IT Strategy Paradigms: Ways to understand and develop IT strategies in a Coherency Management Context.

25 08 2010

What is an IT strategy

I have been able to identify two major approaches to articulate IT strategies.

The first major approach is the typical MIT Sloan School of Management approach that support the issues of a some how detached IT strategy from the corporate strategy. The strategy is build upon the assumption that IT is complex, and needed to compete with other organizations on particular issues. IT is a vital component and can’t be ignored in the ever changing competitive environment that most enterprises are in.

The notable theoreticians within the paradigm of the MIT Sloan School of Management are Erik Brynjofsson, Jeanne Ross and Peter Weill.

I title this approach the separated IT approach.

I have likewise been able to identify an opposing approach. The opposing approach deals with that IT is that dominant that the executives have to include IT in their corporate strategy. IT can’t be seen as a unique form of investment since IT is equal to many other forms of technology e.g., machines, cars, boats etc.

There are so far rather few theoreticians who commit openly to this approach to IT strategy, the most notable is properly Chris Potts and Scott Bernard (who indirectly support this approach through his views on Enterprise Architecture).

The later approach seems promising since it promotes that the various actors within the enterprise should work along side in a coherent fashion which is in the spirit of Enterprise Architecture.

The two approaches do share some common features e.g., the time frame, the focus on technology and principles needs to be addressed and that IT is a necessity to compete in the modern economy.

IT-strategy paradigms.

IT-strategy paradigms.

The Integrated Strategy Approach

The executives have to understand IT when they work with strategy and they have to understand the impact of applying Information Technology to e.g., Information Systems such as ERP systems, CRM systems or similar. McKeen & Smith (2004) that Information Technology is in nearly all aspects of an enterprise today. That means that the enterprise and the management of the enterprise needs to adjust to the new situation. McKeen & Smith argues that the IT department needs to be proactive to cope with the changes in the industry and the social conditions of the enterprise.

The IT managers don’t necessarily understand the future work with the business and it might lead that they develop assumptions that are out of touch with reality. Neither can we expect that IT persons (or for that matter other persons) knows everything or equally good at anything.

What is important in tis particular approach Potts argues that the need for governing the enterprise as a coherent entity and therefore should the enterprise avoid the detached IT department.

Chris Potts works with the assumption that any kind of modern and Western economies have to include IT in some way. Therefore should the executives (or other strategists) include IT in the articulation process of the corporate strategy. Potts argue that the IT department shouldn’t be separating from “the business” will lead to that the IT department, and the services the IT department provides the business will be seen as an external entity and therefore can’t the IT department have any influence on the corporate strategy.

This leads to the separated strategy approach that have some opposing views on how the enterprise should be dealing with IT in the strategy planning session.

The Separated Strategy Approach

The operating model is what the enterprise should be working with. This particular model maps how the enterprise works. Ross & Weill”s approach is that there are four different generic approaches that the enterprise can make use of (Ross & Weill 2009).

The operating models are then deal with through the needs of the business; but the assumption that Ross & Weill works with is that IT is complex and that executives from the business don’t understand how IT works.

Along side McKeen & Smith they claim that IT needs to become a proactive force but yet IT is that complex that it needs to be governed and dealt with by specialists or generalists who have an understanding of how IT works and how the various implementation approaches of IT works.

What The Approaches Share

Both approaches share features from one another e.g., the both approaches defines IT as a complex form of investments that needs to be governed. Likewise does both approaches suggests that the articulation of the strategy isn’t enough. The strategy needs to be embodied in the actions of the executives.

Both approaches suggests that IT is a corner stone in how the enterprises do business now a days. Both approaches argues that “the business” and the IT department needs to understand one another to make the necessary decisions to create synergy and through that make the business perform as it had more resources at hand.

Coherency Management

In a context of Coherency Management IT plays a decisive role in the foundation architecture, and the ideas presented in Ross & Weill (2006 & 2009) and FruITion both appeal to the usage of Enterprise Architecture to combine business and IT to create competitive advantages. The foundation architecture is characterized by the CIO and the IT department is the driver for enabling an Enterprise Architecture program. It is essential for any enterprise that pursues assurance, alignment and agility to establish an understanding of how the enterprise works and then apply the tools to elevate the Enterprise Architecture program to embrace more than just the IT department.

In conclusion an IT strategy should be tightly coupled to the corporate strategy to make any kind of benefit from working and governing IT.

Appendix

McKeen, J.D. & Smith, H.A., 2003. Making IT Happen: Critical Issues in Managing Information Technology, John Wiley & Sons.

Potts, C., 2008. fruITion: Creating the Ultimate Corporate Strategy for Information Technology illustrated edition., Technics Publications, LLC.

Ross, J.W., Weill, P. & Robertson, D.C., 2006. Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution illustrated edition., Harvard Business School Press.

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Categories : Alignment, Corporate Strategy, IT Alignment, IT Governance, IT Investment, IT Strategy

Can IT Make a Competitive Difference: From a Coherency Architect’s Point of View.

9 08 2010

The Introduction

Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee has written the paper “Investing in the IT That Makes a Competitive Difference” that was published in 2007 in by Harvard Business Review. The paper deals with how enterprises deals with competition in the United States. McAfee & Brynjolfsson argues that most enterprises are in state of hard competition and it will increasingly become more difficult to deal with the competition. They claim that they have found a collaboration between the investment in IT and the way enterprises are able to manage competition.

Premises of the Paper

The first premise of investing in IT that makes a competitive advantage is that the authors claims that the enterprise can gain a competitive advantage through investing in IT. The authors are of the opinion, that they can conclude that investments in IT can create competitive advantages from statistics.
McAfee & Brynjolfsson concludes that many industries experience though (almost perfect) competition. This form of competition has lead to a focus on operational efficiency where IT has become a key factor to achieve operational efficiency. This argument can be supported by Ross & Weill and their research into achieving competitive advantages through IT governance and IT strategies. McAfee & Brynjolfsson works with data that suggest that IT intensive companies can generate more value through governing their IT assets and applying IT to re-build their business processes.

“The firm with the best processes will win in most of the all markets. At the same time, competitors will be able to strike back much more quickly: Instead of simply copying the first mover, they will introduce further IT-based innovations [...]”

- McAfee & Brynjolfsson (2007), p. 6.

The authors suggest that there are six elements of the successful IT – enabled process. The first element is that it cover a wide span, the process produce results immediately, the process is precise, the process is consistent, the process makes monitoring easy and last but not least the process has embedded enforceability.
The three companies that McAfee and Brynjolfsson put their attention is on Cisco Systems, Otis (the elevator company), and CVS.
What is the common key for the three companies is that they make use of enterprise wide systems to somehow revolutionize and optimize their business processes. I believe that Harmon entitled this “obliteration of processes” which suggests that the business processes could be re-invented along side the addition of Information Technology. This would lead to that the true benefits of Enterprise Architecture can be reached.
The two authors then discuss two different approaches to enabling the IT processes. The first one is the “Top Down approach” and the second approach is the “Bottom Up approach”.
According to McAfee & Brynjolfsson then the authors makes use of the CVS as a case. They claim that while the enterprise made use of highly centralized systems then some discontent employees (they where discontent with the service the IT department provided for their Macs). The employees created a Wikipedia where they wrote articles on how to overcome the obstacles they experienced when they made use of their macs in the enterprise.
The later example was an example of a decentralized service.

Criticism

The article suggests that IT savvy enterprises do often perform better than enterprises that aren’t. This is in line with the MIT approach to IT strategy that McAfee, Brynjolfsson, Ross & Weill are working with. The role of IT needs to be addressed compared to organizational culture, the employees and their capabilities and their focus on adding value for the enterprise.
The classical anti-thesis to the MIT approach is Carr’s view of investments in Information Technology. Carr is of the impression that the investment in IT often leads to quite an opposite of what the intention was. Carr argues that when enterprises invest in IT then they often over emphasize the cost reduction.
The reductions are then re-invested into lower prices which is easily matched by a company that are in an industry that experience perfect competition.
Carr suggests that enterprises should follow other enterprises when it comes to the usage and investment in IT, likewise should the enterprises focus on risk instead of potential (innovate when the risks are low) and last should the enterprise invest less in IT.

Competitive Advantage

When it comes to competitive advantage then Porter (1998) suggests that the enterprise can’t achieve competitive advantages through focusing on operational efficiency. The enterprise has to focus on innovation to enable positioning the products the enterprise produces in a different way. Through positioning then competitive advantage should be enabled.
Likewise does Porter (1998) suggest that the enterprise has to be enable several processes to enable a sustainable competitive advantage.
Carr (2004) argues that Information Technology only leads to short term competitive advantages and is therefore not desirable to invest in. Instead should the enterprise focus its attention to work with several non-IT related competencies and eventually apply IT support them or re-invent them.
Patrick Turner (2010) suggests that IT needs a strong governance to become an enabler.

“When giving a high profile IT project to a junior project manager is like giving a teenager a rather powerful racing car, he will eventually crash it into a tree.”

- Patrick Turner

Ross & Weill (2009) suggests that Information Technology is only good for two specific things. Standardization that deals with the standardization of data and then integration which deals with information sharing through the entire process.

Reflection

McAfee & Brynjolfsson suggests that IT can make a strategic advantage (competitive advantage), if the enterprise understands to invest in the right IT and re-thinking its processes(the IT that makes a competitive advantage). However many other theoreticians suggest that operational efficiency which investments in IT can be identified as isn’t a strategy or for that matter a strategic enabler. The enterprise needs to invest in business processes and re-invent the processes when it makes sense for the enterprise to do so. McAfee & Brynjolfsson suggests that the schumpeterian competition that many enterprises have experienced in the U.S.
IT might become an enabler for most enterprises if they re-think their business processes by adding IT when it makes sense. McAfee & Brynjolfsson suggests that IT can be an innovation enabler since the enterprise IT can give technical assistance to support the employees.

Appendix

Carr, N.G., 2004. Does IT Matter?: Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage, Harvard Business School Press.
McAfee & Brynjolfsson, 2007, Harvard Business Review.
Porter, M.E., On Competition, Harvard Business Review, Boston, 1998, p.40-42.
Turner, P., 2010, On IT strategies, Enterprise Architecture Summer Camp.
Weill, P. & Ross, J., 2009. IT Savvy: What Top Executives Must Know to Go from Pain to Gain, Harvard Business School Press.

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Artifacts: The Items the Enterprise Architect has to Identify.

27 05 2010

Enterprise Architecture Artifact

First of all we need a definition of what an EA artifacts is. Scott A. Bernard defines “an EA artifact as a documentation product, such as a text document, diagram, spreadsheet, briefing slides, or video clip” (Bernard 2004, p. 111).

Please note that the EA artifact documents the EA component. An EA component is in the Enterprise Architecture components are those elements that are owned by Lines of Business. The components can be shared (cross cuts) or the component can be shared a cross various levels (this is with in the EA3 Framework).

Various Forms of Artifacts

There are various forms of artifacts in the EA 3 framework. Combined with the Cube to illustrate what kind of artifacts than can be identified at the five levels of the cube.

The first (and highest level) is the layer titled “Goals and Initiatives” deals with documents and diagrams dealing with mission statement, overall strategy (corporate and IT strategy), purpose of the organization. E.g., SWOT analysis, Porter’s Five Forces analysis, competitive strategy, Concept of Operations.

The second (and second highest level) is the layer titled “Products and Services” deals with the business plans, swim lane diagrams, business cases (for investment in new business and IT projects), use case diagrams and node connectivity diagrams among other stuff.

The third (and third highest level) is the layer titled “Data and Information” deals with identifying the knowledge management plan, the information exchange matrix, objects state – transition diagram, logical data model, data dictionary / object library.

The fourth (and fourth highest level) is the layer titled “Systems and Applications”that deals with identifying systems interface diagram, systems communication diagram, systems interface matrix, system data flow diagram, system or operations matrix, systems data exchange matrix, systems evolution diagram and web application diagram.

The fifth (and fifth highest level) is the layer titled “Network and Infrastructure” deals with identifying artifacts like network connectivity diagram, network inventory, capital equipment inventory, building blueprints, network center diagram, cable plant diagram and the rack elevation diagram.

The EA3 Cube.

The EA3 Cube.

Acquiring the Artifacts

When the Enterprise Architect or for that matter the Coherency Architect have to acquire information on the various layers in the EA3 Cube.

The Enterprise Architect has to go to the CIO or other members of the executive group who the Enterprise Architect assumes have access to the corporate strategy and the IT strategy. However many organizations there aren’t isn’t an IT strategy or for that matter an explicit up to date the corporate strategy. Most of that information that all in all can be combined into a functional strategy.

In such cases the Enterprise Architect has to go an interview the stakeholders. However the Enterprise Architect should expect that he or she hasn’t unlimited resources to investigate and uncover the strategies (level 1). He or she should therefore try to focus on the stakeholders that can give them the greatest amount of value through the uncovering process.

The persons or stakeholders should be set into a matrix where the axis should be aligned around importance and impact on the uncovering process.

Importance - Contribution Matrix.

Importance - Contribution Matrix.

When the various stakeholders have been identified then those actors and stakeholders who are in the upper right quadrant should be interviewed. If it is possible then those persons who are in the lower right quadrant should be engaged as well however only as second or third priority.

When interviewing the executive group the Enterprise Architect should focus on applying techniques that enables the interview victims on expressing what they mean by illustrating the strategy e.g., rich pictures, flow charts, concept of operations diagrams etc.

The interview technique could be applied on the other levels in the EA 3 Cube. Likewise can the various managers and employees be categorized in the matrix and likewise should the Enterprise Architect focus on maximizing the values of his work through interviewing those persons who have contributes the most and who are most important to the data collection.

Conclusion

The Chief Enterprise Architecture should work with identify the proper stakeholders and make use of interview techniques to collect the necessary artifacts they need to create the “AS IS” view of the Enterprise Architecture. All organizations faces the conflict of resource shortage which means that the executives needs to prioritize their actions to create maximum value and that includes the way the Chief Enterprise Architect and the Enterprise Architects should handle.

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Extending and formalizing the framework for Information Systems Architecture

4 05 2010

The Concept of the Framework

The framework can in some ways be compared to techniques such as the flowchart (that was introduced by John von Neumann back in 1945. The flowchart is fine for many different issues and a flowchart is good to illustrate algorithms and flow of goods and processes.

Entity – relationship diagrams are used to show entities among various objects, processes and databases.

The purpose of the framework is to show how everything fits together and how they interacts. There are 30 boxes that are organized in six columns. The 30 cells or boxes are indeed intended to subject matter which means it is possible for those identify the various artifacts and deal with them in each cell.

Overview of the Framework

The framework has several minor items that can be categorized or organized as:

  1. The Scope which is the first architectural sketch which is known as the bubble chart. In the ISA framework (Enterprise Architecture) it is equal to an executive summary.

  2. Enterprise or business model this is the professional drawing at an architect. In the ISA context then this is equal to the business model to the organization.

  3. System model which is equal to a list of specifications. In the ISA context this is equal to a system model designed. The model presents the information and the models that are linked to another.

  4. Technology model which is equal to a contractor that has to redraw the architect’s plan. The model serves as a way to constrain the technology. The technology model is dealing with the programming language, I/O devices or other technology.

  5. Components which in a architecture perspective deals with the sub-contractor work out a specific plans for the building a building. In an ISA context deals with the programmers or actors are aligned with a broader context so sub-optimization is handled in a proper way.

The Extended ISA Framework

Rules of the framework needs to be taken into consideration and dealt with to understand how the framework works:

  1. The columns have no order. Order would imply priority and since the cells are equally important.

  2. Each column has a basic model. It is important to understand that each model is representing a simplified version of the world. The focus is to ask what, how, where, who, when and why.

  3. The basic model of each column has to be unique. Zachman is of the opinion that the cell is unique.

  4. Each row represents a distinct and unique perspective.

  5. Each cell is unique. This means that the cells should be checked twice while the framework is applied to the current situation.

  6. The cell model are made of the perspective of the row.

  7. They logic is repetitive.


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The OIO-Framework: The EA Framework Designed for the Danish Public Sector.

23 04 2010

The Public Sector has to take Charge of its IT Architecture

The public sector has had a sector wide view on IT investments (that includes investments in information systems and architecture) that they should focus on purchasing the cheapest and most relevant solution.

The cheapest solution has often led to that the solution has been developed with in a narrow scope. This has had an impact on the IT architecture since it has been optimized for the local department or unit. The result of this is in general not desirable since the government in 2003 articulated goals for that the architecture should be scalable and reusable.

The suppliers to the IT architecture are still in charge of developing components and implement the business logic. The public sector then have to demand a common set of standards to enhance interoperability.

The reason for the public sector should promote these demands are that the level of competition will become more intense which will be an advantage for the public sector.

The public sector has to realize that if it wants to be ahead of the suppliers and thereby gaining a competitive advantage then it should focus on developing its employees in the skills of Enterprise Architecture or IT Architecture Management.

According to John Goetze the reason for why the public sector (the ministry of Research and Science) chose to name the concept IT Architecture due to the secretary of Research and Science preferred the name “IT architecture” compared to the title “Enterprise Architecture”.

A common IT Architecture Framework

The framework focuses on coordination, a common set of methods, a common choice of methods, systems and principles, and common tools.

The common coordination deals with that the public sector should establish a committee that create the common IT architecture that public sector should mature and develop. The common frame of method is a common standard of processes, concepts and processes. The common choice of systems and principles deals with the public sector should deal with standards and infrastructure that should led to a reference profile and a Service Orientated Architecture.

The common set of tools deals with establishing common databases, libraries, contracts, description of processes, definition of data, software components including descriptions of infrastructure solutions.

Consequences

To promote the usage of IT and the be able to scale the systems across several departments, ministries, counties, communes and other public administrative sectors and institutions can make use of the stored data.

The public sector will experience that the costs for developing the IT architecture and the costs of the processes will also diminish over time.

However when the organizations within the public sector in one way or the other invests in a new information system then the specific organization has to apply specific controls and methods to ensure that the systems are designed and optimized for the specific processes (of course build the reference public reference profile).

The new repository and framework will give the public sector the benefits of organizational change and the understand of systems changes as well since they are build around the same systems and principles of management and Service Orientated Architecture. It is notable that the implementation of the IT architecture will be a hugh investment and the investment can result in big benefits and opportunities as well.

The Background for the OIO-framework

The reason and background for the development of the public IT architecture (and the OIO-framework) is to establish a foundation for Enterprise Architecture to ensure maturity in the common enterprise architecture to enhance and develop public services to citizens and customers.

The government has established a vision for what is known as digital governance & management. The vision is based on four goals (principles) that needs to be taken into consideration:

  1. The digital governance & management has to empower the citizens and corporations to the network society.

  2. The public sector has to work and communicate digitally.

  3. The public sector has to provide coherent services and products to the citizens and the corporations.

  4. The tasks in the public sector has to executed where the tasks can generate the largest benefits.

The above mentioned goals have to be translated into processes and these will be implementing over several years and with different development logic.

  1. Goal two to four deals with that the IT architecture should better public support through higher quality in the IT foundation.

  2. Support the development of innovative cross governance processes through greater coherence in the informations.

  3. Achieve a more effective governance through larger efficiency in IT usage.

  4. Gain access to rapid support of new or changed governance processes and organization changes through tested infrastructure solutions.

  5. Give access to public information through open to citizens, corporations and public institutions and authorities.

  6. Give sufficient protection of public information through secure solutions to manage and communicate data.

  7. To create more successful IT solutions through larger predictability of the results of IT investments.

  8. Give the public sector access to stabile IT systems with sufficient capacity.

Experiences that can be Crystalized from the OIO-framework

There are several other countries that have made an effort to implement IT architecture (Enterprise Architecture) and these countries have gained some experiences.

These experiences are as follows:

  1. Commitment has to be on government level.

  2. A cross government institutions and departments collaboration is needed.

  3. Standardization of data structure and functional data interfaces has to be implemented.

  4. Choice of technical standards are needed.

  5. A common infrastructural platform has to be implemented.

  6. Anchoring the knowledge and change through certifications and common shares of practice have to be implemented.

Guiding principles

The OIO-framework emphasizes 10 principles that the Coherency Architect has to take into consideration when the government of one reason or the other implements a new IT architecture:

  1. The Service Orientated Architecture is a paradigm of which the government has to invest its resources so a coherent digital governance can be applied.

  2. The prospect is that the government will take an active role in the service orientated architecture.

  3. The national common IT architecture has to be the lowest common standard that in the same time enables the ability to add to it (a kind of dogma architecture).

  4. The IT architecture should reflect the vision of the business side and there should be a consensus regarding the choices the business side has committed itself to.

  5. The national IT architecture should be applied in those cases where there is a business needs and business analysis should support the usage of the usage of the IT architecture.

  6. Legacy systems shouldn’t be scraped or for that matter be converted to run on the same platform. In the other hand none of the legacy systems should be spared in advance of the implementation.

  7. The implementation should focus pragmatic assumptions and the implementation should be done in iterations.

  8. The IT Architecture should be based on the lowest possible political foundation to ensure that those persons who know about the situation locally can take the proper responsibility and accountability for the situation and implementation.

  9. Denmark is not the only country on this planet and therefore should the work with the architecture be coordinated with international players.

  10. The work with the IT architecture and the standards should be published on a public website www.oio.dk.

The IT Architecture Process

The white book is based on two cycle processes that enriches each other while they are executing. The two processes are iterative which means that these have to be executed continuously.

Since the public sector is rather decentralized and therefore is the principles and concepts discussed in the white book based on the idea that these can be dragged down onto the various self-governing institutions and their contexts.

Strategy Process.

Strategy Development Process.

It is worth to mention that the upper circle is the strategic process and the lower circle is the implementation process.

  1. Vision and goals describes the strategic business goals and that will be with a special focus on those that are related to Information Technology. It is a necessity to keep a dialog with the top management of the enterprise and the political side of the business is a necessity as well.

  2. The Business Architecture describes those processes the IT system has to support both when it comes to functionality and procurement. This state is a result of an analysis and an optimization of existing work related processes.

  3. The Information Architecture describes the business strategy and its demands to the organization of information. This contains both the high level description and low level technical description.

  4. The Technical Architecture is based a common shared systemic description of the demands which can be categorized with the high level part of the systems and modules and the low level description of each of the modules.

  5. The Conceptual Architecture Principles is a rule set that handles the initiation of the IT solutions so these are within the demands presented in the “Conceptual Architecture Principles and former mentioned architectures”.

Besides the strategical architecture process the practical implementation process will be executed.

  1. Document the existing situation (AS – IS).

  2. The Gap analysis deals with identifying the identifying what legacy systems that fit into the conceptual architecture principles.

  3. Prioritization and planning. This phase deals with the planning the technical change that is needed to bring the “AS IS” to the desired state “TO BE”.

  4. Implementation projects deals with implementing the changes through a series of projects.

The Three Layer Model

The three layer model can be utilized and linked directly to the architecture model.

  1. The user interface layer (3-layer) that is directly linked to API & Services and Presentation.

  2. Business Logic Layer (3-layer) that is directly linked to application server, integration server and database sever.

  3. Storage Layer (3-layer) that is linked directly to server hardware and operating system, data layer, and network.

When the public sector starts the redefinition of its “Enterprise Architecture” (IT Architecture) then it should focus on to break down the known barriers and not just enabling old government procedures or processes. This means that the old processes should be supported with new technology since they often just led to the same result as the old processes and these rarely enables the true potential of the technology.

Principles

The foundation of work with IT Architecture (Enterprise Architecture) is based on the principles developed by the chief architect and the EA team.

On the lowest level of principles we find the principles that are focused on a specific system where we in the highest level is based on the idea that the entire enterprise should align their decision making with.

The principles should be build upon:

  1. Interoperability is a necessity to enable the usage of and recycle the data. However interoperability can also be viewed as a way to create coherence in new ways.

  2. Security is a paradigm and an imperative. If the system is not based on the

  3. Openness is based on the idea that the interfaces have to be open so the can ensure communication and interoperability among the systems components.

  4. Flexibility is based on the idea that the system has to be build so it would be easy to modify to the system (enterprise architecture will be suited to its surroundings).

  5. Scalability deals with how the system will be working when there is a greater demand for its features and usage.

Sources

Gotze et al, 2003, Hvidbog om IT-arkitektur, Copenhagen.

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Implementing Enterprise Architecture: From a Coherency Architect’s Point of View!

19 04 2010

Organizational Change

In most organization it has been the IT department and the Chief Information Officer (CIO) that has initiated the Enterprise Architecture program with an IT department’s focus. The IT department’s focus is often based on that the IT department wants to clarify how the organization operates (operation model) and makes use of the artifacts that it has collected through the initiating of the Enterprise Architecture program. This often leads to a business to IT alignment process where the

The Change of Focus

The IT focus can in many ways be a good approach to start with; however the IT approach only gives the organization limited possibilities with working with Enterprise Architecture since the rest of the executive team often aren’t responsible or even evaluated on how well the Enterprise Architecture program is performing. This means that they rarely will take the EA program into consideration or assist in making the EA program more successful for the organization. Therefore it can be necessary to force a change of focus.

Replacing the CIO

The necessary change might come through that the organization chooses to replace their current (and often technically minded) CIO with a new CIO that has been engaged with the business side of the organization. This often eases the communication with the executive team and not to mention the Chief Executive Officer. This will eventually bring another perspective to the Enterprise Architecture program. The EA program will go from being IT minded to be organizational minded. This will in time evolve and mature the architecture from being the foundation architecture to become the extended architecture (Doucet et al. 2009).

However then replacement of the CIO is not enough to create the new focus. The focus has to be implemented along side an organizational change program that has to focus on how achieve desired changes in order to gain a competitive advantage or advantages such as agility, assurance and alignment with the goals of the organization. Since there can be a lot of bad will (Bjorn – Andersen & Marcus 1987) towards the IT department within the organization then it is a necessity to alter the organization culture and that can often only be achieved through organizational change programs. To initiate the organizational change program then the EA board, the Coherency Architect and the Chief Architect should address the various stakeholders in the executive group where the primary focus should be to communicate the value (including strategic value) of Enterprise Architecture to them.

The Extended Architecture

The Extended Architecture is characterized by being the advanced step of Enterprise Architecture and by maturing the architecture then the organization will be able to achieve results through that through working with Enterprise Architecture in both an IT context and a business context will make the organization able to know more about its architecture (the way the organization is designed and works (operation model), When doing so then the organization will be able to commit to better governance and decision making.

The assurance through knowing the business processes and the technological platform ensures that the organization will have a chance of applying new business processes that will enable the organization to achieve a strategic advantage.

Forms of Architectures

Forms of Architectures.

Conclusion

The Coherency Architect and the EA board should communicate the value of Enterprise Architecture to the executive team. The Executive team should be working with identifying the need for change to achieve to mature the enterprise architecture from the foundation architecture to the extended architecture and communicate the ideas (and benefit of changing) to the executive team. Eventually if the CIO hasn’t been able to communicate and influence the executive team to buy in to the Enterprise Architecture program then the CIO should be replaced. The successor should be a person from the business side so the Enterprise Architecture program is able to change focus.

Sources

Markus, M.L. & Bjørn-Andersen, N., 1987. Power over users: its exercise by system professionals. Commun. ACM, 30(6), 498-504. Available at: http://portal.acm.org.esc-web.lib.cbs.dk/citation.cfm?id=214762.214764&coll=portal&dl=ACM&CFID=22716975&CFTOKEN=73079095 [Accessed February 20, 2010].

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

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Economic Perspectives of Enterprise Architecture: Four perspectives the Coherency Architect Should be Aware of!

26 03 2010

Perspectives and the Extended Enterprise

When the Coherency Architect has to convince his or her opponents on how Enterprise Architecture and Coherency Management can improve the organization’s strategic capabilities then it might turn out to be useful to use economic estimations and KPIs; however it can be useful to make use of perspectives. Jaap Schekerman presents four perspectives on how Enterprise Architecture can generate value for the organization. Each perspective brings prospects and consequences.

Never the less can the economic views be challenged and aren’t there other economic perspectives of EA than those that Jaap Schekkerman has identified and dealt with in his Book “The Economic Benefits of Enterprise Architecture”.

Business Efficiency

Deals with improving the business processes by adding technology (especially ICT and information systems). This means that the Coherency Architect has to focus on obliterating business processes and add Information Technology. Usually this leads to a desire for world class processes.

This approach isn’t focusing on cost reductions that means it is comparably more expensive that the technology efficiency perspective; however it brings more benefits. In this focus Enterprise Architecture is used to identify how IT and technology can enable the current processes (AS IS) and how future processes be designed (TO BE).

Business Innovation

This perspective deals with using Enterprise Architecture to identify areas of which the organization can create new products, services or possibilities for creating game changing products and services and that can give the organization a competitive advantage. This perspective is focusing on the future competitive advantage that the organization can crystalize a competitive advantage.

Technology Efficiency

Technology Efficiency is based on the on the ideas that the cost (TCO) of using technology. It rarely leads to benefits for the organization since their focus often is on how to save money (sink the costs) of using technology and the costs of its business process. This perspective is ‘cheapest’ perspective but it also contains the fewest future benefits for the organization. This approach is currently the most used perspective.

Technology Enabling

Technology enabling is a perspective that focusses on adding new technology to the business and the business processes. This should in the long run lower the costs the organization occurs by using technology. The main question in this perspective is how ICT can enable the business processes and make value out of the technology by using Enterprise Architecture as a tool for alignment of the corporate goals with information and communication technology. However this perspective is known for being costly and it brings few benefits.

The Enterprise Architecture Value Model

The Enterprise Architecture Value Model.

Conclusion

The four perspectives are useful to identify how an organization views its strategy, economy and not to mention how Enterprise Architecture can generate benefits for the organization. However the four perspectives can only be considered generic and they don’t make much room for customization for the organization to mix between the four different ways to handle it. It is notable that if the organization is a division organization then it is likely that the focus on technology and enterprise architecture might be different and shouldn’t therefore be put into one and the same “perspective”.

Last of all. It is important that the four perspectives are combined with the organization’s strategic management.


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Categories : Benefits of Enterprise Architecture, Economic Benefits, IT Alignment, IT Governance, IT Strategy