The Four Pillars of Holistic Enterprise Architecture:

Driving Efficiency and Innovation by Consistently Managing Complexity and Change

Only within the past 30 years have we begun to develop an art and science for identifying and defining the graphical and textual descriptions of whole Enterprises. Until this time, whatever art and science we had related to this endeavor pertained to parts of Enterprises, for example, organizational design and/or systems development. Since this article's focus is Enterprise Architecture, have there been successful Enterprises that were never architected?

Yes, but they were successful relative to other non-architected Enterprises. Moreover, the pace of change was slower in the Industrial Age compared with the Information Age of today. Contemporary Enterprises have to be able to adjust much more rapidly to meet changing demands in the face of global competition. This makes it critical to have readily available descriptive representations of one’s Enterprise to use as a basis for making change. The age-old question now arises in Enterprises – how can you change something that you cannot “see?” How do you “see” an Enterprise?

Benefits of a Holistic Enterprise Architecture

There are many benefits for both Business and Technology areas for Holistic Enterprise Architecture, but a few of the greatest gains we have observed are:

Business Benefits

• Developing and communicating a broad understanding of your business, a confirming enterprise-self realization that is clear and concise

• Identifying and mitigating potential risk in your selected paths of action or investment, thereby reducing unintended consequences

• Clarifying your business priorities and identifying your core competencies, enabling you to confidently assign key resources to projects, and leveraging top talent for critical needs

Technology Benefits

• Creating a practical and efficient means to manage your information technology portfolios, rationalizing your existing systems and projects to gain significant cost reductions, and helping you to remove waste and redundancy in your information systems deployments

• Aligning your technology investments and assets to project initiatives that demonstrate direct support of priority business goals, competencies, and needs

• Identifying, classifying, representing, developing, and accumulating in an accessible portfolio - your architected, highly reusable technology assets

• Identifying and mitigating potential impacts of your proposed solutions, services, or changes, thereby addressing all areas affected in the design and negotiation of new or updated solutions, reducing your exposure to the risk of unintended impacts and degradation

Demystifying Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise Architecture, as a discipline, is the art and science of building Enterprises.

Enterprise Architecture products are the graphical and textual descriptions used in the planning, design, and implementation of ongoing changes to Enterprises.

Architecture is the object, the end "product" to achieve via an Enterprise Architecture Planning and Design Methodology; we represent it as a set of up-to-date, consistent artifacts [written, drawn, recorded - communicated in a persistent fashion]; artifacts are statements of the Enterprise's intended state of being, its essence.

Your Goal: Realize and Deliver Consistent Value

Survive. Grow. Thrive. Exceed expectations. Enjoy your efforts!

Successful leaders must prepare for opportunities and risks. They must endure difficult economies, survive to seize emerging opportunities in the economic recovery, growing their business. These forward-thinking leaders will exceed expectations by linking productive initiatives to desired goals and results; they will foster working conditions that are consistent and predictable in delivering true value. Workers enjoy their efforts when they know that there is a reasonable, thoughtful plan that the organization is following and that their input is valued and recognized in defining and achieving the next level of success.

A tall order? Bold optimism? No! Not at all; this is attainable if the leaders recognize the need for, support, and advocate the consistent use of a practical, tailored Holistic Enterprise Architecture as a competitive differentiator. Holistic Enterprise Architecture is about understanding your Enterprise. Writing more computer code just won’t get you there. Holistic Enterprise Architecture, a concept about two decades old, is the linchpin to delivering consistent value every time.

We have begun to discover, through thoughtful practice, the process of successfully achieving a practical Holistic Enterprise Architecture. Our experience, through many real-world Holistic Enterprise Architecture engagements, reveals several consistent, key “Pillars” of success in achieving usable architecture – the design for your Enterprise. Your architecture will become the business solution engine.

Note the Difficulties in Achieving a Successful Enterprise Architecture

There are unfortunate cases of Enterprise Architecture efforts that stall or fail to deliver the envisioned value. At the core of such experiences lie confusion, expensive investments, and unbounded, unmet expectations. Some experts, vendors, approaches, and authors hype beyond reason and overuse and misuse the “Enterprise Architecture” phrase itself. Some improper uses include that it engulfs many business skills such as planning, forecasting, budgeting, and project selection; these are separate, important skills that benefit from an Enterprise Architecture, but they themselves are not part of an Enterprise Architecture. The enterprise architecture participants become confused, “architecture paralysis” sets in, and may set misdirected expectations on the value and scope of an Enterprise Architecture.

Designing an Enterprise Architecture is a people-oriented analysis and solution, not one only of technology. People’s business knowledge forms your enterprise foundation.

Where to Begin?

We recognized in many actual Holistic Enterprise Architecture engagements, a consistent set of required components for success; these four “pillars” are

• Architectural Models,

• A Framework,

• A Methodology, and

• Solution Models.

The outputs of the Holistic Enterprise Architecture effort are the Architectural and Solution models. Why both Architecture Models and Solution Models? Simply stated, beginning with Architecture Models simplifies the effort, while beginning with Solution Models leads to undue complexity, as will be elaborated.

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