The Last Word: Marching to the Beat of Your Enterprise’s Drummer
“Enterprise architects of the world, unite! You have companies to change and a world to win” — oh, sorry, that’s some bearded guy on a soapbox. Seriously, though, let’s try to answer the question: can you really do Enterprise Architecture at the organization whose name is on your paycheck? And if you can’t — how do you change that?
Knowing Where You Are: Enterprises that don’t think the IT organization (as a whole, not just the architecture team!) is credible, or where the contemplative executive reflects on how intensely the business ought to be using IT and concludes “you know, we could — maybe should — be a whole lot more engaged with technology than we are”, simply aren’t ready for wholesale world-changing from enterprise architects. It’s like offering fine refrigerators and freezers to someone whose electrical power is only on for an hour or two on alternate evenings: sure, keeping food cold might be nice, but — how? No matter how solid and well-designed, there’s no one ready to hear your pitch, much less buy into it.
Consider as well your business leadership. Is it strong at the corporate center — or in the business areas? Strong leaders in the business areas without corresponding strength at the center (this means executives who will take a stand and keep on insisting on the follow-through, instead of being diverted into one “crisis” after another) means that there is no real “market” for “enterprise anything”. You live in a feudal state, and feudal lords don’t compromise their interests for the enterprise’s interests without something big in it for them.
Building Your Credibility: In building your own credibility, you cannot cost your IT organization its credibility. Like it or not, yours is tied intimately to theirs: if the IT group as a whole doesn’t command credibility, it simply won’t be considered for anything innovative or earth-shaking — and there goes your “market”, off to consultant land and the outsourcer nation. So, as architects, whatever you may think of the quality of your infrastructure group, your project office and the developers, or of the relationship managers, you have to work with them to succeed. Keep your differences within the IT organization; outside, you speak with one voice. When facing the business there is only the IT position. Within those limits, now you can show your capabilities — and if the rest of IT has not bought into your enterprise business architecture, then keep it away from the business until they do.
Building Intensity: Another word for intensity is demand — how can you help business leaders want to use technology more intensely than they do today? Part of architecture is the “environmental scan”, where you look around at what others are doing, and what that can teach you. Share that information! What are others in your industry doing? Is a competitor adjusting its business model by using technology? Does our existing implicit architecture help get us to a competitive response, or does it hold us back? Don’t be afraid to let your relationship managers help carry the message: if they’re doing their job, the business client might have more trust in them than in you. Getting to “yes” for comprehensive change means using the “one IT voice” as well as supporting it.
And the last word? Ready yourself for an explosion of demand! When it comes, you have to be able to respond. That’s why we quietly architect, laying the groundwork sometimes years in advance. We prepare — we sell — we wait — we deliver. The drum may beat quietly — but it is still your beat.
by Bruce A. Stewart
