Notes
Slide Show
Outline
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Key Issues
  • What is business/technology alignment and why is it important?
  • How does an effective Enterprise Architecture program contribute to business/technology alignment?
  • What are the pieces of a business driven Enterprise Architecture?
  • What resources do I need and how do I use them?
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CIO Top Priorities for 2004
  • Business Priorities
  • Security breaches
  • Operating costs
  • Data protection/privacy
  • Need for revenue growth
  • Use of information in products/services
  • Economic recovery
  • Faster innovation
  • Single view of the customer
  • Greater transparency in reporting
  • Enterprise risk management
  • Management Priorities
  •  Leadership development
  • Demonstrating business value of IT
  • Improving service delivery
  • Strengthen IT/business linkage
  • Providing leadership for the board/executive
  • Tightening security/privacy safeguards
  • Increasing use of architecture/standards
  • Better project prioritization/management
  • Make IT more service oriented
  • Helping business managers understand IT
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What is Business/Technology Alignment?
  • The extent to which business strategy and IT strategy are linked (Papp, Fox 2003)
  • The implementation of information technology (IT) in the integration and development of business strategies and corporate goals (Henderson, Venkatramen 1993)
  • The capacity to demonstrate a positive relationship between information technologies and the accepted financial measures of performance (Strassman 1998)




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The Dimensions of Business/Technology Alignment
  • Luftman defines six dimensions
    • Communications maturity: How well do the technical and business folks understand each other?
    • Competency/value-measurement maturity: How well does your company measure its own performance and the value of its projects?
    • Governance maturity: How well does the company connect its business strategy to IT priorities, technical planning, and budgeting?
    • Partnership maturity: To what extent have business and IT departments forged true partnerships based on mutual trust and sharing risks and rewards?
    • Scope and architecture maturity: To what extent has technology evolved to become more than just business support?
    • Skills maturity: How well does the technical staff understand business drivers and speak the language of business? How well does the business staff understand relevant technology concepts?





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How Does Architecture Help Achieve Alignment?
  • Express the technology solutions in business terms
    • a vehicle with which the business can express what it needs to the technologists, and the technologists can express the technology solutions to the business
  • Develop a coherent approach to use of technology across the business which is driven out of the business strategy
    • not point solutions
  • Clear linkage between technology decisions and business need
    • promotes adherence




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The role of architecture has changed as the demands on business have increased
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Current technology and business trends add to the confusion
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A Process of Progressive Decomposition
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Create the Business Architecture
  • Start by analyzing the business strategy
    • What do we want to do?
    • Who do we want to do it to?
    • Where do we want to do it?
    • When do we want to do it?
    • How do we want to do it?
  • Develop business implications, architecture principles
    • Consider market drivers, corporate culture
  • Develop functional picture
    •  Business function provides most solid basis for architecture
    • Take process styles into account
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Future State Architecture
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Physical Architecture Defines Discrete Technology Components
  • Define standards for technologies critical to the enterprise
    • typically between 40-60 items
  • Manage the technology lifecycle
    • Ensures evergreening
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Involvement of Different Groups Varies Over Time
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Dos and Don’ts
  • Start at the top, not the bottom
    • “Bottom up” is not architecture, it’s a rationalization exercise
    • Inventory is not equal to business alignment
  • Whatever you do, DON’T start in the middle
    • Technologists want to start here
    • It’s impossible to abstract upwards, so you usually end up doing the wrong thing
    • With no business linkage, it is difficult to justify technology choices
  • An approved product list doth not an architecture make
    • Communication of all facets of the architecture is critical
    • Communication to different constituencies requires different focus


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And One Final Thought….
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