Enterprise Architecture
Welcome to the second part of this series on process optimization challenges. Last time we went over the importance of simplicity in process, and more specifically how looking at the big picture when affecting change can ensure that you make a more significant improvement.
Earlier this year, we published a blog about how enterprise architects can contribute to innovation. In this blog series, we want to further explore the different roles enterprise architects can play in innovation in their organization. In general, we see an increasing need for and contribution of an architectural perspective on innovation. That’s because most large organizations have become pretty complex beasts and innovating there is not always easy. Lots of moving parts need to be coordinated but not many people have the necessary overview. This is typically where enterprise architecture can add value.
We’ve spoken about security on this blog before. We addressed how you can build a better protected organization with the help of enterprise architecture, for instance, and also collated our thoughts on improving cybersecurity with EA in a whitepaper (have a read if you haven’t already). That’s because we are genuinely preoccupied with the topic and we make it our business to not only adhere to high security standards ourselves, but also create awareness within our industry around this important subject.
Across the globe, Enterprise Architecture teams deliver three key organizational functions. Firstly, they provide understanding of their current organization; this enables the organization to effectively control and regulate its existing operating model. Secondly, those teams provide a window into the organization’s potential, insight into where value can be found and unlocked, and an insight into the future. Thirdly, EA teams drive, enable and support the iterative improvement of this direction setting insight, and with that they translate strategy into reality, creating real business value.
At BiZZdesign, we’ve had many engagements throughout the years where we were brought in to breathe new life into failing enterprise architecture initiatives. A common denominator across many of these projects was replacing an ineffective trinity of Visio, Excel, and PowerPoint.
In our experience, many organizations find it appropriate to start off an EA practice with a cheap, homemade solution. The thinking is that once some value has been achieved, they may then (maybe) graduate to a professional tool. In this webinar, Marc Lankhorst, Managing Consultant and Chief Technology Evangelist, will explain why we think that’s absolutely the wrong approach if you want to do real, meaningful architecture work that makes an organization more competitive.
The webinar will address specific reasons why real EA platforms beat simple office tools every time for doing true architecture work, addressing topics such as modeling vs. just drawing pictures, analysis vs. looking at pictures, real collaboration vs. mere publication, integration vs. copy-paste, and more. If you’re an architect, this will give you solid arguments to convince management why your organization needs to invest in a proper solution.
A Request for Proposal (or Request for Information) is a critical stage in any business transformation process. With the need to procure a professional tool onto which to anchor the enterprise architecture practice clearly identified, the next step is just as important – but not so straightforward. It is at this junction point that one must ask themselves – How do we identify the best offer out there? What should/shouldn’t we prioritize? And is it possible to make it more difficult for ourselves, or perhaps even endanger the transformation initiative through our own fault?
At the Open Group conference in Amsterdam in November 2019, the latest version of the ArchiMate modeling language for enterprise architecture was released. Version 3.1 is an update to the previous major version 3.0 (released in 2016). Despite being ‘just’ a minor version update, it holds a number of useful additions and improvements for EA practitioners.
A great many organizations have migrated their workloads (databases, back office systems, web applications etc.) to the cloud over the last decade or so. A great many more have still to do so, either because they’re dealing with industry-specific regulatory requirements or, more likely, because of the disruption this change would cause. In any case, the benefits of a cloud migration are well-known at this point, so we won’t waste time talking about those.
Our recent blog post on abstraction levels in architecture models resulted in a lively discussion on LinkedIn. As part of that discussion, the notion of layering was questioned, and in particular the layers that are built into the ArchiMate language. In this post I want to clarify the thinking behind the language structure.
In this session, Mohor (Movi) Banerjee, Head of Enterprise Architecture at CSL Behring, will be sharing the story of her EA team’s transformation from a primarily “academic” group that had limited impact on the business, to a strategic partner within the organization. This is the journey of a team that went from the periphery of the organization towards its center – a key driver of the company’s technology roadmap and intimately involved in developing its digital core. As she takes us through the EA evolution, Movi will highlight the different transformations that took place across three areas: People, Process and Tools.
People: We will see how the company not only expanded the EA team’s capacity, but also how Movi led the upskilling of the team and supported them in becoming the emerging technologies subject matter experts that CSL Behring needed them to be. Additionally, she will also highlight the benefits that were gained by improving the team’s communications and influencing skills, as well as changing their focus on customer experience.
Process: We will learn how the CSL Behring Business Technology group created an impactful Technology Governance mechanism that focused not just on technology and business architecture but also, more importantly, on the enterprise’s underpinning technology strategies. Chaired by the CIO, this council along with the advisory committees, have ensured that new technology standards and strategies (Cloud, RPA, mobility, middleware etc.) are properly defined and communicated. As such, the EA team in collaboration with cross-functional teams, was able to improve the efficacy of all the touch points across the technology lifecycle, including the program/project lifecycle.
Tools: Using BiZZdesign as their platform, we will learn how the EA team created a Storyboarding capability, for the stakeholders. What’s more, we will learn how the team intersected this dashboard with the ability to map the business capabilities and the desired business outcomes to strategic technology roadmaps and the application landscape – moving from static, out of date PowerPoint charts to a live view of the business.
Movi Banerjee has nearly 20 years of experience, leading global teams through strategy and execution across various technologies, with an emphasis on Enterprise Information Systems and Digital Solutions for Fortune 100 companies.
In her current role at CSL, Movi heads up the Enterprise Architecture group. Enterprise Architecture supports all key CSL strategic initiatives, in the Business Technology portfolio, in order to empower Technology Innovation, while harmonizing the portfolio. Some examples include Robotics Process Automation, Internet of Things, Workplace of the Future and Cloud computing.
About CSL Behring: CSL Behring is a global biopharmaceutical company that manufactures plasma-derived and recombinant therapeutic products. With over 26,000 employees and operations in 30 countries the company is headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania and has major manufacturing centers in the US, Switzerland, Germany and Australia.
One of the biggest challenges in making Enterprise Architecture successful is ensuring proper communication with business stakeholders. Enterprise Architecture is quite often perceived as a discipline of the IT organization (where unfortunately also many EA teams are operating), and the traditional EA diagrams are not always the best visualizations for business stakeholders. To create better alignment with the business organization, it is important to create business-friendly visualizations, both from format and content perspective. This will help in improving the maturity of your EA practice and establish it as an enabler of strategic decision making and continuous change.
Digital transformation initiatives are relatively commonplace these days. That’s because there is a pretty wide understanding that you can’t really keep doing what you’ve been doing and expect to be successful in the long run – not with technology advancing so quickly, consumers being so demanding, and a rapidly falling barrier to entry. That much organizations have internalized. Read more
Organizations today are faced with an ever-increasing speed of change. To enable faster transformation, they implement agile methods, which impact the whole enterprise. Obviously, change need to be communicated, but one cannot document all the details because otherwise they would be outdated the next week, or perhaps the very next day. Read more
“Do I need an EA tool to deliver digital transformation, or can I just rely on a CMDB?”. Or, in the same vein “What is the difference between an EA tool and a CMDB?”. And “Why buy an EA tool if I have a CMDB?”.
At BiZZdesign we’ve had many engagements throughout the years where we were brought in to breath new life into failing enterprise architecture initiatives. A common denominator across many of these projects was replacing home ground enterprise architecture tools. Specifically an ineffective trinity comprising on Excel, Visio and PowerPoint. In our experience many organizations find it appropriate to start of an EA practice with cheap, home grown solutions, The thinking is that once some value has been achieved, they then (maybe) graduate to a professional fit for purpose tool, That usually how the story goes. We believe this approach is backwards and this paper going into detail behind that thinking.
How can Enterprise Architecture help your organization become more secure, reliable, and compliant? Read more
Whatever your role, wherever you are, you are measured by the value that you bring. People interact with you because they derive some value from that interaction. That could be political, social, economic, intellectual or technical. To maximize your value, you need to understand how that interaction is measured.
Enterprise Architecture and Business Process Management are two change disciplines often closely associated. But how exactly do they relate to one another? Read more
The intersect between Customer Experience Design and Enterprise Architecture is an interesting development in the world of business transformation. To help our customers get a better understanding of this subject, we asked Marc Lankhorst, Managing Consultant and Chief Technology Evangelist here at BiZZdesign, to share his thoughts on this with us.
An enterprise architect friend of mine recently posed an interesting question: “I lead a relatively mature EA practice that delivers good value to our organization. We are digitally transforming the organization and adopting agile ways of working across the enterprise, which is improving our outcomes for individual initiatives. But I am worried these efforts are sometimes wasted on delivering capabilities managers tell us are important, rather than the ones that are truly game-changing. How do I get in front of this, and help lead us to the right strategic outcomes?”