Information Systems and Enterprise Architecture: An insight to Zachman’s Initial Ideas on his Framework.

27 04 2010

Implementation of Information Systems

The development of information systems have become more complex. The development of the systems and the cost of development has to lead to that the systems can minimize the barriers (constraints of the organization system).

The complexity of the systems leads to issues that the system only adds value to the organization when it is implemented. The barriers that have been diminished by the information systems have lead to that many organizations have become more flat in their structure.

The flatness of the structure leads to decentralization. The decentralized organization will end in anarchy if the system is not build upon an architecture. Zachman deduces that the information systems architecture is related to strategy both the corporate strategy and the IT strategy.

Since it becomes of strategic importance then the enterprise has to invest more attention to the concept of the Information Systems Architecture. The meaning of an Information Systems architecture is losing its meaning without the creation of a framework (this was later known as the Enterprise Architecture framework or Zachman’s Framework).

The framework and the paper is not supposed to present a new strategy planning framework though as before mentioned the foundation for IS architecture is closely related to the concepts like IT strategy and business strategy. The Focus on Architecture The framework was in its origin based on ideas that origin from the architecture paradigm. This means that Zachman is of the idea that enterprises (organizations and companies / corporations) can learn from the thousands of years of experience. The Bubble Charts and the Process Along The first step for an architect is to draw a bubble chart. The bubble chart shows the relationships among the various components.

Thereto the bubble char indicates the shapes and the size of the building. The purpose of the bubble chart is to deal with the communication between the architect (later the Enterprise Architect) and the customers. Then the bubble chart is refined to something a bit more “serious”. This is called the “the architect’s plan” of which the contractors and the sub-contracters will draw their plans. It is notable that the plan might change several times since the estimated costs will lead to changes in the design since the cost is a constraint. This means that the chart has to include more information in a more precise sketchup. Which leads us further into the analogy. The contractor then redraws the architects plan so it fits with the perspective of the persons who are building the systems. Zachman summarizes the various design plan purposes in a table similar to this. It is worth mentioning that the “Nature or Purpose”:

Representation Nature or Purpose (architecture) Nature or Purpose (EA)

Bubble charts

Basic concept of building

Basic outline of architecture.

Architect’s drawings.

Final building to be seen by the owner.

“AS IS” or “TO BE” outlined for the decision makers.

Architect’s plans.

Final building to be seen by the designer.

Transformation plan or a more detailed view on “AS IS” and “TO BE”.

Contractor’s plans.

Final building to be seen by the contractor.

This is the IT infrastructure and the various other infrastructures.

Shop plans.

Sub – contractors designs or sub segments.

Various artifacts within the various plans and charts.

Building.

The physical building.

The transformed Enterprise (“TO BE”).

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Categories : Enterprise Architecture, Frameworks

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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Categories : Business Architecture, IT Governance, Organization

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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Categories : Architecture Maturity, Business Architecture, Enterprise Architecture, IT Alignment, IT Governance, IT Strategy, Organization, Strategic Management

Strategic Management: From the Coherency Architect’s Point of View!

6 04 2010

Enterprise Architecture in Combination with Strategic Management

According to the discipline of Enterprise Architecture and Coherency Management then all organizations have an Enterprise Architecture. If an organization hasn’t an Enterprise Architecture then it isn’t able to deliver any kind of products or services.

The question then is how the organization is able to understand and later adapt the concepts of Enterprise Architecture to achieve better results and gain competitive advantage.

It is essential for the organization to gain the competitive advantage to lea the market and to survive in the long run.

According to Doucet et al. (2009) then Strategic Management and the concept of Coherency Management is from a strategic stand point a combination of Enterprise Architecture and Strategic Management. The combination of the two concepts have to result in better “alignment”, “Assurance” and “Agility”.

Alignment

Alignment is dealing with how various elements of an organization can be configured so they offer the optimal potential so value can be generated for the organization. The concept of alignment can together with the concept assurance and the concept of accuracy deliver “synergy” to the enterprise. The concept of “synergy” will be dealt with later in this blog post.

Alignment can be achieved by applying a framework (EA Approach) to understand the Enterprise Architecture.

Assurance

Assurance is dealing with the issue of control and openness. The control element deals with knowledge of that the amount of resources are committed to execute the processes and the products and services that the enterprise produces

Agility

Deals with the ability to adapt to change in the organization’s domain. E.g., new competitors, new technology, new substituting products and services. That also have implications for the internal situation for the organization e.g., what sort of technology that should be applied .

Synergy

Synergy deals with creating an effect that enables the organization to perform better by using the same amounts of components that are configured in a different way. Mintzberg quotes Ansoff for saying “He referred to it as the ’2 + 2 = 5′ effect to denote the fact the firm seeks as a product – market posture with a combined performance that is greater than the sum of its parts”. (Mintzberg 2000, p. 45).

The overall idea is to use enterprise architecture to create the foundation for synergy. If the enterprise hasn’t an established EA program then it an idea to emphasize organizational change where Kotter’s Eight Phased approach can be applied.

The reason for this is that the members of the organization might be orthodox and therefore return to the original processes and work forms.

Conclusion

Synergy can be created and enhanced by using Enterprise Architecture. The more mature an enterprise architecture becomes the better the organization will be to cope with agility, alignment and assurance. To establish this organizational change management has to be applied to ensure that the change from the old ways of doing things to the new ones for this the Kotter’s approach to organizational change.

Sources

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

Mintzberg, H., 2000. The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, Financial Times/ Prentice Hall.

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Categories : Corporate Strategy, IT Strategy, Strategic Management

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

The EA Management Program: From the perspective of a Coherency Architect.

23 03 2010

Why a Program and not a Project

Enterprise Architecture is dealing with configuring many different components of an organization (Bernard) and these components can rarely be configured properly through a big bang change as a project would usually be. A program can be defined as a series of projects that will change different components in a evolutionary approach.

Since Enterprise Architecture and Coherency Management is dealing with more than people then it the changes can’t be implemented with a big bang approach since it will either fail by the people will go back to the old way of doing things or they will be overworked in changes (of which John P. Kotter has written the book titled “Creating the Sense of Urgency”).

Therefore should the Coherency Architect work with establishing a so called Enterprise Architecture Program (EA Program) or more advanced a Coherency Architecture Program. The difference between the two types of programs are that organizations that works with the Coherency Architecture program can be identified as having an Enterprise Architecture titled as “Extended Architecture” and above.

The Enterprise Architecture

First of all the Coherency Architect needs to identify the AS – IS Enterprise Architecture to understand the enterprise architecture as it current is. When the Enterprise Architecture has been investigated and a significant overview has been created then the Coherency Architect should develop a transition plan. The transition plan that is known as the Enterprise Architecture Management Plan. The plan is foremost a documentation method.

The Enterprise Architecture Management Plan

The plan is the transition between from the ”AS IS” (the current state) to AS IS (the future state). This means that the organization needs to launch a series of projects that enables clarifies the business processes (business architecture, the information systems and data needs (the information architecture) and how the various technical platforms operates and interacts (technical architecture).

If the organization chooses to apply Bernard’s EA3 Cube as the preferable EA approach to document the “AS IS” state for the Enterprise Architecture then the Enterprise Architects have to investigate the five levels from a top down approach. The first level is the goals and initiatives, the second layer is products and services, the third layer deals with data and information, the fourth layer deals with systems and application and the fifth layer deals with network and infrastructure.

The EA3 Cube.

The EA3 Cube.

The documentation process is often costly and it takes time; however by investigating the Enterprise Architecture then the architects can aide the top management of the organization by identifying gaps and potentially inefficient processes and systems that needs to be replaced or upgraded. When the gaps have been identified and the top management has given its permission to initiate the the transformation then the EA program can be established.

The program can be defined as a set of projects that all have that in common that they deal with components of the Enterprise Architecture. For that it is necessary to understand how the EA related projects are to be defined.

The EA Related Projects

The projects are usually strategic and the outcome of the projects impacts either the business architecture, the information architecture, the application architecture and the technological architecture or all of them.

An example of such a project is the implementation of a new ERP software application or implementation of a new project management flow system.

The two mentioned projects have an impact on their respective architectures; however if they are implemented the proper way where the business processes are re-defined then they will impact all the architectures (for that principles needs to be articulated).

These projects needs to be evaluated to identify how they contribute to the transformation of the Enterprise Architecture. In this process it is notable that the projects shouldn’t entirely be evaluated on economic costs and benefits (TCO and ROI) but also on how the projects enable the organization to accomplish its visions.

Conclusion

The EA management plan needs to be taken into consideration when organization begins to achieve success so management is able to react to potential gaps there might be in the organization. In the same time there will be a need for the Enterprise Architecture Management Plan to obtain knowledge of ways to innovate the organization and enhance its ability to develop new products and services if not to mention compete for market share or resources.

Sources

Bernard, S.A., 2005. An Introduction To Enterprise Architecture: Second Edition 2nd ed., AuthorHouse. 

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Categories : Enterprise Architecture

Tools for Strategic Evaluation: Tools and Methods the Coherency Architect should Apply.

15 03 2010

The SWOT analysis

The Coherency Architect should be making use of a SWOT-analysis to evaluate the organization (enterprise) of which he or she is working with.

The SWOT analysis is a perfect tool to evaluate an organization’s strategical options in the current situation (AS – IS) and what the organization can do to move to a new desired steady state (TO BE). Please note that in some cases technology can also be evaluated through the usage of the SWOT analysis.

It is notable that the Coherency Architect shouldn’t rely solely on the SWOT analysis since it has a tendency to overemphasize the current situation (AS – IS). The Coherency Architect should therefore focus on using other approaches and methods to support the view of the future situation for the organization. However the SWOT analysis can be a good idea to make use of initiate a strategical analysis.

SWOT stands for Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Where strength and weaknesses are internal factors for the organization. Opportunities and Threats are external factors of the organization.

However in some cases opportunities that haven’t been created or applied for the organization (though the fundament can be found in the organization) can be considered an opportunity.

SWOT - analysis.

SWOT - analysis.

An Example

This organization (enterprise) is in a situation where its products are seen as a commodity by the customers and as such new players in the market has started to produce products that are of similar quality and can do almost exactly as the products as the organization produces; the products the competitors produce are often a bit cheaper do the fact that the competitors are able to gain economies of scale.

The organization (enterprise) has a home – made Enterprise Resource-planning System, a heterogeneous portfolio of 132 computers (both old and new computers of diverse brands and specifications and operating systems) and the organization has access to one server that runs an elderly Microsoft ® Based Operating System where the ERP software is hosted and the user administration is managed. The organization (enterprise) consist of 300 employees and about 25% of these have an education on college level or above. The COO has a PhD in field of process development. The last 75% o the organization consist of people who have been minded on practical educations and are as such not theoretically in their approach to solve the problems the organization faces.

The organization (enterprise) has access to a credit limit of €10 million which their bank has granted them access to if the organization needs access to external funds to finance their investments.

The Business Processes have a lot of tightly coupling and they are working through a so-called J-I-T system (Just in Time) where the organization produces their products just as many units as needed to the various retailers. This is based on an idea that the organization can save money on storage facilities. The organization is almost like a division organization as Mintzberg described it.

The organization (enterprise) has an internal IT department; however the IT department is overworked and they often spend most of their time with user support and maintenance of the elderly systems and the management of the organization do not value the inputs the IT manager gives to the CFO.

SWOT - Analysis Example

SWOT - Analysis Example

The Coherency Architect can then identify the weaknesses of the current strategical situation (AS IS) and then use the SWOT-analysis as a part of the documentation to create the overview which is needed to articulate a transition plan for the Enterprise Architecture.

Conclusion and Discussion

The SWOT-analysis can be made use of to give the Coherency Architect an overview of the enterprise’s situation (AS IS) and it can assist the Coherency Architect with creating an overview of the strategical and the tactical situation; however the SWOT-analysis should be supplemented by other models and approaches such as the Porter’s Five Forces model and Porter’s internal value chain including Robson’s IS value chain.

Both an organization (enterprise) and technology can be analyzed by applying the SWOT-analysis; though the Coherency Architect needs to take it in to consideration that the analysis method often emphasizes on the “AS IS” state and therefore be questionable to be used in relation to articulation of an transition plan.

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Categories : Business, Business Architecture, Up in Time

An Introduction to Coherency Management: A keynote with Gary Doucet @ ITU 2009.

10 03 2010

The Basics of Coherency Management

Enterprise Architecture is a discipline is about 30 years old. Based on a paper by John Zachman who worked at IBM at the time. Enterprise Architecture is evolving over time and currently it is improving the coherence of enterprises to bridge gaps in organizations and enterprises. Coherency Management is for using Enterprise Architecture to advance the alignment, agility and assurance. It might lead to that IT will help the enterprise in doing its business. To explicitly manage coherency which is a new perspective within this discipline. Coherency Management as a concept is not about if the company is a success or not but a way to investigate the enterprise to find factors that enables the organization is coherent with its goal and processes.

The explicit architecture will assist the management on future development of the organization, its processes and its way to function as an organism.

People is the key in relation to rapid change (and a barrier). This perspective is supported by the view that Chris Potts introduces in his “fruITion strategy”.

“Enterprise Architecture is about people” – Chris Potts, IT University of Copenhagen 2010.

Enterprise Architecture is often a Chief Information Office lead project. The main purpose of the Enterprise Architecture is building good IT systems and the Enterprise Architecture project is disconnected from the rest of the organization. Every organization has an architecture. The purpose of the Enterprise Architecture is to make the architecture better.

“Ross and Weill (2005) fell into a trap with their definition of Enterprise Architecture since it is way to technology orientated. It should be on how to improve the way the organization does its business.” – Gary Doucet, IT University of Copenhagen 20091.

In general there are four forms of architectures. The first is formalized architecture and the second the un-formalized architecture. There are however three modes of Enterprise Architecture where the more advanced form is called foundation (the extended mode of Enterprise Architecture) where the architects is focusing on understanding the business. The most advanced form is called embedded Enterprise Architecture where you find the process owner and make them modifying the processes.

An example of harvesting artifacts is the government of Canada where the chief of treasure wanted to know about the services they provided for the aboriginal community (first nations) and he therefore asked the best analysts in his administration to find the information; however it took about six months before they finished the process to understand what happened.

Enterprise Architecture is the inherent (existing as permanent and separate) design and management (management and control) approach (you need an approach that works for your organization) essential for organizational coherence leading to alignment (aligning the components of the organization with one another), agility (the ability to change quickly) and assurance (to check up that the products and services and administration is done correctly and accordingly to the corporate strategy).

People always focus on projects but the steady state should be the focus. The Enterprise Architecture is a continuous improvement model. If the organization gets a coherent view then the management and the employees eventually do better decisions. Coherency Management is a new concept but it incorporates existing elements, applications and objectives of Enterprise Architecture but in particular new aspects in particular:

  • Incorporating other process owners.

  • Managing coherency explicitly.

  • Enterprise Architecture as a continuous improvement agent, not simple “AS IS”, “TO BE” and the way to get there.

  • The coherency planning office should be in charge of the coherency project(s).

It is not a new name for Enterprise Architecture. It should be considered a practice within Enterprise Architecture. It is not a project. It is not a demotion for chief architects. It is not an attempt to control all management functions. It is not a quick fix. It is not something that only pays back in 15 to 20 years.

The next thing which has to be implemented in Coherency Management is a measuring model and the involvement with consultancy community.

1The 18th of September 2009 a Keynote at the E-business Association at the IT University of Copenhagen.

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Categories : Architecture Maturity, IT Alignment, Keynotes

Economic Benefits of Enterprise Architecture: The Coherency Architect’s Economic Toolset.

4 03 2010

Why Economic Estimation is Necessary

When the Coherency Architect is working with implementing and maturing the Enterprise Architecture then he has to convince various stakeholders on to investing in the transition from the existing Enterprise Architecture maturity level to the new level (“TO BE”).

For this the Coherency Architect has to create a stakeholder communication plan where he or she will need to involve the stakeholders and win the over to invest in the change.

“Enterprise Architecture is about people” – Chris Potts, IT University of Copenhagen 2010.

The communication has to be based on the stakeholder analysis which means that the various stakeholders have different needs for information and they need different ways to be informed about the Enterprise Architecture program.

Likewise have the various stakeholders various ways to react on the information and they have various means to influence the decisions and the over all commitment to the Enterprise Architecture transition plan.

To identify and manage the stakeholders then the Coherency Architect should brainstorm and note all the stakeholders (individuals and organizations) who can have an influence on the project.

An example of a brainstorm is in the illustration below:

Stakeholder Brainstorm

Stakeholder Brainstorm.

Then the stakeholders have to be categorized into their influence on the EA transformation program (Transition Plan) and how likely it is that they will make use of their influence to support (and implement) the transformation program or sabotage the transformation program.

Stakeholder Matrix

Stakeholder Matrix.

When the segmentation of the stakeholders is done then the Coherency Architect can identify what kind of Key Performance Indicators that can be applied. The KPIs should be used to communicate the value of the Enterprise Architecture and the Enterprise Architecture Program.

Questions the Coherency Architect Need to Deal with Before Evaluating the Economic Perspective of the Enterprise Architecture

First of all the economic benefits of an Enterprise Architecture be measured? In many cases the measurement of value of an organization’s enterprise architecture is like measuring the value of the Human Resources Department; the primary difference is that most industries the orthodoxy is that a HR department is needed. However how do you measure the benefits of an Enterprise Architecture and an Enterprise Architecture program.

Jaap Schekkerman has written the book “The Economic Benefits of Enterprise Architecture” and as far as I understand the message of the book then focus should be to measure efficiency (before the establishment of the EA program and of course after to evaluate the effect), the impact on the strategy e.g., has the EA program enabled the organization to come closer to fulfill the mission / vision? And finally measurement should be focusing on potential cost reduction the organization can benefit from.

I am a bit unsure if this is the right approach to measure the economic benefits of Enterprise Architecture; however if you (the readers) have any ideas on how to do it better then please don’t hesitate to comment this blog post (or contacting me).

Never the less I have tried to organize the three ways main perspectives on how to measure the economic benefits of Enterprise Architecture.

Efficiency

One of the primary economic reason for working to improve (maturing) the Enterprise Architecture is to gain efficiency and secondly to lower operational costs and thirdly to gain strategic advantages.

To gain efficiency the Coherency Architect needs to use tools and methods within the Business Process Management and Business Process Improvements.

When the Coherency Architect is working with Business Process Improvements then it might become efficiently to work with two concepts. The first concept deals with an in depth investigation of the business processes. This approach might prove to become rather comprehensive and rather expensive.

The second approach deals with business processes that have a great impact on the business, the so called “core processes”.

The core processes are in many ways better to identify and better to work with from the point of view that the analysis work isn’t as comprehensive as the full analysis.

The core processes are easier and often more profitable to work with before the change process is initiated.

When the processes are altered then it is important that the Coherency Architect doesn’t focus to much on just keeping the same design of the processes and adding the technology to the processes. When the core processes are altered then it will lead to a change of strategy; otherwise the realization of benefits will not be crystallized.

Tools the Enterprise Architect can make use of to investigate the “business architecture” is the BPMN, BPML, OBASHI flowchart and the ordinary flowchart

This leads to the section of strategy section.

Strategy

Jaap Schekkerman introduces the Enterprise Architecture Value model (Schekkerman 2005, p. 66 ) that introduces the four concepts that an Enterprise Architecture can contribute with in relation ot the strategic approach the organization makes use of.

The model introduces four perspectives such as the Technology Effectiveness approach, Business effectiveness, Technology Enabling and the Business Innovation approach.

The Business effectiveness deals with improving the business processes to achieve the corporate strategy of the organization. Typically is the Enterprise Architecture program used to define how the processes (AS IS) is designed and how they should be to gain competitive advantage (TO BE).

The Business Innovation approach deals with the creation of new services and products and not to mention on how to define new business value. This particular approach is often used to identify how the “business side” of an enterprise can be aligned with the “IT side”. In my opinion it is up to discussion if you really can differ IT and Business since they are components in the Enterprise Architecture.

The Technology Efficiency approach deals with keeping the costs down e.g., the Total Cost of Ownership. The focus as before mentioned is to lower the costs of using technology within the organization. The focus of the Enterprise Architecture Program is to give the organization is view on how to organize their information architecture and their technology architecture to gain this advantages.

The Technology Enabling approach deals with how the technology can add value to the organization e.g., by obliterating business processes and then redefine them so the usage of technology can lower the cost, improve the efficiency and improve the quality of the processes. The Enterprise Architecture Program is used to give top management an idea on how to the business processes can be enabled by the usage of existing and new technology.

Enterprise Architecture Vakue Model

Enterprise Architecture Value Model (Schekkerman 2005, p.66).

This leads to the section that deals with the concept of cost reduction.

Cost Reduction

The third perspective that Jaap Schekkerman introduces in his book is what I assume is the cost reduction perspective. It is presented as the focus on Advanced Management Accounting concept and how to calculate the “Cost Benefit Analysis”.

However this is an interpretation I have done of what Jaap Schekkerman has written in his book. Which leads me to my conclusion of how to measure the economic benefits of Enterprise Architecture.

The Conclusion

As I see it the most important issue with measuring the economic benefits of the Enterprise Architecture is to identify the stakeholders and use the tools they expect to be used to identify potential and to evaluate each potential.

If the stakeholders are cost minded then the Coherency Architect should choose an approach that focuses on how to measure cost reduction or if the stakeholders are focusing on improvements and innovation then the focus should be on how to enable this in the proper approaches.

All in all the focus is stakeholder communication. As mentioned in the blog post then I am unsure on how to identify the full potential of measuring the economic benefits of the Enterprise Architecture since it is an issue that is up for interpretation. If there are any one out there who knows of better ways to interpreter Jaap Schekkerman’s book on measuring value or knows of better ways to measure value of Enterprise Architecture then please do not hesitate to reply to this blog post or to contact me.

Sources

Schekkerman, J., 2005. The Economic Benefits of Enterprise Architecture, Trafford Publishing.

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The Front Lines of EA: An Insight to Innovation, Strategy and Enterprise Architecture.

25 02 2010

Enterprise Architecture and Strategic Innovation

This blog post will deal with the view on Enterprise Architecture and Innovation that Chris Potts presented in his keynote at the the ITU the 24th of February 2010.

First of all did Chris Potts presents his strategic framework called the “fruITion” strategy that he builds on the tendency:

  1. The first generation strategy was focused on technology (this was the early beginning) which took place in the 70s, 80s and early 90s.

  2. The second generation strategy the managers changed the scope from the technology to IT efficiency since they wanted to control the cost of strategy. This happened in the mid-90s and the end – 90s. The organizations outsourced expensive technology and operations to companies that where better keep the cost down.

  3. The third generation is characterized by the managers are focusing on how to create value by using technology and incorporate the IT strategy into their corporate strategy.

  4. The fourth generation is dealing with investing in change and not focusing on technology since it is embedded in the organization. The Investment managers and the Enterprise Architecture will be dealing with the change and the adaption of the organization and technology.

When it comes to the third and fourth generation then the managers have to focus on applying theory and concept of Enterprise Architecture to investigate the current state of the Enterprise Architecture (“AS IS”) and how the Enterprise Architecture should be transformed (transformation plan) into fulfilling the strategy.

Chris Potts focuses on the promise of a strategy (e.g., We will be the largest ICT supplier in Great Britain within two years) and the Enterprise Architect (in our case the Coherency Architect) should put his or her attention on developing a transition plan that enables the employees and management of the organization to achieve the strategy.

The Need for an Enterprise Architecture Approach

Why a company needs to innovate its Enterprise Architecture and what Innovations should an Enterprise Architect recommend. It is notable that Chris Potts made use of a case titled “SpaNets”.

The case is “an enterprise of enterprises” (or a divisionalized form of organization according to Mintzberg’s organizational compass) and from that can these three general ideas be aggregated:

  1. The Global Economy has lead to a price lead competition and the EA analysis (“AS IS”) can assist the enterprise in innovating its processes.

  2. The enterprise can use the Enterprise Architecture to give them a proper view of the subsidiaries the the organization has acquired.

  3. The enterprise can use the Enterprise Architecture to document the processes to align them or to apply standardized business processes.

You can argue that an organization has a functional enterprise architecture by judging it on its ability to generate a surplus.

Chris Potts defines the concept of Enterprise Architecture as system where the animal spirit of the founders of the organization are combined with the structure of systems within the organization.

“Enterprise is defined on a bold or courage undertaking and the animal spirits of the entrepreneur. The architecture is the science of designing structures and a style of structure.” - Chris Potts, The IT University of Copenhagen, 2010.

Never the less the concept of the Enterprise Architecture is more than just dealing with the configuration of systems within systems or architectures within architectures. First of all is Enterprise Architecture about people.

“Enterprise Architecture is about people” – Chris Potts, IT University of Copenhagen, 2010.

This makes sense since the enterprise architecture consist of labour, land and capital (resources) combined with strategy and it matches the focus of knowledge management as Nonaka dealt with it in his knowledge spiral. Knowledge is acquired (in tacit form) form the individual who either socializes or externalizes it. When the knowledge is socialized or externalized then the organization (or the enterprise can apply it or crystallize it).

Nonaka's Framework

One imperative for the Coherency Architect is to create space for the employees of the organization so they can use their creative skills to create innovation. This focus can be supported by the theory that Gary Hamel proposes in his book titled “The New Age of Management” from 2007. Gary Hamel argues that the employees of the organization should be enabled to create their own projects within the framework of the organization and the organization should promote that the old management orthodoxies should be banished.

“When you are an enterprise architect it is all about people, space and purpose.” – Chris Potts, IT University of Copenhagen, 2010.

Processes Within an Enterprise Architecture

When the Coherency Architect is designing the “TO BE” Enterprise Architecture then he or she should focus on the customers since the dilemma often becomes if the enterprise owns (has a process) or the customer owns a process and who exist for who.

“Do has the company a process or is it the customer who has a process” – Chris Potts, IT University of Copenhagen, 2010.

When it comes to processes and architectures in the enterprise then Chris Potts states that most companies are aware of managing the Systems and Technologies architecture but they haven’t managed or designed the rest of the architectures.

“All but the technologies architecture are rarely defined or actively managed” – Chris Potts, IT University of Copenhagen, 2010.

However in most organizations the Coherency Architect will most certainly face a political situation when or if he or she goes to the CXOs and informs them that the organization’s Enterprise Architecture isn’t matched with the strategy and principles of the organization.

“It takes courage to go to the executive suite and tell the executives that we found out that the company is broken” – Chris Potts, IT University of Copenhagen, 2010.

The Coherency Architect should therefore focus on change management principles as well as using the corporate strategy as a key driver to convert the resistance among the CXOs to assistance in the transformation process (making them change agents).

The Enterprise Architecture and Strategic Issues

When it comes to EA approaches and methods then an Coherency Architect group might phase the issue of defining what artifacts that should be interpreted as what and how these should be organized; however in the end the Coherency Architects should focus on making something useful and that is where the strengths of knowledge management and innovation becomes useful.

“We had 15 people and we got 15 answers on what Enterprise Architecture was an should be. [...] We all see it as something different; however what matters is that we had to boil it down to something useful ” – Chris Potts.

However it is notable when the organization starts to mature its enterprise architecture then an EA program has to be imitated and the Coherency Architect needs to be hold accountable to achieve the strategy and by defining the principles of which the Enterprise Architecture strategy needs to be implemented by.

As mentioned in the blog post “The IT Strategy: An Articulation of the IT Strategy from a Coherency Architect’s Point of View.” then Chris Potts advices that the strategy needs to be embodied by the strategist (in our case the Coherency Architect) and the de facto strategy is not the one mentioned in the articulated strategy.

Conclusion

The conclusion of the keynote was that Enterprise Architecture can be used to identify problems within the Enterprise. In the same time can Enterprise Architecture applied to gain a competitive advantage for the enterprise.Thereto should Coherency Architect identify the constraints of the organization before initiating the Enterprise Architecture transformation program. Then identify how the value can be created by using the technology available if not to mention how create a combined strategy (EA strategy) for the enterprise that both focuses on keeping the animal spirit of the founders and enabling the employees of the organization to innovate. The enablement of employees to innovate is an imperative since Enterprise Architecture is about people.

The Coherency Architect has to show courage when it comes to inform the top management on misalignment in the Enterprise Architecture and in the same time be able to compromise with the rest of the Coherency Management Group in defining the proper solution for the enterprise.

When the Enterprise wants to benefit from its Enterprise Architecture then it has to initiate an EA program to mature the enterprise since only through the EA approach will the organization be able to activate the proper synergies among the various components that the organization consist of.

The Coherency Architect has to focus on the strategic promise he or she articulates (the promise is a single line that includes a statement for what the enterprise should be) and the de facto strategy the Coherency Architect implements. If there is a misalignment between the two then the strategy needs to be redefined and reimplemented. The Coherency Architect needs to challenge the orthodoxies of the enterprise and the industry of which the enterprise operates to release the true potential of Enterprise Architecture.

Chris Potts and Peter F.T. Sjoelin

Chris Potts (right) and Peter F.T. Sjoelin (left)

The Front Lines of EA (2): An insight in to Strategy and Innovation.


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Categories : IT Alignment, IT Strategy, Keynotes, Up in Time

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