How to Articulate the Value of Enterprise Architecture

Editor's Notes

• #4: So now that we know what EA is, we really need to understand why we care about the value of EA. Of course, you wouldn’t be here today if you at least didn’t care somewhat about the value of EA. But more specifically, there are 3 key reasons we care. First is that in order to procure organizational funding and support, we need to be able to develop a business case and for that, we need to talk to value. If we cannot articulate a value to our CIO, he isn’t going to fund or support us and that is going to make our work more difficult if not impossible. Second, in order for the rest of the organization to be willing to engage with us, they need to understand the value we can provide to them. If we can’t help them do their jobs better, they are just going to go right around us. Finally, we care about the value of EA because of the 7ish year itch. I will explain that in the next few slides.
• #5: So now that we know what EA is, we really need to understand why we care about the value of EA. Of course, you wouldn’t be here today if you at least didn’t care somewhat about the value of EA. But more specifically, there are 3 key reasons we care. First is that in order to procure organizational funding and support, we need to be able to develop a business case and for that, we need to talk to value. If we cannot articulate a value to our CIO, he isn’t going to fund or support us and that is going to make our work more difficult if not impossible. Second, in order for the rest of the organization to be willing to engage with us, they need to understand the value we can provide to them. If we can’t help them do their jobs better, they are just going to go right around us. Finally, we care about the value of EA because of the 7ish year itch. I will explain that in the next few slides.
• #6: There can be many reasons for this cyclical behaviour… - Often it is due to changes in (and therefore lack of) sponsorship, which inevitably reduces funding – sometimes triggered by re-organisations and the ensuing settling down period. A common example is the CIO transition, which historically happens every 3-5 years. - External economic cycles - Most businesses have some internally generated cycles, e.g. budgeting, strategy changes. In fact, sometimes the management of an organisation will generate or at least contribute to their own business cycles, e.g. by attending to the wrong things, complacency, poor structure, lags in reporting/action/effect etc - Time span of control is the notion that the effect of your decisions appear at an indeterminate point after your decision. If the time taken for the effect of your decisions to be noticed or measured is longer than your tenure, you will not get the credit for it. Long term projects in short term cycles will fail, unless your sponsor has a long term tenure.
• #7: There can be many reasons for this cyclical behaviour… - Often it is due to changes in (and therefore lack of) sponsorship, which inevitably reduces funding – sometimes triggered by re-organisations and the ensuing settling down period. A common example is the CIO transition, which historically happens every 3-5 years. - External economic cycles - Most businesses have some internally generated cycles, e.g. budgeting, strategy changes. In fact, sometimes the management of an organisation will generate or at least contribute to their own business cycles, e.g. by attending to the wrong things, complacency, poor structure, lags in reporting/action/effect etc - Time span of control is the notion that the effect of your decisions appear at an indeterminate point after your decision. If the time taken for the effect of your decisions to be noticed or measured is longer than your tenure, you will not get the credit for it. Long term projects in short term cycles will fail, unless your sponsor has a long term tenure.
• #8: There can be many reasons for this cyclical behaviour… - Often it is due to changes in (and therefore lack of) sponsorship, which inevitably reduces funding – sometimes triggered by re-organisations and the ensuing settling down period. A common example is the CIO transition, which historically happens every 3-5 years. - External economic cycles - Most businesses have some internally generated cycles, e.g. budgeting, strategy changes. In fact, sometimes the management of an organisation will generate or at least contribute to their own business cycles, e.g. by attending to the wrong things, complacency, poor structure, lags in reporting/action/effect etc - Time span of control is the notion that the effect of your decisions appear at an indeterminate point after your decision. If the time taken for the effect of your decisions to be noticed or measured is longer than your tenure, you will not get the credit for it. Long term projects in short term cycles will fail, unless your sponsor has a long term tenure.
• #9: So now that we know what EA is, we really need to understand why we care about the value of EA. Of course, you wouldn’t be here today if you at least didn’t care somewhat about the value of EA. But more specifically, there are 3 key reasons we care. First is that in order to procure organizational funding and support, we need to be able to develop a business case and for that, we need to talk to value. If we cannot articulate a value to our CIO, he isn’t going to fund or support us and that is going to make our work more difficult if not impossible. Second, in order for the rest of the organization to be willing to engage with us, they need to understand the value we can provide to them. If we can’t help them do their jobs better, they are just going to go right around us. Finally, we care about the value of EA because of the 7ish year itch. I will explain that in the next few slides.
• #19: So now we know why we care about the value of EA, we need to make sure we are all on the same page regarding what value is. To me, in its simplest form, value is the relationship between benefits (new capability, speed, agility, revenue generation), cost ($$, productivity, opportunity costs, costs of delay) and risk. We will return to this idea shortly.
• #20: So now we know why we care about the value of EA and we have seen an external perspective, here is my view. To me, in its simplest form, value is the relationship between benefits (new capability, speed, agility, revenue generation), cost ($$, productivity, opportunity costs, costs of delay) and risk. We will return to this idea shortly.
• #23: I want to close with a quick conversation about the value of EA in a digital world. This is important because there are still some very UNIQUE value add that we ring to the table. The EA role sees the big picture. That role is key to delivering a successful digital transformation. The EA role brings proven transformation techniques. We have been doing this for years on internal processes, we can use these techniques on customer facing processes as well. And the EA role brings a perspective of externally what’s possible. These three things are critical value adds that no one else in the organization can bring to the table. Digital transformation needs us.
• #25: So now that we know what EA is, we really need to understand why we care about the value of EA. Of course, you wouldn’t be here today if you at least didn’t care somewhat about the value of EA. But more specifically, there are 3 key reasons we care. First is that in order to procure organizational funding and support, we need to be able to develop a business case and for that, we need to talk to value. If we cannot articulate a value to our CIO, he isn’t going to fund or support us and that is going to make our work more difficult if not impossible. Second, in order for the rest of the organization to be willing to engage with us, they need to understand the value we can provide to them. If we can’t help them do their jobs better, they are just going to go right around us. Finally, we care about the value of EA because of the 7ish year itch. I will explain that in the next few slides.
• #26: Now, on the last slide, I talked about how EA includes City planning for IT. This is true when you think about the evolution of EA within an enterprise. In the first two stages of this CC&C Model of EA Maturity, you will find that kind of work very prevalent. Solution Architecture & Enterprise Solution Architecture are very much about setting up guardrails and partnering with project teams to develop designs that will fit with the strategies of the company. But when we evolve into the last two stages, Enterprise IT Architecture and Enterprise Architecture, now we are driving transformations beyond individual projects. Now we are transforming our IT landscape, the processes of our organization and at the highest levels of maturity, transforming the fundamental business model of our company. Special note: When people talk about business architecture as something standalone and different from EA, they are working in this space between EITA and EA on this model. This issue is that typically, they are ONLY working in that space and ignoring the rest. A mature and evolved EA practice considers all the pieces, not just one. We don’t need less EA, we need more in organizations. And we need more mature, more evolved Enterprise Architects to drive the transformations that our companies need. We as architects need to be doing more proactive EA and EITA, while giving our projects more freedom WITHIN our strategic plans in the SA and ESA work we do.
• #27: To move from SA to ESA, institute portfolio reviews and proactive governance To move from ESA to EITA, institute Roadmaps and ITPM To move from EITA to EA, utilize Business Capability Planning, Business Transformation programs and Business Model canvas
• #30: Feel free to reach out to me if you have questions on this webinar or need any help restarting EA in support of your digital transformation.