EA Best Practices - Pebbleage Swiss Suisse

Towards Enterprise Architecture Best Practices - Enterprise Architecture provides an invaluable resource to help IT executives create, maintain, and refine the key planning disciplines required to manage an effective IT organization. By implementing Enterprise Architecture best practices, IT organizations are more capable of managing business requirements, aligning processes and technology with business strategy, and improving IT group’s credibility in delivering value to the business.

1.	Ensure architecture is business-driven The enterprise architecture process must be driven by key business imperatives. If there is to be an enterprise architecture vision, it must be based on the business vision. According to Michel Sawyer, director of architecture and infrastructure development at Desjardins, the largest financial-services organization in Quebec, "Enterprise architecture planning is an ongoing process that must be closely aligned with business needs."

2.	Communicate plans and benefits The plans, goals, and benefits of enterprise architecture efforts must be successfully communicated across all IT organizations and lines of business. "It is very important to communicate, on an ongoing basis, your architecture strategy, goals, and objectives to increase awareness throughout the enterprise," says Serge Pepin, senior technical architect in the technology architecture group of Hydro-Quebec.

3.	Publicize shared architecture values A key component of an enterprise architecture is an official decree documenting the set of architecture values that the enterprise embraces. The document covers major technology positions that are not, or are no longer, open for discussion. It is a statement of shared values, endorsed by management, and must be distributed to all IT and line-of-business staff to ensure proper alignment.

4.	Regularly publish progress updates. Once you have communicated your enterprise architecture goals and objectives, it is important to keep management and workers updated with the latest architecture-related project developments. To promote awareness among users, some companies use their intranets to publish announcements on their latest successes.

5.	Unify the enterprise architecture efforts The enterprise architecture management process must be unified across the enterprise. The success or failure of the enterprise architecture process is dependent upon the cooperative efforts of all business and IT units across the entire organization.

6.	Gain commitment at the grass-roots level To succeed, IT enterprise architecture efforts must not only gain the commitment of top executives, but also the direct support of line management. It is of paramount importance to ensure that line management understands, supports, and enforces the enterprise architecture shared values across the board. Some of the recommendations stemming from the enterprise architecture projects might require a tough sell at the grass-roots level, so it is important to gain the support of line managers to help overcome passive resistance from the troops.

7.	Streamline the technical infrastructure Standardization of critical IT assets is vital to designing a robust yet flexible enterprise architecture that can adapt to change. The ultimate goal is to minimize the large number of permutations often associated with disparate technologies, as well as configurations that inhibit change. The elimination of incompatible technologies will go a long way to helping leverage existing IT services, skill sets, training, and support.

8.	Remain flexible Even the most well thought-out projects will require some changes along the way. For instance, if a business unit prefers a technology that is not mainstream and that goes against business standards, the IT group must either find a suitable alternative that will satisfy the business-unit requirements or try to find ways to integrate the technology within the current architecture stream.

9.	Make small, incremental steps Enterprise architecture projects should be set up with realistic expectations in mind. The enterprise architects should adopt a philosophy by which the architecture is developed in an evolutionary way, via a series of releases. The implementation of each release builds on the previous ones and incrementally provides value to the organization. Using an evolutionary style as opposed to a "big bang" approach will dramatically increase the chances for success.

10.	Identify quick hits Because benefits might not materialize until the later phases of a large and complex enterprise architecture project, the project team members should focus their initial efforts on identifying near-term opportunities that can provide quick benefits. Architecture-related projects that can be implemented quickly while providing immediate savings should take precedence over longer-term opportunities. Quick wins will help the projects gain acceptance from the business and IT communities and demonstrate the value of an adaptable enterprise architecture.