IT Architecture in Action
Bridging Business and IT Strategies
There are ways in which the enterprise can govern itself. No one person has to be the focal point for managing change across the enterprise. In fact, the correct way to maintain the link between business and IT strategy is through a systemic process. This article describes a governance process that provides an ongoing systemic solution to managing IT strategy and architecture blueprints at the enterprise level.
Architecture Governance Process
The process of managing systems architecture across the enterprise is called architectural governance. Architecture consists of the applications, information resources, technical infrastructure, and operations teams that support the business. Management of these company assets is a large responsibility that requires a high degree of collaboration across the IT organization.
The methodology to manage technical architecture as applied to the business is composed of three major steps:
- Develop and maintain the “constitution” in the form of architecture principles.
- Establish and run the “legislative branch,” which sets policy, establishes technical direction, and ratifies standards.
- Create and run the “governing body,” which manages compliance and recommends changes to policy and standards.
The legislative branch, in this case, is composed of the IT leadership team. The primary entity within the legislation process is the architecture steering committee. The architecture steering committee meets on a monthly, quarterly, or as-needed basis. Their role is to set policy regarding technology direction for the enterprise. They rule on policy change requests, principle interpretation, and enterprise standard changes. They also issue directives to the governing body (described later) when necessary. Figure 1 shows committee membership and major functions performed by committee members.
Figure 1: Architecture Steering Committee (Click to enlarge)
This figure shows committee representation from the IT function within the enterprise. Adding business planners or leadership from the business community is certainly a viable option. However, in some companies the primary job of the CIO is to interpret and represent business strategy. If business leaders can afford the time and have a genuine interest in setting IT-related policy and principles, then they should definitely be represented. In this sample model, the CIO/VP of Architecture must present requests for policy changes that affect the business to the business leadership team. Conversely, if the business sets policy or wants to change a principle, the CIO/VP of Architecture must represent these requests to the architecture steering committee.
The governing body is composed of people with technical talent from various disciplines across the enterprise. This group is called the architecture review board (ARB). To cover all aspects of technical architecture, representation is required from IT operations, enterprise architecture, and applications development teams. The ARB takes into consideration the guiding principles while making decisions that impact the technical architecture of the company. Decisions are made within the context of business and IT strategic plans. The ARB passes judgment on which standards are adopted and which standards are relaxed on a case-by-case basis. Technology industry trends and standards provide guidance on which technologies become standards within the enterprise. Figure 2 shows a more detailed view of the technical components that are considered by the ARB, as they address day-to-day technology issues.
Figure 2: Architecture Review Board (Click to enlarge)
The primary inputs to the ARB are high-level system design documents, business strategy plans, capital plans, and IT strategy plans. These must be understood by the review board to do the best job possible when rendering opinions about the overall technology direction of the company. Primary outputs from the board are change recommendations to the various parts of the technical architecture shown in figure 3. In addition, the board is responsible for maintaining and updating the IT standards for the company.
Figure 3 (Click to enlarge)
On a regular basis, the ARB meets to review high-level systems design documents. These are reviewed to assure that company standards are met and that the application or solution presented is in agreement with the overall business and IT strategy plans. If a proposed solution is not in agreement with the business and IT strategic directions, the ARB has the responsibility to educate key technology leaders of the company about the proposed deviation.
The ARB, working with the architecture steering committee, provides the process by which architecture principles and IT standards become part of the systems development process across the enterprise. The two groups form the legislative and governance bodies within the company and affect the behavior of the company management team. Used in conjunction with external standards bodies like ISO and others, IT can be a semi-regulated organization within a larger sphere of organizations, much like the accountancy profession has become through the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).
by Richard J. Reese
Author’s Note: Managing the centralized governance process is an important part of the overall role of enterprise architecture. EA also plays a major role in linking business with IT strategy planning, in addition to setting direction across the technology “stack” of the company. IT Architecture in Action (200 pages, Xlibris Corporation) covers these and other topics and is based on my experience in consulting and running the EA department at various companies for more than twenty years. If you have any questions about the book, feel free to e-mail me at questions@avreservices.com. The following excerpt is chapter 3, “Architecture Governance,” from IT Architecture in Action. © 2008 AVRE Services LLC. Hard and soft cover available from xlibris.com/bookstore/.
