Defining The Enterprise Architecture Service Catalog Dec 2018

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Defining The EA Service Catalog

Processes: The EA Practice Playbook
by Gordon Barnett
December 26, 2018
Why Read This Report Key Takeaways

Enterprise architecture (EA) stakeholders determine EA Leaders Must Address Stakeholder
the value of EA. If stakeholders do not find EA Challenges
services effective and easy to use or understand — Many EA leaders focus on doing EA rather than
or if they do not enjoy consuming them — they will on delivering stakeholder value. EA leaders should
perceive EA services as having no value. This leads start communicating the services that EA provides
to two challenges for EA leaders: how to identify to help with stakeholders’ most pressing issues.
drivers of value considering stakeholders’ most
Create Your EA Service Catalog In Seven Steps
pressing priorities and how to scale and improve
EA leaders must start with key stakeholder
the value that EA provides.
challenges and concerns. A stakeholder-relevant
This is an update of a previously published report. set of services works from this foundation
Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for through a set of steps that ends with metrics for
continued relevance and accuracy. value and performance management.
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 Peter Harrison
December 26, 2018
Table Of Contents Related Research Documents

2 EA Programs Struggle To Explain Assess Your Business-Centric EA Capabilities
Themselves
Enterprise Architecture In 2018 And Beyond
“EA As Smart People” Isn’t A Driver For EA
Understand EA Stakeholders And Their Needs
Success
“EA As Services” Reinforces Your Value To

Your Stakeholders
3 The Seven Steps To Create The Role-Driven Share reports with colleagues.
Service Catalog Enhance your membership with
Research Share.
Five Key EA Roles Guide The EA Service
Catalog Content
Seven Steps Define The EA Service Catalog
An Example Of A Road Map Development

Service Definition
Recommendations
9 Services Enable Improvement, Build Brand,

And Help Expand Value
Forrester Research, Inc., 60 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, MA 02140 USA

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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 December 26, 2018
EA Programs Struggle To Explain Themselves

Many stakeholders don’t see their firms as enterprises and don’t understand why their firms need
architecting. In this absence of clarity, stakeholders have preconceptions that “EA does tech
standards” or “architects work on my business project to do the tech design.” As firms seek to
grow through customer-obsessed strategies, EA leaders increasingly see the limits of these tactical
expectations. However, many stakeholders are expressing a desire for improved strategic alignment
between technology and a business’ capability to acquire, service, and retain customers — a perfect
opportunity. But despite this opportunity, EA programs struggle with being perceived as “smart people”
and not having a well-defined service catalog.
“EA As Smart People” Isn’t A Driver For EA Success
One significant factor holding EA back is that, too often, stakeholders see EA teams as a collection of
smart people whom they can consult for technology advice or to get approval for a project or technology
acquisition. Unfortunately, this often leads to EA being a resource pool for projects. For example,
business architects are sometimes used as project business analysts and completely left out of the
strategic conversations that they should be part of. “EA as smart people” holds you back because:
›› “Smart people” is not a repeatable engagement model. Engagement is key to the shift toward
delivering value. But if what your stakeholders experience depends exclusively on whom they work
with, you can’t have consistent engagement with all of your most critical internal customers.
For example, multiple EA leaders have advised us: “Our internal customers get entirely different
ideas as to what EA is about depending on which team member they talk with.”1 Improving how
you engage and adopting best practices is harder when you don’t have a baseline to start from.
›› Today’s firefighting drives the use of smart people. While some EA value propositions may be
about setting strategic direction, a stakeholder who has a trusted relationship with an EA team
member will want this person to fight fires around today’s urgent need.
For example, some EA teams experience their stakeholders cutting corners in the engagement
model, using their relationship with an EA team member to focus on a digital experience project
that’s having technology challenges.
›› There aren’t enough smart people to meet the demand. Acquiring and ramping staff is a top
challenge for EA leaders.2 While EA teams typically aren’t very large, there’s an equally small pool
of experienced enterprise architects on the job market, so expanding the team by even just two or
three can be a challenge.
For example, EA leaders who are looking to promote from within the organization hit a barrier
when there isn’t a defined way of working to guide neophyte architect training. Unfortunately, an
emphasis on smart, talented individuals exacerbates the recruiting and ramping challenge.
© 2018 Forrester Research, Inc. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law. 2
Citations@forrester.com or +1 866-367-7378
“EA As Services” Reinforces Your Value To Your Stakeholders
Defining and managing a service portfolio is an established best practice for infrastructure and
operations organizations; the concept is core to ITIL and other tech management disciplines.3 There
are very good reasons why it should be a best practice for EA, too. The advantage of EA becoming
service driven is apparent from Forrester’s definition of an EA service:
An EA service provides a defined output with a specific value to the recipients through a
combination and configuration of capabilities and deliverables.
Successful EA leaders have defined a service catalog as the key interface to their stakeholders. The
service catalog aligns to stakeholder needs, describes each service, and provides a foundation for EA
performance management. An effective service catalog:
›› Connects what EA does to what stakeholders need. Successful EA teams take time to solicit and
analyze what existing and potential stakeholders need that they aren’t getting elsewhere. Each service
definition is a simple, consistent way to describe how EA will provide value and show what these
stakeholders will get. Architects should link services to the decisions that these stakeholders make.
›› Codifies the “how.” The service catalog defines everything in one place, from the designated
architecture contact to the responsibilities of various architect specialists. In addition, it defines the
deliverable, the contributors, and the information requirements to produce them. This clarity and
explicitness ensure that EA roles, activities, and deliverables are all fit for purpose and smooth the
onboarding of new EA staff.
›› Enables measurement and continuous improvement. Being “more effective” is vague, and how
to improve effectiveness is even more so. As a result, very few EA teams have useful metrics that
guide improvement.4 As output is what defines a service (and therefore its value), it’s much more
straightforward to identify measures of value, effectiveness, ease of use, and efficiency.
The Seven Steps To Create The Role-Driven Service Catalog

Creating a stakeholder-relevant set of services mustn’t start with looking at what you do now and
wrapping a service package around it. With this approach, you’ll inherit all of your existing problems
around connecting what EA does to what stakeholders need. You must start from the outside — whom
you are servicing, the needs and challenges they face, and the decisions they make as they develop
strategies and strategic actions. EA leaders must understand the appropriate balance of five key EA
roles prior to defining the EA service catalog.
Five Key EA Roles Guide The EA Service Catalog Content
Every firm has some form of the strategy-to-execution value stream. EA has some involvement at
various points in this value stream. The easiest way to think about EA involvement is in the context of
five distinct roles. Each role has a different set of stakeholders, a different way of working with them,
and different outputs, all of which you can encapsulate into EA services that enable that role (see
Figure 1). Each firm has a unique personality that results in emphasizing some EA roles and not using
others at all. The roles are:
›› Strategy definer. EA captures business and technology context, then defines the strategic goals
and the strategy to achieve these goals. EA has the authority to define strategy. This is very
uncommon for significant business issues, as business and tech leadership generally reserve
this authority for themselves, but EA may have authority for items of narrower scope, such as
technology strategy.
›› Strategy influencer. EA provides input and recommendations to a committee or individual with

the authority to define the strategy. The role of EA is to influence the direction of the strategy and
provide insights to the definer. As an example, EA may provide business capability heat maps that
highlight areas in need of investment or may provide emerging technology trends that influence the
direction that the firm may take.
›› Strategy translator. EA takes a strategy and develops an optimized strategic change road
map that delivers the strategic objectives in line with the strategic timeline. EA provides all
stakeholders with a visualization of the business and technology architectural change that the firm
is undertaking. As an example, EA will identify the business services and capabilities that need
enhancement or replacement to support the firm’s strategic intent.
›› Portfolio shaper. EA works closely with the firm’s enterprise portfolio management office to define
an actionable portfolio of projects that deliver the strategic change road map. EA teams influence
the underlying programs and projects while also providing architectural requirements in the form of
standards, design patterns, and reference architectures for these projects to the solution teams.
›› Project executor. EA teams service solutions architects by helping them design solutions that are
compliant with the business and architectural requirements of the projects. While this is a common
role, most EA leaders we speak with regard it as a trap that hinders their ability to address broader,
more strategic concerns.
FIGURE 1 EA Plays Distinct Roles Along The Strategy-To-Execution Value Stream
Strategy Projects
Definer Influencer Translator Shaper Executor
Strategy Projects
Seven Steps Define The EA Service Catalog
The goal of the EA service catalog is to have a repository of EA services that enable EA stakeholders
to make informed decisions. EA leaders must put their EA service portfolio into context using the
strategy-to-execution value stream, which connects decisions to points along this value stream.
Map sample EA services to the strategy-to-execution value stream. Start outside, then move to the
internals, and then to how you’ll manage performance and communicate value. Use a seven-step
process to create your service portfolio (see Figure 2):
1. Identify common challenges or themes, and prioritize them. EA provides value when it
addresses the challenges of its stakeholders and even more value when it addresses challenges
common across many stakeholders. In some firms, a top-level strategy drives action by
stakeholders, and uncovering these challenges is a matter of analyzing the strategy into its
elements. But it’s also common that no singular strategy drives action, in which case EA will need
to deduce common challenges through a bottom-up analysis. The result of this step should be a
small handful of three or four challenges for EA to focus on.
2. Find the stakeholders whom the challenges most affect. Understand what decisions EA
stakeholders make in the context of the strategy-to-execution value stream. Capture the
stakeholders’ pain points in relation to these decisions. Categorize the pains, and prioritize those
that would benefit the most stakeholders.
3. Align the service to the stakeholder pains. With an understanding of your stakeholders’ pains,
co-create EA services to address the pains. For example, if they want a dashboard, consider what
data it should provide, how it should look, and what they should be able to do with the dashboard.
For example, an eBusiness exec would see value in a digital experience road map that identifies
investment needs, and an Agile product owner would want to know which API services a product
sprint should leverage.
4. Define your engagement model for each service. EA leaders need to have a clear engagement
model that articulates how they will engage with the EA stakeholders. A successful engagement
model will lead to a better stakeholder experience. As each stakeholder is likely to have their own
personality and preference, EA leaders must have a dynamic engagement model. In addition, EA
leaders need to define service levels based on stakeholder expectations.
5. Rationalize a draft EA service set. Through the previous steps, you’ll put together a draft list
of services based primarily on challenges, outcomes, and stakeholders, and you’ll end up with a
longer list of services that overlap. This step looks across service outcomes to see how you can
combine them into a smaller set of services that are distinct, are easy to describe, and fit into a
cohesive service portfolio.
6. Describe the service internals. You now know what a service should look like from the perspective
of stakeholders and how you will engage them. Next, describe what you need to deliver the service.
What roles (for example, business segment architect, customer experience architect), what content
and artifacts, and what processes will you need to develop these deliverables?
7. Identify quality and effectiveness measures. You must measure services so you can manage
them. For each service, develop an approach to measure: 1) utilization (how much overall EA
resource bandwidth the service takes); 2) efficiency (how easily you can perform the service based
on information availability and prior artifact reuse); and 3) stakeholder satisfaction (whether the
service meets their needs and allows them to take appropriate actions based on the output).
FIGURE 2 How To Create Your Service Portfolio
Identify common Find the Align the service to

challenges or stakeholders who the stakeholder
themes. are most affected. pains.
Describe the service Rationalize a draft Define your

internals. EA service set. engagement model
for each service.
Identify quality and

effectiveness
measures.
An Example Of A Road Map Development Service Definition
To help EA leaders develop their EA service catalog, we provide an example of one of the most
common, and frequently most valuable, services that EA provides: developing road maps (see Figure 3).
›› EA role: strategy translator. Based on stakeholder expectations and current EA operating style,
the strategy translator is key to the value proposition.
›› Common theme: transforming a customer-facing business capability. This example uses

a business that is significantly reworking its business and technology capabilities to support
customer obsession.
›› Key stakeholders: both business and tech. Our example focuses on a customer service
capability. Stakeholders range from the business head of customer service to the Agile teams
delivering a stream of enhancements to customer service technology.
›› Target value: Help plan, sequence, and scope change. Stakeholders need to plan how they
will change the customer service capability. Their result will be a logical, coordinated sequence of
change initiatives that maximize value delivered. They must then scope individual change projects
so that they fit with all projects envisioned for the transformed customer service. EA will deliver this
value as a road map.
›› Engagement model: deliverables and information requirements. EA will develop and deliver an
integrated road map connecting business goals, specific outcomes, capability changes, projects,
and funding levels. To develop this road map, it will need capability assessments, technology
assessments, and available funding projections.
›› Internals: capability architects and alternative assessments. In this example, the EA team uses
capability architects who together address the business process, application, and information
aspects of a capability. The key process is to develop road map alternatives, assessing for
effectiveness and efficiency in meeting business goals and cost constraints.
›› Measures: satisfaction and alignment. The EA program head will utilize two measures to monitor
this service: 1) stakeholder satisfaction, asking questions such as “Did this give you what you
needed?” and “Were you able to make better decisions?” and 2) how well change portfolios align
with the road map, which both confirms value and indicates when the road map must change.
FIGURE 3 Sample Service Definition
Service: road map development
Description and value: Sample stakeholders and their usage:

• Define sequence and key milestones to evolve • VP of customer service: Plan and budget for
business and technology. change initiatives to customer service capability.
• Stakeholders have a clear description of how to • PMO head: Manage project portfolio to optimize
move toward a target state for a business or sequencing and value delivery.
technology capability that they can use for • Ad product manager: Scope Agile-based
planning and change initiative (project) product delivery and sprint planning.
assessments.
Deliverables: Inputs and sources:

•An integrated road map combining business • Capability map: business architects
goals and themes, technology enablers, key • Capability assessment: business architects
deliverables (milestones), and funding levels
• Technology assessment: various tech
organization areas
• Funding projections: PMO
Service internals Processes
EA roles: 1. Gather inputs.

•Capability-focused EA 2. Identify and assess alternatives: tradeoff
analysis.
3. Select optimum, and present for approval.
Skills: Quality and effectiveness measures:

•Balanced mix of business and technical skills •Stakeholder satisfaction
• Business case analysis • Alignment of change portfolio with road map
Recommendations
Services Enable Improvement, Build Brand, And Help Expand Value

Organizing and explaining EA as a set of services provides value in two ways. First, you can continually
recalibrate your value delivery, using a combination of customer satisfaction and internal operational
measures. Second, you’re better able to address nascent business needs that your existing program
may not be addressing. By expanding your EA service catalog for these nascent needs, you can
reposition your capabilities with this simple two-part statement: “If this is an important issue for you,
we can address it this way. Would that be useful for you?” While constructing your EA service catalog
is a straightforward (if complex) set of steps, you should:
›› Understand the needs of your business through careful assessment. Understanding the needs
of your EA stakeholders requires conversation as well as frameworks and techniques to translate
freeform commentary into a holistic picture that you can work with. Useful techniques include
the EA archetype model, business-capability-based interviews, and the EA capability model.5 We
describe these in greater detail in the assessment, stakeholder needs, and strategic plan reports of
the EA practice playbook.6
›› See where EA services dovetail with other technology organization services. While most
business customers will think of the tech organization as the group that develops, delivers, and
supports apps, there’s a lot that goes on before kicking off an app project. By putting the tech
organization’s defined and implicit services onto the same strategy-to-execution value stream,
with a lightweight use of the same steps by which you identified EA services, these EA services
gain contexts. Revisit your service internals to make the connections with other tech organization
services work. Both EA and the tech organization will benefit from this single-picture view.
›› Link your mission and your service catalog. The set of services that you provide becomes a
central element of program engagement and communication — in essence, “This is what we do
and how we do it.” But a very large catalog of services addressing every possible stakeholder need
obfuscates, rather than clarifies, your mission. When developing your set of services, ask yourself,
“Is this a core service, or is there some other role that can and does provide a similar service?”
›› Craft how you will market EA. You may craft a service perfectly to address the key needs of
decision makers in your enterprise, but it won’t provide value unless someone uses it. A persistent
challenge of EA is engagement at the point of greatest need and value. Put creation and refinement
of an EA marketing campaign and presentation high on your to-do list, crafting it as a story with a
compelling and clear message. The continuous improvement report of the EA practice playbook
provides guidance on how to do this.7
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Endnotes
Forrester has conducted several roundtables with members of our Enterprise Architecture Council, where this
1
sentiment was expressed by multiple attendees.
Over the past five years, EA practice leadership and development has been on the list of top-10 challenges reported
2
by members of Forrester’s Enterprise Architecture Council. In 2016, this was the No. 6 challenge.
“IT service management (ITSM) is a general term that describes a strategic approach to design, deliver, manage and
3
improve the way businesses use information technology (IT). ITSM includes all the discrete activities and processes
that support a service throughout its lifecycle, from service management to change management, problem and
incident management, asset management, and knowledge management.” Source: Margaret Rouse, “ITSM (IT Service
Management),” TechTarget, September 2018 (http://searchitoperations.techtarget.com/definition/ITSM).
Of the nine capabilities at which EA programs must be mature, performance management is one of the weakest. See
4
the Forrester report “Patterns In EA Maturity.”
See the Forrester report “Build A Business-Centered EA Practice.”

5
See the Forrester report “Build A Business-Centered EA Practice.”

6
See the Forrester report “Marketing Your EA Program.”

7
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LICENSED FOR INDIVIDUAL USE ONLY

Defining The EA Service Catalog

Why Read This Report Key Takeaways

Defining The EA Service Catalog

Table Of Contents Related Research Documents

“EA As Services” Reinforces Your Value To

Seven Steps Define The EA Service Catalog

An Example Of A Road Map Development

9 Services Enable Improvement, Build Brand,

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

EA Programs Struggle To Explain Themselves

“EA As Smart People” Isn’t A Driver For EA Success

“EA As Services” Reinforces Your Value To Your Stakeholders

The Seven Steps To Create The Role-Driven Service Catalog

Five Key EA Roles Guide The EA Service Catalog Content

›› Strategy influencer. EA provides input and recommendations to a committee or individual with

FIGURE 1 EA Plays Distinct Roles Along The Strategy-To-Execution Value Stream

Definer Influencer Translator Shaper Executor

Seven Steps Define The EA Service Catalog

FIGURE 2 How To Create Your Service Portfolio

Identify common Find the Align the service to

Describe the service Rationalize a draft Define your

Identify quality and

An Example Of A Road Map Development Service Definition

›› Common theme: transforming a customer-facing business capability. This example uses

FIGURE 3 Sample Service Definition

Service: road map development

Description and value: Sample stakeholders and their usage:

Deliverables: Inputs and sources:

Service internals Processes

EA roles: 1. Gather inputs.

Skills: Quality and effectiveness measures:

Services Enable Improvement, Build Brand, And Help Expand Value

Engage With An Analyst

Analyst Inquiry Analyst Advisory Webinar

Forrester’s research apps for iOS and Android.

sentiment was expressed by multiple attendees.

the Forrester report “Patterns In EA Maturity.”

See the Forrester report “Build A Business-Centered EA Practice.”

See the Forrester report “Build A Business-Centered EA Practice.”

See the Forrester report “Marketing Your EA Program.”

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

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