Doing Enterprise Architecture- EA Key Success Factors

1. Risk Definition

Project risk is

- a combination of probability of an event occurring, and

- the impact that that event may have on the project

Project risk is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or a negative effect on a project objective. A risk has a cause and, if it occurs, a consequence.

Project Risk

Every project involves some degree of risk, however that risk needs to be controlled with analysis, planning and communication.

The PM's job is to anticipate risks and then manage, control and minimize the impact of these risks to the project's objectives, budget and schedule.

Clients and management expect projects to have risks. The reason for planning is to reduce uncertainty.

Risk Assessment

Risk Categorization

 Likelihood x Consequence

Object

-Develop mitigation strategies

-Manage Risk

Key/ Critical Success Factors are risks that need managing

2. Four Dimensions of EA Success

EA Service Quality

Is the EA team capable of providing relevant and timely EA-related advice to IT decision-makers?

EA Content Quality

Does the EA team possess and maintain high-quality content pertaining to the:

-EA vision (well-aligned with the organisation's strategic goals)

-EA current state (accurate and at an appropriate level of detail)

-EA roadmap (optimal path towards the desired state)

-The above are best thought of as the key content domains for EA services (rather than as documents or diagrams)

EA Process Quality

Does the EA function operate effectively and efficiently from an internal perspective?

Utilization of the EA Services.

Are the EA services called upon by IT decision-makers? (High-quality services and content are an essential prerequisite but not a guarantee.)

3. EA Key Success Factors

EA success depends on the EA team as well as the organisational context.

There are a number of factors that affect EA success to a greater or lesser degree.

'Key success Factors'

'factors that need to be especially carefully monitored and managed in order to increase the likelihood of successful' outcomes'

Ten EA Success Factors

Many can be controlled, or at least partially influenced, by the EA team while others are largely outside their control.

Business Focus

-EA recommendations and decisions that take into account the related to organisational benefits and costs.

-Why important?: organizations business focus is vague. They don't know what to do. eg. Australia Post

-What is contingent on?: business decisions about what gonna do, how they compete, and what sort of infrastructure level behind it. What's that infrastructure we provide.

-Some Thoughts 32:15

        -An architecturally 'elegant' solution may carry a price tag which is disproportionate to the business value they provide.(Zachman creates views of an enterprise)

-Carefully architected solutions can also take a lot of time to plan and implement-sometimes time-to-market has to take precedence.(Agile methodology built fight but didn't work very well)

-Architects have to be business-savvy and business-minded to be able to address this KSF. (should focus on business perspective not technical background)

-Likewise, clearly defined business and IT strategy is essential- it is hard to be businee-fouced when the focus of the business is unclear.

Iterative Refinement

-On-going, incremental refinement of the EA plans based on continuous changes in business priorities and available solutions. (TOGAF. We produce change management plan and check it to keep it validating. Waterfall methodology-25% analysis 25% design 40% development and 10% maintenance of application.)

-Why is important? If find problems when doing requirements, it may be 20 times cheaper to fix it than when find problems during final testing or deployment. It is constant looking back making sure baseline clearly align to what we are trying to do so we are not going on consistent...

-What is contingent on?

-Some Thoughts

-Business and enabling IT are constantly changing-EA needs to be able to keep up.

-Iterative refinement helps deliver 'quick wins', while gradually working towards the 'big wins'.

-It helps reduce highly disruptive, and risky step-change.

-With constrained budgets, it may also prove to be the most financially sound way of delivering new platforms (i.e. does not require huge upfront investment)

-It is contingent on a good technology forecasting capability, careful monitoring of business change, and appropriate prioritization of the various iterations (foundational capabilities first.)

On-Going Tailored Communication

-Systematic, on-going dialogue between the EA team and key stakeholders, with the communication approach, information conveyed, and terminology tailored to each stakeholder group

-Some thoughts

-Tailored messages help keep the information relevant and understandable to the stakeholders and decision-makers.

-On-going communication helps create and maintain awareness and understanding of EA and its value, which in turn helps gain buy-in and support for EA initiatives.

-The prerequisites are business, political, and interpersonal skills of architects (need to understand what matters to stakeholders as well as why it matters). A clearly defined communication strategy is also very helpful.

Flexible Design

-EA vision and roadmap based on methods and technologies that simplify the changing of the envisaged operating platform.

-Some thoughts

-allows an organisation to respond more easily to business changes.

-The more flexible the architecture, the less critical it is to anticipate specific changes upfront.

-Depending on the organisational context, SOA (particularly the modularity principle), Agile methodologies, and use of open standards (particularly for integration) can be useful ways of increasing the flexibility of EA. Thinking in terms of 'pace-layers' during EA planning can also be valuable.

Top Management Support 48:26

- The extent to which the organisation's top management is willing and able to (a) contribute their time to EA planning (b) understands and advocates the necessity for EA planning, and (c) commits the funding and resources required to adequately perform on-going EA-related tasks.

-Some thoughts

-Top management sets the business strategies that EA needs to support, is the key target audience for strategic EA deliverables, the key funder of the EA capability as well as enterprise-wide IT initiatives. It gets pretty difficult to deliver value from EA without their support.

-The EA team does not have direct control over this KSF, and probably at least one strong sponsor on the top management team is needed as a prerequisite. Over time, architects can maintain and improve top management support by demonstrating value.

Organisation-Wide Collaboration

-The willingness and ability of key stakeholders on all levels of the organisation to contribute to the EA analysis and to make compromises.

-Why is important?: need buy support business across the business. Similar to top management support. While top management support is essential for setting the strategic direction and securing funding for EA planning, broader support from all organisational levels is required for implementing the plans and strategies.

Sufficient EA Resources

-The skills,size and funding of the EA team in on-going alignment with organizational needs.

-Some thoughts

-A pre-requisite for any organisational endeavor

-To be able to deliver high-quality EA services, it is important to have both (a)capable architects (who do high quality work) and to have (b) enough architects (to make sure they can adequately balance strategic work with project guidance)

-Probably the most essential prerequisite to securing these resources is top management support.

Need-Based Depth

-EA plans defined only at the level of detail that is essential for setting the general direction and for understanding business-critical capabilities/ inter-dependencies.

-issues: understanding a right level of what the business wants.

-Some thoughts

-Important for ensuring timely delivery of EA plans, and for avoiding wasted effort on up-front planning that may become irrelevant

-The value of EA is in setting the boundaries to enable project delivery with the desired level of enterprise-wide consistency, not in excessive predefinition and constraining of these solutions

-A key prerequisite for following this principle is a good understanding of what is 'sufficient depth' (eg. it will be different for business-critical systems/ inter-dependencies and low-impact systems)

IT Governance

-A clear accountability framework, decision-rights, and approach for IT-related decisions (incl. EA decisions) is defined and accepted

-Some Thoughts

-Good IT governance processes help to coordinate and seek appropriate compromises between EA and projects

-It allows an organisation to ensure that project deviations from EA are only allowed for good, carefully considered reasons

-Having a clearly defined decision framework in place also make the process more transparent.

-Establishing and maintaining good IT governance practices depends mostly on top management support

Cultural Fit of the EA Approach

-A fit between the EA approach and organisational culture that develops through mutual adaption.

-Some Thoughts

-EA planning carries with it some inherent characteristics, e.g. a long-term perspective, enterprise-view, and a structured, evidence-based decision making approach.

-The organisational culture and/or IT decision-making culture may not always exhibit the same characteristics.

- In order for EA planning to succeed, an important prerequisite is that the organisation is willing to embed these EA characteristics into its decision-making approach at least to some degree.

-However, it is also important to understand that cultural changes are not an immediate compliance exercise. Possibly the best way for achieving a good fit between organisational culture and EA planning is to treat it as a journey of mutual co-adaptation.

4. Summary

-There are many factors that effect the likelihood of EA success

-Risk can be measured, assessed and managed to mitigate impact.

-There are 10 particularly important factors that impact on the success of EA