Business without a formal architecture evolves over time to adapt to changing strategies, markets, regulations, and legislation. This leads to a loss of a holistic view of the enterprise’s evolution. The most important benefit of formalised Enterprise Architecture is the understanding of how different parts, or components, of the enterprise, fit together and how it interacts with each other.
There are a few characteristics that an effective Enterprise Architecture Framework possesses that make it valuable:
• It is comprehensive
• It is both visual and instructional
• It simplifies the topic area
It represents work not necessary to repeat, but rather as a starting point to adapt representative concepts/models to your specific enterprise, in a fashion that is consistent to the way your enterprise is managed and operated.
Our recommendations for using an Enterprise Architecture Framework are born out of the experiences of our clients over the past 20 years. They are intended to drive one towards achieving benefits in a pragmatic manner.
It has to be your framework! Make sure you choose a framework or frameworks based on your needs and use it (them) as reference for a framework that is more specific to your enterprise’s strategy, business model, processes, terminology, and maturity.
Scale back. Most Enterprise Architecture frameworks are going to be so comprehensive that it would be unfeasible to attempt its entirety in any reasonable amount of time. Your enterprise is going to be continually changing – so will the focus of your Enterprise Architecture and the usage of an Enterprise Architecture framework.
Don’t be a slave to completing it. Completing the framework should never be a goal. The framework can provide suggestions on what models should be created for a given focus area of the enterprise, but completing the model for the sake of completing the model is not recommended. Unless you have an identified consumer with a valuable need for a particular model or set of models, your time should be better spent elsewhere.
Find tool support. If you have chosen/customized a framework and are looking into an EA modeling and/or repository tool, one of your selection criteria should include the support for your chosen framework and the ability to customize its presentation and usage to fit your needs.
Ok, so where does that leave you? To put it simply, an Enterprise Architecture Framework will help you answer the “What?” questions, but not the “How?” questions. An Enterprise Architecture framework can prove to be a very valuable aid in developing an effective Enterprise Architecture program if used with diligence and understanding.