EA's Role in Leading Digital Transformation Change Management

Introduction

I am thrilled to introduce the third series of the Enterprise Architects (EA) Leadership Series, focusing on leading digital transformation change management. Building upon the success of our previous series, this new instalment dives deeper into the vital skills and strategies that EAs need to excel in their roles.

Organizations must adapt quickly to stay competitive in today's rapidly changing business environment. A composable business model allows for this flexibility, and digital transformation (DT) has enabled organizations to transform their business quickly. As a result, enterprises seek EAs and technology leaders who can lead these changes, including redesigning business and operating models, enabling decentralized decision-making, and building modern digital infrastructure while integrating cutting-edge technologies, notably Artificial Intelligence (AI). Leading change in a constantly disrupted environment with evolving business and workforce needs requires engaging the entire organization in the change process through inspiration and collaboration to create a clear path forward (Olding, 2021). In the last ten years, EAs are transitioning into transformational leaders with high emotional intelligence, inspiring creativity and challenging their teams. EA transformational leaders (“EA leaders”) can also help defuse resistance to change (Mansaray, 2019). They have been slowly overcoming the negative perceptions of EA as an unnecessary obstacle, thereby creating a way for EA leaders to plan, design, and implement these changes to maximize the organization's benefits while minimizing risks.

EA’s Role in Leading Change Management During Digital Transformation

Managing organizational change is planning and executing changes within a company to minimize employee resistance, decrease costs for the organization, and maximize the effectiveness of the changes as the company moves from its current state to a desired future state (Schwertner, 2017).?In my experience, while there is still significant headway EA leaders have to make to gain business leaders' confidence in many organizations, EA leaders can act as catalysts and change agents who can lead the organization's change management initiative for digital transformation.

Currently working at a global leading software and cloud services company, I've noticed how EA leaders are instrumental in driving change. Their leadership is essential across various areas such as product development, sales, customer implementation, and support, significantly contributing to our clients' digital transformation journeys. EA leaders lead the product organization change management with emerging technology solutions design and development and sales organizations in presenting customer-focused digital solutions. They also actively lead change in key customer implementation projects, from developing strategies and reviewing and validating design against customer business requirements to architecture, including working with their DevOps teams by providing principle-based guidance.

EA leaders can lead and actively participate in various aspects of change management for Digital Transformation, from planning to execution and monitoring in the following key areas.

Development of Digital Business Vision and Strategy

A critical element of creating a digital business strategy is the ability to create, communicate, and enable others to act on the vision (Mansaray, 2019). The digital business strategy outlines how the company plans to use digital technology to enhance its digital operations and growth. This strategy is vital to the company's overall business plan and must be closely aligned (Caleya, 2022). EA leaders can begin by highlighting the importance of EA in readying organizations for change by creating a value proposition for business architecture (BA) to aid in volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) planning (Allega et al., 2022).

Additionally, they should establish the value that EA services must provide and to whom, utilizing EA tools as a means to convey planned changes and comprehend actual changes (Allega et al., 2022). EA leaders can help develop the digital business vision and strategies to achieve the vision for the enterprise. They can also help with the communication of vision and strategy across the enterprise and model the behaviour expected of employees to the digital transformation vision and strategy (Mansaray, 2019). In addition, EA leaders can participate in establishing the change management plan for the digital transformation initiative. In my experience at my organization, active collaboration with the enterprise strategy and planning teams and technology teams have helped EA leaders accomplish this and gain senior management support.

Validation of the Organization’s Readiness for Digital Transformation

Burke (2021) has identified technology adoption personas, which depict an organization's culture of innovation and technology adoption as seen in the actions of executives and stakeholders. Constraints on organizational readiness can include factors such as culture, leadership, finances, skills, and ethics, and are often considered inherent to the organization. EA leaders can evaluate these constraints and address them before launching a digital innovation initiative. For example, in my experience, it is essential to consider whether the organization's culture supports digital transformation leveraging emerging technologies or if there may be resistance. Mesaglio & Topham (2022) state that culture is the No. 1 inhibitor to scaling digital innovations or executing the transformation. My organization promotes building a culture of change to succeed in digital transformation projects (Oracle, 2019).

Additionally, EA leaders should assess if the organization's digital innovation team has diverse skills, including expertise in business strategy, market trends, technology trendspotting, and project management, as well as soft skills to bridge the gap between business leaders and technologists (Burke, 2021). EA leaders can assess whether the organization lacks breadth and abilities across the innovation team and whether employees are motivated to learn new skills. Additionally, EA leaders should assess if the organization's digital innovation team has diverse skills, including expertise in business strategy, market trends, technology trendspotting, and project management, as well as soft skills to bridge the gap between business leaders and technologists (Burke, 2021). EA leaders can assess whether the organization lacks breadth and abilities across the innovation team and whether employees are motivated to learn new skills.

At my organization, EA leaders led one of the extensive change management initiatives involving a business model change from on-premises technology solutions to focus on more customer-focused cloud solutions. The EA leaders evaluated the cloud sales, implementations, and support team's skills, launched an extensive program to train the employees, adapted to every employee's skill levels and roles, and motivated them to acquire cloud transformation skills certifications. At the advice of EA leaders, my organization also implemented additional training for technology teams to acquire soft skills and customer-focus orientation to communicate effectively with business leaders and customers.

Collaborating with Key Stakeholders During the Execution Stage

EA leaders can lead change by proactively managing relationships with key stakeholders. Architecting in Enterprise Architecture (EA) primarily focuses on bringing people together and fostering collaboration, accounting for 90% of the effort, while only 10% is spent on actual design and technology. The ultimate goal of EA is to deliver value to the organization (Espinosa et al., 2021). They should also build a trusting relationship with the business executives by effectively engaging them and leveraging capability maps, value streams, and other mechanisms to define the business in coordination with the business stakeholders. In my experience, building strong relationships with business leaders as an EA leader is crucial to defuse resistance. This can be achieved by actively listening, communicating effectively, and finding common ground. Furthermore, by participating in high-priority business initiatives, aligning EA activities with the overall business strategy, understanding and catering to key stakeholders' needs, and proactively managing relationships with executives can help to establish trust and credibility with business leaders (Frangou & Blosch, 2022).

EA leaders can lead change by liaising between business and IT. They are also responsible for ensuring that the IT initiatives align with the organization's business strategy. EAs can also help bridge the gap between the business and IT and ensure that digital transformations align with the organization's goals.

End-to-End Involvement in All Phases of Agile DT Implementation

EA leaders within an enterprise can advocate for adopting Design thinking-A human-centred and collaborative approach to problem-solving, using a design-focused mindset to solve complex problems to enable enterprises to develop and execute their digital business strategy (Blosch, 2020). EA leaders should be involved in the complete end-to-end solution for digital transformation initiatives to demonstrate the business value of EA (Frangou & Blosch, 2022). Traditionally EAs supporting technology initiatives exit the project after the design phase irrespective of the use of agile or waterfall method of implementation. However, many recent digital transformation initiatives leverage the agile implementation method. By having EA leaders closely involved in each phase, the digital initiative will receive architectural support and problem-solving assistance while balancing the need for reuse and risk management. According to Mann (2020), EA leaders should actively collaborate with agile teams to comprehend their roles and offer them ongoing principles-based guidance. They should also encourage decision-making by determining the minimal required architecture.

Tracking Progress and Measuring Outcomes Over Time

To effectively measure the success of a change program, it is essential to evaluate the initial implementation and track progress and outcomes by measuring only the metrics that matter to the business over a more extended period post-implementation, such as six months or a year or sometimes longer for more extensive programs. EA leaders can help measure progress based on achieving actionable business outcomes and not just focusing on the efficiency and effectiveness of the digital transformation change activity (Hancocks, 2022).

In my experience, it is crucial to review the effectiveness of the change management plan in supporting and achieving desired outcomes, which are tangible changes in business performance. It is also critical to communicate the impact of the transition to all stakeholders periodically.

Conclusion

In conclusion, EA leaders, to enhance organizational performance, must be skilled at planning, implementing and managing change not just as a strange event but continuously. EAs are slowly overcoming barriers set by business leaders and can now more effectively act as the change agent for digital transformation initiatives. Having EAs positioned strategically in the organization with top management support will help them effectively lead change in digital transformation initiatives. However, EA leaders should also break the barriers by collaborating closely with business leaders and earning their trust. In my experience, resistance to change can also be a warning sign that the proposed change may be problematic. EA leaders need to be receptive to feedback, learn from those who are resistant, and work with change advocates to address any concerns. Finally, it is crucial to measure the effectiveness of the change program in supporting and achieving the desired business outcomes.

References

Allega, P., Brand, S., Blosch, M., Blosen, B., Frangou, A., Sachelarescu, A. R. (2022, November 28). Predicts 2023: Enterprise Architecture Charts New Path for Postdigital Era. (ID G00763034). Gartner. https://www.gartner.com/document/4021563?ref=solrrqp&refval=352157582

Blosch, M. (2020, October 6).?Use Design Thinking to Architect Customer Experience Into Your Digital Platforms. (ID: G00724987). Gartner.?https://www.gartner.com/document/3991420?ref=solrResearch&refval=351666687

Blosch, M., Brand, S., & Frangao, A. (2022, October 3). A Leadership Vision for 2023: Enterprise Architecture. (ID: G00757620). Gartner. https://www.gartner.com/document/4019433?ref=solrResearch&refval=351667088

Burke, B. (2022, August 23). Assessing Emerging Technology Adoption Readiness. (ID: G00740117). Gartner. https://www.gartner.com/document/3997378?ref=solrResearch&refval=351667253

Caleya, R. (2022, April 29). The 4 Critical Components to Accelerate Your Digital Transformation. (ID G00764500). Gartner. https://www.gartner.com/document/4013655?ref=solrAll&refval=352156383 ?

Espinosa, J.A., Armour, F., & Boh, W.F. (2021, October 6). Implicit Coordination and Enterprise Architecting Effectiveness.?IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.?https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2021.3109219 ?

Frangou, A., & Blosch, M. (2022, October 21). 3 Top Practices for Enterprise Architects to Engage Business Executives. (ID: G00771863). Gartner. https://www.gartner.com/document/4020347?ref=solrResearch&refval=351667498

Hancocks, M. (2022, October 10). The 12 Principles Every Organizational Change Needs to Succeed. (ID G00760629). Gartner. https://www.gartner.com/document/4019742?ref=solrAll&refval=352154942

Mann, K. (2020, June 4). Adapt Your Application Architecture Practices to Work Better With DevOps Teams. (ID: G00377548). Gartner. https://www.gartner.com/analyst/58524

Mansaray, H. E. (2019). The role of leadership style in organisational change management: a

literature review.?Journal of Human Resource Management,?7(1), 18-31.?https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jhrm.20190701.13 ?

Mesaglio, M., & Topham, D. (2022, June 13). The Art of Culture Hacking. (ID G00348246). Gartner. https://www.gartner.com/document/3849463?ref=solrAll&refval=353031081 ?

Olding, E. (2021, December 21). 6 Steps to Becoming a Change Leader Using the ESCAPE Model. (ID G00758648). Gartner. https://www.gartner.com/document/4009705?ref=algorightrec&refval=4019742

Oracle. (2019).?What Will Your Organization be Tomorrow? Developing a Culture of Continuous Transformation. https://www.oracle.com/webfolder/assets/ebook/modern-hcm/pdf/hcm.pdf ?

Schwertner, K. (2017). Digital transformation of business.?The Journal of Supercomputing, 15, 388-393. https://doi.org/10.15547/tjs.2017.s.01.065

Links To Other Articles in EA Leadership Series:

Series 1 - Agile EA – Critical Leadership Skills

Series 2 - Overcoming Barriers to Communication and Collaboration

Disclaimer:

The Opinions expressed in this post are my own and not necessarily those of my employer.