Governance

All too often in the growth and maturation of EnterpriseArchitecture initiatives, the effort stalls or is delayed due to lack of “appliedtraction”. By this, I mean the EAactivities – whether targeted towards compliance, risk mitigation or valueopportunity propositions – may not be attached to measurable, active, visibleprojects that could advance and prove the value of EA. EA doesn’t work by itself, in a vacuum,without collaborative engagement and a means of proving usefulness. A criticalvehicle to this proof is successful orchestration and use of assets and investmentresources to meet a high-profile business objective – i.e. a successfulproject.

More and more organizations are now exploring andconsidering some degree of IT outsourcing, buying and using external servicesand solutions to deliver their IT and business requirements – vs. building andoperating in-house, in their own data centers. The rapid growth and success of“Cloud” services makes some decisions easier and some IT projects moresuccessful, while dramatically lowering IT risks and enabling rapid growth.This is particularly true for “Software as a Service” (SaaS) applications,which essentially are complete web applications hosted and delivered over theInternet. Whether SaaS solutions – or any kind of cloud solution – areactually, ultimately the most cost-effective approach truly depends on theorganization’s business and IT investment strategy.

This leads us to Enterprise Architecture, the connectivitybetween business strategy and investment objectives, and the capabilitiespurchased or created to meet them. If anEA framework already exists, the approach to selecting a cloud-based solutionand integrating it with internal IT systems (i.e. a “Hybrid IT” solution) iswell-served by leveraging EA methods. If an EA framework doesn’t exist, or issimply not mature enough to address complex, integrated IT objectives – ahybrid IT/cloud initiative is the perfect project to advance and prove thevalue of EA.

Why is this? For starters, the success of any complex ITintegration project – spanning multiple systems, contracts and organizations,public and private – depends on active collaboration and coordination among theproject stakeholders. For a hybrid IT initiative, inclusive of one or morecloud services providers, the IT services, business workflow and datagovernance challenges alone can be extremely complex, requiring many diverse layersof organizational expertise and authority. Establishing subject matterexpertise, authorities and strategic guidance across all the disciplinesinvolved in a hybrid-IT or hybrid-cloud system requires top-level,comprehensive experience and collaborative leadership. Tools and practicesreflecting industry expertise and EA alignment can also be very helpful – suchas Oracle’s “Cloud Candidate Selection Tool”.

Using tools like this, and facilitating this criticalcollaboration by leading, organizing and coordinating the input and expertiseinto a shared, referenceable, reusable set of authority models and practices –this is where EA shines, and where Enterprise Architects can be most valuable.The “enterprise”, in this case, becomes something greater than the coreorganization – it includes internal systems, public cloud services, 3rd-partyIT platforms and datacenters, distributed users and devices; a whole greaterthan the sum of its parts.

Through facilitated project collaboration, leading toidentification or creation of solid governance models and processes, a durableand useful Enterprise Architecture framework will usually emerge by itself, ifnot actually identified and managed as such. The transition from planningcollaboration to actual coordination, where the program plan, schedule andresources become synchronized and aligned to other investments in theorganization portfolio, is where EA methods and artifacts appear and becomemost useful. The actual scope and use of these artifacts, in the context ofthis project, can then set the stage for the most desirable, helpful andpragmatic form of the now-maturing EA framework and community of practice.

Considering or starting a hybrid-IT orhybrid-cloud initiative? Running into some complex relationship challenges? Thisis the perfect time to take advantage of your new, growing or possibly latent EnterpriseArchitecture practice.

As Architects we often spend countless hours working toward delivering great artifacts, including a future state, current state and roadmap to assist our customers in developing a vision and plan toward transformation or maturity. This work is often completed and finds its place on the CIO’s bookshelf or the Lead Architect’s desk with little action or even a second look. Why is this work not actively embraced by many organizations beyond the IT walls or even within the IT organization?

Don’t misunderstand my position, I believe all of the work completed during an iterative EA process that outputs the artifacts I mentioned above add value, although if the organization is not “culturally” ready to embrace the work and transform then the effort is for not.

Culture is defined in many ways by many scholars, although I find it easiest to define culture as interactions and relationships between members of an organization or unit within that organization. This assumes there is an organizational culture and sub cultures within that organization. With this said, it is important that we as architects focus on the overarching organizational culture to better understand whether our customers are ready for an EA engagement.

Our first priority is to ensure we are engaged with the highest level of sponsorship within the organization. For instance, developing physical architectures with the platform division does not constitute Enterprise Architecture, but rather a Technical Architecture and will only have an effect on that sub culture within the organization. EAs need to ensure they are seated alongside the CIO, CFO, COO or even the Chief Executive to ensure efforts toward cultural transformation can be enabled via strong sponsorship.

In the public sector this can be a difficult task as most executives are focused on business related practices and often see the CIO and vendors as “IT focused.” It is critical for our communication during initial contact to be business focused. Conversations about technology are not held until key items, like capability modeling, guiding principles and governance structures are embraced by the organization as a result of cultural change. Once these cultural elements are embraced and socialized technology decisions will be easily facilitated with little debate or power struggles. Remember, the “sponsor” understands how important organizational transformation is at this point in the evolution and will help sub groups understand the vision. Communication and vision are critical elements at this point in the journey toward transformation.

Once we have commitment from the sponsor it is critical for the sponsor to understand the partnership needed between the EA Team and Executive Team. The EA Team is not chartered with creating mission, vision, strategy etc. but rather with understanding the Executive Team’s goals and objectives for the organization and aligning the technology investments with these goals and objectives. Every investment decision made is a direct representation of how the organization’s culture is manifesting itself physically.