001. Enterprise Architecture: The Key to Seamless Strategy Execution

Conventionally, Enterprise Architecture has been often seen as disconnected from Capability Engineering, with Enterprise Architect functions serving to translate organizational imperatives into executable, modular capability designs- in other words, offering the blueprint for tiered business capability mappings (L0, L1, L2.) This would then drive solution-specific architects to enlist Capability Towers, Capability Engineering, or SWE to bring vision to life.?

The domains under Enterprise Architecture—be it Business Architecture, Application Architecture, Data Architecture, or Technology Architecture— are designed to share one fundamental purpose: Converting Strategy into Execution. However, organizational silos and divergent motivations have often meant that the influence of true EA frameworks has failed to reach Engineers that are closest to the Product being built. The larger the organization, the lesser the impact and the reach- resulting in not only longer Design-to-Operate cycle times but also dilution of North Star outcomes given the higher number of touchpoints.?

How does one then secure the mindshare of all stakeholders involved, from CapEx budget owners, Business representatives, Solution Architects, Capability Towers, and Capability Engineering across the value stream?

Moving beyond textbook definition, it takes a combination of enterprise-level insight, product expertise, and program management savvy to turn strategy into reality. How does an EA then influence stakeholders amidst distractions and varying political agendas to secure mindshare?

Advances in technology, and access to tools and enablers such as the ones mentioned below, coupled with revolting builders, clandestine skunkworks operators and "shadow/surround Business Tech teams" has accelerated the delivery of Minimum Viable Product within mere weeks requiring the conventional Enterprise Architect function to recast, not just their purpose but their relevance.??

• Process Mapping, toolchains for managing capability inventory
• Copilot for assisted Rapid Application Development
• Gen-AI infused frameworks
• HPC or general purpose infrastructure made economically possible through VMs, spurring a myriad of skunkworks projects or shadow-Tech teams taking matters into their own hands
• CI/CD pipelines, centralized and democratized intelligence repositories made feasible through Git
• Containerization that retains environmental sanctity while not letting runaway processes to hijack shared compute
• IDEs that allow renegade builders and shadow teams to "bring their own language" and adapt micro-service architectures, revolting against conventional technology edicts, and going against the grain?

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What's the glue that holds all of this together?

An early evangelist of outcome based deliveries, one of my alma maters, i2 Technologies (since acquired by JDA, now BlueYonder) pioneered the mainstream adoption of Value Engineering and Outcome-Based Delivery. i2 Technologies, founded by Sanjiv Sidhu and Ken Sharma, is credited with having popularized the adoption of Value Engineering methodology to deliver value based on outcomes.

Value Engineering originated at General Electric (GE) during World War II as a way to find alternatives to scarce materials and components. The concept was developed by engineers Lawrence Miles and Harry Erlicher, who noticed that the substitutes they found often improved the product or reduced costs. They originally called their technique "value analysis".

Using a Value-based approach, and PRTM's Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) Models, these principles have since integrated into mainstream architecture & system design frameworks.

SAP, for one, has long nurtured an intersect between Engineering and Architecture for several years now- the Engineering Architect discipline, combining with the rigor of Lean, Six Sigma, Agile and Value Engineering has bridged unmet, and sometimes, even unarticulated needs in the customer journey, to maximize value & Total Economic Impact

Looking back, as early as 2015, I was called upon to roll out the Value Bridge framework at our premier customers. This framework, since offered through McKinsey & Signavio takes an outside-in view starting from CxO communiques, open letters to shareholders, Earnings Statements & Management Summaries on Financial Statements). The Value Bridge framwork, first and foremost, looks at Business Imperatives, synthesizing CxO agenda to craft pragmatic organizational North Stars by not just looking at Technology but also Process, Frameworks, Toolchain, Capability, People & more.

The Evolving Enterprise Architect function - a Sherpa?

The conventional Enterprise Architect(EA) function has always served as the guiding light, much like a Sherpa leads the pathway for the eager mountaineer.

With hybrid deployment models continuing to coexist with cloud-native architectures, the Engineering Architect function has evolved, integrating the traditional domains of Business, App, Data, and Tech into a next-generation Enterprise Architect persona that speaks the language of Engineering.?

As businesses scale new heights and pivot to mixed-mode business models (think Digital, Channel, First Party Retail, Partner Online Commerce, etc.,) towards Zetta-Scale, CxOs are faced with the equivalent of North Face, considered to be the steepest climbs onto the Summit.

A novel approach to this revered discipline promises to revolutionize the journey, lighting up new pathways, lending a hand to cross the chasm, away from the crevasses, moving away from prior generation business software into modern, future-proof, scalable, micro-service oriented architectures. The time has come for a new EA function that combines Business-centric AI, Virtualized cloud-native architectures, modern toolchains, all leading to the summit that is the North Star.?

Sherpas bear the responsibility of guiding mountaineers through treacherous crevasses, bearing the glorious burden of both discretionary artefacts and essential supplies. As mountaineering conditions become treacherous, Sherpas negotiate payloads through hazardous and steep domains, at times casting off indulgences and discretionary supplies (custom code) that slow down the journey.

The Mountaineer, in this case, the CxO, can rely on the Sherpa, i.e, the newEA, to equip themselves with toolchains (think of process discovery tools such as Signavio & LeanIX as crampons, carabiners, pickaxes & snowchains to ensure traction), to RISE up, leverage the best of human ingenuity, credence & technology such as a lodestone, Chakras. or compass, (Artificial Intelligence- AI), to offer real-time insights, route optimizations, and critical survival strategies tailored to the mountaineer's specific skills and challenges, ensuring the safest and most efficient path to the Summit. In many cases this may be one's NorthStar or Shamballa.

The Mountaineer and the Guide (Sherpa) now commit to a payload (Clean Core) that not only lets them summit faster, but also then sets a new basecamp- a new "baseline at the top"- to continue newly formed habits of maintaining a lean payload when at summit. The same way, the new EA function not only helps navigate, at rapid pace, through complex, bespoke, prior-generation systems, but also takes a Lean Engineering approach, sifting through older ways of doing things, to a North Star that aligns to reference architectures, the Shamballa.?

What's in it for stakeholders?

• Faster, agile migration cycles (shorter times to summit The North Face, the most difficult side of the mountain, with the steepest incline)
• Leaner, Cleaner Digital Cores (less payload, less supplies in the mountaineer's backpack)
• Minimal value leakage

All resulting in faster-time-to-value towards fulfilling the vision of North Star, & a Clean Core?

In summary: ?The newly cast generation of EA is here, and it's all about translating strategy into flawless execution towards North Star imperatives

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In upcoming posts, we'll explore how large corporations can capitalize on the innovations in technology, frameworks and toolchains to realize North Star.??

Stay tuned for insights on leveraging these advancements to drive your organization's success.?

Necessary disclaimer: Opinions, impressions, likenesses, and analogies completely mine, and do not represent the views of my employer. Any resemblances are merely coincidental, and all purported service marks or trademarks are considered the property of their rightful owners

09/01/2024: Edited for clarity, credit for Value Engineering (Prof. Scott Moses , Tim Andrae , Jeff Starr, Harry Goodnight) and others. Not an exhaustive list. E&OE

References

• Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR)
• Forbes, i2 Technologies, Ahead of its Time : "Value will be measured based on the elimination of inefficiencies": Sanjiv Sidhu
• Bridging the value gap: Value Bridge at SAP

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