Enterprise Architecture in 2020 and Beyond

Licensed for individual use only
Enterprise Architecture In 2020 And Beyond

Vision: The EA Practice Playbook
by Gordon Barnett
September 19, 2019
Why Read This Report Key Takeaways

Enterprise architecture (EA) offers tremendous Outcomes Will Be EA’s Value Proposition
value as firms address digital transformation and Given the dynamics of technology, markets, and
how to become customer-led, insights-driven, customer preferences today, there is a greater need
fast, and connected. To see how the practice for EA. We find that leading EAs focus on delivering
of EA will evolve over the next few years, one value, not on creating architecture repositories.
must look at leading practices today, such as
Leading EAs Focus On Stakeholders
the winners of the Forrester/InfoWorld Enterprise
Leading EAs work differently and engage across
Architecture Awards. The key theme? EA’s value
the organization to address prioritized stakeholder
proposition shifts from “doing architecture” to
needs through defined EA services.
“delivering value.”
The Best EAs Drive Business Agility
This is an update of a previously published report;
Leading EAs shift their focus from technology
Forrester reviews and revises it periodically for
solutions to addressing barriers to business
continued relevance and accuracy, most recently
agility, introducing trusted governance and new
to reflect our current thinking on future methods
architecture approaches.
for engaging with business stakeholders.
This PDF is only licensed for individual use when downloaded from forrester.com or reprints.forrester.com. All other distribution prohibited.
forrester.com
For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

by Gordon Barnett
with Gene Leganza, Audrey Hecht, and Ian McPherson
September 19, 2019
Table Of Contents Related Research Documents

2 The Future Of EA Is An Internal Ecosystem Defining The EA Service Catalog
Focused On Outcomes
Get Strategic With A Dynamic EA Road Map
3 Insights And Outcomes Are The Trending
The State Of EA 2019: The Evolution Of The EA
Value Proposition For EA
Ecosystems
Effective EAs Empower Decision Making
Greater Value Depends On Changing Focus,

Methodology, And Measurement
Share reports with colleagues.
Enhance your membership with
Recommendations
Research Share.
6 Use Tactical And Strategic Opportunities To
Become A Trusted Advisor
Forrester Research, Inc., 60 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, MA 02140 USA

+1 617-613-6000 | Fax: +1 617-613-5000 | forrester.com
© 2019 Forrester Research, Inc. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester®,
Technographics®, Forrester Wave, TechRadar, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research,
Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. Unauthorized copying or distributing
is a violation of copyright law. Citations@forrester.com or +1 866-367-7378
For Enterprise Architecture Professionals September 19, 2019
The Future Of EA Is An Internal Ecosystem Focused On Outcomes

EA has seen an enormous transformation over the last two decades. Using insights from Forrester’s
annual EA awards, hundreds of client inquiries, and the scope of many advisories, we believe EA
professionals are heading toward the third wave of EA (see Figure 1). The evolution of EA from first
wave through the third wave has seen changes in resource needs, EA’s focus, and the lens through
which EAs view the organization:
›› The first wave and the rise of technology architecture. Many firms had recognized that their
technology footprint had a significant impact on their operational expenditure (opex) and the
firm’s overall performance. CIOs acknowledged that in many cases the technology footprint was
costly, complex and in many cases a barrier to agility. Firms initiated EA practices to focus on the
technology assets to address these challenges. Technology architects were employed to address
technology costs and efficiencies. EA professionals viewed the firm’s architecture as a portfolio
of technology assets. This was widely known as bottom-up architecture. EAs provided CIOs with
immense value in managing technology assets; however, there was a perceived lack of business
value. Today, we would estimate that 60% of Forrester clients are still operating in the first wave.
›› The second wave and the introduction of business capabilities. As EA professional

competencies matured, there was a recognition that business-driven architecture would deliver
better value to the business. EA professionals recognized that if assets — such as human capital
assets, data assets, technology assets and so on — were configured and optimized, then firms
would be capable of executing their mission. This led to the concept of business-capability-
based architecture and planning. EA leaders recruited data, process, and business architects. EA
professionals viewed the firm’s architecture as a portfolio of business capabilities. This was largely
known as top-down architecture. The end result? Though EAs provided value, business capabilities
did not ultimately deliver business outcomes; a new approach was needed. Today, we estimate
that 30% to 38% of Forrester clients are operating in the second wave.
›› The third wave and the focus on insights and outcomes. The quest for customer obsession
and digital transformation has led EA professionals to rethink their role and approaches to EA
within their firm. It wasn’t long before EA thought leaders recognized that customer journeys, value
streams, and lifecycles were enabled through a configuration of business capabilities. This led to
the concept of architectural products. EAs recruited platform, experience, digital, and organization
architects as well as product managers to drive the change to outcome-based architecture. EA
leaders started to view the architecture of the firm as a portfolio of architectural products. This
has enabled EA to move beyond functional architectures to adaptive architectures that address
business agility needs and the delivery of customer value. We estimate approximately 2% to 3% of
Forrester clients have matured into the third wave.
© 2019 Forrester Research, Inc. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law. 2
Citations@forrester.com or +1 866-367-7378
FIGURE 1 Traditional EA Drivers Retain The Top Spots, But Impact On Business Strategy Moves Up In Priorities
Technology architects Business, process, Experience,

Resources data architects organization, digital,
platform architects
Focus Cost, efficiencies Investments Outcomes, value
Architectural lens
Portfolio of technology Portfolio of business Portfolio of

assets capabilities architectural products
Maturity
Insights And Outcomes Are The Trending Value Proposition For EA

The future for leading outcome-based EA, such as the winners and runner-up entries of the Forrester/
InfoWorld EA Awards, will be different.1 Why? Because they will realize that architecture has no value
unless it’s embedded in an organization’s decision-making processes. Leading EAs are focused on
providing insights at the point they are needed to influence strategic direction and decisions. The
“architecture” they build is less important than the impact they make. While many EAs are mired in
battles over governance processes and technology standards and struggle to attain a more strategic
role, leading EAs have found ways of inserting themselves into transformation and innovation processes.
They have set the stage for a permanent move from an exclusively tactical focus to a strategic one.
Effective EAs Empower Decision Making
The common thread among leading EAs is an orientation toward trusted governance and the
empowering of decisions to non-EAs — from project leads, delivery teams, and business execs to the
CIO. EAs become trusted advisors across the organization, not by providing architecture models and
specifications, but by providing business-relevant and decision-relevant insights at the moment of
need. Common characteristics of these leading teams are that they:
›› Work differently and engage more broadly. EA leaders expect to increase collaboration with
business strategy, customer experience, and business insight/analytics functions within their
organization.2 But our conversations with architects reveal they are challenged to be more than
merely project shapers. Leading-edge practices, like MassMutual’s, embed architects in blended
business and technology teams and focus on providing information that’s useful to the decision
makers on these teams.3
What it means: Federated architecture teams will be more prevalent, but they will evolve to embed
architects into blended business/technology teams as opposed to just solution architects in project
delivery groups. These embedded architects will emphasize advisor skills, such as listening and
elucidation techniques, over architecture skills.
›› Play more influential roles in architectural products. It is unusual for business executives to
assume ownership of a customer journey, value stream, or lifecycle end-to-end. Therefore, EAs
have an opportunity to become champions, custodians, or owners of each architectural product.
Acting as a product manager, EAs can create ecosystems to enable each architectural product to
be strategized, and then the EAs can architect for the product and create architectural runways to
be fed to Agile or waterfall delivery teams.
What it means: As EAs become more involved in influencing strategy and translating that strategy
into a road map and change portfolio, they will become more pragmatic — rather than adhering
to an ideal target state and codified road map, they will continuously adjust to make incremental
improvements.
›› Organize around the business and deliver through services. EAs have long organized and
staffed around architecture domains, such as data or application domains with data and application
architects. Few EAs use the concept of EA services to clarify what value they provide. But more
EAs are making “business” the primary dimension for their operating model, and leading EAs align
architects to core value streams, lifecycles, and customer journeys. This raises the importance of
being clear about what EA brings to the table — which an EA service portfolio can address.
What it means: EAs will move away from the concept of architecture domains as a key aspect of
their operating model, and they will embrace architectural products as the primary dimension of their
operating model. At the same time, more EA leaders will adopt a service-model approach to their
business engagement — shielding their customers from the complexity of architecture methods.
Greater Value Depends On Changing Focus, Methodology, And Measurement
As leading EAs seek to engage more directly and broadly with their business decision makers, they will
find barriers in the form of old attitudes about the purpose of EA and old tenets on how architecture
should be done. To push their teams toward a more strategic approach, EA leaders must adopt new ways
of working, focusing on their goals, methods, and how they measure their accomplishments. They will:
›› Shift their focus from technology solutions to platforms. EAs have historically focused on the
architecture of common-denominator solutions, such as a common application hosting or workflow
solution. While this will always remain valuable, leading EAs are strengthening their strategic
solution focus — with many being solution-first/platform-second rather than focusing only on the
solution. Why? This gives a broader range of stakeholders more reason to engage with them, and it
helps them “shift left” in the strategy-to-execution process.
What it means: The enterprise and solution architect (SA) roles will separate; EAs into planning
and SAs into delivery teams. However, SAs will have a more equal relationship with EA, rather than
being downstream of EA. Today’s SAs will see the need to add business-domain knowledge skills
to enable a more strategic focus.
›› Use just enough methodology, with focus. While an enormous amount of background research
and analysis is necessary for EA, leading EAs don’t become slaves to methodology when it
impedes their ability to provide what their customers need, when and where they need it. Aetna’s
EAs focus on information flow and risk mitigation in its deep involvement with the company’s
business transformation.4 A leading European technology firm started by categorizing the types of
decisions its stakeholders must make and then designed time-boxed methods to provide answers
with the level of rigor these stakeholders needed to make those decisions.
What it means: EAs will craft their own lightweight, fit-for-purpose architecture approaches,
focusing on design skills rather than methodologies. This will make staffing more challenging for
EA leaders, as methodology knowledge and certifications will no longer be useful indicators when
expanding their teams.
›› Track value-based metrics, not activities. EAs must show impact and value if they are to earn
a seat at the table and become trusted sources of insight. A key aspect is to show the value of
their recommendations. But almost half of EAs don’t track any metrics for their work, and only 5%
translate their impact into financial terms.5 Leading EA practices, such as the one at a US-based
insurance and annuity firm, have well-designed and vetted methods to put a value on their work, so
they can say, “The business impact of our recommendation is x dollars.”
What it means: We expect more EAs to develop metrics that make more direct connections
between their efforts and business and technology organization metrics. As more technology
organizations adopt a Balanced Scorecard approach, EAs will find that the Balanced Scorecard
perspectives of health, service, outcome, and agility provide an excellent framework for EA metrics.
Recommendations
Use Tactical And Strategic Opportunities To Become A Trusted Advisor

One of the most common complaints that Forrester hears from enterprise architects is that business
leaders do not view them as strategic resources. This step is key to attaining the vision for EA that our
EA award winners illustrate. Accomplish this by doing the following:
›› Get joined at the hip to strategic initiatives. Whether a company is rationalizing a merger or
acquisition, engaging in a digital transformation, or becoming an insights-driven business, it’s
crucial that business leaders notice EA’s critical role in moving these initiatives forward. If such
strategic initiatives are occurring in your enterprise and EA is not involved, your future will be one of
continued marginalization.
›› Become a trusted advisor for a broad range of issues. Your team’s greatest advantage is not
being known as the tech wizards who understand microservice architectures, data lakes, or other
specific technologies. Rather, you’ll be on track to attain a strategic role for EA if business execs
see you as broad problem-solvers — tech savvy, yes, but people who understand the business
problems that need to be solved and how technology can solve these seemingly intractable issues.
›› Focus on outcomes. It may sound contradictory to look to customer solutions and outcomes
when striving to be perceived as a strategic advisor. But there’s a difference between being seen as
a tech advisor who helps move projects along and being seen as a solutions provider. The former is
a skilled, knowledgeable techie who helps developers, and the latter is a partner who understands
how to accomplish the milestones in the business road map with the solutions that move the
business forward. Tell your CIO or other strategic tech partners how these solutions also happen to
fit into your platform strategy to drive you toward a strategic enterprise architecture.
Engage With An Analyst

Gain greater confidence in your decisions by working with Forrester thought leaders to apply
our research to your specific business and technology initiatives.
Analyst Inquiry Analyst Advisory Webinar
To help you put research Translate research into Join our online sessions
into practice, connect action by working with on the latest research
with an analyst to discuss an analyst on a specific affecting your business.
your questions in a engagement in the form Each call includes analyst
30-minute phone session of custom strategy Q&A and slides and is
— or opt for a response sessions, workshops, available on-demand.
via email. or speeches.
Learn more.
Learn more. Learn more.
Forrester’s research apps for iOS and Android.

Stay ahead of your competition no matter where you are.
Endnotes
Forrester and InfoWorld run an annual awards event to highlight the EAs that have changed how they work —
1
embracing the opportunities for helping their business be customer-led, insights-driven, fast, and connected. We
solicit entries near the beginning of the calendar year, and Forrester’s EA analysts perform the first round of vetting.
Then the previous year’s EA award winners act as final judges and vote for the teams they believe had the most
impact on moving their businesses forward. Note that the judges never know which companies they were judging; that
information is removed from the entries before they review them. Our 2017 winners were the EA teams of ABN AMRO,
National Bank of Abu Dhabi, RasGas, World Bank Group, and XL Catlin. Source: Gene Leganza and Alex Cullen, “The
2017 Enterprise Architecture Awards,” Forrester Blogs, September 21, 2017 (https://go.forrester.com/blogs/the-2017-
enterprise-architecture-awards/).
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2017 Global State Of Enterprise Architecture And Program Management Online Survey.
2
To read our 2016 EA award winners’ write-ups, check out the following blog post. Source: Alex Cullen, “Enterprise
3
Architecture Awards 2016 — Enterprise Architecture As A Verb, Not A Noun,” Forrester Blogs, September 19, 2016
(https://go.forrester.com/blogs/16-09-19-enterprise_architecture_awards_2016_enterprise_architecture_as_a_verb_
not_a_noun/).
Source: Alex Cullen, “Enterprise Architecture Awards 2016 — Enterprise Architecture As A Verb, Not A Noun,”
4
Forrester Blogs, September 19, 2016 (https://go.forrester.com/blogs/16-09-19-enterprise_architecture_awards_2016_

enterprise_architecture_as_a_verb_not_a_noun/).
Only 5% of our 2017 survey respondents told us they tracked metrics on the financial value of architecture.
5
The sample size on this question was 106 respondents. Source: Forrester’s Q3 2017 Global State Of Enterprise
Architecture And Program Management Online Survey.
We work with business and technology leaders to develop
customer-obsessed strategies that drive growth.
Products and Services
›› Core research and tools
›› Data and analytics
›› Peer collaboration
›› Analyst engagement
›› Consulting
›› Events
Forrester’s research and insights are tailored to your role and

critical business initiatives.
Roles We Serve
Marketing & Strategy Technology Management Technology Industry
Professionals Professionals Professionals
CMO CIO Analyst Relations
B2B Marketing Application Development
B2C Marketing & Delivery
Customer Experience ›› Enterprise Architecture
Customer Insights Infrastructure & Operations
eBusiness & Channel Security & Risk
Strategy Sourcing & Vendor
Management
Client support
For information on hard-copy or electronic reprints, please contact Client Support at
+1 866-367-7378, +1 617-613-5730, or clientsupport@forrester.com. We offer quantity
discounts and special pricing for academic and nonprofit institutions.
Forrester Research (Nasdaq: FORR) is one of the most influential research and advisory firms in the world. We work with
business and technology leaders to develop customer-obsessed strategies that drive growth. Through proprietary
research, data, custom consulting, exclusive executive peer groups, and events, the Forrester experience is about a
singular and powerful purpose: to challenge the thinking of our clients to help them lead change in their organizations.
For more information, visit forrester.com. 129432

Enterprise Architecture in 2020 and Beyond

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Enterprise Architecture in 2020 and Beyond

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Licensed for individual use only

Enterprise Architecture In 2020 And Beyond

Why Read This Report Key Takeaways

Enterprise Architecture In 2020 And Beyond

Table Of Contents Related Research Documents

Greater Value Depends On Changing Focus,

Forrester Research, Inc., 60 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, MA 02140 USA

The Future Of EA Is An Internal Ecosystem Focused On Outcomes

›› The second wave and the introduction of business capabilities. As EA professional

Technology architects Business, process, Experience,

Focus Cost, efficiencies Investments Outcomes, value

Portfolio of technology Portfolio of business Portfolio of

Insights And Outcomes Are The Trending Value Proposition For EA

Effective EAs Empower Decision Making

Greater Value Depends On Changing Focus, Methodology, And Measurement

Use Tactical And Strategic Opportunities To Become A Trusted Advisor

Engage With An Analyst

Analyst Inquiry Analyst Advisory Webinar

Forrester’s research apps for iOS and Android.

Forrester Blogs, September 19, 2016 (https://go.forrester.com/blogs/16-09-19-enterprise_architecture_awards_2016_

Forrester’s research and insights are tailored to your role and

You might also like