Set your architecture to work

Most companies are addressing digitalisation, where you use IT to improve business performance; cutting cost and streamline your production and services delivery. By using architecture you can do this AND start transforming into an agile business. This is where you take action. By using architecture you can stop adding redundancy and complexity, and instead remove them. For every step you take the next change will come easier.

How we can help

We show you how to use the architecture and help you establish process and methods. There will be several roles to involve with a diversity of duties and responsibilities. We can deliver our service on premise or remotely.

DELIVERY ALTERNATIVES

  • On-site
  • Remote
  • Video conferencing

FEATURES

Ideas

Ideas get structured according to your business architecture and combined to form new business models. You will use the architecture to keep track of the connections and inter-dependencies between all proposals, ideas and defined initiatives.

Without an architecture it is challenging to manage a large number of simultaneous ideas and initiatives. With a high level business architecture you set all new business models and initiatives in a business context. You can control that they are coordinated and that they will build an effective whole. To build a culture for change you must be able to handle a large number of incoming ideas and proposals.

Initiatives

The process supports all types of initiatives, being traditional projects or more agile approaches.  The scope will be defined using architecture models. Relationships and dependencies to other initiatives will be defined. Initiatives are defined to create common data and to take advantage of reuse of existing data and components.

Risk

Risk is assessed for the initiative itself and for the actual business change. Risk assessment can be difficult. Architecture helps to identify and assess both threats and consequences. Architecture models are used to mitigate and reduce risk.

Waste

The high level architecture(HLA) identifies waste and complexity in the application portfolio. Removing waste and complexity is a necessity, but must be done with insight from architecture. And it must be planned and coordinated into new initiatives. It is a high risk task to remove redundancy and complexity without the support from an architecture.

Digitalisation

Digitalisation has two goals:
  • You build an effective operational backbone for efficient production and delivery of products, cutting cost and maximising profit.
  • The same effort will build a digital platform that transforms the enterprise into an agile business and take a position for future digital transformations.

Management

It has long been a mantra that managers need to step up to the digital challenge. We think that the best way, and maybe the only way, to do so is by using an appropriate business architecture. Our high level business architecture serves as an effective communication aid between management, business developers and system developers.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?

All initiatives are:

  • realising goals, strategies and approved business models
  • coordinated to build an effective whole
  • traceable from idea to measured effect
All initiatives:
  • blend business development with well defined IT solution development
  • are defined with clear roles and responsibilities
  • are a mix of innovation, reuse and clean-up

All initiatives:

  • are defined to resolve conflicts before they emerge
  • are scoped to build and use reusable components (this will never happen by accident)
  • can be small because they are defined by architecture (and will fit together)
  • clean up in application portfolio while developing new solutions
If you manage the portfolio of projects or applications you will get:
  • an optimal development sequence utilising data-ready components
  • methods that develop a lean application portfolio
  • efficient risk handling
  • a coherent picture of initiatives, applications, users, business processes, data resources etc.
All initiatives:
  • are defined based on the same business architecture making their relationships crystal clear
  • get the right level of plans and architecture – not too little and not too munch

All initiatives are:

  • a mix of business development and development of IT-solutions
  • backed by management
  • defined to use modern application architecture
  • remove architectural debt without introducing new

All initiatives:

  • are clearly defined with a stable scope (low risk for change in scope)
  • are defined with clear architectural frames, but with maximised room for design
  • consist of important stuff that build the enterprise

METHOD DETAILS

Architectural Debt

All enterprises have developed architectural debt from the common design style of information systems. A common pattern is that applications are allowed to own their data, which leads to a lot of redundancy and complexity. This development style is unnecessary  The redundancy is waste. The complexity represents risk and slows down development. They both lead to more money spent in investment and running cost. A clear decision for a change is needed, and can lead to a new design where redundancy and complexity are removed.
The figure illustrates the need for a decision that will lead to a digital platform for future change.

CONCEPTS

Changes come frequently. A stream of change initiatives will transform the enterprise. This process must be managed using a value-driven business architecture. Leaders and managers will benefit.

We regard it as the most important tool for coordinating changes and systems development. The sequence can be derived from the information architecture. It is a must if your ambition is to
  • become an agile business
  • reduce cost, risk and time to market

Information is used to managed all of your business resources, like money, personnel, technology etc. It should be managed as a resource itself in the same manner as we manage other resources (how we plan, acquire, use etc). Information is abstract, and we need models to represent it. An information architecture holds these models and lets us manage information as a resource in a structured and controlled manner.

Change initiatives can span from small process improvements to large business development efforts. It can be a project, but not necessarily. So when we use the term “change initiative”, it is neutral for how work is organised.

CONTACT

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