Why
Typically, organisations have a Strategy & Architecture practice, however, they could lack maturity from alignment and consumption perspectives. Following are some vital signs indicating the need to mature the Strategy and Architecture space:
- There is a lot of solution level activity and focus on tactical problems, but there is little or no longer-term view of the direction and end-state
- There is no strategic guiding roadmap for the projects to align
- There is a Governance practice, yet there is significant shadow IT activity
- There is an ICT strategy, but it is point in time and hence tricky for Projects to consume
- There is a Cloud Strategy, but you are not able to confidently scale your cloud journey
- Bringing about re-use across projects is proving difficult, so must start each project from a blank start
- Must use contracting resources often for “breathe in / breathe out” capacity, so enterprise IP gets lost when they walk out
- There is no central architectural repository, or it is woefully outdated or proving challenging to keep up to date. Therefore, it isn’t easy to maintain a holistic Enterprise view
- There is significant attrition and frustration in the EA space as a result of the above factors
What
Organisations typically have two to three distinct planning horizons to reflect different scope, update and review cycles. The respective strategies in these horizons are supported through cascading goals and continuous alignment. For example, Corporate Strategy provides a long-term and direction of travel-oriented view of the business. In support, the ICT Strategy aligns with this direction and provides a medium to a long-term plan of ICT transformation actions. This may require the ICT strategy to be split into multiple business-domain level sub-strategies, providing the forum and the basis for the engagement of business stakeholders for co-design purposes. The ICT Strategy/Sub-strategies can then be backed with a multi-year investment plan that describes the changes to the ICT architecture and systems.
Outcome
Such an approach provides a solid foundation to undertake and govern the execution of projects with a known and defined end state in mind. The Advanced Integrated RoadMap (AiR TM) brings the long and short-term ICT planning and investment views together to ensure a common understanding of ICT planning scope and priorities.
How
If you would like to subscribe to MAS or obligation free initial consultation on VedArc services, then please reach out to partner@vedarc.cloud
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