Overview of what Enterprise Architecture is, why its important and how it can deliver significantly higher business performance.

1. Enterprise Architecture
Program
Making Order out of Chaos
By: Robert R. Rowntree, Jan. 14th,2018

2. Summary
The following will be discussed in this presentation:
1. What is Enterprise Architecture, its importance and how
can it be used to deliver business value.
2. Balancing Architecture Governance between Architecture
Quality and Project dimensions – scope, time and cost.
3. Approach to providing Superior Customer Service, Quality
Deliverables and efficient/effective Operations while
demonstrating progress, value and results.
Robert R. Rowntree
2

3. #1 -What is EA?
▪ Best Analogy “City Planning vs. Building Planning”- EA is
City Planning. Over time without the “City Planning” the landscape
will increasingly have difficulty integrating/interoperating, shortages
will arise.
▪ Cities need sufficient services – Security (Fire, Police), Hospitals, Power, Transportation.
▪ Cities need to “fit” together functionally and aesthetically (interoperate).
▪ Cities need financing and budgeting for investments/expenditures.
▪ So do you want a “Detroit” or a “Palm Springs” – a few good buildings (GM, Ford offices)
sprouting up over a decaying metropolis.
▪ Which do you have? How can you tell?
▪ Formally there are many definitions of EA based on
perspective:
▪ Business - What – Key Processes, Systems and Data (EA as Strategy)
▪ Business – End Game – Optimize often fragmented processes into an integrated
environment that is responsive to change and supportive of delivery of the business strategy.
(The Open Group).
▪ Technical  EA ≠ IT Architecture (Business, Application, Data, Technology)
EA = IT Architecture + Link Tech Investment to Bus Performance + Guiding Principles +
Standards + Research/Trends + Governance + ADM + Blueprints (Current/Target Env) +
Roadmap
Standards = Technical + Product + Architecture + Information
Robert R. Rowntree
3

4. #1 – Why is EA Important?
▪Accountability -> Links Technology Investment
to Business Performance
▪ Technology can’t exist without business
▪ Technology needs to be an accelerant of business initiatives
▪ Warning! – Don’t fall for the “alignment trap”
▪ Avoids Key Pain Point – Spending with no Accountability
▪Kaizen -> Captains the Discovery of Technology
Disruptors that can improve the Business
▪ External – Scanning the global technology landscape, industry
▪ Internal – Scanning within the organization for discoveries that
can benefit the entire enterprise – stop “reinventing the wheel”
▪ Think better customer service, up operational effectiveness,
reduce costs
Robert R. Rowntree
4

5. #1 – Why is EA Important?
▪Faster/Agile Business -> Faster/Better
Decisions by People via Governance and
Guidance.
▪ Governance – Getting desired behaviors to accelerate business
performance – “well-oiled” process reducing “frictions”.
▪ Principles – Guidelines that simplifies and aligns decision
making.
▪ Standards – Lowers component, labor cost. Speeds decisions
▪Accurate View of IT Stuff -> Uncertainty of
Asset State mitigated
▪ Big Pain Point of business – where is my stuff, how's it doing in
terms of age, fitness and support costs.
Robert R. Rowntree
5

6. #1- Why is EA Important?
▪Where are we headed? -> Technology
Roadmap clarifying how the business will win
over time.
▪ Roadmap – Time sequenced view of how technology will change
as business landscape changes while keeping the organization
competitive.
▪ ADM – Architectural Development Method that allows effective
change to happen in the right amount of time, quality and cost.
▪ Integrates and Interoperates – EA is “City Planning vs. Building
Planning”. Over time without the “City Planning” systems will
increasingly have difficulty integrating/interoperating.
Robert R. Rowntree
6

7. #2- Balancing Architecture
▪Balancing and Tradeoffs between EA Quality
and project dimensions – scope, time and cost
▪ Balance by Degree of Rigor (High, Medium, Low)
▪ Rigor scale typically based on cost – High =$$$$, Med = $$$, Low = $
▪ Factors – Risk (Strategic[Space Travel vs. Building Mgmt], Compliance,
Financial, Operational, Reputational), Culture, Finance Priorities, Mandate
▪ Rigor levels have levels of governance requirements - # of Checkpoints,
intensity of EA involvement, artifacts produced – In themselves cost $$$
▪ Mandate – Advocate versus Enforce – no teeth versus too much bite.
▪ Watch out for exploding OPEX – non-standard, limited reuse of
licenses & manpower skillset, solutions work fine individually but
lack integration capabilities – point to point vs centralized comm.
Duplicated data in each solution vs. normalized common data.
▪ El-Cheapo, non standard projects don’t likely translate to low
OPEX  OPEX = 4 to 8x CAPEX.
Robert R. Rowntree
7

8. #3 - Approach
▪Superior Customer Service
▪ Manage End to End EA Process  Higher Satisfaction
▪ Rapid Attention to Issue  Head off Customer Dissatisfaction
▪Quality Deliverables
▪ Only so much a “process” can drive quality – Activities that are
more an art than a science, those with many possible
exceptions, are dependent on the Artist.
▪ Aim for Artisans that have discipline, ability to learn, passion for
excellence.
▪ Provide Organizational Support – Good Technology, Physical Environment ,
Coaching, Training and Team Cohesion.
▪ Provide the Conditions - Autonomy, Mastery and Meaning – Meaning trumps
everything!
Robert R. Rowntree
8

9. #3 - Approach
▪Effective Operations – Unit, Team, Individuals
▪ High Performance Business – Targets, Incentives, Monitoring.
▪ High Performance Team – Vision, Priorities, Plan of Attack,
Knowledge/Capabilities Inventory, Speak Truths/Gotcha’s, Devils
Advocate.
▪ High Performance Individuals
▪ Are you making progress? - Clear Road Blocks. Highly correlated to Job
Satisfaction.
▪ “Check in” without “Checking up” – Vanquishes perception of micromanaging.
▪ Coaching – everyone has a learning plan – part personal goals, part traced to
company goals.
▪Demonstrate Progress, Value and Results
▪ Metric - Project Leaders satisfaction, # of Architectural Defects
ID’ed after Launch, % On-Time checkpoints.
Robert R. Rowntree
9

10. Appendix
▪Risks of EA
▪Metrics for EA
Robert R. Rowntree
10

11. Risks of EA
▪Over Thinking - Imbalance towards too much
thinking leaving little resources for Doing.
▪Lacks Integration – EA is not well integrated
with all Management centers
▪ Mgmt Centers – Solution Delivery, Portfolio Project Management
and Operations.
▪Advocate or Enforce– Have to determine
whether EA just advocates/advises, enforces or
somewhere in between.
▪ Post Mortem of Financial crisis showed Risk Management at
major financial institutes seen as Advocators/Recommenders of
what To Do/Not to Do. Major Fault.
Robert R. Rowntree
11

12. Metrics for EA
▪Metrics that can be used to communicate the
value of Enterprise Architecture
1. Time to Market/Agility - Quantitative
▪ Use of Standards – easier decisions, better
interoperability.
▪ Modern Technology – improve performance &
interoperability.
▪ Governance - streamlines decision making.
2. Revenue/IT Costs - Quantitative
▪ Financial markets track Revenue/IT Cost – research
shows that using people, process and technology can
elevate organization financial performance.
▪ Fewer Technologies – lower variance in product licensing
and labor – e.g.,databases all Oracle – volume discounts.
▪ Shorter Projects – faster decisions with slimmer set of
technologies provide deeper and narrow expertise.
Robert R. Rowntree
12

13. Metrics for EA
▪Metrics that can be used to communicate the
value of Enterprise Architecture
3. Reliability - Quantitative
▪ Standardize - Lower complexity and interoperability
gotchas.
▪ Focused expertise - slimmer set of technology
components.
4. Customer Satisfaction – Qualitative
▪ Combination of business owner and end user satisfaction
statistics.
▪ Business owners of IT systems satisfaction.
▪ End User satisfaction.
Robert R. Rowntree
13

14. WIP
▪Finished Beats Perfect – Avoid “Gold Plating”
▪Individual Time Buffers - % of Time for Thinking
▪Priorities, Categories, Triage.
Robert R. Rowntree
14

15. WIP
▪Creative/Innovating or Informing Meetings
▪Core Problem  CEO’s Worldwide – Lots of
Informing not enough Creative/Innovation.
▪EA mandate/culture – significant portion of
Creative for Organization.
▪Psychographics – Divergent/Creative/Unbounded
vs. Convergent/Consensus/bounded discussions
▪Divergent vs. Convergent Discussions
▪Corporation worldwide lack Divergent Thinkers.
Distribution in IT is about 80/20
Convergent/Divergent Thinkers.
Robert R. Rowntree
15

16. Risks of No EA
▪Locally Optimal, Enterprise Suboptimal – Organizational
units meet their performance goals, the Enterprise likely
not.
▪ Income vs. Balance sheet statement – short term solutions vs. long term
enterprise wealth. EA works to maximize enterprise wealth versus solutions
maximizing short term income/expenses.
▪Loosely following Standards, Regulations –
▪ Lower integration – point solutions work fine individually but not together.
Enterprise wide systems hard to build if not impossible.
▪ Lower interoperability – non standard means difficult and fragile integrations.
Changing anything takes more $$$, time and effort.
▪ Agility suffers – lower integratability and interoperability means less agility to
tackle fast moving and disruptive markets.
▪Denormalized, Duplicated and Dirty Data – .
▪ Low Integrity – hard to consistently update data in multiple spots.
▪ EA creating order and building solutions creating disorder.
▪ Complexity and disorder produces inefficiencies.
▪ Result  Costs go up, agility to grow and survive disruptions goes down.
Robert R. Rowntree
16