The Strategy to Action Value Chain

The Role of Enterprise Architecture

The following is an excerpt from  "From Business Strategy to IT Action"

"In the context of the Strategy-to-Bottom-Line Value Chain,  EA can provide many of the key inputs into the processes that produce the deliverables.  The important objective is the consistent connection of those processes, and the consistency of the deliverable. What we do not want is a duplication of effort and multiple voices about planning, projects, prioritization, and annual plans.  This can happen if the EA role isn’t considered in the context of the Value Chain deliverables.

This very much depends on the role EA plays in the IT organization.   As every company situation is different, there are no absolute rules about this.  But the questions about EA roles need to be answered. 

Many companies apply enterprise architecture (EA) as part of their IT management and planning activities.  From their perspective, it would seem that EA should play an important role in strategic planning (e.g, Strategy demand/supply planning), alignment (e.g, assessment of the as-is IT activities), and prioritization (e.g, deciding on the projects to be implemented.)  They might see that “Right Decisions” means decisions driven by or guided by EA, and that “Right Results” means using EA to assure that projects do improve IT’s bottom-line impact.

What should EA’s role be in Right Decisions, Right Results?   We address this in three parts:  1)  what is EA?  2)  How is EA applied?  3) What role does it play in Right Decisions, Right Results?

What is EA?

Several years ago we contributed an EA article to an IT dictionary.  Part of it said:

Enterprise architecture describes the structure of a company in terms of means of production, customer service, strategy and objectives, and use of information and information technology. It provides models to portray component parts of a company and how they work together to achieve its business mission and goals. It connects the company's business structure, use of information and information technology, and the technology architectures needed.

Enterprise architecture is a family of related architecture components. These include information architecture, organization and business process architecture, and information technology architecture. Each consists of architectural representations, definitions of architecture entities, their relationships, and specifications of function and purpose. Enterprise architecture guides the construction and development of business organizations and business processes, and the construction and development of supporting information systems.

Diagrams and schematics are commonly used to represent enterprise architecture. For example, an entity-relationship diagram may portray enterprise information architecture, and an organization chart may portray the enterprise management structure. Such diagrams and schematics come from other disciplines such as organizational design. They have been adapted to describe enterprise architecture.

Enterprise architecture is a holistic representation of all the components of the enterprise, and the use of graphics and schematics are used to emphasize all the parts of the enterprise, and how they are interrelated. Data and process models originally designed for computer application development are used in describing information architecture. For example, entity-relationship diagrams that describe information as a set of business entities (e.g. customer and products) and how they relate (e.g. customers order products) can also be used to represent an enterprise information architecture.

Enterprise architectures are used to deal with intra-organizational processes, inter-organizational cooperation and coordination, and their shared use of information and information technologies. Business developments, such as outsourcing, partnerships, alliances, and Electronic data interchange, extend the need for architecture across company boundaries.

New technologies add to the need for enterprise architecture. Client-server approaches (see Client/server architecture) and related communications networks enable distribution of information and computer applications throughout the enterprise. The need for architecture includes rapid information technology proliferation, incompatible and non-communicating application systems, multiple networks, inaccessible data in parts of the enterprise, piecemeal technical solutions to business problems, uncoordinated developments in common areas of the enterprise, un-integrated data, and inadequate integrity and security of results."

Excerpt from "From Business Strategy to IT Action"