Greetings from an Enterprise Architecture newbie. When I started at Ardoq a couple of months ago, Enterprise Architecture (or EA as the cool kids call it) was a whole new world for me. I was eager to learn as much as I could but, like many others stepping into this world for the first time, I found myself looking for more, erm, let’s say more “simple” ways to explain the What, How and, most importantly, Why of this role.
Samson M. Mahari, Content Specialist at Ardoq
Ardoq will be sponsoring the Virtual IRM UK Enterprise Architecture & Business Process Management Conference Europe 26-29 October 2020. The conferences are co-located with the Virtual Business Change & Transformation Conference Europe
This article was previously published here.
“OK…but how do you explain that to someone who’s never even heard of EA?”
Much to my relief, I wasn’t the only one asking this very same question. In fact, it turns out that Enterprise Architects themselves often struggle to find the best way to communicate what they do and why it’s so important (let alone how EA is maturing and what they’re looking to be able to provide in the very near future…but one step at a time).
The Opportunity: An Outsider Perspective
The gift of being new to anything, or being an outsider altogether, is that you can bring fresh eyes and important new questions – or at least that’s what the folks at the Ardoq office keep saying.
Luckily, I was presented with a perfect opportunity to test my own way of trying to explain what EA is: A six-hour road trip to a mountainous ski resort with a bunch of my very non-EA friends. I was determined to find a way to explain EA to them or die trying (if snowboarding didn’t kill me first).
As soon as we set off, I turned to them and asked, “So guys, who here knows what Enterprise Architecture is?”
They stared at me, blankly.
Yeah, this wasn’t going to be easy. Thankfully I had an idea.
Enterprise Architecture (In All Its Technical Glory)
If you Google “What is Enterprise Architecture?” you’ll find…a lot. But a quick technical definition might go something like
“Enterprise Architecture is the process of analyzing and evaluating an organization’s business and IT capabilities, in order to find ways to optimize (or effectively transition) the company from its current-state (or As-Is) to its future-state (or To-Be)”
While accurate, it isn’t particularly relatable for most people – And I was pretty sure it wouldn’t go too far with my particular audience that day.
Instead, I tried to ditch the jargon altogether and use our road trip as an analogy to explain as best I could.
The result? Buckle up and let’s go (pun intended).
Hitting the Road
At the start of our trip, we took our car to a garage for a maintenance check. After giving it a once-over, the mechanic told us that we needed to equip ourselves with winter tires for the icy roads and a particular type of ski rack for all our gear (yeah, I know, obvious in hindsight). He warned us that, without these preparations, our trip would not only be longer but possibly more dangerous.
“So,” I started, “let’s say that we’re a company. We’re the managers, and the car (including everything inside of it) is the IT & Infrastructure. That means everything from the company’s computers, apps, and equipment to their office space, desks, company merch, and the kitchen sink”.
“The starting point for our road trip is where our company is now (in terms of size, profits and so on). That’s our current-state. And the ski resort is where we want our company to be. That’s our future-state.
Now, the mechanic is our Enterprise Architect. He told us what we needed to do to “upgrade” our “company.” Plus, by telling us it would be dangerous without these upgrades, he pretty much told us what to expect. That expectation can, more or less, be measured like a metric. And the gas stations and small towns along our route can serve as small objectives that push us towards our overall goal of getting to the resort. We can call them our Key Performance Indicators or KPIs”.
🔍 The takeaway:
In Enterprise Architecture, having an overview is vital. This means knowing where your organization is at – in terms of business goals and strategies. Also how well it’s doing at its current-state – through metrics and KPIs. By knowing where you are and how you’re doing, you’ll get an idea of where you should be and what you should do to get there.
Getting to the Resort
Naturally, the winter tires and ski rack made a big difference. Not only did we get to the resort in record time (less than the usual six hours), but it was a pretty smooth ride with plenty of legroom.
“So, the mechanic (our architect) showed us how to optimize our car (our company) so that we could get to the ski resort (our future-state) on time and in one piece. Our trip was shorter, safer, and more comfortable than how it would have been without the upgrades. Therefore, our comfort and safety are our metrics for measuring how well these upgrades worked”.
🔍The takeaway:
The goal of Enterprise Architecture is effective and measurable change. Architects provide businesses with a roadmap for making this change happen, but they also show them exactly how much better they will operate afterward. Hence, the merit of the metrics.
Keeping an Eye Out
On top of the upgrades, the mechanic also recommended that we ditch our worn-out printed map and instead just use Google Maps. Good job we did, since it helped reroute us automatically to bypass closures and what looked to be an accident, thereby cutting heaps of time (and stress) from our trip.
“With real-time data, different terrains, zoom, and angle capabilities and live updates across all of our devices, Google Maps* was by far the best option. See how much more adaptable we can be?”
*This post is not sponsored by Google Maps
🔍The takeaway:
For effective change management, Enterprise Architects need to use actionable data and strategic agility. These things will allow the EAs to adapt to sudden changes while also staying focused on the main objective.
Driving Back Home
After a fun week of snowboarding, we set off back home. With a car full of tired, bruised, and hungover friends, I thought this would be a good time to reflect on my EA analogy.
“So, let’s review. When it comes to EA, you need to:
🔑Get a complete overview. The only way to know where you have to go is by knowing where you are.
🔑Strive for effective, measurable change. Once you get to where you need to be, check back to see if there’s a noticeable difference.
🔑Use strategic agility. Even with the perfect roadmap, things can happen. So, you need to be agile.”
OK, we won’t be EA prodigies overnight, but I think we got off to a good start, so I’ll take that as a win.
Samson is a Content Specialist at Ardoq, working in the Product Marketing team. Hailing from Eritrea (located in North-East Africa), he is a former journalist, an avid blogger, a voracious coffee consumer, and a relentless comedian, who has spent the last three years writing for various organizations and start-ups.
Copyright Samson M. Mahari, Content Specialist at Ardoq