For Enterprise Architecture Professionals (Length: 19 pages)

August 1, 2008

Best Practices: Improving EA Effectiveness

Customer Focus, EA Skills, And Delivering Value Are Key

by Jeff Scott

with Gene Leganza, Katie Smillie, Kahini Ranade


Executive Summary (This is a document excerpt)

Creating an effective enterprise architecture (EA) practice is challenging and frequently elusive for EA teams. Architecture initiatives require broad organizational support just to get started and, once started, often have long investment cycles. Small budgets, technical complexity, organizational momentum, personal preferences, and expectations of quick returns are just some of the hurdles EA leaders must overcome. We found that EA teams that focus on adding value in real time gain higher levels of organizational support and produce more business impact than those that focus on architectural purity and future benefits. These successful teams exhibit a strong external focus on stakeholder alignment coupled with an internal focus on team development, which creates a powerful foundation for value delivery.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

NOTES & RESOURCES

itemEA Practices Are Maturing Slowly

itemEA Effectiveness Best Demonstrated Practices

itemBest Practice No. 1: Tightly Align EA Strategies With Business And IT Goals

itemBest Practice No. 2: Focus On Value

itemBest Practice No. 3: Continuously Improve Team Skills

itemBest Practice No. 4: Create Consumer-Centric Artifacts

itemBest Practice No. 5: Proactively Manage Relationships

itemForrester's EA Effectiveness Next Practices

itemIdentifying Your Challenges

itemCase Studies

itemSupplemental Material

Forrester interviewed 11 user companies, including Intrawest, JM Family Enterprises, The PNC Financial Services Group, Qwest Communications International, Riyad Bank, and Wachovia.

Related Research Documents

itemCollaborating For EA Success

May 5, 2008

itemEA Team Structures Vary Widely

April 11, 2008

itemBuild EA Artifacts That Matter

January 15, 2008

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Analyst: Jeff Scott
Technology: Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Architecture Practices, IT Management, IT Organization, Serving the Business
Geography: North America

Archived Teleconference:
Next-Generation Enterprise Architecture
Original air date: Friday, October 23, 2009
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Ratings and Comments
Rating: 9 out of 10
based on 3 ratings across all roles.
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