Architecture Series 5-5 Effective Enterprise Architecture Action Plan

Frankie Hsiang – Enterprise Technologist

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Architecture Series 5-5 - Effective Enterprise Architecture Action Plan

Architecture Series 5-5 - Effective Enterprise Architecture Action Plan Audience & Objectives

Audience - Senior Business and IT executives, managers, architects, and other key System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) roles.

Objectives - Identify common architecture activity & SDLC process gaps. Suggest agile top-down Enterprise Architecture (EA) actions to bridge those gaps.

Business Challenges & EA

Business proactively seeks meeting fast evolving customer needs.

Business reacts to mission change.

Manage operation costs and efficiency.

Government regulatory compliance.

Enterprise Architecture is a proven tool to address those business challenges.

Goals : Better, Faster, and Cheaper business operations.

Enterprise Architecture Improves Business Architecture Series 5-5 - Effective Enterprise Architecture Action Plan

Architecture work is a set of planned activities that need business motivation, management support, financial investment, and technical resources to demonstrate its strategic business value.

Goals : Build agile, high quality, and yet cost effective IT operations, and systems to enable First-Class business operations.

Architecture Definition Architecture Series 5-5 - Effective Enterprise Architecture Action Plan

Enterprise Architecture - The alignment of business vision and operations with IT investment to produce optimized business results and maintain high quality and yet cost effective IT operations

System Architecture - The fundamental organization of a system embodied in its components, their relationships to each other and to the environment and the principles guiding its design and evolution - ANSI/IEEE 1471-2000.

System Of Record (SOR) - An information storage system which is the authoritative data source for a given data element or piece of information.

Effective Enterprise Architecture Architecture Series 5-5 - Effective Enterprise Architecture Action Plan

Align business vision and operations with IT investment to produce optimized business results and maintain high quality and yet cost effective IT operations.

Business driven, proactive and collaborative across the entire enterprise, and better use of enterprise information resources.

Guide by EA, and EA Assessment framework. *

Actionable, accountable, measurable, and result driven action plan.

* See Reference # 2, 3, 4

EA Program Execution Architecture Series 5-5 - Effective Enterprise Architecture Action Plan Select EA methodology & assess progress Gain C-level executives support Business operating model IT engagement & governance model IT architecture definition, & optimization EA methodology adoption Guidance, compliance & control Culture change

Common Architecture Issues Architecture Series 5-5 - Effective Enterprise Architecture Action Plan Strategic Operational

Analysis & Synthesis to Action Architecture Series 5-5 - Effective Enterprise Architecture Action Plan Identify Issues Synthesis Root cause analysis Actions

project plan lacks details

Not familiar with SDLC

Lack of communication

Late communication

Lack of reusable design

Patterns

Insufficient enterprise

Solution

…

Projects over budget & time

Not meeting business needs

Lack of design review resource

PM engages architect late

Dev team not following guidance

Document lack of details or too much details

…

Theme Inconsistent Executive Support Theme Fragmented IT Engagement & Mgmt Theme Lack of IT Architecture Guidance Action Integrated Executive Support Action Integrated IT Engagement & Mgmt Action ARB provides IT Architecture Guidance

Theme: Inconsistent Senior Executives Support Architecture Series 5-5 - Effective Enterprise Architecture Action Plan

Is major IT investment guided by architecture roadmap?

Is architecture result measurable in time, quality, and money?

Are there enough architecture resources?

Do architects work on strategic tasks?

Is there SDLC role level accountability on each activity?

Note: EA is about business transformation. Senior executives leadership and continues focus on strategic EA activities is crucial for EA program success.

Action: Integrated Senior Executives Support Architecture Series 5-5 - Effective Enterprise Architecture Action Plan

Integrated Business & IT Executives Steering Committee to define visions, set business priority, and IT programs funding priority.

Major IT program funding request must provide business plan and architecture overview, & guided by Roadmap.

Routine review program status and architecture risks and exceptions report.

Ensure better business operations from good IT investment, also reduce architecture risks, and minimize exceptions.

Result is better strategic Business – IT alignment, appropriate accountability to all parties involved, and better enterprise risk management.

Theme: Fragmented IT Engagement & Governance Architecture Series 5-5 - Effective Enterprise Architecture Action Plan

Lack of architecture resources, and work on tactical tasks mostly.

Lack of SDLC role level accountability on architecture activities.

Architecture result is not measurable in time, quality, and money.

Architecture happens after system construction started.

Lack of integrated architecture view among business, application, information, technology, infrastructure, and security.

Action: Integrated IT Engagement & Governance Architecture Series 5-5 - Effective Enterprise Architecture Action Plan

Integrated Business and IT PMO.

Enforce SDLC process to all IT projects and all SDLC participants.

Architecture work is a set of planned activities. In SDLC Planning phase, Project Manager engages architect to plan resources, activities, and schedule for all architecture activities.

Identify single point of accountability for each SDLC activity.

Ensure reviewer understanding and quality review artifacts at review gate

Create Architecture Review Board (ARB) as the technical authority to promote integrated architecture view. ARB produces routine architecture risk and exceptions report to CIO and Executives Steering Committee.

Development runtime environment (database) availability is gated by planning, and requirements review result.

Accelerate SDLC adoption campaign on both IT and Business areas.

Result is appropriate accountability to all parties involved, better architecture governance, high quality deliverables from review gates, and improved architecture risks and exceptions reporting.

Architecture Review Board (ARB) Architecture Series 5-5 - Effective Enterprise Architecture Action Plan

ARB is a group of architects with technical authority to

Promote integrated architecture view among business, application, information, infrastructure, and security.

Enforce architecture governance

Verify Business – IT architecture alignment

Provide technical guidance to project teams

Set consistent architecture review practice

Review & approve major IT program architecture

Share business domain and technical knowledge among reviewers.

Produces routine architecture risk and exceptions report to CIO and Executives Steering Committee.

Theme: IT Architecture Guidance Architecture Series 5-5 - Effective Enterprise Architecture Action Plan

Architecture happens after system construction started.

Major IT investment is not guided by architecture roadmap.

Enterprise Architecture initiative is too broad and time consuming.

Insufficient reusable design, and integration patterns.

Inconsistent architectural structure, and poor technical communication.

Lack of integrated architecture view among business, application, information, technology, infrastructure, and security.

Actio n: IT Architecture Definition & Optimization Architecture Series 5-5 - Effective Enterprise Architecture Action Plan

Good Software Engineering : Business use case driven, and architecture centric development practice.

Promote standard technologies, layered architecture, common design patterns, and shared services to reduce development and maintenance cost.

Build ARB to promote integrated architecture view. See ARB slide for details.

Better technical communication via common architecture visual notations. Business common notations for executives, and business audience. Technical common notations (UML, 4+1 views) for technical audience.

Business functions based System Of Record (SOR) definition.

Document baseline LOB architecture incrementally .

Document to-be state LOB architecture one project at a time. Project team takes some ownership on EA alignment.

Create Architecture Roadmap to guide strategic business and IT investment. Revise Roadmap annually.

Identify key showcase projects for each LOB as SDLC examples.

Result is actionable enterprise architecture, business driven SOR definition, better technical communication, and lower total cost.

Good Software Engineering Architecture Series 5-5 - Effective Enterprise Architecture Action Plan

Business Use Case Driven

SPA promotes good software engineering

S eparation of Concerns – Layered, and componentized architecture definitions. FEA: PRM, BRM, SRM, TRM, DRM. *

P atterns driven system design, integration and communication consistency.

A rchitecture centric solution development.

* See Reference # 2, 3, 4

Document Baseline LOB Architecture Incrementally Architecture Series 5-5 - Effective Enterprise Architecture Action Plan

High level business use cases. Factor in customer needs, time line, and budget for documenting the history.

Create LOB business functions catalogue, including functions, data, systems, owners, users, and maintainers.

Business functions based, or organizational structure neutral, System of Record (SOR) definition.

Apply common architecture structure and visual notations for better technical communication. Power Point or Visio business diagrams for executives and business audience. UML based diagrams (4+1 views) for technical audience.

Create Architecture Roadmap Architecture Series 5-5 - Effective Enterprise Architecture Action Plan

Research and analysis of current state baseline architecture to identify common business themes.

Work with business owners to identify business priority, gaps and identify keeper systems.

Create long term roadmap to guide strategic business transformation and IT investment.

Strategic IT investment needs to align to the Roadmap which is the result of EA alignment.

Revise roadmap annually.

Agile EA – Increase Communication & Reduce Complexity Architecture Series 5-5 - Effective Enterprise Architecture Action Plan

Focus on People and Communication.

Routinely display updated EA models & business processes in users workspace – increase communication and demonstrate value.

Keep It Simple, and Stupid (Short): KISS

Standardize business processes and technologies

Separation of Concerns: Divide and Conquer

Layered and componentized business and technologies - reduce inter-dependency.

Agile & Iterative Process: Demonstrate value early and iteratively. Agility from fast and short iterative process cycle.

Culture Change Takes Time Architecture Series 5-5 - Effective Enterprise Architecture Action Plan

Issues identified, good action items and engagement & governance plan created, capital invested, organization supports architecture program. But where is improvement?