Category: Enterprise Architecture

The very best, best practice guides and advice for professionals and organizations interested in enterprise architecture.

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Enterprise Architecture erwin Expert Blog

Types of Enterprise Architecture Frameworks: ArchiMate, TOGAF, DoDAF and more

In enterprise architecture, there are a number of different types of enterprise architecture frameworks, tailored to meet specific business and/or industry needs.

What is an Enterprise Architecture Framework?

An enterprise architecture framework is a standardized methodology that organizations use to create, describe and change their enterprise architectures.

Enterprise architecture (EA) itself describes the blueprint and structure of an organization’s systems and assets. It’s needed to make informed changes that help bridge the gap between the enterprise architecture’s current and desired future state.

Just like any building or infrastructure project, EA has different stakeholders and plan views.

You wouldn’t build a house without understanding the building’s architecture, plumbing, electrical and ground plans all within the context of each other.

So enterprise architecture provides the plans for different views of the enterprise, and EA frameworks describe the standard views an organization can expect to see.

What Makes Up An Enterprise Architecture Framework?

The EA discipline views an organization as having complex and intertwined systems. Effective management of such complexity and scale requires tools and approaches that architects can use.

An enterprise architecture framework provides the tools and approaches to abstract this information to a level of detail that is manageable. It helps bring enterprise design tasks into focus and produces valuable architecture documentation.

The components of an enterprise architecture framework provide structured guidance for four main areas:

1. Architecture description – How to document the enterprise as a system from different viewpoints

Each view describes one domain of the architecture; it includes those meta-types and associations that address particular concerns of interest to particular stakeholders; it may take the form of a list, a table, a chart, a diagram or a higher level composite of such.

2. Architecture notation – How to visualize the enterprise in a standard manner

Each view can be represented by a standard depiction that is understandable and communicable to all stakeholders. One such notation is ArchiMate from The Open Group.

3. Design method – The processes that architects follow

Usually, an overarching enterprise architecture process, composed of phases, breaks into lower-level processes composed of finer grained activities.

A process is defined by its objectives, inputs, phases (steps or activities) and outputs. Approaches, techniques, tools, principles, rules and practices may support it. Agile architecture is one set of supporting techniques.

4. Team organization – The guidance on the team structure, governance, skills, experience and training needed

Kanban boards and agile architecture can help provide team structure, governance and best practices.

Types of Enterprise Architecture Frameworks

There are a number of different types of enterprise architecture frameworks. Here are some of the most popular:

ArchiMate

An Open Group architecture framework this is widely used and includes a notation for visualizing architecture. It may be used in conjunction with TOGAF.

TOGAF

The Open Group Architecture Framework that is widely used and includes an architectural development method and standards for describing various types of architecture.

DODAF

The Department of Defense Architecture Framework that is the standard for defense architectures in the United States.

MODAF

The Ministry of Defense Architecture Framework that is the standard for defense architectures in the United Kingdom.

NAF

The NATO Architecture Framework that is the standard adopted by NATO allies.

FEAF

A Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework issued by the U.S. CIO Council. FEA, the Federal Enterprise Architecture, provides guidance on categorizing and grouping IT investments as issued by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

Zachman Framework

A classification scheme for EA artifacts launched in the early 1980s by John Zachman, who is considered the father of EA.

TM FORUM

Telemanagement Forum is the standard reference mode for telecommunication companies.

Enterprise architecutre frameworks: The Zachman Framework

What’s the Best Enterprise Architecture Framework?

Although this might be somewhat of a non-answer, it’s the only one that rings true: the best enterprise architecture framework is the one that’s most relevant to your organization, and what you’re trying to achieve.

Each different type of enterprise architecture framework has its particular benefits and focus. For example, there are types of enterprise architecture frameworks best suited for organizations concerned with defense.

Having a good understanding of what the different types of EA framework are, can help an organization better understand better understand which EA framework to apply.

Ultimately, organizations will benefit most, from an enterprise architecture management system (EAMS) that supports multiple EA frameworks. This way, the most relevant enterprise architecture framework is always available.

How to Implement an Enterprise Architecture Framework

So you’ve established you need an enterprise architecture framework and assessed the different types of enterprise architecture frameworks, but how should you go about implementing and managing your chosen framework?

The answer? Using an enterprise architecture management suite (EAMS).

An EAMS is used to facilitate the management of an organization’s EA. It adds uniformity and structure, whereas many organizations had previously taken an ad-hoc approach.

And enterprise architecture tools are becoming increasingly important.

Thanks to the rate of digital transformation and the increasing abundance of data organizations have to manage, organizations need more mature, formal approaches to enterprise architecture.

Organization’s seeking to introduce an EAMS, should evaluate which frameworks the technology supports.

With erwin Evolve, users can expect a wide range of support for different types of enterprise architecture frameworks among other benefits, such as:

  • Remote collaboration
  • High-performance, scalable and centralized repository
  • Ability to harmonize EA and business process use cases, with a robust, flexible and Web-based modeling and diagramming interface

erwin Evolve was included in Forrester’s “Now Tech: Enterprise Architecture Management Suites for Q1 2020” report.

To understand why erwin excels in the large vendor category, you can see for yourself by starting a free trial of erwin’s Enterprise Architecture & Business Process Modeling Software.

EA Tool with support for enterprise architecture frameworks

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Enterprise Architecture erwin Expert Blog

Change Management: Enterprise Architecture for Managing Change

As organization’s technologies and digital strategies mature, enterprise architecture for change management is becoming increasingly relevant. 

Enterprise architecture’s holistic view of the organization is perfect for understanding how an organization’s assets are interconnected. 

This understanding is crucial when an organization is looking to change from within. But it is perhaps even more crucial still, when external factors and disruption force an organization into change.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes …

Organizations in every industry are navigating digital transformation, so change management is an important element to consider as part of those efforts.

And organizations that embrace change often achieve greater success.

Whether in the early stages of implementing a digital strategy or in the midst of a new technology deployment, change management plays a crucial role.

What Is Change Management?

Change management describes the process(es) an organization will undertake to ensure changes to business operations, systems and other assets cause as little disruption as possible.

For example, a change in systems might require employees to be retrained, taking them away from more immediate, value-creating tasks.

A systems change also could disrupt business operations more directly – if it turns out a new system is incompatible with the current technology infrastructure.

Why Is Change Management Important?

Organizations are faced with constant change. Even industries historically resistant to it, such as financial services and healthcare, are now transforming proactively and at a rapid rate.

Successfully implementing and managing any change, but especially those involving technology, requires an understanding of how it will impact the business – particularly when there are impacts outside the intended goal.

While good ideas help a business grow, sometimes their implementations cause stumbles. Most often that’s because there’s a disconnect between an innovative idea and how it becomes reality.

Such disconnects result in redundant technology and processes, inefficient use of resources, and/or missed opportunities.

With effective change management, organizations usually realize faster implementations and lower costs. An organization with a better understanding of a proposed change is less likely to run into the problems that can derail new initiatives.

Smart change management also can help organizations future-proof their operations, anticipating issues such as systems becoming redundant or outdated earlier than expected.

Change Management and Enterprise Architecture

In large organizations, enterprise architecture (EA) has long been recognized as an effective mechanism for change management. It facilitates an organization’s efforts in assessing the impact of change and making recommendations for target states that support business objectives.

New solution architectures also are being used to successfully assess solution alternatives to support these target states.

EA often delivers the business use cases that justify the incorporation of ideas into operations. However, organizations may find its success limited if the EA function continues to operate in an ivory tower.

Historically, the EA group often has been disconnected from business stakeholders as well as the IT project teams assigned to deliver the solution. This disconnect can lead to the EA team suffering from a lack of commitment from the wider organization and thus their recommendations are ignored.

As a result, ideas are adopted without rigorous scrutiny, including the impacts of their execution and potential ripple effects on other projects.

What’s needed is an integrated approach that marries the EA team’s knowledge with a process for managing ideas and innovation.

change management enterprise architecture

Using Enterprise Architecture to Manage Ideation Through Implementation

A strategic planning approach – from assessment and impact and investment analysis through delivery – ensures ideas are captured, analyzed and shared in a structured process.

Feedback is provided to the originator, and the right stakeholders are involved in making the right decisions about IT projects based on sound business cases. Then both communities feel empowered to make changes.

An integrated, strategic planning environment brings a federated view of information from across the organization so that it can be shared. It helps organizations analyze and prioritize ideas, feed them into EA for analysis, and compile a business case.

With all stakeholders reviewing information and providing feedback on proposed projects, everyone can understand how the new ideas fit into the corporate strategy and have a voice in systematically managing the changes.

Plus they can be executed in near real time, allowing the organization to react quickly to seize market advantage.

Organizations looking to adopt such an approach to change management would benefit from an enterprise architecture tool.

erwin Evolve is one such enterprise architecture tool and a solution addressing both enterprise architecture and business process modeling and analysis use cases.

Users employ erwin Evolve to effectively tame complexity, manage change and increase operational efficiency. Its many benefits include:

  • Creation & Visualization of Complex Models: Harmonize EA/BP modeling capabilities for greater visibility, control and intelligence in managing any use case.
  • Powerful Analysis: Quickly and easily explore model elements, links and dependencies, plus identify and understand the impact of changes through intuitive impact analysis.
  • Documentation & Knowledge Retention: Capture, document and publish information for key business functions to increase employee education and awareness and maintain institutional knowledge, including standard operating procedures.
  • Democratization & Decision-Making: Break down organizational silos and facilitate enterprise collaboration among those both in IT and business roles for more informed decisions that drive successful outcomes.
  • Agility & Efficiency: Achieve faster time to actionable insights and value with integrated views across initiatives to understand and focus on business outcomes.
  • Lower Risks & Costs: Improve performance and profitability with harmonized, optimized and visible processes to enhance training and lower IT costs.

Recent enhancements include web-based diagramming for non-IT users, stronger document generation and analytics, TOGAF support, improved modeling and navigation through inferred relationships, new API extensions, and modular packaging so customers can choose the components that best meet their needs.

Try erwin Evolve now with a free, cloud-based trial – your work will be saved and carried over when you buy.

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erwin Expert Blog Enterprise Architecture

Top 3 Benefits of Enterprise Architecture

Benefits of Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise architecture (EA) benefits modern organizations in many ways. It provides a holistic, top down view of structure and systems, making it invaluable in managing the complexities of data-driven business.

Once considered solely a function of IT, enterprise architecture has historically operated from an ivory tower. It was often siloed from the business at large, stifling the potential benefits of the holistic view it could have provided.

Now, the growing importance of EA is reflected in its evolving position in the business. Instead of being considered just a function of IT, EA now plays a leading role in bridging the gap between IT and the business.

The practice has evolved in approach, too. In the past, enterprise architecture has played a foundational, support role – largely focused with “keeping the lights on.”

Today its scope is more progressive and business outcome-focused to identify opportunities for growth and change.

As a matter of fact, Gartner has said that EA is becoming a “form of internal management consulting” because it helps define and shape business and operating models, identify risk and opportunities, and create technology roadmaps to suit.

Analyst firm Ovum also recognizes EA’s evolution, referring to today’s EA as AE, or “architect everything,” further demonstrating its newfound scope.

 

Top Three Enterprise Architecture Benefits

Of course, enterprise architecture can’t sit at the strategy table without results. Following are what we believe to be the top three benefits of enterprise architecture:

1. Manage complexity

Modern organizations are a complicated mesh of different systems and applications of varying degrees of importance and prominence.

The top-down, holistic view of an organization provided by enterprise architecture means that organizations are more able to efficiently and confidently assess such assets. For example, impact analysis might identify areas where an organization can streamline its tech stack and cut costs.

It might uncover redundancies where multiple applications address the same process.

Alternatively, impact analysis might find that a seemingly less prominent application is actual integral to operations in circumstances where leadership are considering phasing it out.

In short, enterprise architecture helps business and IT leaders capture, understand and articulate opportunities, challenges and risks – including security.

2. Supporting the creation of actionable, signature-ready EA deliverables

As well as assessing an organization’s current capabilities, the holistic, top-down view provided by enterprise architecture also helps identify gaps.

A better understanding of its enterprise architecture means an organization can make more informed investment decisions. Of course, this means organizations have a better understanding of what they should invest in.

However, it also helps them better understand when, as more pressing concerns can be identified and roadmaps can be created to reflect an organization’s priorities. 

This approach helps an organization meet its current operational demands and opportunities, whilst navigating and mitigating disruptions. It can also ensure it does this in accordance with the longer-term strategic vision of the organization.

3. Increasing agility and speeding time to value

In the era of rapidly evolving technology and rampant – often disruptive – digital transformation, the need for enterprise architecture tools is abundantly clear. Organizations with a healthy understanding of their enterprise architecture are better equipped to evaluate and implement new technology in a timely and efficient manner. 

EA tools accelerate analysis and decision support for alternative investment, rationalization, and optimization opportunities and plans and for assessing risk, change and the impact on the organization.

Maturing Enterprise Architecture

To reap such benefits of this new approach to EA, many organizations will have to work to mature their practices.

To be effective, business outcome-focused enterprise architecture needs to be consistent. It needs to be communicable and discernible. It needs to be up to date and accurate.

For many organizations, these standards have been impossible to meet as their enterprise architectures are burdened by the use of systems that were not built for purpose.

Basic visualization tools, spreadsheets and even word processors have typically played stand-in for dedicated EA solutions. The non-purpose-built systems lacked the industry standards needed to accurately capture and align business and IT elements and how they link together.

Additionally, collaboration was often marred by issues with outdated, and even disparate file versions and types. This being due to business’ lacking the systems necessary to continuously and methodically maintain models, frameworks and concepts as they evolve.

Therefore, a key milestone in maturing a modern enterprise architecture initiative, is developing a single source of truth, consistent across the enterprise. This requires the implementation of a dedicated, centralized and collaborative enterprise architecture tool, be that on-premise, or via the cloud.

Of course, such a tool should cover enterprise architecture’s legacy capabilities and expectations. Those include support for industry standard frameworks and notation, the ability to perform impact analysis and the streamlining of systems and applications.

But to mature the practice, organizations should implement an EA tool with a shared, centralized metadata repository and role-based access.

It should have the ability to share an integrated set of views and information on strategy, business capabilities, applications, information assets, technologies, etc., to help provide stakeholders with a thorough understanding of the enterprise.

Once this milestone has been met, organizations can really begin to enjoy the benefits of enterprise architecture, in the modern, data-driven business context.

If the benefits of enterprise architecture would help your business, and you’d like to be the next erwin EA success story, try erwin’s enterprise architecture and business process modeling software for free.

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Enterprise Architecture erwin Expert Blog

5G Roadmap: Preparing Your Enterprise Architecture

Why planning your 5G roadmap requires significant input from enterprise architects

5G is coming and bringing with it the promise to transform any industry. And while the focus has been on the benefits to consumers,  the effects on the enterprise are far-reaching.

Few examples of emerging technology have the potential to disrupt and downright revolutionize certain markets and processes than 5G.

For enterprise architects, it’s important to understand how a potentially disruptive emerging technology like 5G might be incorporated into an organization, in advance.

A 5G roadmap could be the difference between such disruptions being an obstruction or an opportunity.

As with any emerging technology,  organizations need to test and pilot their projects to answer some important questions before going into production:

  • How do these technologies disrupt?
  • How do they provide value?

While the transition from 3G to 4G wasn’t all that eventful – or all that long ago – 5G is expected to buck the trend.

But how exactly?

5G: What to expect

5G promises dramatically faster download and upload speeds and reduced latency.

For context, average 4G speeds peak at around 45 Mbps (megabits per second); the industry goal is to hit 1 Gb (gigabit per second = 1,000 Mbps).

Telecom company Qualcomm believes real-world applications of 5G could be 10 to 20 times faster than that.

For consumers, this will mean dramatically faster downloads and uploads. Currently, downloading a two-hour movie takes around six  minutes on 4G. A 5G connection would achieve the same in just 3.6 seconds.

Organizations will, of course, enjoy the same benefits but will be burdened by the need to manage new levels of data, starting with telecommunications companies (telcos).

5G – A disruptive force vs. a catalyst for disruption

Usually, when we think of emerging disruptive technologies, the technology (or process, product, etc.) itself is the primary cause of the disruption.

With 5G, that’s still somewhat true. At least for telcos …

For example, 5G-driven disruption is forcing telecommunications companies to upgrade their infrastructure to cope with new volumes and velocities of data.

On a base level, these higher data volumes and velocities will be attributable to the fact that by making something happen faster, more of it can happen in a shorter amount of time.

But the increase in data speeds will be a catalyst for products and services that are currently not feasible becoming completely viable in the near future.

Of course, enterprise architecture is already integral to organizations with Internet of Things (IoT) devices in their portfolios.

5G enterprise architecture roadmap

But companies involved in internet-connected product market, as well as telcos, will need a 5G roadmap to ensure their enterprise architectures can cope with the additional data burden.

In addition to faster connection speeds, 5G will grant telcos more control over networks.

One such example of this control is the potential for network slicing, whereby multiple virtual networks can be generated within one physical 5G network, in turn allowing greater control of the service provided.

For example, self-driving cars would benefit from a network slice that offered exceptionally fast, low-latency connections to better accommodate their real-time data processing and transmitting needs.

Such a set up would go to waste for less-interactive, internet-connected devices. A smart fridge for example, could make do with far slower connection speeds.

This would mean telecommunications companies would start to look more like public-cloud providers and offer scalable services to their user bases.

However, realizing this potential would require more agile-oriented infrastructures than telcos typically have – which will of course require further input from enterprise architects to encourage an efficient implementation.

Another red pin to account for on the 5G roadmap.

So the answer to “Is 5G a disruptive force in and of itself, or is it a catalyst for disruption?” is actually … well, both. With telcos directly impacted by 5G disruption, and IoT product/service providers and digital business on the whole being disrupted by what 5G ultimately enables.

What does this mean for enterprise architects?

As addressed above, many of the business benefits of 5G are directly tied to increasing the amount of data that can be transferred at one time.

This presents a number of challenges for enterprise architects going forward.

As well as the increased volume of data itself, enterprise architects will need to prepare for faster times to market.

Radically improved data transfer speeds will encourage more agile product rollouts and updates, especially in connected devices that will feedback data insights about their performance.

The reduced latency will likely lead to a new influx of remote working, collaboration- enabling tools as well as products and services currently unaccounted for. Organizations with more agile enterprise architectures will be better placed to implement these smoothly when the time comes.

To better understand how your organization can prepare for 5G by adopting an agile enterprise architecture approach, click here.

Enterprise Architecture Business Process Trial

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Enterprise Architecture erwin Expert Blog

Data-Driven Enterprise Architecture

It’s time to consider data-driven enterprise architecture.

The traditional approach to enterprise architecture – the analysis, design, planning and implementation of IT capabilities for the successful execution of enterprise strategy – seems to be missing something … data.

I’m not saying that enterprise architects only worry about business structure and high-level processes without regard for business needs, information requirements, data processes, and technology changes necessary to execute strategy.

But I am saying that enterprise architects should look at data, technology and strategy as a whole to develop perspectives in line with all enterprise requirements.

That’s right. When it comes to technology and governance strategies, policies and standards, data should be at the center.

Strategic Building Blocks for Data-Driven EA

The typical notion is that enterprise architects and data (and metadata) architects are in opposite corners. Therefore, most frameworks fail to address the distance.

At Avydium, we believe there’s an important middle ground where different architecture disciplines coexist, including enterprise, solution, application, data, metadata and technical architectures. This is what we call the Mezzo.

Avydium Compass Mezzo view
Figure 1 – The Avydium Compass™ Mezzo view

So we created a set of methods, frameworks and reference architectures that address all these different disciplines, strata and domains. We treat them as a set of deeply connected components, objects, concepts and principles that guide a holistic approach to vision, strategy, solutioning and implementations for clients.

For us at Avydium, we see the layers of this large and complex architecture continuum as a set of building blocks that need to work together – each supporting the others.

Avydium Compass view of enterprise architecture
Figure 2 – The Avydium Compass® view of enterprise architecture

For instance, you can’t develop a proper enterprise strategy without implementing a proper governance strategy, and you can’t have an application strategy without first building your data and metadata strategies. And they all need to support your infrastructure and technology strategies.

Where do these layers connect? With governance, which sets its fundamental components firmly on data, metadata and infrastructure. For any enterprise to make the leap from being a reactive organization to a true leader in its space, it must focus on data as the driver of that transformation.

DATA-DRIVEN BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION – USING DATA AS A STRATEGIC ASSET AND TRANSFORMATIONAL TOOL TO SUCCEED IN THE DIGITAL AGE

 

Data-Driven Enterprise Architecture and Cloud Migration

Let’s look at the example of cloud migration, which most enterprises see as a way to shorten development cycles, scale at demand, and reduce operational expenses. But as cloud migrations become more prevalent, we’re seeing more application modernization efforts fail, which should concern all of us in enterprise architecture.

The most common cause for these failures is disregarding data and metadata, omitting these catalogs from inventory efforts, part of application rationalization and portfolio consolidation that must occur prior to any application being migrated to the cloud.

Thus, key steps of application migration planning, such as data preparation, master data management and reference data management, end up being ignored with disastrous and costly ramifications. Applications fail to work together, data is integrated incorrectly causing massive duplication, and worse.

At Avydium, our data-driven enterprise architecture approach puts data and metadata at the center of cloud migration or any application modernization or digital transformation effort. That’s because we want to understand – and help clients understand – important nuances only visible at the data level, such as compliance and privacy/security risks (remember GDPR?). You want to be proactive in identifying potential issues with sensitive data so you can plan accordingly.

The one piece of advice we give most often to our clients contemplating a move to the cloud – or any application modernization effort for that matter – is take a long hard look at their applications and the associated data.

Start by understanding your business requirements and then determine your technology capabilities so you can balance the two. Then look at your data to ensure you understand what you have, where it is, how it is used and by whom. Only with answers to these questions can you plan and executive a successful move to the cloud.

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erwin Expert Blog Enterprise Architecture

Agile Enterprise Architecture for DevOps Explained …

How do organizations innovate? Taking an idea from concept to delivery requires strategic planning and the ability to execute. In the case of software development, understanding agile enterprise architecture and its relevance to DevOps is also key.

DevOps, the fusion of software development and IT operations, stems from the agile development movement. In more practical terms, it integrates developers and operations teams to improve collaboration and productivity by automating infrastructure, workflows and continuously measuring application performance.

The goal is to balance the competing needs of getting new products into production while maintaining 99.9-percent application uptime for customers in an agile manner. 

To understand this increase in complexity, we need to look at how new features and functions are applied to software delivery. The world of mobile apps, middleware and cloud deployment has reduced release cycles to days and weeks not months — with an emphasis on delivering incremental change.

Previously, a software release would occur every few months with a series of modules that were hopefully still relevant to the business goals.

The shorter, continuous-delivery lifecycle helps organizations:

  • Achieve shorter releases by incremental delivery and delivering faster innovation
  • Be more responsive to business needs by improved collaboration, better quality and more frequent releases
  • Manage the number of applications impacted by a business release by allowing local variants for a global business and continuous delivery within releases

The DevOps approach achieves this by providing an environment that:

  • Minimizes software delivery batch sizes to increase flexibility and enable continuous feedback as every team delivers features to production as they are completed
  • Replaces projects with release trains that minimize batch-waiting time to reduce lead times and waste
  • Shifts from central planning to decentralized execution with a pull philosophy, thus minimizing batch transaction cost to improve efficiency
  • Makes DevOps economically feasible through test virtualization, build automation and automated release management as we prioritize and sequence batches to maximize business value and select the right batches, sequence them in the right order, guide the implementation, track execution and make planning adjustments to maximize business value

An Approach with an Enterprise Architecture View

So far, we have only looked at the delivery aspects. So how does this approach integrate with an enterprise architecture view?

To understand this, we need to look more closely at the strategic planning lifecycle. The figure below shows how the strategic planning lifecycle supports an ‘ideas-to-delivery’ framework.

Agile Enterprise Architecture: The Strategic Planning Lifecycle

Figure 1: The strategic planning lifecycle

You can see the high-level relationship between the strategy and goals of an organization and the projects that deliver the change to meet these goals. Enterprise architecture provides the model to govern the delivery of projects in line with these goals.

However, we must ensure that any model built include ‘just-enough’ enterprise architecture to produce the right level of analysis for driving change. The agile enterprise architecture model, then, is then one that enables enough analysis to plan which projects should be undertaken and ensures full architectural governance for delivery. The last part of this is achieved by connecting to the tools used in the agile space.

Agile Enterprise Architecture: Detailed View of the Strategic Planning Lifecycle

Figure 2: Detailed view of the strategic planning lifecycle

The Agile Enterprise Architecture Lifecycle

An agile enterprise architecture has its own lifecycle with six stages.

Vision and strategy: Initially, the organization begins by revisiting its corporate vision and strategy. What things will differentiate the organization from its competitors in five years? What value propositions will it offer customers to create that differentiation? The organization can create a series of campaigns or challenges to solicit new ideas and requirements for its vision and strategy.

Value proposition: The ideas and requirements are rationalized into a value proposition that can be examined in more detail.

Resources: The company can look at what resources it needs to have on both the business side and the IT side to deliver the capabilities needed to realize the value propositions. For example, a superior customer experience might demand better internet interactions and new applications, processes, and infrastructure on which to run. Once the needs are understood, they are compared to what the organization already has. The transition planning determines how the gaps will be addressed.

Execution: With the strategy and transition plan in place, enterprise architecture execution begins. The transition plan provides input to project prioritization and planning since those projects aligned with the transition plan are typically prioritized over those that do not align. This determines which projects are funded and entered into or continue to the DevOps stage.

Guidelines: As the solutions are developed, enterprise architecture assets such as models, building blocks, rules, patterns, constraints and guidelines are used and followed. Where the standard assets aren’t suitable for a project, exceptions are requested from the governance board. These exceptions are tracked carefully. Where assets are frequently the subject of exception requests, they must be examined to see if they really are suitable for the organization.

Updates: Periodic updates to the organization’s vision and strategy require a reassessment of the to-be state of the enterprise architecture. This typically results in another look at how the organization will differentiate itself in five years, what value propositions it will offer, the capabilities and resources needed, and so on. If we’re not doing things the way we said we wanted them done, then we must ask if our target architectures are still correct. This helps keep the enterprise architecture current and useful.

Enterprise Architecture Tools for DevOps

DevOps can use a number of enterprise architecture solutions. For example, erwin’s enterprise architecture products use open standards to link to other products within the overall lifecycle. This approach integrates agile enterprise architecture with agile development, connecting project delivery with effective governance of the project lifecycle. Even if the software delivery process is agile, goals and associated business needs are linked and can be met.

To achieve this goal, a number of internal processes must be interoperable. This is a significant challenge, but one that can be met by building an internal center of excellence and finding a solution by starting small and building a working environment.

The erwin EA product line takes a rigorous approach to enterprise architecture to ensure that current and future states are published for a wider audience to consume. The erwin EA repository can be used as an enterprise continuum (in TOGAF terms).

Available as a cloud-based platform or on-premise, erwin EA solutions provide a quick and cost-effective path for launching a collaborative enterprise architecture program. With built-in support for such industry frameworks as ArchiMate® and TOGAF®,  erwin enables you to model the enterprise, capture the IT blueprint, generate roadmaps and provide meaningful insights to both technical and business stakeholders.

According to Gartner, enterprise architecture is becoming a “form of internal management consulting,” helping define and shape business and operating models, identify risks and opportunities, and then create technology roadmaps. Understanding how vision and strategy impacts enterprise architecture is important – with an overall goal of traceability from our ideas and initiatives all the way through delivery.

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Enterprise Architecture erwin Expert Blog

Why Enterprise Architecture Agility is Becoming Increasingly Important

The importance of enterprise architecture agility is growing at a rapid pace.

Technology has made us faster. In the last century, we’ve found ways to travel faster, exchange information faster, and most importantly – innovate faster. In fact, there’s an argument to be made that perhaps we’ve entered an age where we innovate too quickly.

Think about it – how can any company aim for longevity when the next industry revolutionizing innovation is just around the corner. And it seems as if there’s a new one every other month.

Start-ups like Uber, Deliveroo and others have already reshaped their respective industries and largely without much – if any at all – forewarning. These disruptions to the market can rarely be planned for. Much of this is down to the nature of the internet and how quickly a message can spread.

Now that more and more products are being offered in the form of software, and within that, more and more of those being SaaS offerings, it’s not hard to imagine yet another uptick in the speed in which the market changes and evolves.

This is a particularly important area of focus for Enterprise Architects, as they are largely going to be responsible for implementing and integrating these new technologies. And with the evolution of Enterprise Architecture itself, from fringe support IT role to a forward thinking source of innovation, EA’s will even be responsible for sourcing new tech, predicting market trends, and generally operating with the businesses future-state in mind, in order to stay ahead of the curve.

So how do you account for rapid and unforeseen changes in strategic planning?

Well, the short answer is that you don’t. Realistically, you can’t plan for something if you don’t know…

  1. What’s coming
  2. When it’s coming

Businesses must instead prepare to react. This is what’s at the core of “being agile”, – a business mantra and way of operating that has been championed by many of the leading analysts, including Gartner, Forrester and others for a number of years now.

The point in being agile is understanding that you’re not always going to be ahead of the curve. This is because it’s impossible to constantly live “outside the box”. Eventually, an outside of the box idea becomes the box, and it takes a new outsider to really pivot the market.

Agility then, is about making sure that when disruptions occur, you’re not only ready to change course (or in some extreme cases, radically pivot), you’re also ready to turn disruption into opportunity.

What does agility mean to Enterprise Architecture?

In Enterprise Architecture, agility is mainly about reducing time to markets and making the practice more efficient.

There are a number of ways in which this can be achieved. Some relate to how EA is done, and some relate to how EA is perceived by the wider business.

Firstly, when it comes to doing EA, one best practice is the “just enough” mantra. Just enough Enterprise Architecture aims to avoid the issues that can plague an EA initiative due to over analysis.

Enterprise Architecture is one of those disciplines where it could be argued that the work is never done – but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a time to stop and move on. Instead of documenting every inch and detail of an organization, EAs should instead aim to to deliver just enough to support the desired business outcomes.

A failure to implement just enough Enterprise Architecture plays a huge part in an organization’s failings in staying agile. It takes the EAs focus away from the businesses future-state, and instead, bogs them down with the past and current.

Of course, it’s vital for an EA to understand a business’s current capabilities, but looking forward is a huge part of the balance that makes a successful Enterprise Architecture effort.

If you feel your Enterprise Architecture efforts get bogged down with “analysis paralysis,” you should try using a goal based decision process. This keeps a focus on what needs to be built and by when.

Another reason an Enterprise Architecture department might be struggling to increase agility is the lack of a purpose built EA tool. As Enterprise Architecture has traditionally been quite expensive to get off the ground – with installation, upkeep and other costs – many businesses have resorted to using a hodgepodge of not-for-purpose Office Tools.

It’s a viable option at first, but as the Enterprise Architecture grows, these guerrilla Enterprise Architecture efforts often become increasingly difficult to manage as the architecture’s documentation spills across multiple files that can be exclusive to multiple people.

A purpose built EA tool with a strong focus on collaboration means that Enterprise Architects can share and collaborate on work directly within the tool. It also makes the architecture as a whole far easier to navigate and present to the wider business as it’s all kept within the same programme.

The improved capabilities in collaboration can also help with EA’s perception in the wider business. Getting stakeholders more involved in the EA makes its purpose and value far more clear.

This will lead to an environment where EA and the results it produces are treated with more dignity and trust, aiding in increasing agility by removing some of the bureaucratic hurdles faced before.

It’s now easier than ever to kickstart an Enterprise Architecture initiative with an EA tool. SaaS offerings with staggered license types especially, can be an in for businesses starting at Level 0 on the EA maturity model. Businesses no longer need to worry about the massive up front cost, and with the option to buy more licenses, the tool can scale with the EA initiative as it develops.

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Enterprise Architecture erwin Expert Blog

5 Things You Should Know About Big Data Enterprise Architecture

Big Data has changed the way in which organizations understand and make use of the growing volume, velocity, variety and value of enterprise data. Any company, whether large or small, can take steps to analyze and make use of the disparate information it has access to, speeding up and increasing focus on initiatives that help drive and grow the company.

With the correct approach, enterprise architecture helps the business target the right market activities and fine tune marketing, sales and business operations. In fact, almost any business transformation initiative can be addressed by utilizing Big Data techniques. Techniques that can help enterprise architects ensure alignment with the business and maximize return on investment.

Architects typically already know the business capabilities they need to deliver and have a roadmap outlining the applications, technology, people, processes and resources needed to accomplish it. Big Data is different in that it enables architects to follow ideas where the outcome isn’t clear, and the data is often wont to trigger new questions or ideas.

A more agile approach to architecture development is required to handle this than what many organizations have in place today, to allow the organization to react and respond where needed to capitalize on opportunities when they arise.

With that in mind, here’s 5 key things you should know about Big Data Enterprise Architecture.

Big Data Enterprise Architecture in Digital Transformation and Business Outcomes

Digital Transformation is about businesses embracing today’s culture and process change oriented around the use of technology, whilst remaining focused on customer demands, gaining competitive advantage and growing revenues and profits.

By focusing on desired business outcomes, companies can target specific initiatives that are likely to yield high returns or deliver greatest business value based on digital adoption. Big Data may be incorporated into business strategies to help drive meaningful strategic adjustments that minimize costs and maximize results.

As more businesses become digitized, the amount and complexity of enterprise data grows, and so making use of it to better understand your customers, employees, operations, and how your products and services are performing has never been more challenging or essential. Some ability to understand and analyze Big Data can help identify the opportunities to reduce costs, serve customers better, or eliminate risks across the architecture of the enterprise.

In fact, it could be said that without any element of Big Data analysis, it’s hard to do digital transformation at all.

Enterprise Architecture Makes Big Data Easier to Digest

CRM and ERP tools are a hive of useful data. Enterprise Architects can use this data to highlight areas of opportunity and potential disruption.

Alongside this, the rise of social media has uncovered a new data goldmine, and online tools like Google Analytics provide deep insight into the consumer. Of course, this is implied by the term “Big Data”.

That said, businesses won’t find all of the data useful at any given time. The organization’s current goals and objectives should influence which parts of the data to hone in on in order to make things more manageable.

An Enterprise Architecture tool supporting a view manager can help achieve this. Organizing the same data into different views in an instant can make finding the best data thread to pull, much easier. Essentially, a view manager streamlines data into customizable, and easily digestable representations that can be updated in real-time. This allows Enterprise Architects to make comparisons far more readily.

A best practice in this instance, is to use EA to sift through Big Data, and find one metric that holds a clear influence on reaching your desired outcome. From here, EAs can branch out and find other useful data sets that can be applied to ensure decisions are as well informed as possible.

This can help eliminate guesswork and save time and cost by avoiding trial and error Big Data work.

Big Data Isn’t Just for Big Business

It can be an easy assumption to make that Big Data is best left for Business Analysts, and the typically lager organizations where they’re employed. However, in the current business landscape, its possible for any business to drill down into Big Data by leveraging the various tools available on the market.

These tools can help find, structure and manipulate data, as well as present them to the wider organization in order to influence strategy.

In EA specifically, the tools available can help you gain a deep understanding of your current-state and past-state enterprise data activity, and therefore can be used to help understand trends and make projections that influence your future-state enterprise.

Reports of this nature go along way, for example, by indicating whether a specific Digital Transformation workstream is worth pursuing or not, as well as steering it once the target future-state has been agreed upon.

Big Data Can Help Position EAs in an Advisory Role

A key objective of Big Data is to surface new value from extensive data sets, and as an Enterprise Architect you should be prepared to advise your business and IT stakeholders on how its possible to leverage Big Data techniques to achieve their objectives.

We’ve talked before about how EAs could in fact, be best place to be a front line in advising the CIO, due to their holistic view of the organizations assets and potential.

To properly leverage Big Data to position yourself at the ‘big table’, EAs should recognize that every enterprise is unique with its own goals – the drivers for each company differ, and near-term and long-term goals can and do change over time.

By understanding the business goals, key challenges and business outcomes, Enterprise Architects can start to break Big Data down into insights that will drive success.

The use of SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time) based goals can allow you to have concrete criteria upon which to measure results and effectiveness.

Big Data EA and the Business Motivation Model

The business motivation model (BMM) in ArchiMate® can be used to describe the goals, drivers, assessments carried out, and stakeholders involved in decision making. It’s a way of putting factors of influence on the business in context, providing a language in which they can be discussed and used to better strategic planning.

An invaluable tool for Enterprise Architects and the wider business, the motivation model helps improve decision making by adding a structure and cohesion to the strategic planning process.

Most EAs agree that there is still work to be done in order to reach a perfect (or even near perfect) alignment between IT and the wider organization – something that CIOs across organizations are striving for. Much of the reason for this shortcoming, is a lack of effective communication.

The cohesion in planning achieved by a business motivation model, makes it far easier for plans to be communicated across departments and ensure everybody is working towards similar outcomes. This mutual approach is the driver behind this business and IT alignment.

The connection between the BMM, and Big Data Enterprise Architecture is simple. In short, Big Data provides additional and much needed context to build better informed BMMs. The more data you have surrounding a specific influencing factor, the more accurately you can predict the extent of said influencers, influence. Enterprise Architecture can help refine Big Data for this purpose, so analysts and other relevant parties can see a snapshot of only the relevant data, essentially cutting the fat.

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Enterprise Architecture erwin Expert Blog

How Agile Enterprise Architecture is Helping to Build Smart Cities

Having an agile enterprise architecture is essential to enabling a smart city.

One of the challenges when creating a smart city is how to represent all the moving parts. From my perspective as KnowNowCities designs new smart places the best approach is to use agile enterprise architecture techniques to describe how the technology is applied in a place.

What is a Smart City

Firstly though, let’s start by explaining what a smart city is. The elements of a smart city can be boiled down into 5 interwoven and parallel components.

These are:

  1. Apply standards – such as Privacy by Design and PAS181 – Smart City Framework
  2. Are Open Data Centric – see the Open Data Institute
  3. Are Interoperable – so data and services from one place can interact with another place
  4. Have good governance and leadership (both hard and soft)
  5. Are Outcomes Centric and put Citizens first. Citizens make cities what they are

In short these become the overriding Smart City principles. So a key role of any enterprise architecture is to demonstrate how the technology designed meets these principles.

agile enterprise architecture smart city

Smart City Enterprise Architecture

The role of an EA in a smart city is multiple. Typically when building a new place the overriding concern is maintaining the promised return on investment. The developer needs a place that will attract customers (good rental or freehold returns); be compelling and competitive so the new place has its own ‘unique selling points’; yet, not break the bank! The EA can aid the developer in what I term is a “plan for tomorrow, but build for today” approach.

What does this mean? Planning for tomorrow is about making sure where it is going to be expensive to retrofit in the future mitigate that expense by deploying sufficient capacity for the future where it makes sense.

Simply put, this is about the reservation and allocation of space and capacity where technology may well end up being deployed. But not necessarily deploying that technology.

An example would be deploying conduit underground during the civil engineering phase of a build, but not deploying the cable through the conduit. Provide the access rights and access points to deploy any technology upgrades (be it for technology refresh or for capacity gains).

Another key aspect when designing a smart city is to recognize that technology is now part of the urban design. Yet traditional architecture of buildings and the public realm does not easily address the adoption of technology. The key here is to be embedded in the architecture and construction team from day one. As I tell my clients… technology engineers for a smart city should be considered similarly to the water engineers.

With Water you have three types (blue – potable, grey – rain/surface run off & black – waste) that each require their own special attention. When you think water… now also think technology!

Integrate with the RIBA Plan of Work

Luckily from a technology perspective having a plan of work that goes through distinct phases also fits nicely with an Enterprise Architecture centric method too. The RIBA Plan of Work method can be applied to the technology aspects of a smart city as much as it can the construction of the buildings and public realm too. So at concept stage, the technology concept architecture can sit in that phase too.

Roadmaps are the icing on the cake however. Referring back to the principle of design for tomorrow but deliver for today. It is possible to show when a particular technology component is required, how it flows from previous technology deployed/enabled and how this then supports future technology growth/deployments.

Additionally, because the EA at a concept level is exactly that, a certain amount of stability can be expected. Let us not forget that technology has a lifespan often measured in months, whereas a structure’s lifespan is measured in decades. So the EA becomes a living organic entity. Constantly evolving and changing based on need and technological capability.

Yet it is the specified and physical designs that are likely to change here. Again, the EA approach allows for this transfer of different types of technology, yet still keeping a cohesive overall architecture that can still represent the principles and concept architecture the first design delivered.

How Does erwin Evolve help?

The beauty of using erwin Evolve is that the tool provides all the outputs that are required in a smart city engagement.

Firstly, it is great way of capturing the requirements and then matching those to principles, owners and then attributing this to architected components.

Secondly, the tool can manage capacity plans, and what if scenario planning.

Thirdly, using the roadmaps and Kanban views the tool can help a client prioritize and plan the work to be undertaken.

Finally, because of erwin Evolve’s collaborative features I get to share a common view with all project stakeholders.

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Enterprise Architecture erwin Expert Blog

Just Enough Enterprise Architecture, Just In Time: 5 Best Practices to Achieve Peak Enterprise Architecture Agility

The concept of ‘agility’ has permeated almost every inch of the enterprise. It’s not hard to see why either. The promise of faster time to markets, better management of change and disruption, and leaner, more efficient operations is clearly an appealing.

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is no exception to the rule. It might have been, for a time – when EA only really concerned itself with ‘keeping the lights on’. But now that the domain has found itself aligned more closely to the center of the business EA has to be concerned with agility too.

Some Enterprise Architecture practices can struggle to really achieve agility because of various reasons. We’ve put together 5 best practices to help architecture teams deliver greater business agility and also become more agile in their own approach to EA.

Just Enough Enterprise Architecture, Just in Time

One of the most common barriers to agililty is doing too much. The complex nature of Enterprise Architecture can lead to some architects building many rabbit holes where too much unnecessary information is captured and modeled that work is never ‘done’. This state is known as ‘analysis paralysis,’ as it effectively slows down the process and time to market of EA business-outcomes. Architects should stay focused on delivering Just Enough EA to support business outcomes, instead of documenting every last detail of the organization.

Of course there are times when very deep EA is required, but as a general rule it is better to focus on Just Enough Enterprise Architecture. Whether through curiosity to learn more, or paranoia that something will be missed, attempting to model and analyze everything is fundamentally at odds with agility.

To help focus on Just Enough EA and avoid getting lost in the detail, architects should:

  • Separate Enterprise Architecture from Solution Architecture, understand that detail does exist where Architecture meets design
  • Use a goal based decision process, keeps a focus on what needs to be built and by when
  • Concentrate upon interfaces / relationships
  • Define the core properties to be collected and implement quality checks
  • Harvest and connect to records of source

A lean and agile approach to Enterprise Architecture allows architects and non-architects alike to access the information they need much faster too, since EA modeling and content is no longer weighed down by a lot of unneccessary detail. EA is more likely to secure investment this way, too – as stakeholders are more likely to invest when the business outcomes can be translated more clearly and quickly.

Engage and Collaborate with Business Stakeholders

Another hurdle to EA agility is approval. Architects often reach a point where they can’t continue without the approval and buy-in from business leaders. The quicker you can get your stakeholders on board, the faster you can move through the strategic planning process into execution. This efficiency is essential to the agile mantra.

The ivory tower perception of Enterprise Architecture that has traditionally plagued the discipline makes this even more of an issue. Stakeholders are more likely to be reluctant to invest (be it time, money or resources), if the business outcomes aren’t completely clear.

One way to solve this is to help stakeholders get a better understanding and view of enterprise architecture. Getting them engaged and collaborating on the applications, processes or business capabilities they are interest in via an easy-to-use EA tool is ideal. We can also borrow ideas from Just Enough Enterprise Architecture (mentioned above). Your stakeholders shouldn’t have to learn how to do Enterprise Architecture in order to provide input and see its benefits.

Organizations with a collaboratively driven tool can provide stakeholders direct links to specific assets in the architecture. This negates any learning curve stakeholders might have needed to navigate the tool itself, gets them straight to their point of interest, and saves them time.

Enterprise Architecture collaboration

Giving stakeholders the ability to view and contribute directly within the EA tool itself, negates the need to go back and forth with static diagrams and reports. Instead of printing out PDFs and the like (which is actually just sharing), EAs can collaborate with stakeholders in realtime allowing them to see the impact of different changes on the business and to guide investment decisions.

Ensure Your Content is Stakeholder Focused

Although it’s best to engage and collaborate with stakeholders in EA, in some cases, the stakeholders can only really take a passive role. In this case, making sure what you present to the stakeholder is tailored to them, is another great way of removing stakeholder concerns as a hurdle to agility.

View managers are a great quality of life data management system, that can help EAs achieve this. They’re already commonplace in many Business Intelligence tools and CRM Systems, but can be just as useful in EA.

The purpose of a view manager is to streamline both the visulaization and navigation of data. They take a set of user defined parameters, and act as a filter to show only what’s relevant to that view.

View Manager explained

Much of this ties into the concept of showing ‘just enough’ EA and can help users and the wider business stay agile by trimming the irrelevant data that can slow down decision making.

View Managers could also be used as a tool specifically purposed to improve agility and efficiency across the business. For example, a view could be created to always display all business capabilities or perhaps all applications that you own. It could then be sorted to show the most critical capabilities – based on their importance to the business – first.

This helps provide architects with a clear view of their own priorities but similarly which organizational priorities should be tackled first.

A business capabiltiy view is just one possible example. In terms of agility, the view would help improve the efficieny at every stage in strategics planning process, increasing agility and time to market across the board by improving systems and processes.

Kanbans

Kanban Boards are a common form of task management in business. In short, they operate as a visual representation of the current state of a specific task(s). The typical parameters are “to do”, “doing”, “done” and “parked”, but many businesses choose to define their own parameters to better suit their needs. For example, a Kanban board that follows the different stages of the TOGAF ADM.

In relation to agility, Kanbans are a great way of organizing and prioritizing your own and your teams activities. This structure is the basis for any credible attempt at a truly agile operation. Without it, organizations often find themselves wasting more time deciding what should be done, that actually doing.

Kanban’s are versatile enough to be used at almost any point in the strategic planning process – including Enterprise Architecture. In EA specifically, Kanban boards could include cards representing business capabilities, or application components, providing a work in progress view of the architecture.

Get the Right Tool

Most organizations start small with EA, repurposing tools such as Powerpoint, Excel and Visio.

This budget approach to managing EA can most definitely get you off the ground. But as the architecture grows, the silos created when fragmenting the architecture across multiple programs and file types stifle progression.

It becomes difficult to work collaboratively, as multiple team members struggle to keep aligned. In many cases, there will be multiple different versions of the architecture that don’t fully corroborate with one another.

The most direct impact on agility though, is the fragmented state of information and assets. The dispersed nature of the data makes it extremely hard to find the information you need, making the EAs day-to-day job harder, as well as introducing further complications when presenting the architecture to stakeholders. EA can be complicated enough for the experts, let alone the stakeholders that are only involved sporadically. These are complications it can do without.

The right tool would be one that unifies the Enterprise Architecture, as well as the architects – allowing them to work collaboratively within one tool, with real time feedback and comment systems across the diagrams, roadmaps, pivot tables, impact analysis and capability models.

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