August 8, 2021

Breaking the Deadlock: The Enterprise Architecture Process SME

In an Insights article, How to Balance Enterprise Architecture Management with Delivery, we discussed two inherent challenges in implementing and sustaining an EA practice within an organization. The first is the lack of sufficient executive support for the Enterprise Architecture (EA) function. The second is the lack of time and capacity the EA team needs for the administrative or management activities to be effective.

The impact of leadership support on the success or failure of an EA practice is widely discussed. But neither an Enterprise Architecture team nor its leader, have little direct influence over the support provided by executives. When all efforts to socialize and gain buy-in are unsuccessful, a fledgling EA team is left with the contradictory priorities of delivering EA work and optimizing management of the practice itself. Inevitably, the team cycles through these activities of socializing, delivery, and practice management, trying to address stakeholder concerns and gain traction somewhere.

Having seen this scenario play out across different organizations, we wondered what levers an EA team could pull to break the deadlock. Specifically, what does a Director or Vice President of Architecture generally have within their area of authority that would not require approval or enforcement from higher up the chain. This article is a discussion of one potential approach.

The Role of the EA Process SME

What might the creation of a single role or function do to affect these inherent challenges in building and maintaining an EA practice?

Project Management Offices mitigate this issue by having dedicated project governance or project development teams responsible for ensuring the effectiveness of project teams in execution. In an Agile practice, larger SCRUM teams have a SCRUM Master. While everyone within the team is self-organizing and delivering on the Agile Practice artifacts (software products), it is the SCRUM Master who ensures that all processes are being followed and that incremental delivery of the product is occurring. We have even noticed that within some SCRUM teams, there is also a dedicated SCRUM tutor! Their sole responsibility is to be the Agile evangelist within the team and ensure that all practices, processes, and activities are Agile in nature.

Enter the Enterprise Architecture Process SME. This role would not be filled by an Enterprise Architect as it is intended to enable the practice EA rather than fulfill it. The following activities generally lie with Enterprise Architects but do not require an architect to perform:

Maintain and update team records
Ensure all EA activities from their stakeholders are within the intake queue
Record and communicate all action items from the ARB
Monitor EA delivery activities to identify roadblocks and ensure timelines are met
Ensure EA Architectural Artifacts are delivered for all projects
Ensures all artifacts are updated within the EA repository
Manage template currency
Generate exception records for omitted or abbreviated processes
Review and update EA processes according to organizational need and stakeholder feedback (and to reduce the need for exceptions)
Communicate all changes to EA processes
Identify, collect and calculate KPIs to record the value of EA practice
Ensure consistent quality of practice delivery to the Enterprise
Ensure consistent interaction with stakeholders is maintained throughout the EA practice

The individual filling this role would need to be well-versed in the EA Framework or operating model used in the organization, which includes the particular Business Services delivered to the organization and the specific needs of Stakeholders. They should report directly to the Director or Vice President of Architecture and coordinate with Enterprise Architects, focusing broadly on processes rather than on individual projects.

Filling a Gap in the EA Practice

After seeing the partial list of non-EA-specific activities laid out above, I hope you have a more refined perspective on the “EA work” that fills an enterprise architect’s time. Based on just this non-comprehensive list, I anticipate this Process SME to provide a direct impact on the success of EA in four areas:

Equips Director or VP with analysis of KPIs to communicate EA value and performance to leadership
Takes over practice administrative activities to allow EAs to focus on delivering architecture
Represents stakeholder experience and balances process efficiency with value delivery
Future-proofs the EA Practice against employee turnover through knowledge management, records maintenance, and process documentation

Previously we highlighted two inherent challenges in implementing an EA practice:

The lack of complete executive sanction of the EA team’s function, and
The absence of time and capacity to integrate EA processes with existing operations, and to create and calculate KPIs

The EA Process SME would fully and directly address the second challenge, and indirectly mitigate the first by providing tangible evidence to the Director or VP in support of EA value and cultivating a consistently positive stakeholder perception of EA.

Final Thoughts

Based on this perspective, the absence of the EA Process SME or equivalent is the Achilles’ Heel of Enterprise Architecture. Enterprise Architects are simply stretched too thin to build, manage, update, monitor and deliver their practice. In a noble effort to allow their EAs to do the actual work, the Director or VP often tries to shoulder this burden thinking it’s a “one-and-done” activity, and instead finds themself embroiled in day-to-day operations instead of looking at the strategic picture. This results in the entire team struggling to keep their heads above the water while stakeholders and leadership see only an uncoordinated effort to influence decision-making and attempt to slow down product delivery as a return on their investment.

We have yet to see an organization separate the practice administrative effort from the actual Enterprise Architecture work and are eager to see how effective it is in practice. However, this is just one of the many potential solutions.

We would be delighted to hear about your experience tackling this issue and suggestions for alternate approaches. What are your thoughts? Could this approach or a similar one be viable and have a significant impact on the success of EA? What other approaches have you used and what made them successful?

Want to learn more about our ideas and thought leadership, please read the following. If there are any areas of interest from your organization, please feel free to reach out to us.