Ignore the Future State and derive Business Value now

At last weeks Texas EnterpriseArchitecture Summit in Austin, Kirk Da Costa, Assistant VP of Enterprise and Solution Architecture at PNC Financial Services discussed his views on optimizing business value from shared Technology platforms and projects.

Key points include:

• taking a different perspective
• focusing our limited effort and resources on achieving optimal real world results
• Focus on realizing transformational value

Use Business Architecture to:

• Engage business leaders in architecture
• Align IT function to business model
• focus architecture efforts and resources
• Empower rather than constrain with governance

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He also quoted Jeanne Ross of MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research:

• Operating model – focuses and aligns leadership attention
• Business value model – highlights current strategic themes and priorities
• IT strategic impact model – directs and sizes investment

He quoted that:

• research shows 28% of EA groups have been disbanded or demoted since the start of 2012
• People focusing on EA represent around 2% of the IT workforce
• HBR research – when moving from specialist to generalist is about setting the agenda and direct attention

Leadership to Execution:

• Drive alignment of business value priorities not configuration
• Engage by challenging rather than directing
• Measure results by Value

The Gartner Business Value Model
– Leading financial indicators

There is a tendency to over-architect.

Ultimately Da Costa was not saying that the future state of an architecture, business, or system is irrelevant, but that all too often insufficient value is derived from existing investments in technology. The same can be said of investments in software where licenses are left on the metaphorical shelf to gather dust, yet renewals are paid year after year. Sometimes to multiple vendors for much the same thing. Consolidation and standardization can bring significant value when it’s applied across an enterprise. This applies as much for foundational technologies such as hardware and database technology as to does to middleware and applications. Including customer, or client, facing digital experience platforms. Whether on premises or in the the cloud.