Making the Case for Enterprise Architecture

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Nov 8, 2005, By Gene Leganza

John Zachman, the originator -- some call him the father -- of enterprise architecture (EA), said EA programs employ formal processes to consciously design enterprisewide approaches to business, information, application and infrastructure architectures. When implemented correctly, EA programs can significantly improve the business value of IT investments.

EA is the blueprint for designing and implementing information technology solutions to serve current and future business functions. It can enhance coordination, reduce diversity, promote data sharing and boost efficiency in the development of business solutions.

But EA is not just an IT initiative -- Zachman himself is quick to note that EA is a top-down program that, to succeed, must impact strategic business planning processes and enterprise governance.

EA programs are a huge factor in how CIOs get their IT projects approved -- federal agencies claim to implement EA to get their business cases approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

State CIOs also have EA on their list of issues to tackle, and large local jurisdictions have EA on their radar screen -- if it's not part of their IT strategy already.

While no exact figures exist on who's using EA, it's safe to say that almost all organizations with a significant investment in IT have some form of EA program.

The question is: Are participants in EA programs actually forming their enterprises from the top down? The answer varies according to who's doing it and how. Forrester Research found that:

Private-sector EA organizations focus on technology strategy. Enterprise architects diligently chant the mantra of aligning technology strategy with the business vision, but they are not collaborating in that vision's development.

Public-sector EA organizations rubber-stamp existing business plans. Many government EA architects treat business architecture as a data collection exercise. They simply record program sponsors' existing plans as the upcoming business architecture, and aren't using the EA process to plan in a new and better way. They act as custodians rather than architects.

Collaborative planning occurs outside the formal EA context. When business planning includes technology subject matter experts to help businesses understand how to best re-engineer their processes, business and IT leaders are usually acting in the context of re-engineering programs or integration efforts. This leaves formal EA programs out in the cold.

Innovation Plus Governance Equals Effectiveness
The most effective approach to business architecture (BA) -- a component of EA -- marries iron-clad repeatable processes with the innovation possible when business and technology subject matter experts work together to solve problems. Formal planning processes ensure that the best business and IT minds available apply their knowledge to solving business problems. Governance processes make certain that only high-value projects obtain resources. Performance management processes consistently measure business value. Combinations of two critical dimensions -- the degree of IT/business interaction in planning, and the degree of formal process implementation -- define four states that characterize organizations on the journey to optimized BAs:

Engaged. When a BA is in the engaged state, great care is taken to link IT planning to business planning, but the organization uses a waterfall model. This means IT is simply the recipient -- and sometimes the custodian -- of business plans and decisions that flow through a series of phases with major IT implications.

Process-oriented. When a BA is in the process-oriented state, executive support and implementation of best practices in project selection and portfolio management put muscle into governance processes. IT strategic planning is closely aligned with business planning, but still uses the waterfall model. Systemic performance metrics show that the effect of tight linkage to business planning and tight governance processes is consistent: CIOs