Earnestine is a senior enterprise architect at X Railways who is tasked with managing the company's application portfolio and reducing IT complexity. In the first chapters, she explores the existing business structures, terminology, processes and application landscape to understand existing weaknesses. She realizes inconsistent terminology and lack of understanding of dependencies have led to issues. Earnestine talks to seasoned experts and project managers to understand politics and opportunities. In later chapters, she works to establish governance boards and a collaborative design process to facilitate negotiations and challenge existing structures in a safe space. Her goal is to design the organization and IT together while considering politics.

2. X Railways
Chapter 1
“Where it all began”
March 1st, 2021

3. X Railways
Senior Enterprise Architect
10y+ software engineering
5y+ IT architect
Strong technology background
TOGAF certification
All photos taken from pixabay.com

4. Manage application portfolio
Application repository -> EA tool
Reduce complexity of IT landscape
Software architectures for big projects
Introduce new technologies
Create a target application architecture
The briefing by Chris the CIO

5. Earnestine’s Enterprise Architecture Vision
Collaborative Enterprise Architecture
Many co-architects at the business
Focus on business structures
Reveil and deal with politics
-> prerequisites for Chris’ demands

6. X Railways
Chapter 1
“Where it all began”
● EA is still an IT discipline
● not well established in the organisation
● don’t follow the goals of the CIO blindly,
follow the goals of the enterprise

7. X Railways
Chapter 2
“Explore Existing Wisdom”
March - May 2021

8. Explore existing wisdom
Mission/Vision/Strategy Goals
Products
Organisation handbook
Process models
IT-application spreadsheets

9. Existing Organisation Description

10. Terminology Glossary

11. First sketches - terms and their relations

12. Existing Process Model

13. First Sketches - Capability Map

14. Collaborative maintenance of IT-application documentation
Existing
IT Application Excels
Collaborative
EA tool,
Wiki

15. Basic Application Attributes

16. Existing Projects

17. X Railways
Chapter 2
“Explore Existing Wisdom”
● Inconsistent terminology is often the reason for
weak organisations/processes/IT structures
● Various existing teams “architect” in parallel
(process-, product-, software designers,...)
● Dependencies between projects are rarely well
understood
● Let the application owners maintain THEIR
application documentation
● The best EA tool is collaborative like a wiki

18. And a lot of questions
?
?
?
?
Millions of open questions

19. X Railways
Chapter 3
“Coming out into the open”
June 2021 - Sept. 2021

20. Drink coffee with the seasoned outliers

21. Earnestine uses all of her personal skills….

22. Understand corporate politics

23. Talk to managers of top 10 strategic projects

24. Find friends in the software engineering department

25. Software technology map

26. X Railways
Chapter 3
“Coming out into the open”
● Corporate politics put constraints on EA
● Build trust and coalitions (and get information)
● Indications of flaws in the org chart can be
found talking to seasoned experts easily.
● Find friends with software technology skills

27. X Railways
Chapter 4
“Design a safe negotiation
space”
October 2021 - October 2022

30. Application Heatmapping

31. Applications <-> Process

32. Applications <-> Capabilities

33. Look what I’ve found in business (& IT)
We need a mandate to work on these issues
Please help me setup clear
accountabilities / board structures
The next regular meeting with Chris….

34. Board for governing cross-department process & IT change initiatives

35. Get clear mandate by C-suite

36. Board for governing cross-department change initiatives
Commision and monitor change initiatives that cross departments
● Process enhancements
● IT application platforms
● Data governance

37. X Railways
Chapter 4
“Design a safe negotiation space”
● Invite all relevant people to the co-design
● Hint, don’t tell or lecture
● Get the help of the C-suite once you have good
examples
● Establish a clear decision process

38. X Railways
Chapter 5
“Establish a continuous
co-design process”
October 2022ff

39. Establish a continuous co-design process

40. X Railways
● Collaborative co-Design of Org&IT with
corporate politics in mind
● Let them do their design
● Facilitate a safe negotiation space
● Dare to challenge the holy cow of org-structure
Technology architecture is the easiest part.
Bring architecture to the business side.

41. X Railways
Epilogue

42. O.M.G!
I forgot something!!

43. More to come….
Product
Organisation
How are we
being perceived?
What are we making
and offering?
How do we work
together as a team?
Who are we, why do we
exist, what matters to us?
What makes us different
and unique?
What makes all the
parts in our enterprise
work together?
What are we capable of
achieving?
What is our role in
people’s lives?
What value do we create
for people?
Brand
Identity Architecture
Experience

44. Intersection Group is a Non Profit Association
Intersection
Toolkit
A set of connected Open
Source tools for your
Enterprise Design practice
Community
and Events
Events for a global
community of thinkers
and practitioners
Learning and
Knowledge
Publications, content,
courses and digital
tools with our partners

45. 3 association board members
7 core team members
80+ advising members
5 development partners
700+ people on Slack
3000+ newsletter subscribers
Various backgrounds:
About 30% Enterprise and Business Architects
About 30% Experience, Service and Business
Designers
A diverse group of about 20% other, related
profiles:
Business Analysts, Founders and Executives,
Innovation or Change Agents, Operations and
Process Designers, Organisation Designers and
Developers, Branding and Marketing Experts,
Agilists and Digital/IT Experts, Product Owners,
Industry Experts…
Our community

46. Weekly
WebinarsWednesda

47. The patterns in Earnestine’s story
enterprisedesignpatterns.com

48. Thank you!
Wolfgang Goebl
wolfgang@intersection.group
www.intersection.group