CAPELLA UNIVERSITY

u04a1 Project Organization Maturity Level Evaluation

Marco Hernandez

2011

PROFESSOR: SCOTT MORRISSETTE

Describe the current level of architecture maturity for the selected organization. After reviewing the organization description; I came to the conclusion that Ralphs Ribs does not have any IT support, by operational model they are running the organization business from a single computer. Everything is run by Ralph and his two sons, which are in charge testing and training the franchise owners and employees in maintaining the franchise commitments. Getting to the conclusion that there is no EA, but will say that the organization is at the Business Silos Architecture level of maturity, because their focus is design to give full support to a single activity, that is the franchise owner report their inventory and earnings to them in a batch file.

Explain a set of recommendations for achieving greater maturity that addresses IT capabilities. Due that Ralphs Ribs does not any IT support and all the franchise owners have their own independent IT services and platforms and all of them are different from each other. The first step in standardization will be the creation of an IT Department, following by analyzing all the different platforms that are already in use and see how many are using the same, this will help to narrow down which platform will be choose. We need to make sure to pick the best system for the organization needs.

Explain a set of recommendations for achieving greater maturity that addresses business objectives. As an enterprise and business of such small magnitude, is going to be ease to implement a complete system without the old software being a troublesome. The other advantage is that, we are going to be able keep the IT cost down from the beginning since we are working from scratch. This will give us a great advantage when the platform has been picked since there is no legacy system to deal with.

Explains a set of recommendations for achieving greater maturity that addresses funding priorities. Funding priorities need to have an immediate benefit, since we will be spending a lot of money from the get go. The project needs to be sound and make sense and provide instant benefits to all multiple business functions by implementing a shared infrastructure; such as server, network infrastructure and a help desk.

Explain a set of recommendations for achieving greater maturity that addresses key management capabilities. There will be major changes in management; such hiring a chairman to give an outside view of the organization in case the family does not want to embrace innovations, also make the two sons act a co-executive manager and begin training to be prepare for the inevitable take over the business, and hire a team that takes care of the traveling to all the franchises to enforce the franchise agreement and provide training to owners and employees. This team will be the point of contact between the managers and Ralph ideas, changes and other business items.

Explain a set of recommendations for achieving greater maturity that addresses responsibilities for defining applications. The new establish Ralphs Ribs management should conduct a maturity assessment to assess the capability of their applications, to determine where improvements will add value and to establish a plan to advance their organization.

Explain a set of recommendations for achieving greater maturity that addresses IT governance issues. IT department will have the definitive complete control over the design and rollout of the platform and infrastructure. They will confer with the new Ralph management team as to what should be use and how to roll it out, there will be the need to outsource a project manager to evaluate the progress and ensure the implementation of the project.

Explain your rationale for the stated recommendations. The stated recommendations are required in order for Ralphs Ribs to transition into a EA strategy. There is an imperative need to mastered these changes before Ralphs Ribs can evolve to the next stage. The next stage will require a different model and processes.

Bibliography
Gatner. (2008, 07 29). Maturity Model Overview: Application Organizations. p. 6. Jeanne W. Ross, P. W. (2006). Enterprise Architecture as Strategy. Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America: Harvard Business School Press.