Innovation

To sparkle innovation there is a need for using the right people for the right positions within the project organization.
Tom Kelley is of the opinion that these profiles should be combined to create HOT teams that truly creates innovations:
“

1. The Visionary is the type of person who is able to identify future possibilities (visions) and he is able to recruit the project team.
2. The Troubleshooter is a person who in way or the other who are able to identify problems internally in the organization and is able to handle all situations that might occur in the project organization while the project is being executed.
3. The Iconoclast is a person who is able to challenge the current believes of what is right inside the project organization and is able to see possibilities in other paradigms.
4. The Pulse Taker is a person who is able to work like a hearth does in a human. The person has to be versatile in his or her way of thinking and is able to channelize the “life blood” of the project on to other individuals in the project organization.
5. The Craftsman is that kind of person who is able to construct prototypes and work around with them to make innovative designs. These competences are vital for any kind of radical innovation.
6. The Technologist is what many people would call a geek. A person who is dedicated to work with technology and is able to handle complex tasks, uncover and create deeper meaning.
7. The Entrepreneur is a person who is able to work out with brainstorms, innovation, prototypes and communicate these to other persons.
8. The Cross-Dresser these kinds of persons who have studied or worked with a totally different form of field then he or she works with today. These individuals make use of their skills to envision new solutions.

”

This leads to the concept of the maturity of the architectures and thereby the concept of Coherency Management.

The Concept of Coherency Management

Coherency Management deals with the maturing process of the architecture within the organization. The architecture consist of the various layers of the organization which are:

1. People.
2. Organization culture.
3. Organization structure.
4. Bureaucratic structure.
5. Process structure.
6. Information structure.
7. Technology structure.

The more matured the architecture of the organization is the better the organization will be come to understand the processes, people, information and technology needed to create both evolutionary innovation and radical innovation.
Every organization has an architecture otherwise they wouldn’t be able to operate but there are three forms of architectures. The first architecture is called an architecture before Enterprise Architecture tools were applied and the organization is not aware of how it operates.
The more mature form of the architecture is called the foundation architecture. The foundation architecture is characterized by that the organization has applied Enterprise Architecture tools to the IT side of the organization. The first level of maturity with in this mode of architecture is where the IT structure and information structure is articulated for the enterprise wide perspective.
The second level of the architecture is when the needs of the business is articulated in a methodical way.
The third level of maturity is known by that the business side of the organization makes use of EA tools to identify, analyze and engineer the processes and structures after a methodical approach and after the change process has ended then the CIO takes over and apply the IT perspective.
The fourth and last maturity level for any organization is called the embedded architecture. This form of architecture is characterized by that all processes are aligned and by that there is a great need for design leadership. The design leadership has to create a framework for how the documentation and plans are to be designed. The other elements of the organization such as the Human Resources, annual planning, strategic planning, public reporting makes use of the structured framework and tools of the EA not to mention the that the strategic goal of the business drives the business requirements a and by that  drive the technological solutions.

Sources

Gary Doucet et al., Coherency Management: Architecting the Enterprise for Alignment, Agility and Assurance (International Enterprise Architecture Institute, 2009).

Tom Kelley and Jonathan Littman, The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America’s Leading Design Firm, 1st ed. (Broadway Business, 2001). 

The foundation architecture is characterized by that Enterprise Architecture tools have been applied which has uncovered processes both within IT and the business which can be managed by using an EA framework. The foundation architecture is usually under control of the CIO in the organization. This means that the project is largely IT related. The foundation architecture is superior to the un- articulated architecture since it can assist the management in the organization realize that the enterprise architecture can be used strategically.

The extended architecture is defined by that the architecture is build upon the idea that the organization has realized that Enterprise Architecture tools can be used to understand processes and alter improve the outcome of the processes by using Enterprise Architecture tools. The primary difference between the extended architecture and the before mentioned foundation architecture is that the business side of the organization has discovered that the tools can be used to obtain superior results. Doucet et al (2009) describes this as a situation which means that:
The management of the business side of the organization make use of EA to rethink the processes (obliteration).
The Human Resources department makes use of EA tools to describe what particular needs the organization needs and what courses the current members of the organization needs to be qualified to use the tools.
The business line managers conceptualize ideas by using the EA tools.
The IT department make use of EA tools to identify and support the core processes of the organization.
But as before mentioned the primary reason between the foundation architecture and the extended architecture is that the business side has adopted the tools and the EA paradigm to develop the organization.

The embedded architecture is the evaluation of the extended architecture which means that the organization has adapted processes which adds to the architecture and in that way aid the architecture. Never the less when a lot of changes are implemented over time then there is a need for a framework which evaluates and implement the various changes to the architecture.
This means that the embedded architecture becomes ubiquitous in the way that the strategy and the processes enforces the strategy.
It is worth to mention that the organization is beyond the agenda setting, matching, redefining / restructuring and clarifying phases. The organization has or is close to be through the routinization phase which means that all employees in the organization understands the innovation is relates to it when they work.

* Gary Doucet et al., Coherency Management: Architecting the Enterprise for Alignment, Agility and Assurance (International Enterprise Architecture Institute, 2009). 

Coherency Management has its focus on how to make the organizations work smarter. By that the business processes have to be altered which will leads to changes in the Information Systems and changes in the organization hierarchy.

When such changes occur then the employees and the managers have to work together in a different way which means that the organization culture and the organization subcultures will be challenged. Thereto such projects needs support from the top and middle management and various other stakeholders to succeed.

Since Coherency Management can’t be achieved in one single project and the organization has to develop its architecture (and coherency) over time then the program has to be continuous where various projects are defined and implemented over time.

To be able to win over the guiding coalitions then a Coherency Initiation Plan has to articulated. The Coherency Initiation Plan has to consist of these elements:

1. A Stakeholder Analysis and Plan.

2. A Plan for coping with the political struggles within the organization (the opposing factions)

3. A Communication Plan.

4. Lobbying for further change e.g., to the management, stock owners or other internal as well as external stakeholders e.g., via the press.

When the “Coherency Initiation Plan” has been articulated then it is necessary to work with how the organization is designed in the way culture, technology, processes, structure and management interact and how they create value for the organization.

The Coherency Architect has to take this into account and therefore should the “owners” of the processes be won over to believe that they can and will gain by the process changes. As mentioned in Coherency and Organizations then the employees and the managers are key to success. This means that the Coherency Architect has to make sure that he or she understands how the various departments, employees and managers influence the processes in the organization. This can be achieved by the Coherency Architect map the processes in the organization and identifies which departments that handles the various subprocesses and then investigate who are in charge of the processes. The processes can be identified by using a flowchart diagram. The persons who are in charge needs to be involved in the process change e.g., by applying the Soft Systems Methodology or the Coherency Architect use extensive interviews to form a qualified opinion.

It is important that the Coherency Architect continues to communicate to the stakeholders so the funding and the support in form of goodwill towards the Coherency Program are kept intact.

To investigate how the organization can create value then it is necessary for the Coherency Architect to investigate how the architecture of the company is designed. Remember that the point of Coherency Management is to make the organization reach its goals in a smarter way and therefore should the Coherency Architect work with several different tools to investigate the processes, organization culture, organization structure, management and technology (some proposals for how to do so will be handled in a future blog post).

Currently the IT department has a lot of control on how to govern and administrate the computers in the organization. It is usually based on the idea that the economies of scale is the preferred perspective to make use of e.g., when it comes to discussion on how to enable the users to operate with new features.

The CIOs tends to favor ideas of that when the governance committee has decided how the group is designed and who should be consulted when it comes to input and enforcement but they tend not to understand the need for user customization that has the potential to crystalize innovation and by that strengthen the organization.

After all it is the users who usually understand how they can improve their work conditions and their way to handle various forms of tasks e.g., organizing, information handling or knowledge sharing.

In this perspective it is rather clear that the persons who have a first hand impression of the situation are those who should be able to find suitable solutions for the problems at hand.

The IT department often play a critical role of the degree of freedom and thereby degree of innovation the users can achieve. If the IT department enforces the strategies the strategy committee has articulated and enforcing its view of governance then the employees often have to live by the rules of the IT department.

From the CIOs point of view then the organization’s use of IT has to be efficient both in usage and in costs. This means that the organization has to focus on keeping costs down on maintenance and focusing on pleasing the stakeholders of the IT projects. With this in mind then the IT department will focus on limiting the possible configurations of the computers and information systems in the organization so end user support and technical support can be easily deployed.

In other words the organization is in a constant struggle between efficiency and innovation.

As mentioned before then it is of vital importance that the organization is able to innovate its processes and by that the employees of the organization actively engage in the improvement of the organization structure. The Coherency Architect has to focus on both the efficiency (costs and support) and the issues of innovation in the core of the organization.