Do you use Information Technology?

You might think that every business of every size uses IT or the internet in some way. It could be for marketing, to get new customers coming in, it could be for internal operations and organizing the business. There are not many businesses that operate today that do not use some sort of IT System. With everyone using information technology it is a fast growth industry that you must keep organized so you can stay ahead. From street vendors to multi-national organizations, from tribes in the amazon rain forest making wooden ornaments for sale and advertising through You Tube, to household brands using multiple IT systems to organize staff, advertising, and products, everyone is using it somewhere. The use of IT within your business organically develops a framework to grow from. This framework is the Enterprise Architecture of your business.

When you have a new product, a new mobile phone solution, or a process to automate, it all affects the enterprise architecture of your company, and even a little change can cause bigger changes elsewhere. Since everything is interconnected through the supply chain of your business, you need a core to grow from and for the stability that all good foundations need.

Each business that has grown through the pandemic and the recent economic turmoil of the last few years has grown from their foundations. They could have added cloud computing, video conferencing, remote working processes, or automated processes that previously needed several people to do. These innovations are only possible when managers are reviewing their EA.

What is EA?

Where a business has a plan to grow by adapting new technology and adding in new processes into the existing framework of IT Operations, they are reviewing their Enterprise Architecture.

This plan might be around communications, analysis, information organization, or developing a new marketing strategy. There must be planning involved in the process to grow, that planning must consider what exists now, and where the business wants to be.

When a business starts on a process of development and growth, planning and organization is essential, and everyone involved in the process must understand the core functionality of the systems that they are developing, so that the bigger picture can be met, whilst keeping the core infrastructure intact.

EA is a working methodology that a business uses to grow its IT Infrastructure and develop its internal framework. There are 4 key elements to EA:

Analysis – review what you currently have and how it works. Know what is connected to what and how the whole framework interacts with each element of the business. Analyze the future direction and which parts of the framework will change and what the future effects of that change will be.

Design – Knowing what you have and designing what you want, and all the intricate parts of the framework that will be affected and redesigned to get you to where you want to be. If you are changing a small part of a big machine, the design and the planning is essential, to ensure that you do not break anything and that there is a clear pathway to follow to get you to where you want to be.

Planning – This involves people, operations, multiple departments, and including everyone who will be affected by this. Planning is more than the integrations, and slotting a new element into an existing framework, it needs to be from the highest level down to the lowest level of user, to ensure that implementation is smooth.

Implementation – this includes testing and demonstrating the uses of the new integration. Through detailed testing you might find bugs or effects that you were not expecting. There needs to be a staged roll out of the new processes always ensuring that the framework can withstand the change.

When you have the end goal in view, you consider the business, the processes, the technology innovation, and strategies and adding in the new elements with reaching the end goal quickly and smoothly at the core.

Before EA was BSP (Business Systems Planning), but then with the fast growth of businesses and the introduction of mobile technology and a greater use of information technology EA was conceptualized and developed. During the 1980s and 1990s there was a fast growth of business operations, some businesses failed to consider their frameworks and the transformation process that is necessary so new development slowed down due to the impact on legacy applications. The smooth integration of legacy and future was essential to maintain growth and not set companies back. The optimizing of business operations meant that frameworks were established and documented so that innovation would not negatively affect what is currently working well.

EA today covers businesses from all sectors and all industries. There could be some very specific goals, or they could be very general. Moving from paper-based work to automated work means a detailed look at the framework. Keeping in mind resources available means that innovation is a challenge for some businesses with limited resources. Innovation always comes from the core operations and core purpose of the business. Big tech businesses might have the overall goal of increasing the valuation of the business whereas smaller organisations might focus on the operations or the end-user experience. Whatever the goal for future development is, there must be a strong review of the current framework to know how to adapt new technology and new processes into what is currently working well.

Why is EA important?

With the adaptation of new technology and new ways of working, comes faster growth. That fast growth is required to keep up with modern technology and customer demand. With people working remotely on their mobiles, or with businesses expanding and working in different time zones with different teams the core values and core technology of the company become even more important. Every business that wants to grow needs targets to move towards, these targets provide pathways of working and these pathways must not interfere with current processes. Being flexible means that new tools, technologies, and processes can be implemented quickly, and the business can have the big business image. As businesses become more reliant upon technology for communications, processes, operations, and general development, EA keeps that balance between the old and the new, ensuring that the core is always protected so that development can happen.

What are your goals with EA?

The main purpose of EA is to draw up and document clearly a comprehensive and cohesive diagram or presentation of how your organization is structured from an IT perspective. This shows what your systems look like now, how they interact, and who uses them and for what purpose. This is very detailed and can then be used to show how the organization will develop over time to help to plan future developments and future integrations.

This document shows the business processes, systems, hierarchy structure, information systems, communication systems, vendor systems, and all technologies used to make your business operate. There is room for future development and growth, detailed from the position of what is now, compared to what will be.

The Rules of EA: How do they apply to you?

Effectiveness – The better the workflow, the more accurately you understand your processes and the faster you will be able to add to them and develop your business. EA makes reaching new deliverables easier and sets targets and milestones to help you reach them.

Continuity– Nothing is more important than minimal downtime for a business. If you are launching a new technology, or integrating a new tool, the last thing that you want is for it to affect the daily business operations. EA protects continuity and allows for everything to continue as normal, at the same time as adding in the new technology or operation.

Agility – Sometimes things can go wrong, so you need to make changes on the fly. You need to remain agile in a world where change is the only constant. EA allows you to make sense of all legacy processes, technology and systems whilst improving them, it also gives you the breathing room if something goes wrong so that the whole system does not go down.

Efficiency – if everyone in the team understands the workflows, the systems and the future goals, everyone can collaborate to ensure goals are achieved. Correct use of Enterprise Architecture will assess technology risks and guide the developers and operational management teams to make sure that they consider all possible situations that could affect the rollout of new technology or processes.

Good adaptation and usage of a solid EA Framework will guide all elements of your business and ensure that everyone playing a vital part in change management will be aware of the issues and skilled to avoid errors. Using EA Correctly will maximize value, reduce risk, improve efficiency, and resolve problems before they happen.

Disadvantages of Enterprise Architecture

When starting the EA process, there will be a lot of meetings, discussions, planning and documentation. This can take a long time, depending on how many systems and processes your company uses for the day-to-day operations.  Once this is done, and if it is done correctly, EA will work well, but getting to that stage will take a lot of time and effort from the part of many people. This is the biggest concern that businesses have before starting out on the journey to continually develop and innovate their products and systems.

If you spend the time planning and documenting, and you get it right, EA will work well for your company.  The constant updates and edits also take time. Continually amending the workflows, and continually documenting processes can seem like a never-ending task, but if you are looking to sell the company, or to improve different features, it will be extremely valuable.

EA documentation is constantly changing and cannot be left to be done in one go at the end of the month. It is a daily task that requires constant attention. Having an IT Professional work with you on this can be expensive, and it might be hard to see returns in the short term, but when everything is working well and your company has not experienced any downtime, and your customers are happier with your services, you will see the benefit.

You must be in EA for the long game, there are no quick wins.

Benefits of Enterprise Architecture

Businesses must adapt, they need to grow and change in response to and in preparation for external change. Businesses might have operational software and systems, accounting systems, communication and reporting structures, there might be many cogs to the wheel of success that guides your business. Then as you add new products, new locations, new staff, you are adding more complications to an already complicated system.

EA Lays out the documentation for clearly showing what is happening now, and how the company will grow to what you want it to be. With more people working from home, or with more changes being forced upon us, there will be a transformation of your business, possibly a digital transformation. These big changes must be planned, documented, and implemented properly.

EA Does that for you if it is done right.

Better Design

With a clean layout of the whole business infrastructure to read from and work from, future designs can be simply added on and slotted in. Redesigns can be fast, and discussions around efficiency and improving the current set up can be guided by clear designs.

Improved Standards

When you document everything, you see what everything does clearly. If you have 2 things doing the same thing, or you have other redundancies in the business, they are quickly identified and resolved.  If everyone works in a standardized manner, the business moves forwards as one. Setting the standard, documenting the standard operating procedures and ensuring that everyone lives up to the standard means that the standard will naturally improve.

Discover what works and what is missing

A clear documentation shows what you currently have, and if there are gaps, you can see them visually and operationally. Where a gap or a problem is identified, a solution can be quickly found. You don’t know what to fix until you see it.

Project management.

Projects all come from the EA documentation. It is the foundation for all development and improvement. With clear documentation comes clear thought processes, clear design, and clear routes forwards. EA Documentation shows you who to involve in projects and who can be left alone to do their job.

Optimising systems

When you can see the systems and how they interact, you can see how to improve them, or if they are needed at all. Testing and development speeds up, new systems can be integrated quickly into the areas of the business that the EA identifies as needing a little extra support.

IT Simplified

Information technology is complicated and making sure that it is working is even more complicated. When it is laid out in front of you in one cohesive plan, it becomes simpler and easier to read. EA reduces the confusion which in turn can reduce costs and make processes faster. When you can see the systems at work, you know that everything does and what you need to do to improve it.

Risk Management

You often do not know the risks until something breaks or something goes wrong. If you have planned your system, you know the risks ahead of time and can put measures in place to minimize the problems without them causing damage. If part of the system fails, you know which other parts can take the burden until it is fixed.

Implementing EA into your business

Before you make the move and implement these changes you must clearly understand the theory and the management processes involved. There are several methodologies involved in implementing EA into your workflow.

Architecture management – a management team involved in the general oversight of the projects and ensuring that the EA documentation is accurate and inclusive.

Architecture framework – This is the documentation itself. It can be on paper, on computers, in a presentation or however you want to display it, so that everyone understands it and follows it.

Implementation methodology – getting it done. Decide how you are going to make the changes and follow the process. This could be in sprints or could be as a stand-alone project aside from daily operations. Detailing how you will implement the changes and following that keeps everyone aware of what is happening.

Documentation – keeping the documents as a living file, regularly updated, keeps the projects moving forwards, and if for any reason the key decision makers are not available, other people know what has happened and where the project is up to. Roadmaps are important for efficiency.

Resources – knowing what tools are needed and using only the best tool for the job is essential to move forwards.  If you do not have the correct tools, the EA Development will be slowed down.

What is best? – following best practice guidelines means that you will always be on track to complete the task. This standardizes behaviour and ensures that people are compliant. It sets the standard for people to follow and anyone working below that standard is wasting time and resources.

What is your perspective?

There are 4 perspectives that must be considered so that the business has a full view of the EA Documentation and blueprint for all future development:

Business perspective: This includes business operational processes, goals, functions of departments, key personnel, strategies, and direction for the business. This is looking at development from the perspective of the business.

Technology perspective: What is the software, hardware, and vendor software required to complete tasks and which software solutions would be better?  This focuses on technology only. Technology can replace functions and staff.

Applications: How are business services implemented and how can they be improved? This is more operational and how different applications within the framework interact with each other.

Information: Keeping data safe is important and what you do with that data can guide future business decisions. Focusing on Data and how information is managed through the different departments and how it is stored protects your company.

Which perspective do you most commonly use when you are reviewing your business?  Making sure that you have at least one representative from each of the 4 perspectives gives you a well-rounded view of the business that is necessary for growth.

When are you going to move into Enterprise Architecture?

Now that you understand the methodologies and how important this process is, when are you going to start focusing on your technology and systems to make the necessary improvements?  With more companies looking at mobile technology to support the remote workers and to promote growth in a post-pandemic working situation, there are some changes that your business needs to make, so firstly document what you have and then implement the best communications technology to keep everyone in your company involved in your growth.  You can be the inspirational leader that your teams deserve.