EA 872 Week 4 - How to Ensure Your Governance Framework Works

I was reading an article about how to make sure your company has Governance Framework Works.

Governance can make or break successful IT and project management. Most leading organizations develop designed approaches to management very carefully. Even the best frameworks, however, will fail if not properly executed by CIOs or those responsible for management.

The ideal management structure is not necessarily dictated by organizational structures or even constitutional structures for those in the public sector. It is driven by the characteristics and the organizational dynamics of those in leadership positions, and their willingness and ability to engage in decision-making processes. Leaders who are disengaged, fear IT decisions, avoid conflict or lack the time may not be ideally suited for a role in governance. Similarly, those with high engagement, strong convictions, the absence of fear of conflict and plenty of time are also ill-suited to participate in governance if they lack decision-making authority or the ability to execute decisions. They may be very opinionated, but opinions do not constitute management.

1. Authority: Individuals involved in governance must have the organizational authority to make final decisions and make sure they are executed. Further, they control organization resources and are empowered to direct them to a purpose.
2. Aptitude: Individuals involved in governance must have the aptitude to make decisions, including around complex IT or business-process-related issues. They need not have the expertise; but, they must have the intellectual willingness to learn what they need to do and render a decision with confidence and conviction.

Governance processes can take many forms, and there may be several processes operating simultaneously. A management process can be any process in which a decision is required. Often, these happen routinely through the standard chain of command. Most organizations also have a separation of functions that results in concurrent processes working toward the same end. For example, budgeting and procurement are types of governance processes that may come to bear on the same project or IT operation. Each requires decisions, and each may involve different policy makers. In these situations, the governance framework must bring decision makers (the who) together to ensure the harmony of objectives.

EA 872 Week 3 - EA Capability Primer for 2016

EA must balance the need to lead business/technology innovation while transforming the existing (largely technology) estate. The innovation challenge is driven by digital business trends that leverage emerging technology to create new business designs by blurring the digital and physical worlds. In almost every industry, there is evidence of digital transformation underway converging people, business and things. To be successful, organizations must adopt new ways of working and competencies to capitalize quickly on the opportunities as they arise. Vanguard enterprise architects are individuals or teams within EA practices who are primarily focused on leading and driving innovation with disruptive technologies and new or reinvigorated business models (bimodal Mode 2) with a focus on delivering business outcomes. Vanguard enterprise architects are playing a leading role in this transformation, with 70% of leading enterprise architects reporting in a Gartner survey they are either responsible or accountable for the success of their digital business strategy over the next two years. 
In contrast, foundational enterprise architects are individuals or teams primarily focused on delivering business outcomes by optimizing or maintaining the current business model, including the systems of record and maintaining the existing estate (bimodal Mode 1). Foundational enterprise architects are guiding organizations to transform the way they deliver services to an evolving set of service delivery models, including public and private cloud, business process outsourcing and partnering with organizations to drive new value.
While these two modes of operating are distinct in terms of the skills, talents, tools and techniques they require, both work on a single EA, focus on business outcomes and require consistent approaches to governance, resourcing, planning and communication. The challenge for EA leaders is to balance both modes of operation within the EA team.
The increased focus on digital business is driving changes to the EA tool market, with larger vendors extending their product offerings into what could eventually become a digital business design and execution platform.  These extended capabilities target users beyond the EA team by addressing the need for tools to support related disciplines such as innovation management, governance, risk and compliance (GRC), program and portfolio management (PPM) and application portfolio management (APM).
With the increased focus on delivering business outcomes, CIOs are looking to outsource technology architecture to key vendors and partners.  This represents an opportunity for EA service providers to shape new services to organizations, and to create and offer solution and technology architecture services.
http://www.gartner.com/document/3187623?ref=solrAll&refval=168851872&qid=684b7b7c769b0e57f143da83ef8aead3

EA teams should speak the language of business

I can say how EA team should speak the language of business. Enterprise architecture (EA) teams play a critical role in achieving alignment between IT and the business. Respected for their technical savvy, they ensure individual IT systems run smoothly so the company can rapidly implement new strategies. However, according to a recent IDG survey, their business acumen is often doubted partly because instead of evaluating emerging trends from a business standpoint, EA teams do so from a technology perspective. Consequently, EA is viewed as less important in areas that are tied closely to business performance – such as increasing competitive agility, managing risk, and bolstering company growth. As a result, they face an awareness gap that is holding them back from reaching their full potential.EA teams must overcome skepticism by demonstrating how they can help the business make smarter decisions about technology investments– without talking about technology. To do that, EA teams have to explain the business value of technology to their trading partners. This translates into tying IT initiatives closer to business outcomes to prove their worth as a key contributor in developing and executing business strategy.

It also entails learning how to communicate and translate IT strategy into business strategy, and being more collaborative in helping the business make smarter decisions about technology.

In this way, organizations can understand how EA impacts the business– from goals and strategy to business capabilities. This means that opportunities and risks can be evaluated in the context of the entire enterprise and decision-makers become equipped with the insights they need to make business investment decisions faster and with greater confidence. As a result, EA teams can form an integral part of the strategic planning process.


Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/2016/05/13/why-ea-teams-should-speak-the-language-of-business/#ixzz4A4q0x5nP 

This is my second semester in Enterprise Architect. I just wanted to reflect the knowledge; I got from EA 891 which has given the path to EA 982 to get advance understand in Enterprise Architect. I think there is not one definition we can use to the description. An EA is a conceptual blueprint that defines the structure and operation of an organization. The of an enterprise architecture is to determine how an organization can most effectively achieve it current and future objectives.

I came across article which talks about how in 2020 IT company is going looking for EA to provided the blueprint to the business. The article also talks about first 100 days an EA use in the company.