Building EA Management Standards: The Progresses and Challenges of the EA Management Guide Project

1. Building EA Management Standards:The Progresses and Challenges of the EA Management Guide Project Haiping Luo, CEA a|EA Standards Committee aeajournal.org

2. Topics • Why We Need EA Management Standards • EA Management Guide (EAMG) Project Overview • Challenges Encountered by the EAMG Project • Approaches and Progress aeajournal.org

3. Why We Need EA Management Standards • The EA discipline is a relatively new and evolving field • The EA Body of Knowledge has three major deficiencies: • Inconsistency • Incompleteness • Lack of community participation and ratification aeajournal.org

4. Inconsistency • Situations: • Lack of consensus on EA concepts, terminologies, goals, approaches, techniques, and outcomes. • Disagreement on what an EA program should do and deliver. • Consequences: • Confusions in communications within the EA field and with EA stakeholders • Instability on quality and performance requirements and measures aeajournal.org

5. Incompleteness • Situations: • Literatures often focus on part of EA topics such as frameworks, models, processes. • Knowledge gaps exist in terms of covering the complete spectrum of EA management, from establishing an EA management program, to delivering the final output and outcomes of the EA management • Lack of a true enterprise perspective and coverage. Literatures often have an IT-centric thinking. • Consequences: • Architects can’t find complete guidance to carry out all aspects of EA management work. • Stakeholders don’t see EA outcomes beyond IT planning. aeajournal.org

6. Lack of Community Participation and Ratification • Situations: • The existing EA literatures are often the products of individual effort or focus-group effort. • The EA community had no formal structure to take wide participation in the development of EA body of knowledge or to ratify and maintain the resulting body of knowledge. • Consequences: • Inconsistency and gaps continue. • The EA discipline and practice cannot advance toward maturity. • EA deliverables and expectations may not able to meet. aeajournal.org

7. Benefits of Developing EA Management Standards • Build consensus and common ground • Fill knowledge gaps • Involve participation and establish commitment • Raise levels of effectiveness, quality, reliability, efficiency, interoperability, and return on investment for EA services. aeajournal.org

8. EA Management Guide Project Overview • Purpose: • Identify and organize EA knowledge and best practices for every aspect of EA management; • Assemble EA management information that is generally recognized as good EA practice and knowledge in most enterprises, most of the time. • Project Management: Led by a|EA’s EA Standards Committee • Objectives: • Complete an EA Management Guide (Version 1.0). • Establish the Guide as an a|EA standard. • Pursue acceptance with international standards organizations. • Target Timeline for the Guide: Nov 2005 – Oct 2007 aeajournal.org

9. Project Approach and Progress • Principles: Open participation; Transparent process; Consensus-building journey. • Team: Currently over 70 volunteers from 9 countries, representing practitioners and scholars with EA expertise in public and private sectors, civilian and military institutions, and different industries. • Progress: • Project initiated and planned. • Call for Participation distributed to the EA community. • Outline reviewed by the EA community. • First draft authoring is underway. aeajournal.org

10. Challenges Encountered • Disagreement on concepts and terminologies • Divergence on goals and outcomes • Discrepancy in processes and approaches aeajournal.org

11. Examples • Disagreement on concepts and terminology: • What is Enterprise Architecture, after all? • The physical structure of an enterprise? • The documentation or blueprint of an enterprise’ structure? • The process to architect an enterprise’ structure? • An EA program? • The discipline about architecting an enterprise? • A framework referred in architecting work? • … aeajournal.org

12. Examples • Disagreement on concepts and terminology (cont.): • Implications • None of the definitions are wrong, but multiple definitions can cause real problems. • For example, when we measure EA maturity, are we measuring • How good the physical structure of an enterprise is? • How good the documentation of an enterprise’ structure is? • How good the architecting process is? • How good an EA program is? or • How well established the EA discipline is? Different definitions lead to very different measuring systems and quality standards. • Also, when we communicate about EA, in which meaning are we talking about? aeajournal.org

13. Examples • Divergence on goals and outcomes: • What an EA program should achieve and deliver? The answers to this question range from delivering blueprint plans to providing good management. aeajournal.org

14. Examples • Divergence on goals and outcomes (cont.) • EA program goal spectrum: Deliver enterprise architecture blueprints to support and guide enterprise planning. Implement enterprise management. Lead the enterprise to pursue architectural soundness to support enterprise management. Deliver IT architecture blueprints to control IT investment & development. aeajournal.org

15. Examples • Divergence on goals and outcomes (cont.) • Implications: • Divergence in goals and outcomes results in discrepancy in processes and approaches. • Again, how to assess quality and performance becomes a problem. aeajournal.org

16. Examples • Discrepancy in processes and approaches: • Architects give discrepant answers to common EA questions: • What are the architectural principles we should implement or steward? • Whether architecting is a process cycle or a chain of incremental changes? • What are the key stages an architecting process must have? • Who should be doing what in an architecting process? • Architects take discrepant approaches to address enterprise problems: • Investments are done in stovepipes. Should architects be the police or the guide to reduce stovepipes? • Accountability is missing. Should architects push for centralization, decentralization, or something else? • Interoperability is poor. Should architects promote integration or standardization? • Processes are not aligned. Should architects coordinate or merely record and report? aeajournal.org

17. Examples • Discrepancy in processes and approaches (cont.): • Implications: • Stakeholders are confused on what to expect from architects and from an EA program. • Management sees an EA program a rubber stamp good only for dealing with OMB or GAO. • Other disciplines see the EA discipline a copy cat with a fancy hat but no solid methodology and value. aeajournal.org

18. EAMG Approaches and Progresses • Clarify and harmonize concepts and terminologies • Specify goals and outcomes • Identify key principles, major processes and core approaches • Encourage innovation and creativity while standardize good practices aeajournal.org

19. Examples Clarify and harmonize concepts and terminologies • Follow Three Principles to Name an Object: • Singularity. The term represents one and only one object in a subject area. • Correctness. The term is not a faulty representation of the object. • Recognize-ability. The term is commonly recognizable in the subject area as identifying the object it is supposed to represent. aeajournal.org

20. Examples Clarify and harmonize concepts and terminologies (cont.) • What is Enterprise Architecture, after all? • This term has been used in ambiguous ways. EAMG should avoid use this term alone. EA can be used as the modifier to terms that are more specific: • the Architecture of an Enterprise; • the Enterprise Architecture Discipline; • the Enterprise Architecting Lifecycle; • Enterprise Architecture Program Management; • the Documentation of an Enterprise's Architecture; and • the Design of an Enterprise's Architecture. aeajournal.org

21. Examples Specify goals and outcomes • EA management goal range: Deliver enterprise architecture blueprints to support and guide enterprise planning. Implement enterprise management. Deliver IT architecture blueprints to control IT investment & development. Lead the enterprise to pursue architectural soundness to support enterprise management. aeajournal.org

22. Examples Identify key principles, major processes and core approaches • Sample architectural/architecting principles: • Quantitatively allocate enterprise goals into local goals to ensure enterprise, not local, optimum. • Clearly assign each responsibility for an outcome to a specific individual to implement accountability. • Standardize interfaces and exchange flows of modules to form interoperability. • Impacts must be identified and handled before any change takes place. aeajournal.org

23. Examples Identify key principles, major processes and core approaches (cont.) • Sample major architecting processes: • Architecting lifecycle: • Prerequisites to Architecting Lifecycles • Phase 1: Documenting Existing Architecture • Phase 2: Analyzing Existing Architecture • Phase 3: Planning and Ratifying Target Architecture • Phase 4: Developing and Committing Transition Plans • Phase 5: Implementing Planned Changes • Phase 6: Evaluating Implemented Changes • Phase 7: Continuing Architecture Management aeajournal.org

24. Examples • Sample core approaches: • EA metamodel standardization: aeajournal.org

25. Examples Encourage innovation and creativity while standardize good practices • EAMG recognizes alternatives, different opinions; and identifies implications for the alternatives. • EAMG standardizes and promotes core EA practices that are considered good for most enterprises most of the time. aeajournal.org

26. EAMG Focus Areas • Concepts and Terminology: Establish concepts, terms, definitions, a common language, and a basic understanding of the EA discipline. • Design Principles and Patterns: Identify criteria for good architectures and feasible ways to reach the good architecture. • Processes and Techniques: Specify the standard processes and approaches for architecting an enterprise’s structure. • Program Management: Build a high quality and strong performing EA program to carry out the EA mission. • Problem Solving & Decision Support: Apply the EA discipline to solve common types of real world problems and provide support for specific decision-making. aeajournal.org

27. Summary • The EA Discipline needs standards to guide practices. • The EA Management Guide project assembles existing standards, extracts EA community’s wisdom and best practices, and align them all into a more consistent and complete set of standards to support the delivery of sound architectures. • Challenges are natural part of the EAMG journey. We call for your continuous support, input, and participation to achieve our common goal. aeajournal.org

28. Summary • How to help: • Authoring • Reviewing • Promoting • Funding • Contact Information • Haiping Luo (haiping@aeajournal.org) aeajournal.org