Aligning Enterprise Architecture Tools to Business Strategy is Essential to Successful Digital Transformation
As digital transformation is an exceptionally complex endeavor, T42 has long been a proponent of a strategically targeted approach that considers a single line of business, process, or function as a means to optimize outcomes. A targeted focus, however, does not mean excluding an organizational-wide view. The broader view is particularly critical when it comes to enterprise architecture tooling where a narrow approach, can result in “technical debt” that can ultimately impede business transformation.i
That said, the most critical factor when assessing and planning for enterprise architecture modernization is maintaining focus on business strategy, priorities, and outcomes, not the tooling itself.
As we note here, assessment and planning – the critical first step in any digital transformation strategy – should establish performance measures and anticipated outcomes across four key areas:
In this post we focus on the importance of building an enterprise architecture tooling roadmap that advances a digital transformation strategy aligned with business strategy.
Enterprise Architecture tooling is means, not end.
The modernization of the tech stack – introduction of AI and machine learning, deploying new applications, IoT, RPA, shifts to the cloud, creating interconnections, and engineering processes to improve access to, and the value of, data – are all components of the digital transformation journey. However, these technology enhancements only enable the ultimate purpose of a digital transformation: the ability to create new value streams and revenue opportunities.
In our experience, a lack of coordination between business and IT hinders large transformations. We have seen that such disconnects sometimes originate in the posture of IT functions: instead of concentrating on the enablement of business priorities, they focus excessively on the delivery of technology solutions as an end in itself.”
—Blumberg,et al., McKinseyii
In other words, upgrading enterprise architecture and improving data flow is not the solution. They are the means by which an organization creates new business opportunities. Enhanced customer value, new revenue opportunities, new market access, and competitive advantage are the goals of digital transformation.
To be effective your enterprise architecture team, IT, DevOps, business teams and operators need to work together closely and inform each other’s priorities and decisions to properly map an effective digital transformation journey. Transformation is only achieved through the close coordination of all actors keenly focused on business outcomes. It is indeed a “naïve assumption that by simply buying technology - or investing in any of the fancy tools or shiny new objects of the booming tech market – organizations will somehow transform.”iii
Assess,plan, and align with business growth strategies.
When assessing enterprise architecture in the context of digital transformation, the foremost questions are 1) What problems are we looking to solve, and 2) what does success look like?
To answer the question “What does success look like?” requires developing key performance indicators (KPIs) of the current state, and importantly, a statement of quantifiable outcomes and key results (OKRs) across a wide range of inter-related aspects of enterprise architecture,including business, application, technology, and data architecture:
- Business Architecture
Map of how processes, capabilities, resources, strategies, and goals currently align. Crucially, as Gartner rightly notes, it is “business architecture that informs that informs planning and execution decisions.”iv - Application Architecture
Catalog the tools that are used to support the business and map how they connect and how those connections are made. - Technology Architecture
Map what technology is used on-prem, in the cloud, how they connect, and how assets are managed. - Data Architecture
Assess how data is created, used, stored, classified, managed, protected, and shared. This includes GRC requirements, quality assurance, sources of truth, business continuity, and disaster recovery programs.
With an understanding of the enterprise architecture and tooling – how it performs today, and how it needs to perform to better support business priorities a roadmap can be developed that tightly aligns with business strategies and the outcomes required.
About Transform 42 Inc.
T42 is a digital transformation specialist relentlessly focused on delivering targeted, measurable, and sustainable outcomes against clearly defined success metrics. Deploying a people-first strategy, we implement tooling, modernization, and process enhancement that enable people to interpret, develop insights, and act on that data to better serve the business and its customers.
T42 partners with our clients to design and implement digital strategies that survive growth and change.
i “In software-intensive systems, technical debt is a collection of design or implementation constructs that are expedient in the short term but set up a technical context that can make future changes more costly or impossible.” Intel.
ii Five enterprise architecture practices that add value to digital transformations
iii The essential Components of Digital Transformation
