Design an Enterprise Architecture Strategy

Demystify enterprise architecture value with key metrics.

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Contributors

Zachary Curry, Director, Enterprise Architecture and Innovation, FMC Technologies
Pam Doucette, Director of Enterprise Architecture, Tufts Health Plan
Joe Evers, Consulting Principal, JcEvers Consulting Corp
Cameron Fairbairn, Contract Architect / Consultant, 8Bit Networks
Michael Fulton, Chief Digital Officer & President, Americas Division at CC&C Solutions
Tom Graves, Principal Consultant, Tetradian Consulting
(JB) Brahmaiah Jarugumilli, Consultant, Federal Aviation Administration – Enterprise Services Center
Huw Morgan, IT Research Executive, Enterprise Architect
Serge Parisien, Manager, Enterprise Architecture, Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation

The enterprise architecture (EA) team is constantly challenged to articulate the value of its function.
The CIO has asked the Enterprise Architecture team to help him understand the value the team brings to his department.
While there may be an IT strategy documented, no EA strategy exists, or at best, some loose collection of ideas form the basis of the EA strategy.
The business focuses on a projects, ignoring holistic value of an overarching architecture.
This “project-only” view results in poor technology investments, resulting in massive technical debt, and most enterprises are not ready to adjust to the Agile practices, further increasing technical debt.
In addition, enterprises struggle with rapidly changing technologies.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

EA can deliver many benefits to an organization. However, in order to increase the likelihood of success, the EA group needs to deliver value to their organization based on the operating environment and the direction of the enterprise.
An EA strategy anchored in a value proposition will ensure that EA focuses on driving the most critical outcomes in support of the organization’s enterprise strategy.

Impact and Result

Create an EA value proposition based on enterprise needs that clearly articulates the expected contributions of the EA function.
Establish the EA fundamentals (vision and mission statement, goals and objectives, and principles) needed to position the EA function to deliver the promised value proposition.
Identify the services that EA has to provide to the organization in order to deliver on the promised value proposition.

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should create an EA strategy to establish a successful EA practice, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

Design an Enterprise Architecture Strategy – Executive Brief

1. Value proposition

Identify EA stakeholders and their needs, identify the pains preventing those needs from being addressed, and articulate a set of promises of value based on stakeholder needs to show EA’s value proposition.

2. EA fundamentals

Create the EA fundamentals based on the previously identified promises of value to guide the future decision of the EA function.

3. EA service design

Identify the EA services your EA function needs to provide the organization to fulfill its promises of value.

Guided Implementations

This guided implementation is a seven call advisory process.

Guided Implementation #1 - Value proposition

Call #1 - Define the business and technology drivers of the organization.

Call #2 - Create an EA value proposition linked to business and technology drivers.

Guided Implementation #2 - EA fundamentals

Call #1 - Realize the importance of EA fundamentals.

Call #2 - Create the EA function scope.

Call #3 - Define the EA principles for the organization.

Guided Implementation #3 - EA service design

Call #1 - Define the relevant EA services to your organization and how they will be consumed.

Call #2 - Finalize the set of services and secure approval for the EA strategy.

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Enterprise Architecture

EA teams need to understand the dynamic relationship between organizational complexity, operational maturity, and stakeholder value. This relationship forms the foundation for building value-driven roadmaps anchored in stakeholder needs..
This course makes up part of the Service Planning & Architecture Certificate.

Course information:

Title: Enterprise Architecture
Number of Course Modules: 4
Estimated Time to Complete: 1 hour
Featured Analysts:
Gord Harrison, SVP Research & Advisory
Arif Mustafa, Research Director, Enterprise Architecture
Now Playing: Executive Brief

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: Identify Stakeholders and Their Needs

The Purpose

Identify the EA stakeholders and their needs.

Key Benefits Achieved

An understanding of the stakeholders and their needs, which will be used to frame the EA value proposition.

Activities

Outputs

1.1

Identify and prioritize EA stakeholders.

Stakeholder Power Map

1.2

Review strategic documents to understand organizational plans.

1.3

Conduct PESTLE analysis to identify business and technology trends.

PESTLE Analysis

1.4

Interview stakeholders to identify business and technology needs.

List of business and technology needs

Module 2: Create the EA Value Proposition

The Purpose

Create a value proposition to communicate the value of EA by linking together EA’s contributions, stakeholder needs, and generated value.

Key Benefits Achieved

Create a direct link between stakeholder needs and ways EA can help stakeholders address those needs.

Activities

Outputs

2.1

Create business and technology drivers.

List of business and technology drivers

2.2

Identify pains that obstruct stakeholders from addressing drivers.

List of pains associated with business and technology drivers

2.3

Brainstorm EA contributions to alleviate pains.

Set of EA contributions to alleviate the pains

2.4

Define promises of value to articulate the EA value proposition.

Promises of value to articulate the EA value proposition

Module 3: Define the EA Fundamentals

The Purpose

Create the EA fundamentals to guide the strategic direction of the EA function.

Key Benefits Achieved

EA fundamentals are created to assist the EA function in making future decisions.

Activities

Outputs

3.1

Create the EA vision and mission statement.

EA vision statement
EA mission statement

3.2

Define the EA goals and objectives.

EA goals and objectives

3.3

Determine EA scope.

EA scope

3.4

Create a set of EA principles.

List of EA principles

Module 4: Identify EA Services and Communicate the EA Strategy

The Purpose

Define the EA services relevant to your organization.
Present the EA strategy outputs to stakeholders to secure EA strategy approval.

Key Benefits Achieved

Define the services EA will provide to the organization and how they will be delivered.
Secure EA strategy approval.

Activities

Outputs

4.1

Define the services the EA function will provide.

Defined list of EA services that the EA function is committed to providing

4.2

Plan next steps for the EA function.

4.3

Present workshop recommendations to EA stakeholders.

Executive presentation to EA stakeholders

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

Surgical Care Affiliates

Guided Implementation

8/10

$2,386

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Guided Implementation

8/10

$10,000

Alcoa Corporation

Workshop

10/10

$94,215

Reddy was a fabulous facilitator and got the entire team very engaged in the discussions. Feedback from the team was that this was one of the best workshops they had participated in.

Alberta Blue Cross

Guided Implementation

10/10

$2,000

Milena feels like she is just part of my team.

State of Wyoming

Workshop

9/10

$10,000

We really valued the team collaboration and the recommendations on how to move forward with the detailed templates to assist. We also enjoy the continued team approach that infotech always provides. The things we would recommend doing better would be...

Omya (Schweiz) AG

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

just the start of the engagement

Dar Al Handasah Consultants Shair & Partners Holdings Ltd.

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

Spark Therapeutics, Inc.

Guided Implementation

10/10

$62,810

Social Security Administration

Guided Implementation

10/10

$2,512

Baylor College of Medicine

Guided Implementation

8/10

$14,446

Good approaches to securing EA program support. Great connecting SAFe to EA. No bad experiences.

Cascades, Centre des Technologies

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

Getting a good start with our architect team! Milena is very helpful and knowledgeable.

State of North Dakota

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

Agriculture Financial Services Corporation

Guided Implementation

8/10

$55,000

With each conversation with Milena we are all getting more familiar with each other and the outcomes that we are expecting. I appreciate her practical approach and pushing us to have specifics not just high level statements. Dec 8 discussion was about ...

Mueller, Inc.

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A

The best part of this experience was Adib tailoring the Info-Tech EA practices into activities that are a best-fit for our current state of EA at Mueller. The worst part, which really isn't bad but is as close as I could get, was the struggle in distill...

Baylor College of Medicine

Guided Implementation

8/10

$62,810

The Master's University

Guided Implementation

10/10

$100K

The best parts were having Adib validate my vision and plans for this new effort and the valuable insights he was able to give me that already puts me in a better position for success. I got a lot of value, ideas, and better roadmap out of our conversati...

State of North Dakota

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

MCS Healthcare Holdings LLC

Workshop

10/10

$20,099

The worst part was having to conduct the workshop in virtual mode with Teams due to Covid-19. The best part was that even though it was virtual we all felt very much engaged, the participants contributed to the discussions and exercises, and of course t...

Multnomah County

Workshop

10/10

N/A

The workshop was very valuable and done very well. Both Jean and Paul were very knowledgeable and the whole group agreed that it was a great experience. We did not expect an online workshop to go this well! The discussions via chat were surprisingly effe...

The Government of the Northwest Territories

Guided Implementation

8/10

$20,500

The EA advisor was very good about tailoring the approach to my organizations unique circumstances.

National Christian Foundation

Guided Implementation

8/10

$10,000

I appreciated the process of information exchange and was pleased to see the final product. It likely would have been helpful to have a brief overview of the process so as to easily orient progress and next steps. All in all, it was a very positive exper...

Socan

Workshop

9/10

$25,000

The best parts was to get a wide array of feedback/comments from all our business partners. Unfortunately having the sessions online instead of in person I think we did not get the full experience or full participation as it is easier to engage particip...

Enterprise Service Center- FAA

Workshop

10/10

$63,880

I enjoyed the “Teams” meeting process. In some ways, it is better than in person as people can stay more focused.

Sharonview Federal Credit Union

Workshop

10/10

$6,388

Best parts, business stakeholder interviews, incorporating whole EA team in workshop. Reddy was very effective in keeping the team focused and engaged...something hard to do via a remote workshop sometimes. Worst part, 4 - 7 hour days of workshop is in...

Donaldson Company, Inc.

Guided Implementation

7/10

$11,468

Carnival UK

Guided Implementation

7/10

$3,463

Best part was that it corroborated my own thinking. No worst part.

Gwinnett County

Guided Implementation

9/10