Chapter 9 Phase E: Opportunities & Solutions

• The objectives of Phase E: Opportunities and Solutions are to:
  • Generate the initial complete version of the Architecture Roadmap, based upon the gap analysis and candidate Architecture Roadmap components from Phases B, C, and D
  • Determine whether an incremental approach is required, and if so identify Transition Architectures that will deliver continuous business value
• Phase E is a collaborative effort with stakeholders required from both the business and IT sides. It should include both those that implement and those that operate the infrastructure. It should also include those responsible for strategic planning, especially for creating the Transition Architectures, if required.
• Phase E consists of the following steps:
  • 1. Determine/confirm key corporate change attributes
  • 2. Determine business constraints for implementation
  • 3. Review and consolidate Gap Analysis results from Phases B to D
  • 4. Review consolidated requirements across related business functions
  • 5. Consolidate and reconcile interoperability requirements
  • 6. Refine and validate dependencies
  • 7. Confirm readiness and risk for business transformation
  • 8. Formulate Implementation and Migration Strategy
  • 9. Identify and group major work packages
  • 10. Identify Transition Architectures
  • 11. Create the Architecture Roadmap & Implementation and Migration Plan
• The most significant issue to be addressed is business interoperability. Most SBBs or COTS will have their own embedded business processes. Changing the embedded business processes will often require so much work, that the advantages of re-using solutions will be lost with updates being costly and possibly requiring a complete rework. Furthermore, there may be a workflow aspect between multiple systems that has to be taken into account. The acquisition of COTS software has to be seen as a business decision that may require rework of the domain architectures. The enterprise architect will have to ensure that any change to the business interoperability requirements is signed off by the business architects and architecture sponsors in a revised Statement of Architecture Work.

Chapter 10 Phase F: Migration Planning

• The objectives of Phase F: Migration Planning are to:
  • Finalize the Architecture Roadmap and the supporting Implementation and Migration Plan
  • Ensure that the Implementation and Migration Plan is coordinated with the enterprise’s approach to managing and implementing change in the enterprise’s overall change portfolio
  • Ensure that the business value and cost of work packages and Transition Architectures is understood by key stakeholders
• Phase F consists of the following steps:
  • 1. Confirm management framework interactions for the Implementation and Migration Plan
  • 2. Assign a business value to each work package
  • 3. Estimate resource requirements, project timings, and availability/delivery vehicle
  • 4. Prioritize the migration projects through the conduct of a cost/benefit assessment and risk validation
  • 5. Confirm Architecture Roadmap and update Architecture Definition Document
  • 6. Complete the Implementation and Migration Plan
  • 7. Complete the architecture development cycle and document lessons learned
• A technique to assess business value is to draw up a matrix based on a value index dimension and a risk index dimension. An example is shown in Figure 12. The value index should include criteria such as compliance to principles, financial contribution, strategic alignment, and competitive position. The risk index should include criteria such as size and complexity, technology, organizational capacity, and impact of a failure. Each criterion should be assigned an individual weight. The index and its criteria and weighting should be developed and approved by senior management. It is important to establish the decision-making criteria before the options are known.

Chapter 11 Phase G: Implementation Governance

• The objectives of Phase G: Implementation Governance are to:
  • Ensure conformance with the Target Architecture by implementation projects
  • Perform appropriate Architecture Governance functions for the solution and any implementation-driven architecture Change Requests
• The Architecture Contract produced in this phase features prominently in the area of Architecture Governance (see Chapter 22). It is often used as the means to driving change. In order to ensure that the Architecture Contract is effective and efficient, the following aspects of the governance framework should be introduced in this phase:
  • Simple process
  • People-centered authority
  • Strong communication
  • Timely responses and effective escalation process
  • Supporting organization structures
• Phase G consists of the following steps:
  • Confirm scope and priorities for deployment with development management
  • Identify deployment resources and skills
  • Guide development of solutions deployment
  • Perform enterprise Architecture Compliance Reviews
  • Implement business and IT operations
  • Perform post-implementation review and close the implementation

Chapter 12 Phase H: Architecture Change Management

• The objectives of Phase H: Architecture Change Management are to:
  • Ensure that the architecture lifecycle is maintained
  • Ensure that the Architecture Governance Framework is executed
  • Ensure that the enterprise Architecture Capability meets current requirements
• Phase H consists of the following steps:
  • 1. Establish value realization process
  • 2. Deploy monitoring tools
  • Manage risks
  • 4. Provide analysis for architecture change management
  • 5. Develop change requirements to meet performance targets
  • 6. Manage governance process
  • 7. Activate the process to implement change

Chapter 13 ADM Architecture Requirements Management

• The objectives of the Requirements Management phase are to:
  • Ensure that the Requirements Management process is sustained and operates for all relevant ADM phases
  • Manage architecture requirements identified during any execution of the ADM cycle or a phase
  • Ensure that relevant architecture requirements are available for use by each phase as the phase is executed