EA Roadmaps - Way to the future-state architecture

The readings for this week are based on three topics - Gap Analysis, Migration plans and EA roadmaps. These topics are closely related to each other. The gap analysis involves finding out gaps or differences between the current and future state of EA implementation. Once the gaps are identified, the next step is the migration plan that addresses the initiatives that will be undertaken to close the gaps and move from the as-is to the to-be EA states. And, all of these activities are charted out in a document called as an EA roadmap.

As per Gartner, "An enterprise architecture (EA) road map is a planning document that lays out activities or changes over time, and often highlights the inter-dependencies between these streams of activity that convey an organization from a current state to a desired future state." This is a very important document to improve communication with the stakeholders. The EA roadmap is focused on just the 'what' part and not the 'why' part i.e. it just outlines the activities that lead an organization from its current to its future architecture state and does not document the reasons for incorporating the specific activities.

Gartner defines two kinds of roadmaps:
1. Conceptual, asset-change-focused road maps
2. Conceptual, project-timing-focused road maps
Both these roadmaps are conceptual but address different aspects of EA implementation.

The asset-change-focused roadmaps outline the list of infrastructure and solution changes in an organization from its current to its future state journey. The assets could be in any of the EA viewpoints business, technology, information or solutions architecture. It outlines what changes will take place in the future.
The project-timing-focused roadmaps are also typically the same as the asset-change roadmaps. Just that the assets/infrastructure is replaced by the projects. The progress of projects is shown over a period of time.
Both these views of roadmaps - asset and project are extremely important to the stakeholders.
There are implementation roadmaps as well which are much more detailed than the conceptual ones and which also incorporate the 'why' i.e. reasons for the various activities enlisted in the change from current to the future state.

In nut shell, roadmaps are concise documents that include graphical representations to enable an easier understanding. They basically contain the steps needed to close the gap between the current and future states. They also aid in describing the EA vision.

References:

Weiss, D., Robertson, B. (2006, September 25). Enterprise Architecture Road Maps: Closing the Gap to the Future State (ID: G00140082). Retrieved from Gartner database.

Weiss, D., Robertson, B. (2007, February 26). Use Road Maps to Chart a Course to the Future-State Architecture (ID: G00146266). Retrieved from Gartner database.

Current State documentation - Identify redundant applications

I would like to reflect on one of the Gartner articles that I read this week - 'Use Enterprise Architecture to Control Overlapping Applications'. This article provides six iterative steps (shown in the figure below) that can help reduce redundancy among applications.

The process begins with identifying the various high-level business processes in the organization. High-level in the sense, the important functions performed in the organization that summarize the overall functioning of the enterprise. These business processes are further broken down into smaller or granular business functions in order to fine tune the usage of applications in each area. Next step is to select one business function and deeply analyze the applications that are used and the data handled under it. This is nothing but mapping of applications to the low level business functions. Once, the applications are found, it is easier to identify redundancies in their use. Next, the application that is useful is identified for reuse and the ones that are not required are identified and their future use/scope is limited. This process is repeated in an iterative fashion for the various selected business functions for the short-listed business processes. These processes span through the different EA viewpoints - business architecture, information architecture and solutions architecture.

By performing these steps, the future state architecture of the enterprise is designed by considering the current state and documenting the same. Identifying reusable applications based on the business functions selected is a part of the current state documentation. Limiting the future use of the redundant applications is a part of the future-state planning. Thus, the article stresses on the fact that although it is not possible to eliminate overlap of functionalities due to the existence of legacy applications, the adherence to these six iterative steps will lead to reduction in functionality overlap and help to plan the future state effectively. 

References:

James, G. A. (2005, October 25). Use Enterprise Architecture to Control Overlapping Applications (ID: G00131279). Retrieved from Gartner database.

Data Stewardship

This week we worked on our second group assignment. It was based on the future state architecture of one of the leading financial corporations which is still in the nascent stage of EA adoption. Based on our discussion, we decided on the topic of the move of the company to Big data and cloud platforms as the focus of the future state architecture and developed the relevant documents based on out of this.

I decided to work on the data stewardship requirements document. As I went deeper into knowing more about this topic, I realized how important it is for all organizations to manage their data efficiently. It is for this purpose, that data stewards are appointed. The definition of data stewardship as in TechTarget is that “Data stewardship is the management and oversight of an organization's data assets to help provide business users with high-quality data that is easily accessible in a consistent manner”. Data is considered as an asset to the organization which when analyzed can produce meaningful results leading to the overall growth and achievement of competitive edge in the industry. Also, with the adoption of of big data and cloud technologies, data is more distributed in nature. Hence, having a centralized control/rules over data use and distribution becomes vital for improving and maintaining the quality of data.

Data stewardship is about the accountability, responsibility and ownership of data. It does not deal much with the data protection aspect. It is very similar to the RACI matrix for data but rather provides more details on understanding how to deal with data for each application and line of business. To record all these details, every organization must have the data stewardship requirements document. This document mainly consists of the following:
1. Purpose
2. Authority
3. Definitions
4. Requirements of a System of Record

Organizations much think through these points and lay down strong policies and guidelines that need to be followed when dealing with data.

One of the Gartner articles states that, data stewards are critical components of an organization to improve and maintain data quality. Hence, it is very important to select the right individuals for this role. This role demands collaboration and clear understanding of the data flows before deciding on the data rules and regulations.

References:
Friedman, T. (2007, December 3). Best Practices for Data Stewardship (ID: G00153470). Retrieved from https://www.gartner.com/doc/554646/best-practices-data-stewardship

Fusco, D. (2016). Data Stewardship Requirements. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1772174/pages/l04-future-state-architecture-implementation-level?module_item_id=20641314

Schlier, F. W. (2007, April 30). Toolkit: Bank XYZ Data Stewardship (ID: G00146507). Retrieved from Gartner database

TechTarget. (2013, June). Retrieved from data stewardship: http://searchdatamanagement.techtarget.com/definition/data-stewardship