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ElsbethMcSorley
Retired

This trend is confirmed by a Gartner survey that finds, “77% of respondents were either: restarting or renewing EA efforts (18 percent); initiating EA for the first time (34 percent); or focusing on taking EA efforts to the next level (25 percent).” Enterprise Architecture practices are delivering business value, which is great news, but there are proactive steps you can take to accelerate and elevate your EA practice. If you focus on delivering tangible results back to the business, you can elevate your EA practice and increase your influence throughout your organization.

 

Path to success: Elevate the EA practice from noisy to influential

Enterprise architecture noisy to influencial.jpg 

Noisy – Enterprise Architecture is seen as extra work and unnecessary

Most EA programs are stuck in this first stage, where enterprise architects are seen as making a lot of noise (“don’t make any moves until I catalogue and architect everything first”). If business leaders don’t feel the positive impacts of the architecture, then enterprise architecture is just seen as extra work and unnecessary. How many times have we heard the phrase architecture for the sake of architecture? To move from this stage into stage 2, begin successfully implementing use cases to illustrate real business value. EA need to have a picture of what that end-state looks like and think strategically about the future goals of the business, but start with small wins. Each step forward should work towards the company’s broader vision.

Useful – Enterprise Architecture is seen as business operations support

When enterprise architects start implementing use cases that deliver on business outcomes, they're able to produce real value, and can now start earning trust outside the IT department. From here, EA can gain traction and buy-in from business leaders and begin to transform into a business unit seen as helping the organization reach strategic goals. At this point, architects should start shifting their focus to supporting business operations. Enterprise architects will implement additional use cases, building towards that strategic plan, but always focused on business outcomes. As the number of use cases expands, the amount of data used and maintained grows, and this increases the business value of enterprise architecture.

Trusted – Enterprise Architect is seen as a business partner

As enterprise architects start building a reputation for delivering greater value, they'll see their influence increase, and become more trusted. They'll start being a source of truth for reliable information, and get requests for help with additional use cases. Once EA gains trust from the business, it can start shifting the focus from business operations to strategic planning and make the C-suite key stakeholders. Enterprise Architects should have a comprehensive view of the enterprise (maintained in the repository at this point) to support rapid impact analysis and transformation scenario simulations.

Influential – Enterprise Architecture seen as strategic partner

Once enterprise architects are in the influential stage, congratulations are in order, because now business leaders see EA as a strategic partner. At this stage when business leaders start consulting EA before undertaking new initiatives. How’s that for elevating the EA practice? To remain in this stage and not take steps backward, continue focusing on capabilities and the needs of the business, providing tangible business value, and driving transformation and innovation.

 

The current perceptions of enterprise architecture practices [survey results]

Which of the following most accurately describes how the business perceives the enterprise architecture program? Attendees had 4 options to choose from:

  1. NOISY – EA has no “perceived” value and is seen as extra effort
  2. USEFUL – EA has produced value, but for too few stakeholders
  3. TRUSTED – EA has a reputation for delivering value, it's seen as a source of truth
  4. INFLUENTIAL – The business asks, "Let's ask EA before we do...," you're in collaborative mode

We had 223 responses to our survey and discovered that almost 40% felt their organization viewed the enterprise architecture practice as useful, which is encouraging. However, almost 30% responded that their business viewed enterprise architecture as having little or no value, illustrating that there’s still much work to be done educating senior leaders and business executives about the power and value of EA.

Here’s a breakdown of our survey results:

Noisy to Influencal EA Survey.jpg

Although we’re thrilled to see some enterprise architecture practices have gained status and are trusted and influential within their organizations, many EA programs still struggle to earn trust and be viewed as valuable. Enterprise architecture is often seen as an intrusive cost center that builds architecture for the sake of architecture, delivering nothing more than noise. But there is a path that can be followed where the efforts of the enterprise architecture team will deliver value back to the business. Identify short-term projects, deliver small wins, and soon you will be appreciated as useful to a few key stakeholders. Leverage this new confidence in EA as a catalyst for bigger projects that have more visibility throughout the organization, and you’ll expand the audience that recognizes the value of enterprise architecture and become trusted then influential.

We know EA practices are delivering business value, but as we discovered from our survey results, too frequently they are viewed as offering little value and creating extra work. If you focus on delivering tangible results back to the business, you can elevate your EA practice and increase your influence throughout your organization.

2 Comments
BB-Mega
Retired

Thanks Elsbeth, interesting article

BB-Mega
Retired

Also, if anyone is interested in finding out more, we also explored these stages and perceptions of EA practices in an Open Group webinar earlier this year - the recording is available on this link if you'd like to listen back to it.