Role of Enterprise Architect
It is sometimes found CIOs are confused regarding the role of Enterprise Architect (EA) as well as reporting structure of EA. Some are of the opinion that EA should report to CIO while others are of the opinion EA should report to business head.
In my opinion both reporting structures are acceptable but it is dependent on the IT organisation structure in the organisation. For organisations which has inhouse IT department probably an EA will be able to add more value if he is part of the business unit. EA will not be driven by the preferences of the internal IT organistion but will be able to bring in impartial views which are likely to add more value to business. In organisations where IT is completely outsourced and outsourced vendor is managed by a team of people (more commonly known as Corporate IT), EA can report to CIO. In this case EA alongwith CIO is more focussed in bringing in business benefits to the organsition with IT as their thinking will be more business oriented rather than purely technical thinking.
It in fact brings in another aspect as to the expertise required for EA. I think EA should have a flair of technologies but should not be expert in any one technology as ERP/WEB etc. EA should have understanding of technologies all across and should be able to bring in more business perspective and linking technology with business with an understanding of the IT landscape in the organisation. His role is to design efficient IT environment to deliver business needs. EA to remain unbiased towrads technology and he will be able to take right decisions. His focus will remain business oriented and he will have understanding of technology which will help him to deliver more from his role. For deep technical knowledge base organisations should look towards CTO who is expected to be more technology driven with indepth knowledgebase of each technology vertical in his team. So EA and CTO has to work hand-in-hand to cover up the technology aspect as well as to address the business value out of technologies. Enterprise Architect links the business strategy with IT strategy and brings in new technologies to meet organisational needs in a sustained and agile manner.
In my opinion both reporting structures are acceptable but it is dependent on the IT organisation structure in the organisation. For organisations which has inhouse IT department probably an EA will be able to add more value if he is part of the business unit. EA will not be driven by the preferences of the internal IT organistion but will be able to bring in impartial views which are likely to add more value to business. In organisations where IT is completely outsourced and outsourced vendor is managed by a team of people (more commonly known as Corporate IT), EA can report to CIO. In this case EA alongwith CIO is more focussed in bringing in business benefits to the organsition with IT as their thinking will be more business oriented rather than purely technical thinking.
It in fact brings in another aspect as to the expertise required for EA. I think EA should have a flair of technologies but should not be expert in any one technology as ERP/WEB etc. EA should have understanding of technologies all across and should be able to bring in more business perspective and linking technology with business with an understanding of the IT landscape in the organisation. His role is to design efficient IT environment to deliver business needs. EA to remain unbiased towrads technology and he will be able to take right decisions. His focus will remain business oriented and he will have understanding of technology which will help him to deliver more from his role. For deep technical knowledge base organisations should look towards CTO who is expected to be more technology driven with indepth knowledgebase of each technology vertical in his team. So EA and CTO has to work hand-in-hand to cover up the technology aspect as well as to address the business value out of technologies. Enterprise Architect links the business strategy with IT strategy and brings in new technologies to meet organisational needs in a sustained and agile manner.
Today my interactions with an eminent EA analyst from a very reputed IT consulting organisation cleared several of the doubts and reinforced the thoughts expressed in the blog above.
ReplyDeleteClearly it is understood Enterprise Architecture team should constitute 4-5 people who are more business analytical in nature and able to tie up with IT. They need not be technical experts of IT. They should be able to understand the business requirement and value proposition from the IT solution and after due deligence EA team should be able to take it forward for prioritization and budegting process. EA team is also responsible to set principles, guidelines, standards for IT in the organisation. Governance to ensure these are followed by solutions team to be done through EA reviews.
There's another team of solution architects who are purely technical experts for their respective verticals. When the EA team provides clearance and generates a project the solution development stage starts and the solution architect teams alongwith process architects will design the solution keeping in mind the principles and standards set by the EA team. However,sufficient flexibility to be kept in standards and principles so that solution architect teams do not require to very often come to EA tem for exception approvals which otherwise can delay the process.
For new technologies while the POC is responsibility of EA team to decide if the technology to be brought in the IT environment of the organisation, the solution team needs to finalise the product of that technology to meet the business requirements.
So the conclusion above is reinforced with the discussions today that Enterprise Architect links the business strategy with IT strategy and brings in new technologies to meet organisational needs in a sustained and agile manner.