Case Study: To Launch EA, Woodmen Focused Intensely On Clearly Defined Goals

Smaller IT shops of fewer than 150 staff members have a hard time dedicating separate staff to strategic activity such as EA. But in any environment, goals and processes without owners are likely to languish as they compete with operational priorities for resources. At Woodmen of the World, the CIO knew that the business could not grow without a more strategic approach to technology architecture, and he engineered the addition of a formal EA function in an environment where the best justification for a course of action was "we've always done it that way." He overcame organizational resistance with external hires and a carefully phased-in organizational implementation. Then he focused the new team on what mattered most to the business: improving agility and flexibility.