Project Management Journal

How to use Enterprise Architecture to deliver the right

solution

Journal: Project Management Journal

Manuscript ID Draft
Fo

Wiley - Manuscript type: Teaching Case Studies

Keywords: Solution, Business Analysis, project management, Enterprise Architecture

rP
ee
rR
ev
iew
Page 1 of 9 Project Management Journal

1
2
3
4
5
6
How to use Enterprise Architecture to deliver the right solution
7
8
9 Introduction
10 Change is inevitable, constant, and permanent. Today´s world is characterized by
11
12
uncertainty and change. Organizations must continually evolve and adapt to survive, grow,
13 and develop. Evolution and adaptation is achieved when organizational structures and the
14 relationships between them are transformed, and move the whole organization from an
15
16
actual state to a desired state according to a previously defined strategy.
17
18 According to the Enterprise Architecture Body of Knowledge (EABOK) (MITRE, 2004) an
19 Enterprise Architecture describes how the elements of an organization (business processes,
Fo
20 business functions responsible for them, capabilities, and infrastructure) fit together now
21
22 and in the future. Enterprise Architecture also describes how such elements evolve from the
23 actual state to a desired future state to support the organization’s strategic plans.
rP

24
25 When transformation needs arise the Business Analyst acts as the “host” of change. He or
26
ee

she welcomes change and makes any arrangements to understand and manage all
27
28 transformation needs at all organizational levels. Through system thinking (Bunge, 1979),
29 the Business Analyst is aware that the change will impact the enterprise architecture as a
rR

30
whole.
31
32
This article sets out a tried-and-tested way of using Enterprise Architecture as a road map
ev

33
34 for the Business Analyst when liaising between stakeholders to understand the structure,
35 policies, and operations of an organization, to recommend solutions that help it achieve its
36
iew

37
goals, and to continuously monitor whether these solutions meet business goals, needs, and
38 targets.
39
40
41
42 What is Enterprise Architecture?
43
Enterprise Architecture is defined by Gartner as “a discipline for proactively and
44
45 holistically leading enterprise responses to disruptive forces by identifying and analyzing
46 the execution of change toward desired business vision and outcomes. EA delivers value by
47
presenting business and IT leaders with signature-ready recommendations for adjusting
48
49 policies and projects to achieve target business outcomes that capitalize on relevant
50 business disruptions. EA is used to steer decision making toward the evolution of the future
51
state architecture.” (Gartner Group, 2013)
52
53
54 Enterprise Architecture could basically be described as consisting of several highly
55 independent, highly cohesive architectures, as in the model below:
56
57
58
59 How to use Enterprise Architecture to deliver the right solution Page |1
60
 Project Management Journal Page 2 of 9

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
Fo
20
21 Fig 1: Enterprise Architecture.
22
23
rP
• Business Architecture (BA): is the bridge between strategy and the running
24 business. Each time the environment interacts with the business is through the
25
26 Business Architecture.
ee

27 • Application Architecture (AA): describes the structure and behavior of applications

28
used in a business, and focuses on how they interact with each other and with users
29
rR

30 to support Business Architecture components.

31 • Technology Architecture (TA): is technology used to support Application
32
Architecture components.
ev

33
34 • Security Architecture (SA): is a cohesive security design, which addresses the
35 requirements (e.g. authentication, authorization, etc.) – and, in particular, the risks
36
iew

of a specific environment/scenario, and specifies what security controls are to be

37
38 applied and where.
39 • Information Architecture (IA): is a combination of organization, labeling, and
40
41
navigation models, and retrieval mechanisms, within an information space.
42
43
44 Why use Enterprise Architecture?
45 Enterprise Architecture is a means of putting system thinking into practice to analyze the
46
47 organization as a whole from a system management theory perspective.
48
49 The need to use system management theory for organization management was a result of
50 organizations trying to adapt to rapid change in the business environment related to
51
technological, economic, and social changes in the second half of the twentieth century. It
52
53 emerged from Bertalanffy’s General Systems Theory (Bertalanffy, 1968) and studies an
54 organization by analyzing its elements in its environment.
55
56
57
58
59 How to use Enterprise Architecture to deliver the right solution Page |2
60
Page 3 of 9 Project Management Journal

1
2
3 Systems are needed and created to support organizational strategy by putting it into action.
4
5 People, processes, and information work together to support business functions. To be
6 competitive, adaptable, and proactive the organization must behave according to the
7 concept of zero latency, i.e. responding instantly to environmental stimulus (Business
8
9
Dictionary, 2013). To achieve this systems have to be independent but highly cohesive,
10 sharing consistent information and collaborating to support organizational goals. When
11 systems fail to have this degree of cohesion they are said to operate in “silos” (Hurwitz,
12
13
2008) In this type of organizational architecture the solution created fails to achieve the
14 organizational goals for which it was originally created. It is vital for each Business Analyst
15 to avoid this type of situation by using of system thinking because, as stated in the Business
16
Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) of the International Institute of Business Analysis
17
18 (IIBA), he or she uses business analysis to work on recommending solutions that help the
19 organization achieve its goals.
Fo
20
21
22
23
rP

When to use Enterprise Architecture?

24
25 Tasks included in BABOK’s Elicitation knowledge area are performed from the outset and
26 throughout the business analysis process. During Elicitation, the Business Analyst is faced
ee

27 with needs and, as an archaeologist, investigates the needs to unearth “Undiscovered

28
29 Ruins”: the features, services, functions required to satisfy the needs. Enterprise
rR

30 Architecture helps the Business Analyst stay alert to the “whole picture”.
31
32 During Enterprise Analysis, “GAP Analysis” between current Enterprise Architecture (put
ev

33
34
in place because of actual strategy) and desirable future Enterprise Architecture (put in
35 place according to future strategy) is the key to finding the needs that define the problem
36
iew

situation to be solved (see Figure 2).

37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53 Fig 2: In search of the problem situation to solve
54
55 When the transformation is complete and the change is implemented, new changes are
56 generated in the environment, and a new cycle gets under way. The Business Analyst
57
58
59 How to use Enterprise Architecture to deliver the right solution Page |3
60
 Project Management Journal Page 4 of 9

1
2
3 proactively helps organizations to constantly regenerate themselves by continuous
4
5 improvements to their Enterprise Architecture as a means of gaining in innovation,
6 differentiation, and adaptability. At this stage, Enterprise Architecture drives tasks
7 contained in the BABOK knowledge area, Solution Assessment and Validation.
8
9 When Planning and Monitoring the work of business analysis, Enterprise Architecture is
10
11 used to define the best course of action to perform the business analysis tasks (Enterprise
12 Architecture is one of the components to consider when choosing between plan-oriented or
13 change-oriented lifecycles), to identify and analyze stakeholders (Enterprise Architecture
14
15 acts as a “road map”), to decide the best means for requirements management and
16 communication (Enterprise Architecture is useful, among other things, to determine
17 geographic distribution).
18
19
Fo
20
21
22 How to use Enterprise Architecture?
23 There are several models, frameworks, or tools for working with Enterprise Architecture.
rP

24 Each one of them tries to answer the question: “how to create an organizational architecture
25
26 as flexible as possible to rapidly adapt to environmental changes when they occur or to
ee

27 generate the change?” The model described here is “The 7s model”, originally developed
28 by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman for McKinsey & Company and later described in the
29
rR

30
well-known book “In Search of Excellence” (Peters and Waterman, 1982). This was
31 originally used to analyze both large and small firms by looking at their architecture and
32 offering a broader explanation thorough seven elements – strategy, structure, systems, style,
ev

33
34
staff, skills, and shared values – hence the name “7s”. Managers should take into account
35 these factors to successfully implement their company’s strategy, since all seven elements
36
iew

are interrelated, and failing to recognize one affects how the others are perceived.
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53 Fig 3: Waterman, R. Jr.; Peters T.; Phillips, J.R. (1980)
54
55 “Structure is not organization” Business Horizons, v23/3, p21.
56
57
58
59 How to use Enterprise Architecture to deliver the right solution Page |4
60
Page 5 of 9 Project Management Journal

1
2
3 Each element in the model has to be discovered and analyzed using a criterion or method.
4
5
Much of the literature from the 1960s could be used as “tools” to discover and analyze each
6 element.
7
8 The process for working with the model could be divided in two main steps: elicitation and
9 analysis. To elicit, the techniques and processes described in BABOK’s Elicitation key
10
11 process area could be used. To analyze, some authors (Peters and Waterman, 1982)
12 recommend following this path:
13
14 • Start with your Shared Values: Are they consistent with your structure, strategy, and
15
16
systems? If not, what needs to change?
17 • Then look at the hard elements. How well does each one support the others?
18 Identify where changes need to be made.
19
• Next look at the other soft elements. Do they support the desired hard elements? Do
Fo
20
21 they support one another? If not, what needs to change?
22 • As you adjust and align the elements, you'll need to use an iterative (and often time
23
rP

24 consuming) process of making adjustments, and then re-analyzing how that impacts
25 other elements and their alignment. The end result of better performance will be
26
ee

worth it.
27
28
29
Strategy
rR

30 This involves planned actions that the organization will perform in response to changes in
31 its external environment or to create changes in its external environment.
32
ev

33 The focus is on being aware of the Corporate Strategy (the Strategy followed by the
34
35 organization as a whole), the Business Unit Strategy (the Strategy followed by the
36
iew

organization to compete in a specific business), and the Functional Strategy (the Critical
37 Success Factors, or CSFs, and the Key Result Areas, or KRAs, defined by the organization
38
39 in order to remain focused on what really matters when competing in a specific business
40 and organizing all organizational efforts behind them).
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59 How to use Enterprise Architecture to deliver the right solution Page |5
60
 Project Management Journal Page 6 of 9

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
Fo
20
21
22 Fig 4: Corporate, Business, and Functional strategies
23
rP

24 Literature on the subject includes Michael Porter’s Competitive Strategy (Porter, 1998),
25 Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, and Carl Von Clausewitz’s On War.
26
ee

27 Structure
28
29 This involves setting up organizational critical success factors and key process areas, and
rR

30 grouping activities and responsibilities into an organizational architecture.

31
32 Structure follows strategy, so this is the most important thing to validate. Traditional
ev

33
structures could be Bureaucratic, Functional, Divisional, Matrix, Team, and Virtual.
34
35 Literature on the subject includes Max Weber’s Essays in Economic Sociology, (Weber,
36
iew

1999) Derek Pugh’s Organization Theory: Selected Readings, (Pugh, 2007) and the book
37
Virtual Organizations and Beyond. (Hedberg, 1998)
38
39
40 Systems
41 These are formal and informal procedures to support strategy and structure.
42
43 Process and procedures used by the organization to administrate and control day-to-day
44 operation must be analyzed. Information systems, “formal” and “informal” systems that
45
46 help the organization to operate according to the strategy must be considered; especially
47 those intended to support the organizational implementation of Critical Success Factors.
48
49 Literature on the subject includes James Martin’s Strategic Information Planning
50
51
Methodologies (Martin, 1989) and McMenamin and Palmer’s Essential System Analysis.
52 (McMenamin, 1984)
53
54 Style
55 Organizational Culture, Management style and Leadership style are analyzed here.
56
57
58
59 How to use Enterprise Architecture to deliver the right solution Page |6
60
Page 7 of 9 Project Management Journal

1
2
3 Management style and Leadership style are the leader’s style of providing direction,
4
5
implementing plans, and motivating people. One important thing to be aware of is that
6 nobody will find organizational culture formally defined on a piece of paper.
7
8 Edgar Shein’s Organizational Culture and Leadership (Shein, 2010) is a benchmark for
9 this subject.
10
11
12
Staff
13 This includes the processes and efforts used to develop managers, socialization, and the
14 shaping of basic management values, as well as ways of introducing young recruits to the
15
company.
16
17
18 The People Capability Maturity Model (P-CMM) is a framework created and maintained by
19 Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute, and a model that could be used to analyze
Fo
20 how the organization attracts, develops, organizes, motivates, and retains its workforce
21
22 according to the organizational strategy. The P-CMM consists of five maturity levels.
23
rP

24 More information can be found at http://www.sei.cmu.edu/.

25
26 Skills
ee

27 The key here is to find things that make the organization “unique.”
28
29 These are commonly called “core competencies.” A core competency is a specific factor
rR

30
31 not easily imitated by competitors. It can be reused widely for many products and markets
32 and must contribute to the end consumer's experienced benefits.
ev

33
34 Michel Porter’s Competitive Strategy (Porter, 1998) and Hamel & Prahalad’s Competing
35
36
for the Future (Hamel, 1996) can be considered benchmarks in this area.
iew

37
38 Shared values
39 The central premise behind creating shared value is that the competitiveness of the
40 organization and the health of the communities around it are mutually dependent.
41
42
Values must be shared and accepted by all internal and external human resources. An
43
44 organizational value is a belief that a specific mode of conduct is preferable to an opposite
45 or contrary mode of conduct. Values help the organization to differentiate itself from
46
others, so, as with the other 7s elements, it impacts strategy formulation and
47
48 implementation. Organizational values are usually explicitly defined in corporate
49 foundational statements, such as mission, vision, and so on.
50
51
52
53
Conclusion
54
55 Endeavors to transform organizational structures and its relations are initiated by the need
56 to evolve and adapt to environmental change. It makes sense to see Enterprise Architecture
57
58
59 How to use Enterprise Architecture to deliver the right solution Page |7
60
 Project Management Journal Page 8 of 9

1
2
3 as a way of focusing on the use of system thinking ability as a tool to integrate and align all
4
5
organizational levels toward a main objective, to recommend solutions that help the
6 organization achieve its goals, and to continuously monitor whether solutions are meeting
7 business goals, needs, and objectives.
8
9 References
10
11 (Bertalanffy 1968) Ludwig von Bertalanffy . 1968. General System theory: Foundations,
12 Development, Applications. New York: George Braziller, revised edition 1976: ISBN 0-
13 8076-0453-4
14
15
(Bunge 1979) Mario Bunge. 1979. A world of systems. Dordrecht; Boston, Reidel.
16
17
18 (Business Dictionary 2013) http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/zero-
19 latency.html
Fo
20
21 (Gartner Group 2013) Gartner Group. Gartner IT Glossary. http://www.gartner.com/it-
22
glossary/enterprise-architecture-ea/
23
rP

24
25 (Hamel 1996) Gary Hamel & Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad. 1996. Competing for the
26 Future. Harvard Business Review Press. ISBN-13: 9780875847160
ee

27
28 (Hedberg 1998) Bo Hedberg, Goran Dahlgren, Jorgen Hansson, Nils-Goran Olve. 1998.
29
rR

30
Virtual Organizations and Beyond. Discover Imaginary Systems. Willey and Sons. ISBN-
31 13: 9780471974932.
32
ev

33 (Hurwitz 2008) Judith Hurtwitz, 2008. Leveraging information for Innovation and
34 Competitive Advantage.
35
36
iew

37 (Martin 1989) James Martin. 1989. Strategic Information Planning Methodologies.

38 Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-1385-0538-1.
39
40 (McMenamin 1984) Stephen McMenamin and John Palmer. 1984. Essential Systems
41
Analysis. Yourdon Press Computing Series. ISBN 0-1328-7905-0.
42
43
44 (MITRE 2004) MITRE. 2004. Guide to (Evolving) Enterprise Architecture Body of
45 Knowledge.
46
47 (Peters and Waterman 1982) Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jr. 1982. In Search of
48
49
Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies. Harper Business Essentials.
50 ISBN 0-0605-4878-9
51
52 (Porter 1998) Michael E. Porter. 1998. Competitive Strategy. Techniques for Analyzing
53 Industries and Competitors. Free Press. ISBN 0-6848-4148-7
54
55
56
57
58
59 How to use Enterprise Architecture to deliver the right solution Page |8
60
Page 9 of 9 Project Management Journal

1
2
3 (Pugh 2007) Derek S. Pugh. 2007. Organization Theory Selected Classic Readings. Viking
4
5
Penguin. ISBN-13: 9780141032702.
6
7 (Shein 2010) Edgar Schein. 2010. Organizational Culture and Leadership. Willey, John &
8 Sons. ISBN 0-4701-9060-4
9
10
11
(Weber 1999) Max Weber. 1999. Essays in Economic Sociology. Princeton University
12 Press. ISBN 0-6910-0906-6
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
Fo
20
21
22
23
rP

24
25
26
ee

27
28
29
rR

30
31
32
ev

33
34
35
36
iew

37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59 How to use Enterprise Architecture to deliver the right solution Page |9
60