Doing Digital Transformation: Case Study From Product Thinking To Agile Enterprise

Doing Digital Transformation
Case Study From Product Thinking to Agile Enterprise
Straightforward Answers to Complex Problems © Conexiam, 2021 (Free Distribution - CC BY-ND 4.0)
Doing Digital Transformation
Product thinking, building a product platform,
developing an agile capability, and an agile enterprise
Everything starts with a new SRE’s question
She asked, “what is your EA Team going to

do in this modern agile world? Will you even
be able to help?”
She saw an ivory tower of slow-moving

waterfall thinking dinosaurs.
She was concerned we had no place in the

modern world.
Straightforward Answers to Complex Problems © Conexiam, 2021 (Free Distribution - CC BY-ND 4.0) 3
She meant: ‘what will you do for me today?’
We were going to stay out of the way!
My Enterprise Architecture Team

We do nothing to address her immediate challenges
We were going to do our job. Look ahead & help our
enterprise get the capability & agility to excel
The SRE
The burgeoning agile development
capability
Do what they do best—
• Innovate
• Deliver products that delight our customers
She didn’t know what a high-functioning EA did
She was used to technologists masquerading as Enterprise Architects
She expected technical SMEs in the weeds fussing about stuff
Enterprise Architecture
“… the process of translating
business vision and strategy into
effective enterprise change …”
Enterprise Architecture is a
“… creating, communicating, and profession
improving the key principles and Enterprise Architect often used as the title for the
models that describe the enterprise’s senior technical specialist who do not do EA
future state”
We Focus on Value
EA Value Proposition is useful advice (on point & actionable)
Provide the advice — Support the action
Advice
Action
Back to the Case
It might be a surprise that we had already embarked on a digital transformation
Improving agile software development was a step on the journey
We are Enterprise Architects
1. We do nothing for her immediate challenges Multiple architecture work projects
2. We would stay out of the way Each addressed questions at hand
3. We would look to the future & ensure we had Constant deferral of things we didn’t need to know
the capability & agility to excel
Ruthless focus on the question at hand
Key deliverable the capability roadmap

Constraints - Objectives
• Improve enterprise agility
• Enable & enhance agile software development
• Do not damage existing customer relationships
Enterprise Agility
It is all about reaction
Think cooking
Alertness
• detect opportunities and threats in your
environment
Accessibility
• access relevant information in time to decide
& act
Decisiveness
• make resolute decisions with information
available
Swiftness
• implement decisions in time available
We didn’t solve every issue
Yes, the image is

ugly. It got us
through the
discussion. It got us
to the next step of
the journey.
We Always Drive Change
Building Capability
What work depends
on what work?
What You Hope For
What You Always Get
Obstacles,
snow, & bears
are constants
EA was careful with Agile Development
Very easy to damage innovation
Very easy to distract architecture team-members who have a development background
Very easy to break to value proposition the EA Team
We built a model to frame our thinking

Answered the question
‘how can an EA Team best enable the
highest-quality agile development?’
Nets down to things outside the authority of

the product-owner
• Will the product exist?
• What decisions can the agile team not make?
• How the enterprise measures value?
Roughly Strategy to Solution Delivery
https://conexiam.com/agile-development-and-enterprise-architecture
/ to Complex Problems
Straightforward Answers © Conexiam, 2021 (Free Distribution - CC BY-ND 4.0) 13
EA Team Focus in the Case
Very easy to damage innovation
Very easy to distract architecture team-members who have a development background
Very easy to break to value proposition the EA Team
We built a model to frame our thinking

Answered the question:
‘how can an EA Team best enable the
highest-quality agile development?’
Green – My Team focus

Yellow – Things we did with care
Red – Things I watched, ready to slam the
brakes
Roughly Strategy to Solution Delivery
https://conexiam.com/agile-development-and-enterprise-architecture/
We Manufacture Knowledge
Use Kanban / Lean Manufacturing
Use Agile Methods for EA
Conceptually simple — difficult in practice
Agile methods require rigorous discipline

1. Product Owner
• State the question/problem & the release date
• We use the Chief Architect
2. EA Team (Kanban Knowledge Production)
• Know what to build, so I want efficiency
• Identify products & break down to stories
• Chase consumable (re-usable) work product
Formal EA Model really helps
(ABACUS & Navigate)
3. Run the Lean Production Line
• Your EA Team will fight like a stubborn mule
4. Build small parts into products
• Everything is MVP & just-in-time delivery
Wrapping-up
My job is to be in-front and finding the path
She asked, “what is your EA Team going to do in this

modern agile world? Will you even be able to help?”
We provide Advice to Decision Makers

Look ahead for the capability & agility to excel
• Refactoring service-lines
• Lowering infrastructure cost
We require Action from Implementers
Taking accountability for transformation benefits
• We can now re-model business processes
• Customer’s have consistent Identity
• We have SRE!
I have wanted to tell her where her job came from
Continue the journey
We are happy to talk
conexiam.com
dave.hornford@conexiam.com
ca.linkedin.com/in/dave-hornford-8500291

Doing Digital Transformation: Case Study From Product Thinking To Agile Enterprise

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Doing Digital Transformation: Case Study From Product Thinking To Agile Enterprise

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Doing Digital Transformation

Case Study From Product Thinking to Agile Enterprise

Everything starts with a new SRE’s question

She asked, “what is your EA Team going to

She saw an ivory tower of slow-moving

She was concerned we had no place in the

My Enterprise Architecture Team

Key deliverable the capability roadmap

Yes, the image is

We built a model to frame our thinking

Nets down to things outside the authority of

We built a model to frame our thinking

Green – My Team focus

Agile methods require rigorous discipline

She asked, “what is your EA Team going to do in this

We provide Advice to Decision Makers

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