Last Updated on Sunday, 06 February 2011 23:09

IT Project success (on-time, on budget and respect of functionality) was measured in 2005 at 34%. If you were to add ‘respect of architecture approaches and standards’ then it will be lower. The success rate decreases as the projects get bigger, above 3 millions $, success rates are in the low 20% (without considering ‘respect of architecture approaches and standards’). This is why an Enterprise Architecture CoE (Center of Excellence) is implemented more often than others CoE such as but not limited to: Project Management CoE,  Process Standardization CoE and BICC (BI Competency Center).

What are the responsibilities of the Director or VP of Architecture?  (About 80% of Enterprise Architecture Leader report directly to the CIOs, according to the CIO Council)

1) Define Architecture Principles, Adopt an Architecture Framework and define an Enterprise Architecture Mission statement with SMART objectives (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely)

2) Define an enterprise-wide Architecture Vision adopted and shared by the BU (Business Units) and Shared Services. The vision must address:

  • The reduction of IT TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) via:
    • Reduction/Optimization of number of applications and DB
    • Elimination of silos datamarts
    • Reduction/Optimization of IT centers
    • Elimination of tightly coupled applications
    • Standardization on tools and technology
    • Reduction of IT suppliers (which allow obtaining better discount plans due to increased volume of business per supplier)
    • Usage of MDM, BPM, ESB, CIM and other relevant technologies/approaches
    • Process standardization
    • Optimization of IT staff, no need for experts in similar but different technologies
    • Better supporting the business requirements

3) Define IT Architecture standards covering: Modeling Approaches, Metadata management tools, J2EE / .Net, DBMS, IDE, BPM tools, BI tools, Hardware platforms (storage, server, networks, CMDB) and so on

4) Define roadmaps and migration plans to get to this Architecture Vision. Again, adopted and shared by the BU. The roadmaps are made of projects on a time scale of about 3 years. The projects included in the first year of the roadmaps must also be part of the Budget adopted by the corporation and BU. Finally a practical Target Architecture for most are the applications that will be in place in 3 years. In fact, Target Architecture must cover all Architecture Aspects (processes, data, applications, integration, technology) with regulations and security requirements but at the end the business and IT want to know which applications:

  • To decommission,
  • To acquire
  • They could invest on

5) Define an Architecture Governance process to align the various architects (Solution Architect, Data Architect, Integration Architect, SOA Architect, Java Architect, Technology Architect, Business Process Architect and BI Architect) with the Architecture vision, roadmaps and adopted standards. Align with other business improvements practice such as six sigma

6) Manage and develop the skills and productivity of the architecture teams

7) Report to the BU on the Business Value of the EA group