Agile Enterprise Architecture Strategy & Planning

Architecture Essays

There are three reasons an organisation adopts Enterprise Architecture or makes the best use of it for transformations:

1. Expansion — When an organisation needs to scale up significantly, Enterprise Architecture ensures it will happen smoothly, quickly, and cost-effectively.
2. Diversification — A company may diversify its products or services organically or by acquiring or merging with others. Enterprise Architecture is vital for doing this successfully.
3. IT Delivery & Operations Quality— Organisations often have disorderly and inefficient IT solution delivery and operational services. Enterprise Architecture brings order, quality, and speed.

In the early 2010s, I used to take about three months to deliver an IT transformation roadmap for one business area of an enterprise. Towards the middle of the decade, I found this needed to be improved. One issue was that my external and internal customers wanted more areas to be covered in less time. Another was that events regularly overtook me from business and technology aspects, and I could not control the plans.

I had to do something. Believing in the time-honoured EA method, I predictably tried to stuff more of it in the same period. But an EA depends on…