Occasionally you stumble across a body of work that completely maps to what you are doing at that moment and it brings you to a complete new understanding of your activity.
A couple of years ago some colleagues and I were trying to assemble everything we knew or could find on business systems consolidation. The idea was to be able to put some real meat on the bones of the Single Instance message that Oracle had been taking to the market for some time. We had had some significant project successes and some failures as well. We wanted to understand what might be special about single instance/ERP consolidation projects and structure that knowledge so that our customers could also benefit from it.
Then I happened upon Enterprise Architecture as Strategy by Ross, Weill and Robertson. This book helped me come to a much richer understanding of enterprise architecture maturity and how this concept binds a given business operating model to the underlying IT architecture that supports it.
Basically it explained to me how some consolidation projects had a great chance of succeeding while others would carry a substantial risk of failure from day one, simply due to a mismatch between the desired (enterprise) architecture and the maturity of it’s implementation in the client organization.
Here is a quick summary of why the Enterprise Architecture concept is important.
Basically the book uses the concept of Enterprise Architecture as a framework to bind your business operating model to your underlying IT architecture. An effective foundation for execution is based on three disciplines:
- Operating Model The level of business process integration and standardization for delivering goods or services to a customer. a framework of four generic operating models is described, each with differing emphasis on business process integration or standardization.
- Enterprise Architecture This is the organizing logic for business processes and IT infrastructure reflecting the integration and standardization requirements of the operating model. The book also describes how organizations go through four stages of maturity in applying Enterprise Architecture to design their business processes. It is exactly this maturity model that provided key insights for me (see below)
- IT Engagement Model This is the governance that you put in place to ensure that business and IT projects meet local and corporate objectives.
Maturity Model for Enterprise Architecture (click image to enlarge)
For me, the maturity model showed why so many consolidation projects run out of steam.
As you consolidate business processes and the supporting IT infrastructure you are trading off local flexibility for global or corporate flexibility. It is the big drop off in local flexibility that makes it such a hard sell for the business units.
This is a significant change management challenge. It requires continual reinforcement of the senior management support for the effort, reminding everyone that the payoff is the increased flexibility of the organization as a whole.
Fur further reading you can check the website for the book at http://architectureasstrategy.com/book/eas/ or you can just go to Amazon and buy it. Good luck and let me know what you think.
Comments (4)
The diagram of the model in your post is so small I can't see it - can you point to a larger version?
Posted by Ed Klein | November 5, 2008 4:19 PM
Posted on November 5, 2008 16:19
I have been persuing Enterprise Architecture putting it as central axis of my thought. With good understanding Enterprise Architecture, it becomes easier to talk with customers on the strategies of their business and IT, and it helps to guide customers if they are struggling with making a good strategy.
Though I have not read the book, I need to get a copy and read it through.
Posted by takashi hitomi | November 5, 2008 9:46 PM
Posted on November 5, 2008 21:46
Ed, try it now - I am still getting to grips with the Windows Live Writer blogging tool. I have just discovered that it automatically thumbnails the uploaded image for you. So if you refresh the page and click the image a full size image should open. Will also email you a copy.
Takashi. This is exactly why I found the the structure suggested by the book to be so useful. Success!
Posted by Andrew Sparks | November 6, 2008 3:31 PM
Posted on November 6, 2008 15:31
I thought this entry was very interesting, seeing how I'm working on implementing Oracle DB as an Enterprise Architecture solution. Will defently be getting the book. Thanks for the info.
Bobby
Posted by Bobby Curtis | November 6, 2008 7:31 PM
Posted on November 6, 2008 19:31