Author: Bunny Tharpe

The results from a Nomura Holdings study interviewing CIOs about 2017 plans, hint at another good year for Enterprise Architecture. Much of what CIOs are looking to achieve will benefit greatly from a well deployed EA initiative.

The United States based study interviewed 50 CIOs who consensually indicated Big Data, Security and Cloud Computing, would take priority in upcoming budget cycles.

A CIO priority mainstay, Security, topped the chart for ‘Top Drivers of IT spending’ with 82% of the vote from CIOs. Cloud Computing earned 62%, and Big Data 60%.

Nomura Holdings study should make Enterprise Architects very happy, as it’s likely that their services will be needed in order to implement, or get the most out of technologies behind the IT spending drivers listed above.

Security

With so many cases of high profile data leaks, breaches and DDoS attacks, it’s no surprise that security was again seen as the top budgetary priority for CIOs. With the amount of sensitive information a business has to store, and the escalation of said sensitive information where a Big Data strategy is involved, the stakes haven’t been higher.

It’s important that business get security right.

That said, many businesses get security wrong for the same reasons. Sometimes its necessary for security to be implemented on a reactionary basis, following the uncovering of a security threat or breach. This can often lead to rushed decisions, and a haphazard approach to tacked on new solutions, rather than going the lengths to ensure the business is secure from its foundations up.

Of course, a perfectly secure organization is an impossible task, but Enterprise Architecture can help in bringing a business as close to secure as possible.

The holistic view Enterprise Architecture has of the business is great for combing through the organization and ensuring no stone is unturned. This can help a business plug security issues at the source.

It will also likely save a business money in the long run, avoiding hastily implemented tools/processes that could introduce duplications in process, add to a businesses shelfware, or even expose other security flaws elsewhere in the business’ architecture.

Big Data

Big Data is taking the tech world by storm, so it stands to reason that many CIOs will have a Big Data strategy high on the agenda for 2017. The Nomura Holdings study only goes to further back this assumption up.

Many businesses worldwide have already caught on to the potential Big Data has to offer in terms of insight and strategic planning going forward. However, without the necessary approach, many business end up missing out on Big Data’s peak potential.

Enterprise Architecture is one way businesses can help get the most out of Big Data. The sheer scope of Big Data means that at any one time, only some of the information is useful to the business. By adopting a functioning Enterprise Architecture initiative, businesses can effectively sieve through Big Data data to get greater value from it.

One such way Enterprise Architecture achieves this, is through the perspective it provides on a business’ desired outcomes. Having a better, and more clear understanding of what the business is trying to achieve makes finding the relevant information within Big Data far easier, as the business need only focus on the outputs and metrics that influence the roadmap.

An Enterprise Architecture tool, boasting a view manager makes this an even more useful strategy to adopt. A view manager streamlines information into different ‘views’, effectively washing out the noise and allowing EAs to focus on any one, or group of elements at a time, and in turn, making comparisons easier to make.

Cloud Computing

A deeper dive into the study revealed that by 2017, 46% of the CIOs respective business’ applications will be SaaS based, rising to 56% by 2022.

Enterprise Architecture will help with the adoption of such new technology by indicating which current technologies could be phased out.

CIOs could also advocate for and implement an EA strategy in order to determine which areas will benefit most in adopting cloud-based solutions, by weighing up the business’ current capabilities, with the desired future-state enterprise.

Of course, the benefits of SaaS based solutions typically concern price and ease of installation. But one benefit that shouldn’t be overlooked is how SaaS can aid in aligning the business. The online, connected nature of the tools, mean that different business departments will find collaborating with one another positively, far more achievable. In order to fully realize this benefit though, Enterprise Architecture would have to be leveraged in order to remove the current, detached business departments from their silos.

Businesses may even consider turning to SaaS tools for Enterprise Architecture itself. Historically, EA tools have been expensive to introduce and notoriously difficult to facilitate the engagement of the wider business. A SaaS Enterprise Architecture solution can tackle both of these issues. The flexibility in pricing and licensing, and with no software to implement, business and technical stakeholders are more willing to invest in tools to support the EA practice.

Additionally, the collaborative nature of SaaS-based Enterprise Architecture tools helps architects to truly engage with the wider business. It can facilitate the involvement of relevant departments directly, rather than the lethargic cycle of presenting results, waiting for feedback, and relaying any changes after the fact.

For most, putting the pace of technology’s progression into perspective, only takes a quick look around the room. It seems we’ve now reached a tipping point where the science fiction dreams of ten years ago, are being realized in reality today. Even Hollywood interpretations of artificial intelligence for example, can now be found in most smartphones.

At a Gartner event this year, Peter Sondergaard described the situation aptly. On these recent technological advancements, he said they “all approached gradually and arrived suddenly.” But what now?

After years establishing a precedent of constantly evolving technology, it’s unlikely that it’ll  suddenly slow down. Businesses will have to respond accordingly or face being left behind.

Enterprise Architecture’s role in managing and maintaining bimodal IT

One of the drawbacks of technology improving so rapidly, is that businesses have rarely had an opportunity to be fully prepared, or caught up. This has led to a situation whereby, many businesses understand the need to adopt new technologies, but are still in the process of phasing out the old.

In essence, this is the root behind the call for bimodal IT.

Thought leaders at many of the world’s top tech analytic firms believe the Gartner-backed take on IT is the answer to juggling core, legacy systems and newer tech.

It’s referred to as bimodal IT for its two “modes”. The first dealing with the tried and tested, the predictable, and the tasks associated with “keeping on the lights”. The second pertains to the opposite. The unpredictable, the disruptive and the experimental.

It can be easy to shrug off the likes of bimodal IT as just another buzzword in the light of some business’ less than convincing implementation of the practice. But what is more valuable to business and to the industry as a whole is to look at why bimodal IT might have failed.

Without proper management, the vast differences between the aforementioned modes can lead to disaster, and is likely the reason bimodal IT has been met with some push back, after attempted forays into the strategy come up short.

This is where enterprise architecture fits into the picture. Businesses need to leverage EA’s holistic view of the organization in order to better implement a bimodal strategy. Firstly, enterprise architecture can be used in order to identify a business’ mode 1, and mode 2 assets.

Additionally, enterprise architecture’s perspective on the current state of a business and its capabilities can indicate where new technology needs to be ushered in, and where legacy tools should be ushered out, streamlining the bimodal strategy and making it easier to manage.

Without EA, bringing in new technology, can result in duplications in processes and systems. Aside from the unnecessary costs to continue maintaining both sets, this oversight leads to mis-managed data and setbacks to agility. This is because the disparity between the two competing systems/processes means that valuable information is fractured across different systems and often siloed off from the wider business.

How Bimodal benefits business

Bimodal IT can help businesses in a number of ways. Considering the current, ever changing landscape of tech in business, the most important of bimodal IT;s benefits is its enablement of agility of agility and greater flexibility. This is because one part of IT is freed up to constantly work on tackling new disruptions and chase new opportunities, while the other keeps the house in check.

This is important as a sluggish adoption of the latest industry revolutionizing technology could mean your business falls behind the competition.

Successfully implemented bimodal strategies should also see an uptick in innovation for the same reasons. This benefits a business as it can help an organization be the disruptor, as opposed to reacting in the light of disruption.

It also helps the Mode 2 side of bimodality operate with business outcomes in mind. Of course, the business as a whole should operate with business outcomes and their customer in mind, but there’s is an argument to be made that certain departments need a heavier focus on business outcomes than others. Differentiating between the two modes is one way to aid in mode two’s emphasis on delivering said business outcomes.

By now, many companies have either just started, or are in the midst of an on-going digital transformation initiative. This isn’t a trend likely to be short lived either. The speed in which businesses have to evolve in order to keep up with new digital advancements will, in all likelihood, only increase.

Considering the nature of digital transformation – changing technologies, processes and even organizational structure – introducing Enterprise Architecture (EA) in order to govern such change seems like a no brainer.

Yet many businesses still haven’t adopted Enterprise Architecture to the degree needed to properly manage digital transformation. In some cases, an Enterprise Architecture initiative may even have been introduced, and an Architect (or Architects) employed, but the business struggles to mature the practice past lower levels of EA maturity. This is often due to the lack of immediate results and subsequent reduction in funding.

If this sounds familiar, it’s likely the false start into EA is down to one of these key reasons.

The Lack of a Business Outcome focus

Modern day Enterprise Architecture requires Architects to look at the bigger picture. The Ad-Hoc approach typical with lower maturity EA initiatives often get caught up tending to technological issues and concerns on a reactionary basis.

When we think of the old way of EA, this doesn’t seem like much of a problem. In the past, Enterprise Architecture worked much like other areas of IT – as a support arm to the main business. EAs during this time would likely be tasked with traditional IT duties, or what is dubbed “keeping on the lights”. But IT has evolved out of it’s support phase with the rise of digital business.

Now some (or even most in many cases) of a business’s most valuable assets are stored digitally (think Big Data etc), and there are a wealth of businesses who sell primarily, or solely through online avenues. But Enterprise Architecture has been slower to make the transition with the rest of IT. This could be down to the legacy nature of many of the tools in the field, or that because of the old way of EA, organizations simply overlooked its vastly greater value to business in modern markets.

Organizations need to reposition EA closer to the center of the business, and not leave it to stagnate on the fringes. Working closely with CIOs, Enterprise Architects can produce roadmaps and other reports that can steer the business through digital transformation, through innovative and forward thinking approaches.

Enterprise Architects themselves have to ensure they’re not solely focused on the standard EA framework. This approach might be useful to EAs, but to senior management and the wider business, the value isn’t clear. A business outcome approach to EA can help ensure Enterprise Architecture is always focused on how it can improve the business, and help it respond readily to disruption so new avenues can be capitalized on.

A lack of Stakeholder Engagement

When looking to improve an Enterprise Architecture initiative, we can’t look solely at the Enterprise Architecture and Enterprise Architects themselves. EA permeates throughout the whole business and so it stands to reason that any improvements or changes to the way a business does EA, would effect, and therefore should involve other stakeholders too.

But that’s largely the problem. EAs have found it notoriously difficult to encourage stakeholder engagement. There’s a number of reasons why this is problematic. The most clear cut being that, failure to engage business leaders makes it less likely that those business leaders will push for investment into the department.

This can stifle the potential of Enterprise Architecture and limit the future potential outcomes.

But it also has a negative effect on work an Enterprise Architect might already doing. An Enterprise Architect’s job is far easier, and more thorough, when they’re given the means to collaborate with the owners of the systems they are architecting.

Of course, in a busy work environment, collaboration can be difficult. But with tools such as Google’s  G Suite taking over the work place, largely because of their enablement of collaboration, it’s clear it can be done.

The right EA tool can encourage collaboration through gamification, convenience (being able to collaborate online rather than in person) and facilitating communication for feedback, suggestions and commenting.

Depending on who you ask, the world is either heading for, or already in the midst of a data downpour. A study as recent as 2015 found that global internet traffic will likely reach 1.4 petabits per second – the equivalent to 125 terabytes p/s.

This trend is likely to continue upward, and the implications for those monitoring such data are huge.

Most damning of such implications, is the growing threat that mass data leaks pose to the consumer and to business. Warranted public outcry following a number of high profile data leaks and breaches is more than enough to put this into perspective.

This boom in data has lead to businesses having to revise and improve their risk management policies and relevant tools. Any flaw in the way data is stored or monitored is a potential ‘in’ for cybercriminals, and so businesses have to ensure security surrounding sensitive information is thorough, and covers the whole business.

The problem is, implementations of new security tools and procedures often happen on a reactionary basis. Meaning they’re introduced as a new flaw in security is uncovered. This tends to lead to a staggered implementation, for short term fixes, rather than long term solutions.

This isn’t an effective way to implement new security protocol, as it often leads to critical areas being overlooked, misalignment and poor execution.

To effectively govern the implementation of security, we need to think in terms of Enterprise Architecture.

Enterprise Architecture’s Role in Implementing Security

Enterprise Architecture’s holistic view of the business makes it perfect for actioning new security.

Because of Enterprise Architecture’s layered approach – meaning the systems and structure on one layer dictate the systems and structure on the layer above – EAs can take a fine combed approach of introducing new security systems and ensure that nothing is missed, and that they don’t restrict the business. This ensures weaknesses are dealt with at the source, rather than quick fixes being tacked on after the fact.

With this in mind, it’s also important to recognize the need to properly integrate EA. Both in terms of systems and company ethos. The aforementioned benefits of leveraging EA to implement security, won’t be fully realized if EA is confined to an Ivory Tower.

Business leaders need to give EA the reach it requires in order to effectively impact the business. That means centralizing EA, freeing it from its dated, fringe-IT perception, as this limits the required holistic view of the organization EA needs to be effective. There’s even an argument for EAs to be recognized and utilized as a direct advisory body to the CIO.

Why Your Enterprise Architecture needs to be Agile

As with much of what Enterprise Architecture deals with, we can never be 100% prepared – or in this case, secure.

The uncertainty pertaining to EA and what it governs over was a huge catalyst in calls for a more agile take on Enterprise Architecture. Agility in EA can help businesses be prepared enough so they can respond quickly, or even capitalize on unforeseen disruptions.

In working towards securing a business’ sensitive data, organizations have a lot of variables to consider – and they’re constantly evolving. There isn’t a one size fits all solution to security as security costs money and not every department of a business has the same needs. Businesses will have to evaluate where the risks are highest, and prioritize in order to not overspend. Security has to be tailored to fit as many different areas as required.

Enterprise Architecture can help in determining which risks yield the best return, and thus, influence decision making and spending going forward.

The benefits of enterprise architecture (EA) are many, but organizations adopt EA to varying degrees of success.

The most successful enterprise architecture initiatives benefit from better management of cost, time and resources, improvements to processes, and an increase in inter-departmental transparency through the de-siloing of operations.

They also benefit from enhanced decision making, risk management, improved internal/operational efficiencies and an uptick in innovation.

The unsuccessful however, typically lead to financial burdens, and a reminder of the initiatives false start in the form of shelfware.

But it isn’t that hard to get right. The problem, for the most part, is that many organizations attempt to cherry pick which parts of EA methodology they want to implement, based on what they think is more important.

There’s nothing wrong in an iterative adoption of enterprise architecture, beginning at level 0 on the maturity model, and moving through the stages. In fact, for most businesses, an agile approach to enterprise architecture requires this.

However, ignoring whole parts of the methodology altogether will stifle the initiatives potential.

So in order to get it right, a great starting place, is to first consider the reasons you need enterprise architecture, then establish what you’ll need to do to achieve those results.

The Aim of Enterprise Architecture

As alluded to earlier, enterprise architecture helps remove departmental silos in the business, increasing transparency on an organization-wide level. It does this by firstly, helping create, and instill a common perspective of the current state of the architecture and wider business. It also aids in creating a common vision of the future, aligning different business arms to work towards a common goal.

Enterprise architecture also works to improve processes. It highlights areas of duplication, and overlapping technology, reducing cost, and also helps businesses be more agile in the face of disruption, by removing the hurdles a complicated, unstructured architecture can create.

This leads to an organization that can be proactive for longer – through innovation and iterative improvements to strategy – instead of reactive, and help the business become a market leader, rather than playing catch up.

It also leads to an organization with a better approach to risk management, as it helps business leaders and decision makers better evaluate their current capabilities, and the blanks they need to fill in to reach the organization’s vision, of the architecture’s future state.

It provides business leaders and decision makers with a better perspective of which risks are worth taking, by making potential return on investments (ROI) more transparent.

Additionally, enterprise architecture can work to ensure alignment between IT and business, reducing the likelihood that the two arms will work against one another.

EA can also help an organization get the most out of other initiatives. One great example, considering the current business climate, is Big Data. For Big Data, EA can help unify information from various sources, allowing business to benefit from a better connected, bigger pool of data in order to make more well informed analysis, predictions and decisions.

Enterprise Architecture in Practice

In order to achieve the results cited above, enterprise architecture should adhere to the following three best practices:

A wide perspective: Enterprise architecture should be an all inclusive view of the business. A half-baked, narrow approach to enterprise architecture will lead to misalignment, and missed opportunity.

This holistic approach is great for both the organization itself, and its stakeholders as it helps drive alignment by better connecting departments, and making it more clear where those departments’ endeavors tie into the business’s overall strategy.

Collaborative: An effective enterprise architecture is a collaborative one. As mentioned above, enterprise architecture permeates the whole business, and so the input into the initiative should reflect this. Stakeholders, C-level business leaders, and departmental management should all be actively included in the Enterprise Architecture process.

In many cases, it’s the active side of collaboration that businesses miss out on. To many EAs, collaboration goes as far as sharing results and plans in the form of PDFs. This is often down to limitations of the EA tool, making true collaboration – whereby the aforementioned parties are actually involved in the strategic planning process – logistically difficult or impossible, due to location, ease of sharing etc. However, there are enterprise architecture tools with collaboration built in mind, even allowing users to contribute to the EA remotely, so stakeholders and other interested parties can be properly included.

Outcome Focused: In some cases, a business might have implemented an enterprise architecture initiative almost perfectly, but find it still lacks the promised return. This is often a case of the architects losing sight of the business outcomes. The nature of EA – the constant revisions to strategy, the ever changing landscape of the market – means that the early stages of enterprise architecture (mapping of the architecture itself) is never technically finished.

This leads to many EAs falling into the trap of doing too much, a state dubbed “analysis paralysis”. A “Just Enough” approach to enterprise architecture helps EAs be more precise and move projects through the pipeline more quickly.

There’s a tipping point with any new concept. The point where an idea surpasses being just a ‘fad’, or another ‘buzzword’ and becomes rooted within a culture or society.

With the estimated number of connected devices at 5 billion, and is projected to grow to over 30 billion by 2020, the Internet of Things has already surpassed its tipping point and is clearly here to stay.

The leading analysts have championed IoT for a while, with Mike Walker (Gartner analyst) indicating its impression on industries would be great, saying that, “Organizations must understand the profound impact new sources of information will have.”

Yet, even considering the already colossal figures, the backgrounded nature of the Internet of Things means it isn’t yet a household term. Between the traditional smartphones, tablets, computers, and less traditional thermostats, smart bulbs, and other devices, most consumers are invested into the Internet of Things without actively acknowledging it.

It’s possible that businesses have struggled to make the most out of IoT for similar reasons.

It’s fundamentally unobtrusive nature has left some businesses slow to adopt the strategy as it’s value isn’t necessarily obvious. However, those with insider knowledge understand its potential – especially when paired with big data.

Current estimates infer IoT will add between $10 trillion and $15 trillion to the global GDP, as businesses benefit from more and more smart devices, increasing the density of connections between people, devices and interconnectivity between the two. Essentially, every new connection is a new selling, or data mining opportunity.

That said, as with big data, IoT can be a meaningless endeavor without the proper strategy in place to capitalize on it, and the starting point for that strategy, should be Enterprise Architecture.

Enterprise Architecture in IoT

Enterprise architecture can help businesses get more out of IoT.

Although the IoT refers to connected devices, in practice, the information from the devices in question is actually siloed. Although still of use to business, this siloed and fragmented information doesn’t provide the level of insight needed to justify heavy resource investment in an IoT strategy.

To really make the most out of IoT, the connections between the devices must be uncovered, and the walls separating them brought down.

This is where Enterprise Architecture comes into play. EA can leverage the interconnectivity of smart devices, grouping them together to measure certain data, or to form new business models and uses. Mike Walker labeled this the shift from thinking of IoT, ‘things’ to ‘compositions’.

Enterprise Architecture can also help identify which parts of the data are most relevant, in order for an organization to make better informed opinions.

On this, Mike Walker said: “In establishing a business competency centre, enterprise architects need to determine the potential impact, both positive and negative, of IoT technologies and then create actionable deliverables that can define which business opportunities should be pursued as result.”

Without proper structure, the sheer quantity of data that IoT can produce can be overwhelming, and the most useful information can be lost in the cluster.

All this considered, as the number of connected devices climbs, Enterprise Architecture and architect’s will find new life breathed into the discipline, as businesses look to leverage the services to guide their IoT strategies.

“Enterprise architects have a great opportunity to position themselves at the heart of digital businesses,” said, Mike Walker. “This could take the form of establishing a business competency centre that explores how the IoT can create innovative breakthroughs for the organization’s business models, products and services through rapid experimentation.”

He went on to say, “Enterprise architects are best positioned to discuss and enable the most lucrative opportunities in partnership with business unit and IT leaders. At the same time, they must work with chief data officers and security officers to structure this data in a way that mitigates the worst risks of pursuing these opportunities.”

The role and responsibilities of Enterprise Architect’s have already changed so much since the practice’s introduction. It’s practitioners have already had to adjust focus to accommodate the increasingly digital business focused market.

In addition to this, the realigning of IT from fringe, support role, to a core business unit has demanded a more forward thinking, innovative approach from them, too. We’re now in a new critical phase in Enterprise Architecture’s evolution, as cloud systems are becoming increasingly more commonplace.

Enterprise Architecture’s role in the Cloud

Thanks to a boom in web connectivity, reliability and availability, many business leaders and decision makers are now turning to the cloud as a means of delivering new tech.

The benefits to cost and speed of implementation are a huge selling point for the model and are a huge factor in its success. But arguably, the most important factor is the increasing need for agility.

Digital business has introduced a climate in which new tech innovations can catch on incredibly quickly, leading to a market in a constant state of change. This is why agility in business and IT has been a talking point of leading analysts – including Gartner – for a number of years now, and increasing agility is a goal that often ranks highly on yearly CIO agendas.

Cloud based systems are a great asset in achieving this goal of increasing agility.  A new, radical change in the market might require a rapid change in strategy, and the market won’t wait for businesses to source, fund and install new systems.

If need be, a subscription based SaaS model need only be swapped out for another, or in a case of expanding on current practices, more licenses can be acquired. This also goes a long way in helping businesses manage the amount of shelfware they have accrued, as SaaS models are only paid for, for as long as they are needed.

Considering the benefits of this, Enterprise Architects will need to familiarize themselves with the cloud, and those that specialize in it are bound to see an increased demand in their skill set.

As before, Enterprise Architects will be responsible for overseeing the implementation of such tech, ensuring it’s aligned with the business’ current systems and goals. But oftentimes, they’ll also be responsible for informing and educating the wider business on how exactly these new systems will fit. Hence, why some analysts are making the argument that Enterprise Architects should act as a direct advisory role to the CIO, and in some cases, start operating more like a management consultancy practice.

The Cloud’s role in Enterprise Architecture

SaaS models are even revitalizing Enterprise Architecture itself.

For example, CloudCore leverages the cloud to host a bundled Data Modeling and Enterprise Architecture offering, in one solution.

Businesses that may have found themselves priced out of EA before, due to high installation costs, or reluctance to invest heavily if EA is only needed for a fixed term project, are no longer excluded either.

The scalability of the model means that SaaS based Enterprise Architecture tools are a viable option for businesses at all stages of maturity. For example, a business at Level 0, or Level 1 of Gartner’s Enterprise Architecture maturity model (shown below) might have been taking a make shift approach to EA. Repurposing tools that are typically readily available to most businesses such as the Office Suite.

A business in this position is likely to have serious reservations about investing heavily in EA without a solid idea of its return on investment. In this case, a business will likely want to start small and mature the practice as they go. SaaS licensing options go a long way to enabling this thanks to the pay for what you need model, and the ability and ease of trialing the software before committing.

Enterprise-Architecture-tools-as-a-Service also benefit from increased collaborative capabilities thanks to the online, inherently connected nature of the software. Users can utilize the cloud to collaborate directly within the tool, benefiting from real time updates and the ability to make/suggest changes to diagrams from anywhere with an online connection.

It can also make encouraging investment and stakeholder buy-in to EA much easier. This is because the aforementioned parties can be involved much more directly with the Enterprise’s Architecture, and the EA tool itself.

Staggered licenses can account for “contributor” and “reviewer” permissions, allowing people that don’t necessarily need to be involved with the meta-data and repository, to still contribute to EA by either building diagrams or leaving feedback. This hands on involvement makes EA a far easier sell, as the relevant parties can see the value first hand.

Enterprise Architecture (EA) has a unique position in the organization. The overview of connected systems, capabilities, departments and business assets, and internal and external ecosystem influences essentially gives Architects a view of the whole living organization from above.

The practice of EA has been around for some time, but the insight this perspective can provide has only been capitalized on in recent years. This is largely down today’s broader scope of what EA now encompasses, the shift into digital business, and the increasingly interconnected environment digital business demands.

This new view and way of doing business opens up a new type of Enterprise Architecture.

Enterprise Architecture is no longer just concerned with IT-related planning, maintaining and cost cutting. Now EAs are responsible for driving transformation, enabling growth and highlighting new business avenues and innovating. This means that the work done by EAs, has a huge influence on a company’s strategy execution.

We’ve already written about how EA is in a great position to advise the CIO, but considering the above, we could argue that EA can act as an organization’s own internal Management Consultancy.

Enterprise Architecture as Management Consultancy

Gartner have spoken for a while about Business Outcome driven EA. The new take on the EA discipline aims to help Enterprise Architecture showcase its value more effectively.

It’s arguably this perspective on EA that makes it such a good fit as Management Consulting. To be Business Outcome orientated, EA’s need to have a solid understanding of company direction, and the systems, processes and people required to steer the business to the next level. They also need to be value driven, and able to show the value of the initiative to C-level management, line managers, stakeholders and other relevant parties.

One great way to begin envisioning Enterprise Architecture as a source of Management Consultancy is to consider the purpose of the two disciplines. The Management Consultancies Association (or the MCA), describe their practice as “the practice of creating value for organizations, through improved performance, achieved by providing objective advice and implementing business solutions.” The MCA goes on to say that, “management consultants help take organizations further than they would go on their own.”

From this definition alone, we can already start to see how Enterprise Architecture and Management Consultancy could be intertwined. Both disciplines are focused on interpreting strategic objectives, delivering increased value, improving performance and advising the business as to how to reach its goals.

Not only does this take on Enterprise Architecture help the business as a whole, it can also serve to help the Enterprise Architects themselves.

To be effective in Management Consultancy, EA must…

Now that we’ve made the case as to why Enterprise Architecture could act like a form of  Management Consultancy, it’s important to look at how. Not every Enterprise Architecture initiative is ready for this renewed take on EA, but it could be said that any EA practice looking to move through the levels of EA maturity, could make reaching this level a priority.

The best practices that should be in place to successfully leverage EA as a form of Management Consultancy are:

• Agility
• A business outcome focus
• A enterprise-wide recognition (not just IT)

Essentially, these best practices are the core of any good Enterprise Architecture initiative, but arguably, any good EA initiative is in a good position to operate as a form of Management Consultancy.

Most architects will find themselves working to deliver agility and business-outcomes over time through review and gradual improvement. In fact, both increasing agility, and maintaining/improving a business outcome focus are often placed high on the CIO agenda.

Getting “enterprise-wide recognition” is arguably a little more complicated.

This requires a change in mindset and culture around the business, and success here is often only achieved through the demonstration of value. One way to help EA deliver Management Consultancy, is to introduce the concept gradually.

As we’ve covered before, C-Level management can help the business recognize the importance of EA more readily by giving them a more regular seat at the top table. EAs would start this transition with an advisory role to the CIO, before taking on responsibilities such as communicating strategy and capablities in the CIOs absence.

What can we do to speed up the process?

As alluded to above, for EA to be taken seriously as a the companies own management consultancy, the EA practice must be delivering business outcomes. This means, at a minimum, doing Enterprise Architecture with the right tools and suitable frameworks so positive results can be repeated.

Companies still immature or doing ad-hoc EA work, often utilizing the Microsoft Office tools won’t succeed here. The results of this kind of EA are too hard to replicate, and often too unorganized to effectively share and present.

The good news is, not all Enterprise Architecture tools require the same level of colossal investment we’ve come to know in the past. SaaS and tiered-license options, for example, mean smaller organizations can start maturing their Enterprise Architecture practice.