ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE ROADMAPPING

by Wojciech Ozimek, Senior Consultant, Cutter Consortium

One of the most common problems today's CIO faces is how to get from business objectives to enterprise IT architecture. Constructing proper vision requires bidirectional communication with multiple company departments and a large dose of diplomacy. It's a matter of gaining non-IT people's attention and explaining architecture potential to the business. And because the company strategy, architecture, and technology changes over time, it's necessary to think in terms of a roadmap rather than a snapshot.

It's unlikely EA will be a stable and static vision. In large companies, with many business lines and IT departments, the architecture is a fast-changing, collaborative view created by many architects and managers. The most important part of EA is not software or hardware, but peopleware.

Preparing the EA is a difficult job. At the same time, we've got a lot of successful roadmap examples from the other domains of engineering. Please note that the roadmapping is not only an IT "buzzword." It's a technique widely used in construction, utilities, and transportation sectors (for example, Boeing uses roadmapping for plane construction planning). Adopting existing roadmapping frameworks to IT and EA seems like a good idea.

One of the approaches that is worth looking at is the Technology Roadmapping Process (TRM) proposed by Robert Phaal from the University of Cambridge. The process is based on the framework that comprises the following three levels:

• Business level -- defines organization goals and value chain (business processes, cycles, and functions). At this level, the question "KNOW-WHY?" should be answered.

• Product level -- defines product/service portfolio. At this level the "KNOW-WHAT?" question is to be answered.

• Technology level -- defines all technology, competences, and engineering needed to deliver products. Activities at this level are targeted at "KNOW-HOW?" answer.

Phaal's roadmapping framework is based on knowledge management. The three questions (WHY? WHAT? and HOW?) define different knowledge levels -- from business (goal-oriented) to technology (action-oriented) knowledge. The framework also defines two flows between the levels:

• Pull -- communicates business goals and market requirements to technology specialists (from WHY? to HOW?)

• Push -- explains technical capabilities to business users (from HOW? to WHY?)

Adopting framework to the EA requires redefinition of the "product" (KNOW-WHAT?) level. Instead of product portfolio, it should focus on logical architecture building blocks such as applications, platforms, and services. In terms of SOA (service oriented architecture), this is also a good place for services definition. Answer to WHAT? should be clear for both technical and nontechnical roadmap users. The redefined framework looks as follows:

• Business level (KNOW-WHY?) -- defines organization goals and value chain

• Logical architecture level (KNOW-WHAT?) -- defines logical architecture building blocks (applications, services, platforms)

• Technology architecture level (KNOW-HOW?) -- defines technical architecture issues (technical choices for each architecture building block)

The roadmapping process Phaal defines is based on the set of workshops. The goal is to bring business and technology people together to create the roadmap. This collaborative effort is well aligned to Agile Manifesto principles. It stimulates discussion between business IT users (internal customers) and technology staff. The roadmap is a dynamic IT strategy that is created outside the "cathedral" world of corporate R&D or IT departments.

[The EA planning framework is briefly described in Cutter Consortium Enterprise Architecture Executive Report, Vol. 7, No. 9, " Applying EA Roadmapping: An SOA Roadmap."]

-- Wojciech Ozimek, Senior Consultant, Cutter Consortium

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