Successful EA Management Principles

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Submitted by A-G Magazine on Mon, 2008-08-25 08:01

Enterprise Architecture efforts are both blessed and cursed by the fact that they touch the entire... well... Enterprise. This means there are huge potential benefits as well as tremendous pitfalls to any EA initiative. This article discusses some key principles for taking on broad and potentially ambiguous EA initiatives and reducing them to an executable plan that will be successful. Also discussed is a scorecard approach for determining status and progress against these principles.

“Where to start?” That is a key question with any new EA initiative. Or, some related questions if you inherited an EA initiative, “Where is this going? Is it on the right course? What needs to change?”

Enterprise Architecture has two distinct sides of the scale when it comes to benefits and costs / risks. On the benefits side, the potential payoff is huge. For example, an IT organization may work tirelessly to improve operational efficiency another 3% here and there. Yet if IT makes poor investment decisions, executes the EA strategy poorly and/or is not able to be responsive to the business, the resulting costs to the entire enterprise are easily ten times the cost that operational efficiencies might have achieved.

To gain big benefits, the costs and risks associated with an EA initiative can be very high. This is because of the breadth of issues and constituencies EA should encompass. These issues include business strategy, IT strategy, IT asset portfolio management, technology strategies, technology standards, financial measures, data strategies, compliance strategies, security strategies and the list goes on.

This all leads us back to establishing EA Management Principles that will minimize these risks and provide a measurement or scorecard system to periodically evaluate our adherence to these principles. We will briefly discuss seven areas and outline the principles and scorecards for each. These areas are Mission, Value, Innovation, Program, Process, Project and Tools.

Mission
An EA initiative is a long-term endeavor and - while benefits can and must be achieved in the short term - the most significant benefits will take several years to achieve. If there is no well-defined mission and support for that mission within the organization, the long-term benefits will not be achieved.

Mission Principles and Scorecard
The EA initiative must have a clear, high-impact mission.

  • Written, clear, concise mission statement
  • Mission is long-term, cross-organizational and business-driven
  • Mission has clearly mandated operational benefits such as improved business capabilities, faster cycle times, improved integration and portfolio optimization that ultimately drive cost, risk and business value measures

The EA mission must be supported by management and the organization.

  • Adequate resources committed by management
  • Acceptance and support of the mission by all critical groups
  • Benefits to the organization are understood and believed

Value
The EA investment by the organization must deliver value that is clear to management and the organization. This is one of the most difficult areas for EA because value can be intangible, difficult to measure or not even recognized. Value delivery is the credibility that keeps the organization and management committed to the EA mission and investment.

Value Principles and Scorecard
EA value is properly defined and measured for the EA mission and each EA program and project.

  • Every major EA initiative can be traced to a specific value objective
  • Value objectives are significant and align to the overall EA mission
  • Each completed EA initiative is measured on achieving its value objectives

Achieved value is significant and visible.

  • Value achieved is significant
  • Value achieved is understood and believed by the organization
  • Value can be translated to financial benefits of cost, reduced risk or revenue/cash

Innovation
Sometimes we can get so immersed in the process we forget to architect. A successful EA initiative needs innovative and insightful business and architecture strategies that take advantage of industry and technology trends to serve the business and achieve value. These can range from Service Oriented Architectures, Open Source, Web 2.0, outsourcing strategies, to new technologies that provide competitive advantage.

Innovation Principles and Scorecard
Thinking is “Excellent” and “Out of the Box”

  • The EA team has identified key EA “innovations” (technologies, methodologies and industry trends) that can be leveraged to achieve EA objectives
  • These innovations have been incorporated into EA initiatives
  • These innovations can be directly traced to higher or faster value

EA Programs
If an EA team has successfully established its mission and value, the organization will want to engage that team to bring value to its specific needs. A strong EA team will recognize this and provide programs and services to engage the organization to achieve this.

EA programs Principles and Scorecard
A defined set of EA services and programs exist

  • The set of services and programs is well-defined
  • The set of services and programs are compelling (clear benefits at reasonable costs)
  • The set of services and programs align and advance the overall EA mission

The EA services and programs are used and generate value

  • The set of services and programs are utilized by the organization
  • The set of services and programs have delivered measurable value
  • That value is understood and believed by the organization

EA Process
To truly benefit the organization, EA must be integrated into the organization's processes. This means that the organization recognizes the mission and value of the EA team and has incorporated that, in an integrated way, into its business processes. In addition to this, the processes within the EA team need to be well-defined and understood.

EA process Principles and Scorecard
EA is integrated into the organization

  • All organizations and processes external to the EA team that are key to the EA mission have been identified
  • All of these have updated their key processes to make EA an integral part of their business where appropriate
  • The integrated processes are working to generate EA benefits

Internal EA processes are defined and effective

  • All internal processes that are key to the EA team have been identified
  • All of these processes have been defined and have process owners
  • The processes are being followed and producing effective results

EA Tools
EA efforts are information-, modeling-, analysis- and communication-intensive. This means that systems are increasingly critical to accomplishing an EA mission, particularly in the areas of managing, sharing and purposing EA information to users throughout the organization. It is particularly important to think in terms of a system rather than a set of tools in this environment.

EA tools Principles and Scorecard
The EA System must support EA information management

  • The EA system should be able to automate data collection and data maintenance where possible
  • The EA system must flexibly organize data to model the business and the interrelationship within the business and IT
  • The EA system should support data stewardship including data quality and completeness
  • The EA system should support an integrated view of the Business Architecture and the Technical Architecture at any level of detail

The EA System must support EA analysis

  • Information must be easy to extract and organize to support analysis
  • Visual and modeling analysis tools must be provided
  • Business intelligence analysis tools must be provided including ad hoc reporting and query
  • Out-of-the-box applications for specific analyses should be provided

The EA System must support broad user access

  • User environments must be easily configurable - based on roles and privileges
  • Users must be able to get standard- and parameter-based reports, queries and models that are relevant to them
  • It should be easy to configure new user roles or extend existing ones

EA Projects
Specific EA projects are often central to addressing specific business issues or to advance the goals and objectives of the EA mission. EA projects can be problematic if they are not well-formed, well-managed and well-executed.

EA projects Principles and Scorecard
EA projects are well-defined

  • There is clarity between proposed projects and approved projects
  • Approved projects have specific objectives that provide appropriate value in line with the EA mission
  • The resources and time dimensions of the project are well-defined
  • Accountability for the project is well-defined
  • The dependencies on other organizations is well understood and commitments are in place

EA projects are successful

  • Projects are completed on time and budget
  • Projects have achieved their value objectives

Summary
The breadth of issues and organizations that an EA team spans may add the tremendous risk of diluting EA efforts - such that those efforts wind up providing little or no value to the organization. Because of this complexity and the difference in organizations, cultures and priorities within companies, no single method can ensure success. However, these are some basic principles that can guide EA efforts and measure them during their journey to minimize these risks and help IT professionals focus on unlocking the tremendous value that successful EA initiatives can achieve.

by Patrick Motola, the former president of Troux Technologies, a leading EA and ITG Governance software provider. Mr. Motola has served in executive positions at companies such as IBM, Metaphor, Software Publishing, PSW Technologies and Motive Communications. He has computer science degrees from the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Texas at Austin and a Master degree in Management Science from Stanford University.

 

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