As discussed in the overview, enterprise architecture has a way to go before it is clearly understood by business, in particular. Below, Gartner lists some of the most common myths about EA, and busts them.
1. EA is not business strategy
“A business strategy is defined by business leaders and senior executives, and it articulates the business goals and directions of the organisation overall. The business plan turns strategies into specific tactical plans designed to achieve the strategic goals. The EA team must leverage the strategic guidance from the business strategy and specific tactical guidance from the business plans to guide their EA efforts overall,“ the report states.
2. EA is not IT strategic planning
“EA and IT strategic planning are complementary efforts that must be co-ordinated and integrated, but they are not the same. While IT strategic planning is most often led by a CIO, EA teams should serve as an advisor into IT strategic planning, along with the CTO, senior IT staff, and business leaders and users,” it notes.
3. EA is not IT governance
IT governance (ITG) is composed of processes with the inputs, outputs, roles and responsibilities that are inherent in a process definition. Gartner defines "IT governance" (ITG) as "the processes that ensure the effective and efficient use of IT in enabling an organisation to achieve its goals”, authors Anne Lapkin and Betsy Burton say.
4. EA is not programme management
“Gartner defines programme management as the co-ordinated planning, management and execution of multiple related projects that are directed toward the same strategic, business or organisational objectives. EA is a planning discipline, while programme management is a discipline of execution. EA is responsible for defining the future state of the enterprise, analysing the gaps between the current state and the future state, and developing the standards and guidelines that support the realisation of the future state,” the report says.
EA and IT strategic planning are complementary efforts.
Gartner
5. EA is not portfolio management
Says Gartner: “Portfolio management is the processes, governance and tools used to plan, create, assess, balance and communicate the execution of the IT portfolio. Portfolio management techniques can be applied to the application portfolio, the infrastructure portfolio, the project portfolio, the IT investment portfolio, or any of these in combination.”
6. EA is not process management
According to Gartner: “Business process management is a systematic approach to improving the way an enterprise does business by analysing the strategic goals of the enterprise, then aligning the stakeholder interest with shared process performance objectives. As part of the common requirements vision (CRV) process, EA provides the analysis of the strategy and identifies the most critical strategic imperatives.”
7. EA is not performance
“Performance management,” says Gartner, “is the combination of management methodologies, metrics and IT that enable users to define, monitor, and optimise results and outcomes to achieve personal or departmental objectives while enabling alignment with strategic objectives across multiple organisational levels. EA teams must participate in performance management efforts relating to critical business processes. This will allow them to track key business metrics that demonstrate the business value that EA is delivering.”
8. EA is not implementation
“Enterprise architects do not dictate implementation details for the entire organisation or for specific practice areas. EA provides the foundational principles, guidelines, standards and constraints that enable implementation teams to make better decisions,” say the authors.
9. EA is not a technology or application inventory
“Many organisations fall into a trap of believing that EA is a map of all their technologies and applications and/or that EA is solely about technology. EA is a much broader process that is directly reflecting the business vision and strategy, and represents people, processes, organisation, information and technology that are critical to the business strategy,” the report comments.
10. EA is not change management
Change management is a structured approach to change that encompasses individuals, teams and organisations, with the objective of facilitating the human side of change. EA provides the strategic context for the change through the CRV or some similar vehicle, and it provides the view of the future state from a process, organisation, information and technology perspective,” the report says.
* Report courtesy of Gartner. Information sourced from: Myth Busting: What Enterprise Architecture Is Not, Anne Lapkin, Betsy Burton, 4 April 2008.
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