By: Michael A. Tiemann, Program Director and Senior Faculty, FEAC Institute
For now, it looks like the economy is in the tank for the foreseeable future and that has many organizations trying to decide what they are going to do to tighten their budget belts, and in some cases to survive, until things pick up. This economic picture hits government and not-for-profit organizations as well, in a ripple effect because public coffers will also be lighter and that means even tighter budgets for them. Actually, it might be a great time to focus on doing your core business (or mission) better and more efficiently. In many cases this means understanding and documenting what you are doing now (as-is state) and how you think it could or should be done in the future with better processes and technology enablement (to-be state). Then a gap analysis can tell you what to change and help establish a priority based plan for better and quicker decision making and to help your organization not feel the downturn, as much.
People sometimes need to realize that when they are so busy, they really need to take the time to think strategically and analyze what needs to be done in the longer term. Or put another way, when they are so busy maintaining the “bottom line” it prevents them a view beyond the next few quarters. It’s the old paradigm about “alligators and not being able to stop to drain the swamp”. In the current economy, it may be precisely the time to start planning for “draining the swamp”. Applying the Enterprise Architecture (EA) discipline to your organization and revising how decisions are made, especially costly technology decisions can be the defining strategy that will ensure survival, and even better, long term success. It can establish a strategic management approach that aligns your business or mission vision in a line-of-sight down to the newer technologies you must implement. This in turn allows the measurement of the cause and effect of better technologic enablement of process solutions to the needed outcomes, like managing the budget crunch and maintaining the bottom line.
So, being a healthy bit skeptical, as most proficient managers are, you have a few questions about the EA discipline. You might ask:
- How will enterprise architecture help me reach my organizational goals?
- How much might it cost and how long will it take to get a feasible, actionable plan?
- Are my IT staff and business people capable of doing this plan or is there something I need to do to get them engaged? I mean why aren’t they already doing this to help our organization?
- Are there things that can be leveraged to help us get our transformation using the EA discipline done better and faster so that we can reap the benefits quicker?
- What kinds of benefits can we expect and how fast will we get ROI?
All good questions that any management executive would and should ask, about any new investment or change management approach, especially in an environment that can punish you, if you don’t change. Using the EA discipline is, actually, both an investment and a change management strategy. So here are some answers to your questions about the EA discipline:
Q. How will the discipline of enterprise architecture help me reach my organizational goals?
A. Using this discipline can help any organizations management ensure that it is looking at the strategically aligned value of all investments especially those involving the larger costs like technology acquisitions for services and capabilities. Often it is not the up front costs of the investments so much as it is the failure of the investments in technologies to provide solutions and capabilities that return value enabling achievement of the goals. EA can enable the alignment to be assessed before the investment and thereby lower the risk as well as ensuring the rewards. From a budget tightening perspective EA can ensure that decisions to cut don’t cut the wrong things, like strategically important initiatives or critical support capabilities.
Q. How much might applying the EA discipline cost and how long will it take to get a feasible, actionable plan?
A. Using the EA discipline can actually make your organization become cost neutral and profit enhancing, anywhere from 6 to 36 months. Any start up costs can be rapidly regained in savings. This means that an organization can do an initial plan using EA, establish a transition plan and start implementing it in a manner to shave costs and avoid imprudent investments (that are not aligned to core business) within a single budget execution cycle, of course, depending on when it is started. Initially, using the EA discipline capabilities can be started as a special project (established, and defined at a high level in 3-4 months, by 3-4 key staff people working across the enterprise) but should transition into an ongoing institutionalized program and practice, integral to management processes over time. While establishing a program, and bringing in the expertise needed to do it, will take an up front investment, by any measure, this cost is small when compared to the potential benefits covered below. Applying EA modeling for decision making can produce quick results because in the As-Is step discoveries are made pointing to inefficiencies, that stand out, like systems not being utilized or acquisitions of duplicative business practices or IT practices. Just stopping these can often free up the money to continue, and manage the transition program.
Q. Are my IT staff and business people capable of doing this plan or is there something I need to do to get them engaged? I mean why aren’t they already doing this to help our organization?
A. It might be a good idea to bring in a qualified consultant to assess the organization and determine whether your staff has the capabilities or the organization is ready to apply such discipline. Considerations would include an assessment of not onlythe skills and knowledge necessary but also a review of the cultural impediments and strategic plans. This allows scoping and identification of the pre-planning objectives, like training, making information available, and planning logistics for supporting the EA Project team. As to why IT isn’t already doing this; well, that’s usually because they don’t see it as their job. They are only providing services and capabilities to enhance your business functions and if they aren’t meeting business/mission needs then the business people should ask for something else. This is a conundrum, especially in a downturn, because everyone’s jobs, even IT folks, are on the line if the organization doesn’t prosper. So it is a good idea to get qualified help and to consider project focused training before you embark on using EA to implement an overall plan.
Q. Are there things that can be leveraged to help us get our EA done better and faster so that we can reap the benefits quicker?
A. There are training programs that integrate doing organizational relevant actual work applying the EA discipline in real time, as a part of the training. These can be heavily leveraged in kick-starting an EA driven program and should be considered. Also there are architecture references that can be obtained and reused for establishing strategies, frameworks, principles, models and methodologies that need not be crafted from scratch. Lastly there may come a point where it would be wise to consider the hiring of a Chief Enterprise Architect (CEA), separate from your CIO or CTO but on the same level, who can lead and manage the implementation of the EA discipline as an organizational resource and service for better overall board room decision making. There are consultants that can advise you on all of these startup issues.
Q. What kinds of benefits can we expect and how fast will we get ROI?
A. Early returns of three to one (within 18 months) have been documented and in the longer term 50 to 100 to one, or greater, have been claimed. Some organizations have used EA to turn their entire organization around, to take market share and to innovate in ways that otherwise would never have been envisioned (it’s often hard to measure this kind of ROI). One of the most sought after capabilities today of course is becoming more agile as an organization. This discipline is the only holistic approach making is possible. A large package delivery company used it to essentially take over the overnight shipping market until its competitors finally did their own EA work and caught up. It’s seen as so important in the Federal government that there is a law, Clinger-Cohen Act, requiring it and many large companies have embraced it because another law, Sarbanes-Oxley is difficult to comply with without it. At a major Federal agency the ROI after three years was 10 to one and growing, using very conservative cost savings attributions to their EA Program. This discipline can provide strategic advantage and lower risks while ensuring technology enablement and efficient and effective solution to complex objectives and challenges.
In summary, while the nation’s future economic situation may be seen as a disaster for many business organizations, some may see it as an opportunity to take stock and do the type planning that can posture them to really out perform their competitors, even before things crank back up. Government agencies and not-for-profit organizations can like wise use an EA discipline approach to tighten their costs belts and to help focus on their core mission ensuring that every dollar spent counts against outcomes. Enterprise Architecture is a prescription to help any organization get past and through the sick economy and come out of the gate much faster when the downturn subsides.
FEAC Institute:
The FEAC Institute provides quality, practical, and professional Enterprise Architecture education, training and certification to the private sector, civilian government and the Department of Defense sectors through hands-on projects requiring direct application of frameworks and methodologies while remaining tool vendor neutral. Practitioner TOGAF Training is one of the short course programs.
For information about our Core EA Certification Programs and Short Courses, click here.
