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G00251447

Use Five Best Practices to Increase EA

Stakeholder Engagement and Support
Published: 15 May 2013

Analyst(s): Saul Brand, Betsy Burton

Gaining and retaining stakeholder support are key factors in ensuring that
enterprise architecture is outcome-driven and delivers value to business and
IT. Enterprise architects should follow these five best practices to increase
stakeholder engagement and drive successful business outcomes.

Key Challenges
■ Enterprise architects are confronted by stakeholders with diverse interests.
■ Often, enterprise architects fail to demonstrate the value proposition and business impact of
enterprise architecture (EA) to stakeholders.
■ Many enterprise architects struggle to become trusted advisors to stakeholders and earn a seat
at the strategic planning table.
■ Getting stakeholders "on" or "ahead of the curve" so that they can exploit new disruptive
technologies is a challenge facing enterprise architects.
■ Frequently, enterprise architects fail to build and maintain relationships with diverse
stakeholders.

Recommendations
■ Profile stakeholders and focus your efforts on those who have the highest impact on the future
state of the business.
■ Highlight the value of EA to stakeholders by creating and leveraging a business-outcome-driven
EA communication presentation.
■ Become conversant with business stakeholders; learn to "speak their language."
■ Reach out to stakeholders and educate them about threats, opportunities and impacts to the
business created by disruptive trends and technologies.
■ Invite challengers and opponents of the EA program to participate in the decision-making
process.

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Table of Contents

Introduction............................................................................................................................................ 2
Analysis.................................................................................................................................................. 2
Profile Stakeholders Based on Their Impact on the Future State of the Business.............................. 2
Create a Business-Outcome-Driven EA Communication Presentation.............................................. 4
Develop Your Business Knowledge and Speak the Language of the Business..................................5
Educate Stakeholders About Disruptive Trends and Technologies....................................................6
Cast a Broad Net to Build Collaboration and Drive Successful Business Outcomes..........................7
Recommended Reading.........................................................................................................................8

Introduction
A 2012 survey of attendees of Gartner's EA Summit in North American and Europe showed that the
highest-ranked challenge facing EA practitioners was "engagement of upper management to
support/continue supporting the EA program," with 48% of respondents identifying this as one of
their top three challenges. In the same survey, the top EA success factor cited was "utilizing EA to
assist in making more informed/better investment decisions."

EA is a team sport. It requires collaboration across all facets of business and IT to be successful.
The value of EA lies at the enterprise level. To unlock this value, enterprise architects must focus on
optimizing at the enterprise level and not at the project level. EA practitioners need to focus on
stakeholder awareness and engagement. They must deliver stakeholders something of value, but
not value as seen by the enterprise architect or the EA team.

Gaining and retaining stakeholder support is a critical success factor for EA and is a major
challenge for many EA practitioners (see "Enterprise Architecture Leaders Focus on Business
Impact"). The best way to gain stakeholder engagement and support is to focus on how EA helps
enable better decisions — not on "doing EA." Enterprise architects must focus their stakeholder
engagement and support techniques on how they help generate value and outcomes in support of
the future-state vision and business direction for the enterprise as a whole (see "Best Practices:
Engaging Business Executives in Enterprise Architecture").

This research describes five best practices that we have seen chief enterprise architects employ to
successfully increase stakeholder engagement and support.

Analysis
Profile Stakeholders Based on Their Impact on the Future State of the Business
Leading and supporting business change can be complex and time-consuming. It requires
addressing organizational politics, processes, behavioral change and technology.

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A best practice is to clearly identify exactly with whom and what you are dealing before attempting
to facilitate and support change. To accomplish this, identify and profile a few of the most important
stakeholders who have the greatest and most direct influence over the future state of the business
(see "Toolkit: Bank XYZ Stakeholder Analysis Worksheet").

A profile of a stakeholder should include:

■ Name — Identify people by names, not just roles. This ensures that communication is focused
on their specific needs, interests and impacts.
■ Title — Identify their specific titles and parts of the organization.
■ Stance — Does this person support, reject or sit on the fence regarding the EA program and
any of its past, present and future initiatives?
■ Camp — Who influences them, whom do they listen to, what camp do they align with and how
do they vote?
■ Level of influence — Determine if this person is a decision maker, influencer or supporter.
■ Power — Determine if this person has formal power based on his or her position, or more
informal power based on his or her knowledge, connections and personality.
■ Issues — Identify this person's pain points and major challenges with respect to the future
state of the business.
■ Opportunities — Identify the knowledge, skills resources that they can enable or support to
further the future state of the business.
■ Decision style — Identify whether this person makes decisions based on being command-and-
control-directive; collaborative and analytical; or high-level-conceptual. Also identify whether
this person is indecisive or unwilling to make decisions.
■ Personal characteristics — What is this person's personality? Is the person outgoing or more
aloof? Do they have an open door and casual style, or are they more hierarchical and formal?
■ Success metrics — What drives this individual? How are they measured? What would motivate
them to support or resist an enterprisewide perspective?
■ Passion points — Identify what makes them excited personally and professionally. These
personal interests can be leveraged to gain the interest of a key stakeholder in your efforts.

Profiling stakeholders enables enterprise architects to effectively coordinate support and dispel
dissension. It keeps EA practitioners abreast of stakeholder thinking, empowers the identification of
allies and detractors, and allows enterprise architects to respond swiftly to changes in the business
and IT, as well as recalibrate EA initiatives based on stakeholder support.

Best-Practice Example: We recently worked with a newly appointed chief enterprise architect who
was in the process of restarting his EA efforts. He discovered that a new GVP stakeholder who was
heading a major new business area had an interest in the history of the Pacific Islands. At his first

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meeting with the GVP, he came prepared with a presentation focused on the new GVP's
professional issues and opportunities, and communicated with him in a way that matched his
personal interaction and decision-making style. In addition, he brought the GVP a book on the
Pacific Islands. From then on, he found that new GVP readily took meetings with him, and displayed
the book in his office. It should be noted that the book was not a replacement for a business-
outcome-driven focus of their meeting, but it was an added personal touch that made the
interaction memorable. This practice might not be acceptable in many countries and within
government circles. Readers should exercise caution when applying this technique.

Recommendations:

■ Profile, and revisit on a quarterly basis, stakeholders who have direct influence over the future
state of the enterprise.
■ Limit the number of stakeholders who meet the criteria for inclusion on the profile list to a small,
manageable number.
■ Manage stakeholders by name and how they impact the future state of the business, not by
project.

Create a Business-Outcome-Driven EA Communication Presentation

Socializing and communicating how EA efforts support your business direction (that is, strategy and
operations) are critical for the adoption of EA and for ongoing support (see "Best Practices:
Communicating the Value of Enterprise Architecture").

A powerful tool for communicating with stakeholders is a short and clear communication
presentation that spells out EA's value in a way that is specific to your industry, company and
culture. The brief document should not be generic. It must be tailored and pertinent to the
stakeholder's function and area of influence. The presentation should initiate and facilitate a
collaborative discussion and deliver a compelling EA value proposition that garners effective
support for the EA program and its activities. It should clearly answer the "what's in it for me?"
question that stakeholders will ultimately ask. Remember, the only information that is important is
the information the recipient needs, not the information that the enterprise architect wants to deliver
or convey.

Focus on addressing why the business must have EA and include a few simple "straw man"
depictions (see "Toolkit: Sample Presentation for Driving Strategic EA"). The following list provides a
sample outline for an EA communications presentation that will help inform, educate and muster
support from business and IT leaders, as well as users:

■ Why You Want or Must Have EA (two slides maximum)

■ Testimonial (show EA accomplishments that demonstrate value where possible; see "EA
Business Value Metrics You Must Have Today")
■ Call to Action (lets the audience know how to support efforts and take action)
■ Appendix (can include a combination of the following supporting slides):

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■ Business Goals and Objectives

■ Business Strategy
■ Disruptive Trends That May Affect the Business
■ Target Business Outcomes (short and long term)
■ Critical Strategic Issues, Challenges and Opportunities
■ Future-State Architecture Vision (a statement and anchor model)
■ EA Initiatives That Will Support Business Goals
■ Critical Success Metrics for EA
■ Contextual or Conceptual Models
■ Gaps and Hot Spots
■ Road Maps
■ Budget Allocation

Best-Practice Example: We recently worked with a South American financial services organization's
EA team to renew the company's EA efforts, with a focus on business outcomes. The chief architect
leveraged Gartner's sample presentation toolkit mentioned above to create a communications
presentation for senior business and IT executives. During a meeting with Gartner, the COO
remarked that this was the first time he had seen the business vision and direction so clearly stated.
He became one of the EA effort's biggest supporters.

Recommendations:

■ Collaborate with the marketing or public relations department to design and brand EA
communication presentation documents that are unique, tailored and audience-focused.
■ Entice stakeholders to engage with you to help achieve desired business and technology
outcomes by customizing the presentation document to each circumstance, and include the
right situational material.
■ Ensure that the presentation states the value and impact of your efforts to stakeholders and
addresses their issues, challenges and opportunities.

Develop Your Business Knowledge and Speak the Language of the Business
Today, business and IT have become synonymous; they are dependent on each other. To
successfully facilitate and support change, enterprise architects must earn a seat at the table and
become trusted advisors to both business and IT (see "CEO and Senior Executive Survey 2013:
Business Uncertainty Is an Opportunity for EA to Take Leadership Role"). To do this, enterprise
architects must be able to demonstrate and convey business understanding and speak the
language of business.

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Enterprise architects should develop a greater understanding of key stakeholders and their
concerns. They should also acquire broad and deep business knowledge and become adept at,
and comfortable with, business issues and business strategy. This effort includes understanding
macro- and microtrends impacting the company's business sector, and acquiring general and
specialized business knowledge and skills applicable to the company's industry, processes and
systems. This business and IT knowledge should be used to earn credibility with EA stakeholders
and help deliver strategic value.

Best-Practice Example: A chief architect at a retail organization discussed how he volunteers on the
board of a large community nonprofit in his area. He does this because he believes the efforts of the
group are positive, pragmatic and accomplished. However, this volunteer work also helped him
develop his strategic thinking skills, strengthen his leadership and negotiation skills and expose him
to people from different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives.

Recommendations:

■ Talk to human resources, or the equivalent, about participating in company-sponsored training

at tertiary academic or accredited continuing-education institutions.
■ Look for opportunities to attend business tradeshows and vendor conferences. If possible,
attend such events with business stakeholders and use the opportunity to build your
relationships.
■ Find periodicals, trade journals and trade newspapers focused on your business area. Study
these resources to better understand current macro- and microissues challenging your industry,
your company and its competitors, as well as best and next practices.

Educate Stakeholders About Disruptive Trends and Technologies

Forward-looking enterprise architects understand that disruptive trends and technologies are
rapidly reshaping strategies, business models and enterprise investments (see "Toolkit: Enterprise
Architects: Get Out in Front of Cloud"). They also realize that they have, or should have, influence
and significant impact on enterprise IT budget activities and decisions (see "EA Practitioners Have
Significant Influence on $1.1 Trillion in Enterprise IT Spend").

An effective way for enterprise architects to increase stakeholder engagement and support is to
"get ahead of the curve" by reaching out and educating stakeholders about the threats,
opportunities and impact to business created by disruptive trends and technologies. Successful
sales professionals tailor their pitches to incorporate top trends, concerns and unique selling points
in order to build a strong brand — and to differentiate themselves by giving their prospects and
clients a reason to choose their company over their competitors. Similarly, EA practitioners should
build their own brands and differentiate themselves by becoming the internal business consultants
of choice.

Best-Practice Example: A chief architect at an automotive manufacturing company told us that she
identified five key stakeholders, and set a personal commitment that she would present an
innovative concept (concerning process, technology, business change or information) to these
stakeholders every eight weeks. By doing this, she positioned herself over time as the person who

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could bring forward new ideas, created the avenue for further refinement of ideas, and developed a
relationship so she was "top of mind" when these stakeholders needed an innovative thinker.

Recommendations:

■ Brief key stakeholders on disruptive trends and technologies that impact their business at least
once per quarter. Call on key stakeholders even when you are not actively engaged on projects
with them.
■ Use the information obtained from stakeholders during educational meetings to develop an
agenda for future meetings, as well as for assessing and planning future EA initiatives that will
support business goals.

Cast a Broad Net to Build Collaboration and Drive Successful Business Outcomes
In today's interconnected world, a broad spectrum of stakeholders has a direct impact on the
success of the core business. Chief enterprise architects need to move away from viewing EA as an
independent discipline, and instead view it as an interdependent discipline where diverse parties are
critical to achieving business outcomes. Teams composed of different business functions and skills
(such as marketing, finance, production operations, human resources, IT and legal) bring different
forms of logic to solve complex organizational problems. The act of building and managing
relationships among those with opposing points of view leads to improved collaboration and
understanding. Each party gains something, while the entire organization reaps the overall benefits.

Today, 55% of organizations are supporting EA with either the collaboration or participation of
business leaders. To ensure that EA is focused on business and IT, chief enterprise architects
should leverage skills from diverse business functions and stakeholders, as either a virtual or an
organizational team (see "Define EA Team Roles and Competencies to Maximize the Team's
Effectiveness").

EA teams comprising mixed skills, capabilities, education and professional backgrounds foster
creative and out-of-the box thinking, have a natural tendency to understand how IT can support
business strategy, take advantage of its robust understanding of business issues, and make
engaging and communicating across the organization easy (see "Five Best Practices for Building
the Enterprise Architecture Team"). Project teams seeded with members that have served on or
been associated with the EA program make strong allies and advocates needed for complex
transformational projects.

As part of casting a broad net and assembling your EA team, identify engaging and skilled business
and IT resources across the enterprise who demonstrate deep and broad organizational, business,
people and process expertise. Ensure that they rank high in soft-skill traits such as leadership,
facilitation, arbitration and collaboration, and are politically and organizationally savvy. Determine
the appropriate methods of incorporating them into your efforts as a champions, core team
members (that is, permanent) or virtual team members (that is, subject matter experts).

Best-Practice Example: A European pharmaceutical organization was in the process of renewing its
EA efforts with a focus on delivering business outcomes. The chief architect ran not only the EA

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team, but also the program and portfolio management (PPM) and the business analyst teams. To
enable the EA team to approach EA differently, and to help develop people's diverse skills, the chief
architect rotated people through EA, PPM and business analyst roles. He also secured active
engagement of business leaders by having a person from each of the three major business lines
work as virtual members of the EA team. This helped to reinvigorate the EA effort, as well as the
PPM and business analyst roles, and created a more cross-communicative organization.

Recommendations:

■ Invite challengers and opponents of the EA program and its initiatives to participate in the
decision-making process. Get them onboard and build collaboration (see "Persuasion Skills Are
Required to Create the Social Organization").
■ Acquire or leverage skills and talents (as either virtual or organizational team members) for the
EA team from diverse functions and stakeholders.
■ Consider the opportunity for developing an employee rotational program that would enable
business and IT people to work on EA for a two-year period.

Recommended Reading
Some documents may not be available as part of your current Gartner subscription.

"Best Practices: Communicating the Value of Enterprise Architecture"

"Best Practices for EA and PPM Integration Toward Improved Business Value Outcomes"

"Five Best Practices for Enterprise Architecture"

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