term business strategy and transformation, and the impact that has on the work that needs to be done beyond the here and now.  Not the kinds of things that solution architects, data architects, application architects, infrastructure architects, or security architects should be thinking about – What should ENTERPRISE architects be thinking about?

Not listed in order of importance – they are all important.  Also, we would like to tell you that a typical IT-centric Enterprise Architect may not be able to answer these questions or think about them as completely as they should – in which case, they need to seek out the appropriate business and/or IT professionals to discuss these topics with from the perspective of their enterprise.

6.  With increasingly creative business partnerships forming in the marketplace, how can we effectively share information and collaborate with partners while protecting business confidentiality and adhering to regulatory concerns.  Are there general rules we should develop?  This is a dilemma of the new century.  The types of partnerships forming between suppliers and buyers, between former and even current competitors, between public entities and constituents, and between producers and consumers are primarily being created to share/consume information rather than products and services.  Another factor to consider is the element of trust, as the use of information outside the enterprise boundaries may be impossible to monitor and control. 

7.  As increasing amounts of information about customers, markets, transactions, sensor status, etc. flow into our company, are we able to effectively analyze that information to increase profits and/or value to our constituents?  Can we handle it, manage it, store it, protect it, etc.?  Which work processes must change or be invented to operate in the new environment?   The amount and size of data are increasing at a tremendous rate for most companies.  While the hardware to move, secure and store this data is an issue in and of itself, the more pressing issue is how to utilize the information to your enterprise’s benefit.  The focus needs to be on the information consumers.  Who can use the information to support their work activities and/or decision making processes?

8.  How does our enterprise “measure” or represent value?  What are the most important factors of success to our executive leaders?  Are they being measured?  How can EA facilitate the achievement of those success factors?  We are often asked how to measure the value of EA.  Short answer: Measuring EA’s value is dependent on the measurement of value in other activities influenced by EA, and most organizations are not mature enough in their general performance management capabilities to support the ability to measure the value of EA.  So the workaround is to figure out how EA can enable those factors that are most important to executives and show the indirect linkage that EA has to contributing value.  But it all starts with understanding what your executives value.

9.  With the current aggressive pace of marketplace and technology change, have we made the right decisions to be nimble enough to respond ahead of our competitors?  How important is agility to the business and are we prepared to be innovative?  How can I make the enterprise understand the need for adaptability?  This is not a NEW question, by the way, as those of you who have followed us for the last 15 years know.  But as time goes by and these paces continue to accelerate, these questions become even more important…as we have been saying for the last 15 years.

10. Where are the decision-making bodies and processes disconnected in our enterprise?  And once you identify them, how can you create a visualization of these broken chains?  EA is part of the planning and decision making ecosystem of your enterprise.  Influencing decisions and plans for investments and implementations is the outcome of a well functioning EA program.  In order to do this effectively, you need to identify where to influence these decisions and convince executive leadership that EA has a place in the process.

We would love to hear what are readers are thinking about in 2011.  Please share with your comments.

Updated Registration Info – EAdirections speaking at AOGEA Collaboration Event in Southfield, MI

UPDATE: It is still not too late to join us at this multidisciplinary event in Michigan.   A Registration Site is now available with full event details and information on how to register.  Allen Brown, CEO and President of The Open Group will be delivering the opening keynote presentation.  If you have any questions, or would just like to chat before the event or on-site, drop us a note via the attached form.

George Paras and Tim Westbrock are scheduled to speak at the upcoming Collaboration Event sponsored by the AOGEA Michigan Chapter (Association of Open Group Enterprise Architects) on September 16, 2010 from 2:00 PM to 7:00 PM at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, MI.  The theme of the event is “Interoperability between various disciplines in an enterprise”.

In our session titled, “Don’t Call It EA if It Isn’t EA!: Holistic EA for a Tightly Integrated Enterprise” we’ll be discussing the dynamics of Enterprise Architecture as it evolves from an IT-oriented discipline into a necessary part of a compelling and successful business transformation effort.

This event is a collaboration between the AOGEA Michigan Chapter and the ABPMP SE Michigan Chapter (The Association of Business Process Management), itSMF Great Lakes Chapter (Information Technology Service Management Forum), and the SE Michigan IIBA Chapter (International Institute of Business Analysis).

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EAdirections speaking at AOGEA Collaboration Event in Southfield, MI

George Paras and Tim Westbrock are scheduled to speak at the upcoming Collaboration Event sponsored by the AOGEA Michigan Chapter (Association of Open Group Enterprise Architects) on September 16, 2010 from 2:00 PM to 7:00 PM at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, MI.  The theme of the event is “Interoperability between various disciplines in an enterprise”.

In our session titled, “Don’t Call It EA if It Isn’t EA!: Holistic EA for a Tightly Integrated Enterprise” we’ll be discussing the dynamics of Enterprise Architecture as it evolves from an IT-oriented discipline into a necessary part of a compelling and successful business transformation effort.

This event is a collaboration between the AOGEA Michigan Chapter and the ABPMP SE Michigan Chapter (The Association of Business Process Management), itSMF Great Lakes Chapter (Information Technology Service Management Forum), SE Michigan IIBA Chapter (International Institute of Business Analysis) and the local PMI Chapter (Project Management Institute).

Further details will be posted shortly on the AOGEA Michigan Chapter site or use the attached form to contact us for more information.

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Is EIA the Key?

As organizations continue to struggle with the complexity and amount of change to deal with, the EA team plays a crucial role in laying a foundation of adaptability for the organization to build from.  Once an organizations has done an acceptable job of providing a standardized infrastructure and at least basic governance of infrastructure standards, focus tends to shift towards the application portfolio and integration approaches.  This is natural and seems to conform to most of the evolutionary models of EA, such as the one from MIT Sloane CISR in Enterprise Architecture as Strategy.  However, I would like to provide you with an alternative to consider as I see organizations continually struggle with business units demanding more uniqueness to the functional systems they need to run their part of the business.

I think the key for some organizations to achieve a more adaptive environment is to focus on architecting the information and integration environments.  If information was more standard and consistent BETWEEN information systems with a common integration architecture (standard methods, components, messages, and middleware), then the information systems themselves could be unique functionally.  The architecture would need to provide the means of translating information formats and content from systems into the standard format and content for sharing outside the system.  This would also support SOA approaches, cloud computing strategies, mobility, and other approaches being pursued today.

As an EA team, are you focusing on the functionality of a specific area or are you leaving that to the project team, so that you can focus on the shared aspects of an application environment, namely the information assets and integration capability across the enterprise?

Webinar Replay – The State of EA: Is 2010 The Transitional Year?

In my role as Editor-in-Chief  of Architecture and Governance I recently had the opportunity to discuss the near-term future of EA with my fellow analyst and colleague-in-EA, Alex Cullen of Forrester Research.  During the webinar we discussed topics ranging from executive perceptions about EA to specifics on how organizations approached EA. 

Consistent with EAdirections research and our client experience I find that organizational perceptions and biases about EA can span a wide range.  Each company and even each person/role within a company can have a different take on what EA is, what it does, how it influences their organization and the value it brings. Implementation models vary accordingly.  

The good news is that there is almost always an improvement path available for any baseline set of perceptions and biases.  The key is to perform a thorough diagnostic and create an improvement plan customized to the mix present in the organization.  For those organizations that are ready, this is the year to step up to embrace business and information architecture.  It is worth noting that doing so isn’t just an exercise in building more, or better or different models.  Progress in improving the reach and impact of the EA program is a trust building exercise.  For those that are not yet able to immediately integrate BA and IA into their EA approach, the EA team members should use this year to expand their business acumen and to build a stronger relationships with key business side personnel.  For those teams that are unable to reach directly into the business, they must earn enough trust from the IT executives so that they will provide the necessary introductions.  Building the trust, and demonstrating value, is a multi-dimensional activity.  With patience and a willingness to experiment, many organizations can end 2010 further ahead than where they started the year.

A replay of the webinar is available on the Architecture and Governance website.

What Every EA Leader MUST DO – This Month!”

Now that everyone is back from the holidays, relaxed and enthusiastic, it is a good time to take a look forward and update your EA program’s objectives for the new year.  In our experience, most organizations have a very short window to accomplish this.  It doesn’t take long before the enthusiasm and vision for the future is replaced by the urgency and narrowness of the day.  Since creating a coherent future target-state view is the core idea that drives what the EA program does for the organization, it makes sense to use this moment of clarity to apply that same concept directly to the EA program itself.  Doing so should drive the evolution of your EA program throughout this year and into the next.

Begin by answering a few simple (OK, not so simple) questions: What would you like your EA program to look like a year from now?  Two or three years?  How would you like it to work?  Who needs to be engaged? How are we going to create value to our organizations?  Those are your goals, driven by your vision. These are just a few of the many questions to be answered before jumping in and creating detailed work plans.  It has to drive you to achieve your idea of what a smoothly running program should be and to the level of value delivery you want for your organization. 

Only then can you lay out the granular steps along the path to get there.  Those become the objectives.  This exercise doesn’t have to be hard.  It doesn’t have to be an exhaustive and thorough definition of tasks and highly detailed sub-tasks, with explicit milestones and work allocation down to the hour.   Watch out to not fall into that trap.  Many organizations expect it, but a project plan with that level of detail often becomes a burden that inhibits EA evolution instead of enabling it.  There are many reasons why EA isn’t well-suited to that level of detailed planning, many of which are unique to a particular organization.  Call us if you are interested in exploring those reasons and why they may apply to your organization.   In all cases, though, the continuous improvement of an EA program does require a thoughtful and meaningful planning activity.  What’s really important is to build a plan to a level of detail that supports your long term objectives balanced with more immediate value opportunities.

Here are a few examples of what our clients are planning for the year:

• Expand the reach of the EA program within the organization.  Using a variety of tactics that include active recruiting, more effective personal networking, public relations activities, etc. it is important that a larger community of individuals contribute content and ideas and then, indirectly, begin to see the value in the work that the EA group performs.  An important note – “teaching” people about EA is less important than involving them in EA activities.
• Enhance governance bodies and processes to include a higher-level, cross-organizational perspective.  Too often, EA is buried too deeply into narrow, infrastructure concerns within IT.  Will business people care about things like network/integration topography choices and standards taxonomies?  Probably not, so you have to work in areas that they really will care.
• Expand the scope of EA.  With some recent nudging, the best EA groups have pushed into the business domains, to take into account the full holistic breadth of enterprise concerns, particularly business, information architectures and application portfolios.
• Balance the workload between strategic, future state development and align with current state priorities.  Our clients are either facing major initiatives (ERP implementations, major business process transformation) or economic pressure causing significant budget and resource constraints or both.  They need to balance strategy work with contributions to efforts with immediate results.

Objective setting isn’t easy.  You have to pick the “right” objectives.  Then you have to determine the right order, and to what degree, to apply them.  An “EA Capabilities Assessment” is a helpful place to start.  Unlike an “EA Maturity Assessment”, if is actionable and can directly reveal your strengths and what weaknesses you must overcome.   Doing full-year objective setting well requires a combination of insight into organizational dynamics, understanding what your resources are capable of, and how much change your organization can tolerate.   This is one place where our experience can help.  As you think about the coming year, contact us.  We’ll be happy to discuss approaches that make sense for you and your organization and give you more insight into what is achievable.

Getting Started with EIA – Identify High Level Information Classes

Recently, we have discussed the HL classes for Business Archtiecture (functions, processes, services) and Application Architecture (application classes and platforms) and Technology Architecture (domains and components).  Now let’s turn to Information Architecture, not Data Architecture.

In order to get started with Information Architecture, you need to identify all of the major “things” that your business produces or acquires information about.  We will call these information classes.  They are not databases or objects or  attributes.  They are conceptual in nature, but they represent the major entities that your enterprise requires information about.  These typically include entities such as customer, supplier, product or service, orders, items, employees, facilities, and inventory.  Of course, each enterprise may have their own language.  For instance, a financial services company may call their products by a different name, such as policy or account or fund.  And public sector organizations may not use the term customers, but rather citizens, constituents or voters.  And those in the healthcare related businesses would say patients.  In any case, you are primarily concerned with the group of people the enterprise is providing a service or product to, the sources of those products, and the major entitities involved in the production, stocking, logistics, ordering and delivery of said product or service.  You may have subclasses, as well, but for the purposes of getting started, we suggest no more than one level of decomposition.

Once the High Level Information Classes have been identified, they become more meaningful to EA work once you map them to the functional heirarchy and application classes. For more information and examples related to this type of information mapping, please see our Jump Start materials.

Calgary – Larry DeBoever speaks on Business Architecture

Larry DeBoever will be speaking October 15th at the Calgary Chapter of the International Institute of Business Analysts (IIBA)

A Pragmatic Guide to Constructing a Compelling Business Architecture (That Results in the CEO & Board Making ‘Yummy Noises’)

Mr. DeBoever is widely recognized as one of the most successful ‘business architects’ who is able to capture the imagination of leadership while also executing the critical blocking and tackling of transformation execution.  In this presentation, Mr. DeBoever will share his ‘hands-on’ experience in supporting and mentoring his clients to successful BA outcomes.  He will provide ‘sanitized’ examples of his efforts and provide very pragmatic guidance.  Topics will include: 

• What CEOs and Boards Want – ‘Consumable Artifacts’
• My Approach – The Golden Triangle (‘DF4BA’ – as if we need yet another acronym)
• Thoughts on ‘Touch Points’, ‘Maturity’, ‘TECH-tonics’ and ‘Info-nomics’
• Giving ‘Good Diagram’
• Planning for the Pass Along Effect – The Path to Glory, Riches & Fame
• The 6 Rules To Becoming A ‘BA Hero’

Survey: Help Us Plan New EAdirections Events

In response to several inquiries, we have created a survey to the larger community to understand your needs for high-quality, practical and pragmatic education including conferences, workshops, webinars, roundtables, etc.  Please take a few minutes to complete this short survey. 

DRAWING – At the end of the survey you will be asked if you would optionally like to enter a drawing for a complimentary one hour Mentoring Teleconference to discuss your IT Leadership, EA, Portfolio Management, Governance, IT Strategy, Alignment, Cost Containment or Transformational Initiatives.