Create a Right-Sized Enterprise Architecture Governance Framework

Focus on process standardization, repeatability, and sustainability.

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Contributors

Alan Mitchell, Senior Manager Global Cities Centre of Excellence, KPMG Canada
Ian Gilmour, Associate Partner, EA Advisory Services, KPMG Canada
Djamel Djemaoun Hamidson, Senior Enterprise Architect, CBC/Radio-Canada
Sterling Bjorndahl, Director of Operations, eHealth Saskatchewan
Huw Morgan, IT Research Executive, Enterprise Architect
Serge Parisien, Manager Enterprise Architecture, Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation
Alex Coleman, Chief Information Officer, Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board
L.C. (Skip) Lumley, post-career, formerly Senior Principle at KPMG Canada
Tim Gangwish, Enterprise Architect, Elavon
Darryl Garmon, Senior Vice President, Elavon
Steve Ranaghan, EMEIA business engagement, Fujitsu

EA governance is perceived as an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy because business benefits are poorly communicated.
The organization doesn’t have a formalized EA practice.
Where an EA practice exists, employees are unsure of EA’s roles and responsibilities.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Enterprise architecture is not a technical function – it should be business-value driven and forward looking, positioning organizational assets in favor of long-term strategy rather than short-term tactics.

Impact and Result

Value-focused. Focus EA governance on helping the organization achieve business benefits. Promote EA’s contribution in realizing business value.
Right-sized. Re-use existing process checkpoints rather than creating new ones. Clearly define EA governance inclusion criteria for projects.
Defined and measured process. Define metrics to measure EA’s performance and integrate EA governance with other governance processes such as project governance. Also clearly define the EA governing bodies’ composition, domain, inputs, and outputs.
Strike the right balance. Adopt architecture principles that strikes the right balance between business and technology.

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our Executive Brief to find out how implementing a successful enterprise architecture governance framework can benefit your organization.

Create a Right-Sized Enterprise Architecture Governance Framework – Executive Brief

1. Current State of EA Governance

Identify the organization’s standing in terms of the enterprise architecture practice, and know the gaps and what the EA practice needs to fulfill to create a good governance framework.

2. EA Fundamentals

Understand the EA fundamentals and then refresh them to better align the EA practice with the organization and create business benefit.

3. Engagement Model

Analyze the IT operating model and identify EA’s role at each stage; refine it to promote effective EA engagement upfront in the early stages of the IT operating model.

4. EA Governing Bodies

Set up EA governing bodies to provide guidance and foster a collaborative environment by identifying the correct number of EA governing bodies, defining the game plan to initialize the governing bodies, and creating an architecture review process.

5. EA Policy

Create an EA policy to provide a set of guidelines designed to direct and constrain the architecture actions of the organization in the pursuit of its goals in order to improve architecture compliance and drive business value.

6. Architectural Standards

Define architecture standards to facilitate information exchange, improve collaboration, and provide stability. Develop a process to update the architectural standards to ensure relevancy and promote process transparency.

7. Communication Plan

Craft a plan to engage the relevant stakeholders, ascertain the benefits of the initiative, and identify the various communication methods in order to maximize the chances of success.

Guided Implementations

This guided implementation is a seven call advisory process.

Call #1 - Current state of EA governance

Assess current state of EA governance.

Call #2 - EA Fundamentals

Develop and review the EA fundamentals.

Call #3 - Engagement Model

Review the current IT operating model, and determine the target engagement model.

Call #4 - EA Governing Bodies

Identify architecture boards and develop charters; develop an architecture review process.

Call #5 - EA Policy

Develop EA policy, assessment checklists, and decision types; create compliance waivers.

Call #6 - Architectural Standards

Understand architectural standards; develop EA repository and update standards.

Call #7 - Communication Plan

Create a communication plan, and review the communication plan.

Book Your Workshop

Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

Module 1: Current State of EA governance (Pre-workshop)

The Purpose

Conduct stakeholder interviews to understand current state of EA practice and prioritize gaps for EA governance based on organizational complexity.

Key Benefits Achieved

Prioritized list of actions to arrive at the target state based on the complexity of the organization

Activities

Outputs

1.1

Determine organizational complexity.

Organizational complexity score

1.2

Conduct an assessment of the EA governance components.

EA governance current state and prioritized list of EA governance component gaps

1.3

Identify and prioritize gaps.

1.4

Conduct senior management interviews.

Stakeholder perception of the EA practice

Module 2: EA Fundamentals and Engagement Model

The Purpose

Refine EA fundamentals to align the EA practice with the organization and identify EA touchpoints to provide guidance for projects.

Key Benefits Achieved

Alignment of EA goals and objectives with the goals and objectives of the organization
Early involvement of EA in the IT operating model

Activities

Outputs

2.1

Review the output of the organizational complexity and EA assessment tools.

2.2

Craft the EA vision and mission.

EA vision and mission statement

2.3

Develop the EA principles.

EA principles

2.4

Identify the EA goals.

EA goals and measures

2.5

Identify EA engagement touchpoints within the IT operating model.

Identified EA engagement touchpoints and EA level of involvement

Module 3: EA Governing Bodies

The Purpose

Set up EA governing bodies to provide guidance and foster a collaborative environment by identifying the correct number of EA governing bodies, defining the game plan to initialize the governing bodies and creating an architecture review process.

Key Benefits Achieved

Business benefits are maximized and solution design is within the options set forth by the architectural reference models while no additional layers of bureaucracy are introduced

Activities

Outputs

3.1

Identify the number of governing bodies.

Architecture board structure and coverage

3.2

Define the game plan to initialize the governing bodies.

3.3

Define the architecture review process.

Identified architecture review template

Module 4: EA Policy

The Purpose

Create an EA policy to provide a set of guidelines designed to direct and constrain the architecture actions of the organization in the pursuit of its goals in order to improve architecture compliance and drive business value.

Key Benefits Achieved

Improved architecture compliance, which ties investments to business value and provides guidance to architecture practitioners

Activities

Outputs

4.1

Define the scope.

Defined scope

4.2

Identify the target audience.

4.3

Determine the inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria for project review

4.4

Craft an assessment checklist.

Architecture assessment checklist

Module 5: Architectural Standards and Communication Plan

The Purpose

Define architecture standards to facilitate information exchange, improve collaboration, and provide stability.
Craft a communication plan to implement the new EA governance framework in order to maximize the chances of success.

Key Benefits Achieved

Consistent development of architecture, increased information exchange between stakeholders
Improved process transparency
Improved stakeholder engagement

Activities

Outputs

5.1

Identify and standardize EA work products.

Identified set of EA work products to standardize

5.2

Classifying the architectural standards.

Architecture information taxonomy

5.3

Identifying the custodian of standards.

Identified set of custodian of standards

5.4

Update the standards.

Standard update process

5.5

List the changes identified in the EA governance initiative

List of EA governance initiatives

5.6

Create a communication plan.

Communication plan for EA governance initiatives

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this Blueprint, and what our clients have to say.

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Testimonial

Delta Dental Washington

Guided Implementation

10/10

$12,733

N/A

I appreciated hearing about experiences implementing TOGAF and the recommendation to look elsewhere.

RMB, a division of FirstRand Bank Ltd

Guided Implementation

9/10

$63,667

The tools and engaging with the InfoTech expertise has helped to fast track some of our processes and inputs that we required on building the business case for EA capability. Normally we would have brought in some consultant for a couple of months to come and do the evaluations at a time and material cost to our company. We got this information as part of our InfoTech subscription.

Toronto Community Housing Corporation

Guided Implementation

8/10

$25,000

Best: The rich collection of relevant EA and ARB materials. Understanding the importance of the awareness and communication elements for implementing Enterprise Architecture. Worst: EA remains a tough sell within our organization. Not very easy to find a cookie cutter version for small and IT averse organization.

Sedgwick Cms

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

The worst part of the experience is my own lack of time to spend with Arif. He is consistently helpful in providing specific direction and in confirming our assumptions. His knowledge is practical and not full of buzzwords and frivolous information.

Wilfrid Laurier University

Guided Implementation

8/10

$25,000

I have had a successful and productive engagement with my InfoTech consultant. We, both, come to the calls prepared and ready to discuss issues and proceed with next steps. He has a very professional approach and attitude about our work and he has always provided me with the right material to help with the progress of my work.

MARTA

Guided Implementation

9/10

$12,733

Analyst Arif is very knowledgeable and he was able spend time to understand the requirements and come up with multiple options for addressing the issue.

Chickasaw Nation Department of Commerce

Guided Implementation

10/10

$254K

120

Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

The phone calls are always valuable, and give me food for thought. Michael is prepared for each conversation and his guidance makes sense

State of Wisconsin Investment Board

Guided Implementation

10/10

$5,093

Oregon State Lottery

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A

INPO

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

This was only the start, but I expect the follow-up to be even better once I've gone through the material. Governance is a large gap for my company yet it is difficult to improve without some guidance.

The Government of the Northwest Territories

Guided Implementation

6/10

N/A

Not exactly what I expected, but Gopi is very knowledgeable and was able to help us get our heads around some concepts we didn't expect to talk about wrt this project/program. Lots of application. Still lots of questions but the session was worthwhile, and we appreciate Gopi being so flexible in changing the Analyst Call to late in his workday. he also suggested follow up activities that we'll consider once we do a bit more internal work. Thanks!

Wilfrid Laurier University

Guided Implementation

10/10

$15,000

Please note that the dollar value assigned to the previous question is just a guess. I can't think of a down-side to the experience at all. I wouldn't have been able to accomplish the outcome without the guidance of the consultant from Info-Tech.

Wilfrid Laurier University

Guided Implementation

6/10

$10,000

There were no negative aspects to the Guided Implementation technique. If the person responsible from the institution receiving the guidance sets parameters and deadlines and makes sure that he/she is prepared for the conversations (in other words has done the homework) this technique can be very effective. It is essential for the organisation to be clear on the objectives of the engagement, to have a list of desired deliverables, and to have a timeline in mind for completing the engagement so that resources can be dedicated to doing the required work.

Organic Valley

Guided Implementation

6/10

$6,366

Solid benefits and resources to ensure a positive project outcome. Only wish I'd had this information a few years ago!

Tufts Health Plan

Workshop

6/10

N/A

Best aspects: Achieved clarity and consistency in criteria for governance, confirmed need for business architecture, solidified requirements for infrastructure architect, opened communication channels with some of our stakehoulders Worst aspect: Alex left and knowledge transfer was not smooth. The new resources did not have the documentation I had sent them so we lost time educating them on what they already should have known, the agenda was set up carefully to hit milestones and regroup with various audiences but the facilitators didn't seem in tune with that, the intro was rocky - I was unclear unclear and uncomfortable about how we were going to pull this off through day 2. However we did get what we needed at the end of the engagement.