In the turbulence and uncertainty of the global economy, enterprises need an architecture initiative more than ever. Gartner defines enterprise architecture as "the process of translating business vision and strategy into effective enterprise change." A business-driven enterprise architecture initiative will help identify cost optimization opportunities and ensure a rational approach to investment — balancing the needs of today with tomorrow's growth opportunities. CIOs seem to intuitively realize this — we are getting as many questions as ever about how to ensure that the EA effort will deliver value. Yet, we find that many of our clients continue to struggle — the value of EA is not well-understood across the business and IT — and EA teams are still not doing a very good job of demonstrating or articulating that value. In addition, the increased importance of cost optimization efforts means that EA teams often must recast their initiatives in light of changing enterprise priorities. Ensuring that the EA effort supports the changing priorities of the business and focuses on short-term as well as long-term value is critical. By asking these five questions, the CIO can ensure that the EA program is on track. 
Is the value proposition of the EA initiative specific to the enterprise and articulated in business terms? Business leaders are interested in achieving the business goals that are defined for the company. The business strategy is their articulation of how they believe those goals will best be achieved. It is the architect's ability to express how the architecture will contribute to these efforts that will make the difference between support for the architecture and tolerance (or indifference). Simplification, rationalization and mitigation of implementation risk are often benefits that are called out, but they are really directed at IT, not the business. While you can argue that reduced implementation risk means that the business is wasting less money and getting better value for the money spent, the business isn't interested — their jobs don't depend on delivering projects on time and within budget. Their jobs depend on achieving business goals If, for example, a company's business strategy states that it will achieve the business goals by providing a common look and feel to all of the products of the company in order to sell new services to existing customers, then a value proposition that is based on the fact that the architecture will reduce IT cost will be met with "That's nice [because no one will ever say that reducing cost is not nice], but I'm really busy right now." A value proposition that stresses the development of a common user interface, or integration of customer data across product lines in order to achieve a common look and feel or promote cross-selling opportunities, stands a much better chance of success. A corollary to this question is, "Is it written down?" Too often, chief architects rely on the idea that the value proposition is well-understood in the enterprise — they forget that anything that is not made explicit is open to interpretation by different stakeholders, depending on their own perspective. The value proposition should be clearly written down and socialized with all interested parties.
Has the value proposition been refocused as enterprise priorities have changed? The common refrain that we hear from all of our clients now is that the climate of economic uncertainty has changed business priorities. It is important not to forget that EA is an iterative process. The EA team should re-evaluate its priorities periodically as part of that process. However, in times of obvious shifts in strategy and objectives, the EA team should ensure that it revisits its core assumptions, irrespective of whether it is at that point in the process or not. Not every enterprise is drastically cutting expenses because it's the only way to survive. Some are using the current environment to expand into new markets, and some are taking the opportunity to drastically transform the way they do business. Even EA teams that have well-defined value propositions and open communication with the business should take the opportunity to refine their value propositions to reflect the current business priorities and to publicly reaffirm their commitment to achieving business goals. The enterprise priorities may not have significantly changed, but the business has certainly gone through an evaluation of its strategy, and it is appropriate for the EA team to demonstrate that it is in tune with the business in this regard.
Do the architects emphasize the value of the process rather than the value of the deliverables?
- Enterprise architecture is the process of translating business vision and strategy into effective enterprise change by creating, communicating and improving the key requirements, principles and models that describe the enterprise's future state and enable its evolution.
The focus here is on enabling enterprise change — EA is the process that articulates the strategic drivers for change, defines the vision of the future state to support those strategic drivers, and provides the road map for achieving the future state and the creative constraints that should be followed when executing the road map. This is a collaborative process, facilitated (as opposed to owned) by the architects — and the real benefit to the enterprise is in going through the process — not in any particular work product that is produced.
Are performance metrics being used, and are they business-focused? In an attempt to measure the value of enterprise architecture, organizations often mistakenly resort to metrics that are focused on EA team activities and outputs or on technical results. Often, a company will measure conformance to the architecture, such as the number of waivers granted or the percentage of projects that undergo architectural review. Other measures include adherence to architectural checkpoints in the development life cycle, number of projects requesting assistance from the architecture team or level of component reuse. Measures of architectural effectiveness are not a substitute for measuring business value — if the EA initiative is not delivering the business results that the enterprise needs, something will have to change. Performance metrics should be focused on achieving a desirable business outcome or avoiding an undesirable business result. Appropriate measures might include improved time to market for new products; increased market; or reduced selling, general and administrative (SG&A) cost as a percentage of revenue — the exact focus will depend on the analysis of the strategic imperatives of the enterprise.
Is effective governance in place to ensure that the architecture vision is being realized? Governance and architecture go hand in hand. EA identifies high-priority business changes, and governance ensures these changes are funded and occur. If architecture guidance is not implemented, then EA deliverables are nothing more than books gathering dust on a shelf. In order to achieve true value, the processes for using the architecture to make investment and implementation decisions must be developed at the same time that the process for creating and maintaining the architecture is defined. Architecture guidance must also be embedded into the investment, portfolio management and development processes so that the principles and standards of the architecture are put into practice. Business-driven enterprise architecture represents a valuable tool for CIOs as they contend with shifting priorities, tightened budgets and increased demands for business alignment. CIOs can ensure that their EA efforts are on track to provide business value and alignment when these questions are answered.
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