How To Modernize Your Enterprise Architecture?

Enterprise Architecture Elements

There are six key elements of enterprise architecture.

• Architecture management
• Architecture framework
• Implementation methodology
• Documentation Artifacts
• Architecture repository
• Best Practices and Guidelines

Enterprise Architecture Frameworks

There are four common enterprise architecture frameworks you can adopt to enhance your enterprise architecture.

• FEAF
• DoDAF
• TOGAF
• Zachman Framework

How to Modernize Your Enterprise Architecture?

Here is a step by step guide to modernize enterprise architecture.

1. Put Your Employees First

Be it digital transformation or enterprise architecture modernization, the first mistake businesses make is focusing too much on the technology side of things and completely ignoring the human side of the equation. That is one of the main reasons why their digital initiatives tend to fail. At the end of the day, the changes you are going to make to your enterprise architecture will impact people whether they are your employees, customers or other stakeholders.

This is why it is important that you not only consider the people’s side of the question but also put people over everything else. Understand their pain points and challenges and how technological changes will impact their day-to-day lives. This will help you make changes according to people’s requirements. As a result, you are less likely to face resistance from their side.

Always spend money on a solution that aligns with your employees workflows. The easier it is for them to adjust to the new solution, the more likely they are to adopt and use the new solution. The core purpose of enterprise architecture modernization should be to empower your employees to achieve more in less time and complete their task with less hassle. Automate mundane tasks so that your employees can focus on more value-centric tasks.

2. Appoint a Dedicated Team

Enterprise architecture modernization is not easy, especially if you are still stuck with legacy systems or have an antiquated enterprise architecture. This means that it can take a lot of time, labor and effort to achieve success at enterprise architecture modernization. If you have appointed a person for enterprise architecture modernization and think that it would be enough, you have to rethink your strategy.

You should think of enterprise architecture modernization as a project. This means that you should appoint a competent team of skilled and experienced professionals for it instead of trying to go solo. Define the roles of every member in your team so they know exactly what’s expected of them.

Instead of hiring IT professionals, you should create a diverse team from different functional units. This will give you a unique perspective to deal with challenges as each member might see things from a whole new perspective. This will also help you come up with new and innovative ideas for enterprise architecture modernization, not to mention, think out of the box and find solutions to complex problems more easily.

3. Understand Enterprise Modernization Is A Journey, Not a Destination

Another common misconception businesses have about enterprise architecture modernization is that they think of it as a destination. In fact, it is a long and arduous journey that does not end until you have completely transformed your entire enterprise architecture.

Enterprise architecture modernization is all about collaboration. This means that you have to break down silos and encourage cross departmental collaboration. Instead of jumping on every hot new technology trend, you are better off modernizing the technologies you have already implemented and taking steps to get the best out of them. Follow an iterative model where you make necessary changes at every cycle, eventually leading to a refined final product.

4. Optimize Your Technology Stack

Start off by taking a closer look at your technology stack. Sit together with IT and business leaders and decide what can be discarded, what can be retained and what can be improved. Modernization is not just about replacing old technology, such as legacy systems, with newer and better ones. You need to be strategic about what technology you want to get rid of and which ones you will adopt. Conduct a comprehensive audit and look at all the technology layers before making the decision.

5. Leverage Enterprise Architecture Management Tool

As mentioned before, modernizing an enterprise architecture can be a resource-intensive process. If you try to do everything manually, this can take many years or even decades. To minimize the effort, time and labor, it is highly recommended that you use an enterprise architecture management tool. This will not only reduce the burden off the shoulders of your IT team but also help you lay a solid technological foundation and pave the way for innovation at departmental level. Above all, it will help you get the best results out of your enterprise architecture.

What steps would you take to modernize enterprise architecture? Let us know in the comments section below.