Roadmapping

Marc Lankhorst

Planning & Roadmapping in Enterprise Studio

/in , , , , /by Marc Lankhorst

A key driver for management in general and enterprise architecture in particular is to get a better grip on the future, on the evolution of your enterprise. A common technique used to support this goal is roadmapping. A roadmap is a strategic plan that shows the main steps or milestones needed to achieve a desired outcome. It articulates the strategic direction of your enterprise and shows the path forward. It helps you identify what is needed and what the main dependencies and priorities are, and serves as a communication instrument to align the organization along a common course of action.

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Raz Mitache

100 Questions to Ace an Enterprise Architect Job Interview

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , , , , /by Raz Mitache

Interviews are where jobs are won or lost. A résumé – especially a strong one – will ensure you get your foot in the door but to actually secure the position you need to shine during the interview, which means being prepared. Preparation makes you look knowledgeable and relaxed, two traits that people generally prize in their work colleagues.  

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Marc LankhorstSven van Dijk

Planning and Roadmapping: Advanced Functionality for Time-Based Analysis

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , /by Marc Lankhorst and Sven van Dijk

In the two previous installments, we discussed planning and roadmapping in the context of enterprise architecture, and how you can use the concepts of the ArchiMate language to model your roadmaps. We showed how you can model the evolution of your enterprise at coarse-grained level, using concepts such as ArchiMate’s ‘plateau’. In this installment, we will discuss more fine-grained modeling of change in Enterprise Studio. Specifically, we will show you how you can model the lifecycles of individual elements of your architecture. Moreover, our platform supports analysis based on life cycles and the dependencies between elements, for instance, to find conflicts in your transition plans. 

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Marc LankhorstSven van Dijk

Planning and Roadmapping : Modeling in ArchiMate

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , /by Marc Lankhorst and Sven van Dijk

In our previous blog post on planning and roadmapping, we discussed the general idea of planning and roadmapping in the context of enterprise architecture and capability-based planning. We addressed different levels of roadmaps, ranging from short-term sprints of a few weeks to long-term, multi-year roadmaps. We also provided some first insights into the use of ArchiMate concepts for modeling roadmaps. In this installment, we want to go deeper into different ways of modeling the evolution of your architecture. 

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Marc LankhorstSven van Dijk

Planning and Roadmapping : Introduction

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , /by Marc Lankhorst and Sven van Dijk

A key driver for management in general and enterprise architecture in particular is to get a better grip on the future, on the evolution of your enterprise. A common technique to support this is roadmapping. A roadmap is a strategic plan that shows the main steps or milestones needed to achieve a desired outcome. It articulates the strategic direction of your enterprise and shows the path forward. It helps you identify what is needed and what the main dependencies and priorities are, and serves as a communication instrument to align the organization along a common course of action.

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Marc Lankhorst

Agile/DevOps Support in Enterprise Studio & HoriZZon

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , , , /by Marc Lankhorst

In our previous blog post, we outlined why Enterprise Architecture and Agile/DevOps are key in becoming an adaptive enterprise. We also described several use cases where EA can strengthen Agile and DevOps practices. Now, we want to focus on the ways in which you can connect these in practice, using architecture models and appropriate tool support.

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Nick Reed

Continuous Architecture: Turning the Database Inside-Out to Improve Transformation Decision-Making

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , , , , /by Nick Reed

In today’s business landscape, effective transformation is critical for enterprises to stay competitive.  By definition, transformation happens over time.   

Enterprises (or some subsection thereof) have a current state which needs to change for the better.  That change – however small or large – results in a different future state. With the widespread adoption of Agile working practices and DevOps-based continuous delivery, these changes can be very small and very frequent. 

-Nick Reed and Bart Molenkamp

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Marc Lankhorst

7 Key Strategy Views in Enterprise Studio (part 2)

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , /by Marc Lankhorst

In my previous blog post, I described how Enterprise Studio supports the Business Model Canvas, Ecosystem maps, Balanced Scorecards including SWOT, PESTEL and Five Forces analysis, and heatmaps to highlight salient information for your organization. Now, I want to focus on more advanced views and analyses that help you evaluate the viability of your strategy and business models and then take steps towards their implementation.

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Marc Lankhorst

7 Key Strategy Views in Enterprise Studio (part 1)

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , , , /by Marc Lankhorst

A survey conducted by The Open Group in cooperation with BiZZdesign and other partners found that the largest difficulty in strategy process (for over half of the 500+ respondents) is bridging the gap between strategy development and implementation.

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Marc Lankhorst

8 Steps Enterprise Architects Can Take to Deal with GDPR

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , /by Marc Lankhorst

In my previous blog post, I described the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that will go into effect in May 2018, and I outlined its profound effects on organizations, not just in Europe but around the globe. This regulation, and related EU Directives such as the ePrivacy Directive and the Network and Information System Security (NIS) Directive, force organizations to rethink how they deal with personal, privacy-sensitive data. In this blog, I want to address the steps you can take as an architect to help your organization comply with these regulations.

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Marc Lankhorst

Prepare your Organization for Change: 6 Key Capabilities

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , /by Marc Lankhorst

Few companies have a systematic and reliable way of translating their business strategy into action across all relevant parts of the organization. Research on digital transformations by MIT Sloan [1] distinguishes between the ‘what’ (what does an organization want to achieve) and the ‘how’ Read more

Marc Lankhorst

Using ArchiMate® in an Agile Context

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , /by Marc Lankhorst

In the past, my colleagues and I have written several blogs on the combination of enterprise architecture and agile ways of working (e.g. Enterprise Architecture and Agile Development: Opposites Attract?, Enterprise Architecture and Innovation: A cultural change, Escaping the Jaws of the Project Monster). In this blog, I want to focus in more detail on the use of the ArchiMate language in the context of agile methods, in particular the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). Read more

Marc LankhorstJens Goossens

Application Portfolio Management for Finance – Slaying the Dragon

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , /by Marc Lankhorst and Jens Goossens

In many organizations a mythical creature lays deep down in the catacombs, otherwise known as the server rooms. This dark monster has an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Normally these creatures are in search of gold. However, this kind doesn’t fancy gold, this one hoards applications!

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Maher Dara

Application Portfolio Management for Beginners with SMART

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , , , /by Maher Dara

Everybody is familiar with the SMART abbreviation. It stand for Specific, Measurable, Acceptable, Realistic and Time bounded. But this blog is not about that kind of SMART. In this blog I will discuss how to apply another type of SMART within the context of Enterprise portfolio management.

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Marye Legters

5 Steps to Optimally Use Your Process Models

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by Marye Legters

Process models are a powerful means to describe, analyze and communicate processes. However, process models are often outdated and underused. The reasons for this differ. Sometimes it seems that people are unable to read and understand models; people do not know the models are available; or content is unrecognized or outdated. Putting effort into the design and the way you publish your models is key to success in handling these issues. This way, the effect of process models can be optimized! So how can you optimally use your process models? In this blog I present five simple steps that help BPM practitioners to realize this.

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Peter Matthijssen

Business Process Management vs. Business Process Analysis?

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by Peter Matthijssen

“Business Process Management is old school; Business Analysis is the new hype”. Huh…? With all terminology and current trends, it is easy to get confused. If you ask five different people to clear things up, you will probably get five different explanations. It is all about definitions. In this blog I will distinguish Business Analysis from Business Process Management. Read more

David van Eck

Business Process Modeling: Top-down or bottom-up processing?

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by David van Eck

During Business Process Management trainings, people often ask me about the best modeling technique: How to model a process model? Where do I begin? Top-down or bottom-up process? Questions that many of you have asked yourselves when beginning to design a process model. In this blog I would like to take you along with me to the world of top-down or bottom-up modeling. Let me start by clarifying some frequently used terms. Then, I will share several personal experiences and my preferred method of working.

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Marc Lankhorst

Driving Business Outcomes with Enterprise Architecture as a Knowledge Hub

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , /by Marc Lankhorst

Very few organizations have a systematic and reliable way of translating a business strategy into action across all relevant elements of the organization. Implementing a long-term plan by successive decomposition, design and realization steps is only possible in stable circumstances. Classical top-down strategy implementation cannot keep up with the transformation speed required in a rapidly changing environment.

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Henry Franken

How About Strategy? – Learning About Strategic Alignment

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by Henry Franken

Nowadays, organizations operate in a dynamic and fast changing environment which makes formulating a consistent strategy very challenging and executing that strategy even more difficult. More than half of organizations surveyed in previous economic studies indicated that they have not been successful at executing strategic initiatives. Moreover, a majority of organizations face problems when executing their strategic vision. Read more

Lianne Bodenstaff & Dick Quartel

Enterprise Portfolio Management: Introduction

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , /by Lianne Bodenstaff & Dick Quartel

For many organizations, the enterprise landscape is growing out of control. Simply keeping up with competition and evolving markets means that organizations constantly renew services offered to customers. These new services are supported by new processes, applications and infrastructure that are added to the landscape, making it larger and more complex. Read more