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As Enterprise Architecture (EA) function grows increasingly important, organizations n

eed to understand that delivering highly coordinated and efficiently designed architectur
e structures, standards, and policies is essential to ensure success. The group has to ensu
re that the following best functions are understood and acted upon by enterprise stakeho
lders. In doing so, EA function will provide opportunities for greater success.
As Enterprise Architecture (EA) function grows increasingly important, organizations n
eed to understand that delivering highly coordinated and efficiently designed architectur
e structures, standards, and policies is essential to ensure success. The group has to ensu
re that the following best functions are understood and acted upon by enterprise stakeho
lders. In doing so, EA function will provide opportunities for greater success.

Valid EA needs to be linked to and support the business. The capability of the architectu
re needs to reflect the required business capability. Too often, architecture is built by tec
hnologists for technologists, and does not necessarily reflect what is required by the bus
iness. The result may reflect an over-investment in IT, hoping to support any potential b
usiness decision, or a solution that is not correctly focused and inhibits business progres
s. EA must be driven by the business if it is going to support the business.

The key architecture drivers define what EA must achieve in order to be successful and
support the business. These drivers convey the business needs and priorities to the IT co
mmunity and relate the value of the architecture to the business. They are typically broa
d, high-level statements of business objectives, which can be met through the implemen
tation of EA and its associated management processes. Each driver is stated in a simple,
precise manner that is direct and easy for all to understand and remember, accompanied
by a paragraph or two of details. Assumptions are made for areas where the general obje
ctive, requirement, and/or driver is known but cannot be clearly articulated. Making ass
umptions allows the work to continue, until these assumptions can be reviewed and reso
lved.

The key architecture drivers will be based on the required business and IT capabilities.
The focus should not be used to build or define these capabilities, but to use them as inp
ut. A starter set of capability statements will include:

Competitive business advantage capabilities
Adaptation to the technology marketplace
Business strategy and drivers
IT capabilities and future IT vision

Below is a sample set of questions, by no means complete, that may help to understand
potential business and IT requirements:

Is there evidence that the business may enter new global markets? How will this change
the IT architecture requirements?
Will there be natural growth or the acquisition/merger of other businesses and their IT s
ystems?
What is the expected growth of the business? How will this affect the IT systems?
What are the significant business requirements? (e.g. CRM, SCM, etc.)
What is the IT value that the customer will see directly from the systems and services?
What key characteristics of the IT systems are important to the customers? (Accuracy, r
esponse times, resilience, availability etc.)
In what ways can IT provide the business with a competitive edge?
What are the most important features that IT systems should incorporate to enable staff t
o improve productivity and effectiveness? (e.g., single sign-on, mobility, email-enabled
applications)
Are there any aspects of current IT services and support that constrain business growth?
(service levels, availability, planning processes, time to market for new systems)
What are the implications of all existing (and potential) risk and regulatory requirements
for IT architecture? What should be considered?
How do we get a full picture of customer activities?
What are the ground rules for exceptions/exclusions from the IT architecture that could
benefit the sharing of common processes, resources, and information?
What are ITs principal strengths in terms of the way in which it currently supports busi
ness needs?
What are the key areas of improvement for IT to support the needs of the business?

To help answer the questions listed above, the following is a sample of the key architect
ure drivers that can be used to guide EA function within an organization:

The architecture must support enhanced business flexibility and growth Adherence to
a well-defined architectural model, with documented variances where required, will allo
w for the timelier, thorough, and accurate assessment of the impact of a change. This wi
ll lead to the ability to re-deploy IT assets more quickly to accommodate changes in bus
iness direction or to support rapid business growth.

The architecture should enable more rapid and consistent technology decisions An agr
eed set of technology principles and evaluation criteria should reduce the subjectivity of
many technical decisions, reduce the time required for each decision, and improve the q
uality and consistency of such decisions. More consistent technology decisions and func
tions will lead to the better leveraging of investments in technology and the achievemen
t of a higher level of interoperability among independent systems.

The architecture must enable enhanced problem and change management functions Th
e ability to carry out more accurate and timely assessments of change should also provid
e for fewer unanticipated problems and provide a more stable environment and higher s
ervice levels in the face of continuous change and growth.

The architecture must provide enhanced connectivity among systems and between both
internal and external organizations Through the definition and use of standard interfac
es specified in the architecture, connectivity between systems and organizations should
become significantly more achievable. As new connectivity requirements or new comm
unication technologies arise, the architecture will allow for the faster and more accurate
assessment of feasibility and desirability.

The architecture must provide more cost-effective IT deployment With the increased c
omplexity and interrelationship of components in distributed IT solutions, the number o
f components from which solutions are created must be maintained at a manageable lev
el. Selecting a set of common components to meet common requirements will reduce im
plementation and ongoing support costs, decrease the time to implement common soluti
ons, and improve the overall effectiveness of IT deployment. The adoption of common t
echnology evaluation criteria will also contribute to more consistent and cost-effective t
echnology decisions.

The architecture must enable the leveraging of IT assets across development efforts E
nabling the architecture involves defining common modules of functionality with comm
on, well-defined solutions so that new development efforts will be able to leverage this
modularity and reuse more existing functionality than has been possible in the past. Als
o, adherence to the IT architecture in developing systems and making platform decision
s should lead to more homogeneous environments and make the widespread sharing of a
pplication systems, data, management processes and resources more achievable.

To achieve the aforementioned objectives, the organization, function, and architects hav
e to follow certain mandates to deliver the architecture.

The organization has to:

Appoint and empower corporate IT and business managers who understand, support, an
d enforce the architecture.
Adopt an EA investment portfolio approach with supporting processes to ensure ongoin
g unified architecture management.
Develop a culture where intellectual capital reuse is a standard to support the evolution
of the architecture at the tactical and enterprise level.
Ensure future EA updates have direct business area involvement and the updated proces
s is not adversely influenced by major shifts in IT service delivery and strategy within th
e organization.
Determine an appropriate architectural framework (Zachman, The Open Group Architec
ture Framework [TOGAF], etc.) to guide the organizations development of the EA.

EA function has to:

Publish the EA and make it available across the organization.
Develop a communications plan to insure business and Information Services (IS) stakeh
olders adopt the defined architecture standards, guidelines, and policies.
Establish effective communication to the business areas to ensure that there is a broad u
nderstanding of EA benefits and requirements outside of IS.
Assign appropriate architecture components to architecture owners with the objective of
ensuring that EA is regularly updated and in compliance with adopted standards.
Implement appropriate metrics to regularly track and assess the success of the architectu
re.
Integrate the architecture governance processes with project management office process
es and procedures to ensure the appropriate checkpoints of the architecture are adhered t
o and formalized.
Implement a Technology Management Function so that new and emerging technology c
an be incorporated into the architecture and effectively utilized to enhance business oper
ations and reduce costs.
Integrate EA into all aspects of the IS organization so that the advantages of a comprehe
nsive architecture can be maximized.
Plan the implementation of an EA tool to facilitate updating, modelling, and publishing
the EA.
Plan for the use of an EA tool integrated with Project Management support capability so
that solution architects can have automated access to EA standards and processes, plann
ers can have online access to EA impact analyses, and projects can automatically update
the EA information about current implementation and transition gaps.

Enterprise Architects have to:

Receive senior management commitment and support for the perpetual management of t
he EA.
Elevate the importance of improving the organizations business process maturity to sup
port the EA and its enabling projects.
Actively participate in standards organizations that address issues of concern to the busi
ness to ensure that new industry standards can be utilized without serious problems.
Actively participate in professional organizations that address EA as part of their scope t
o obtain information on new developments that will arise.
Produce a set of design drawings, and possibly models, to aid in visualizing the final des
ign.

The architecture must be capable of being maintained, communicated, and enforced acr
oss the enterprise. By formalizing the development and communication of the IT Strateg
y, Architectural Principles, and Standards to the business units, the EA will become an i
ntegral part of the IT management process. It will define an architectural model of the I
T infrastructure that will improve our understanding of installed and planned systems an
d how they interact with each other in the support of users. By providing a repository fo
r architectural information, this document should improve the common understanding of
many IT issues among the various decision-making entities, and improve the buy-in of
the many groups involved in each IT investment decision.

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