5 Key Components of a Successful Enterprise Architecture Function

5 Key Components of a Successful Enterprise Architecture Function

Creating and managing a successful Enterprise Architecture function requires a variety of different hard and soft skills. In addition, each company is different and the Enterprise Architecture function needs to calibrate and align itself to the specific company.

However, there are five common features of a successful Enterprise Architecture function that are applicable to all companies.

1. Governance

Enterprise Architecture (EA) requires governance, however not in the form of complex documents, forms or processes. Definitely avoid EA being seen as the policy-enforcement team — people will avoid EA if the perception is that EA is a blocker. The best governance starts with a simple, recurring dialogue across multiple functions facilitated by EA. I am always amazed at how valuable it is just to get cross-functional teams to talk. Pick a specific topic, typically a critical pain point, which might be a specific business capability, and create a dialogue about how it works (or doesn’t work) today. Each business function will be able to share their perspective of how it “works” and usually it is educational for everyone in terms of learning how other groups are impacted. An enterprise effort can exist only when a cross-functional group of business functions prioritize that effort.