the futures of business

10 Apr 2023 (c) Tom Graves / Tetradian 2011 1

Enterprise Architecture beyond IT

Tom Graves, Tetradian ConsultingAE Rio, April 2011info@tetradian.com / www.tetradian.com

the futures of business

Why ‘beyond IT’?

EA often starts with IT infrastructure, but...

•IT tech-architecture depends on applications

•Applications-architecture depends on data

•Data-architecture depends on business-info need

•Information-architecture depends on business

•Business-architecture depends on enterprise

•Enterprise-architecture defines the context

An enterprise-architecture must have whole-of-enterprise scope – it’s not just detail-level IT!

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Scope of enterprise-architecture

(complete EA includes many other intersecting ‘architectures’ – security, process, brand, organisation etc)

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Getting to grips with the enterprise

Customers don’t appear in our business-processes- we appear in their experiences

(credit: Chris Potts)

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Organisation and enterprise

We create an architecture for an organisation,but about an enterprise:

•Enterprise: a social structure defined by vision, values, mutual commitments•Organisation: a legal structure defined by rules, roles, responsibilities

•The enterprise is – provides motivation, WHY•The organisation does – provides action, HOW

They’re fundamentally different – don’t mix them up!

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Organisation as ‘the enterprise’

From a business perspective, this is the effective scope of TOGAF’s ‘business architecture’

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Business-model as ‘the enterprise’

Typical business-model or supply-chain view(complete supply-chain should extend beyond this)

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Market as ‘the enterprise’

Overall market includes actors who do not yet have active transactions with us, or have other transactions

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The real scope of ‘the enterprise’

The overall enterprise has many actors who may have only ‘intangible’ transactions / interactions with us(yet can have major impacts on our business)

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The market-cycle

transactions depend on (reaffirmed) reputation and trust– loss of trust creates anti-clients!

boundary of ‘market’in conventional

business-models

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A classic anti-client incident‘United Breaks Guitars’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t53LYUamBZI

• Real business impacts for United Airlines– direct cost (PR, media etc) in excess of $20m?– contributed to short-term hit of c.$180m on share-value– long-term damage to brand, reputation etc incalculable

• Social-media gives anti-clients great leverage– complaints can now spread faster, and wider– (but with care, so can stories of customer-satisfaction)

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Building the balance

…and why that balance is so important

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Generic structure of organisations

(adapted from classic Group Dynamics project-lifecycle)

Adjourning

Forming

Storming

Norming

PerformingPerformance

Purpose

People

Preparation

Process

far-future

‘people-time’

past NOW!

near-future

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Cycles of structural dependency

(dynamic links adapted from VPEC-T framework)

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Strategy, tactics, operations

(overall cycle and relationships need to be in balance)

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The ‘quick-money’ failure-cycle

(common source of ‘unexpected’ failure – focus only on immediate profit,with classic “last year +10%” used as a substitute for strategy)

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operationsTransaction / exchange

:: completion of taskCompletions

Focus only on Production tactics

operations

Attention / conversation

Transaction / exchange

:: completion of task

:: completion for self (profit)

Completions

Completions and the market-cycle

Production-focus, market-focus, enterprise-focus?

Focus on Market and its transactions

strategy

tactics

operations

Shared-purpose (vision) defines enterprise context

Reputation / trustRespect / relations

Attention / conversation

Transaction / exchange

:: completion of task

Reaffirmed trust

:: completion for self (profit)

Completions

:: completion for all

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Serving the vision

...or, service-oriented architecturefor the whole enterprise

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Everything serves the vision

• The vision describes the shared aims of the entire enterprise• We observe and learn from what we achieve in the real world• Everything in the enterprise is a service towards the vision

(a literal ‘service-oriented architecture’)

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The structure of vision

• Vision is the overall anchor for everything– ‘vision’ in the ISO9000 sense – not ‘marketing puff’

• Vision-descriptor has distinct 3-part structure– focus [noun]: context or things of concern to everyone– action [verb]: what is to be done to or in the focus– qualifier [adjective]: why this is important to everyone

• Example: ‘ideas worth spreading’ (TED conferences)

– ‘ideas’ (focus)– ‘worth’ (qualifier)– ‘spreading’ (action)

Components may be in any order, but all must be present

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All services have same structure

• Service exists at intersection of value and supply-chain• Service creates value towards the vision of the enterprise• Interactions / flows before, during, after main transaction

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Complete Enterprise Canvas frame

Each link represents a conversation relevant to enterprise-architecture!

supplierrelations

value-proposition

supplierchannels

value-creation

customerchannels

customerrelations

value-outlay

value-governance

value-return

supplier customer

investor beneficiary

coordinationdirectionvalidation

guidance services

before

during

after

before

during

after

investment dividend

may also be non-supplierin the broader-enterprise

may also be non-customer

in the broader-enterprise

governance and management

(yes, I know it looks like Robbie-the-Robot, but that’s just how it came out...)

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value-proposition

value-creation

supplier /customerchannels

supplier /customerrelations

value-governance

value-outlay / return

enterprisevision

OutsideInside

Purpose

Preparation

Performance

Values

Events

Trust

Process

People

Policies

Completions

Values

Events

Completions

Trust

Policies

Performance

Purpose

People

Preparation

Process

Cross-links to market value-cycle

Many interactions with extended-enterprise relate to Value-Proposition only – Purpose, Values, People, Policies

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Summary• Enterprise-architecture is architecture of

the whole enterprise – not solely the enterprise-IT

• Most frameworks focus only on IT-architecture, but can be adapted to work at whole-enterprise scale and scope

• Viewing everything as services provides consistency across all enterprise scope– ‘Enterprise Canvas’ model provides a means to link

different models in different layers

• Enterprise culture is the real key to enterprise-architecture

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Obrigado!

Many thanks!

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Further detail: books by Tom Graves• Doing Enterprise Architecture: process and practice in the

real enterprise

• Everyday Enterprise Architecture: sensemaking, strategy, structures and solutions

• Mapping the Enterprise: modelling the enterprise as services with the Enterprise Canvas

• Bridging the Silos: enterprise architecture for IT-architects

• The Service Oriented Enterprise: enterprise architecture and viable systems

• Real Enterprise Architecture: beyond IT to the whole enterprise

• SEMPER and SCORE: enhancing enterprise effectiveness

• Power and Response-ability: the human side of systems

(see tetradianbooks.com for details)

10 Apr 2023 (c) Tom Graves / Tetradian 2010 26