Enterprise Architecture: Framing Your Digital Transformation
On one hand, digital transformation is a wild beast, changing daily how we view business and the world we live in. To survive in the world of digital transformation is to be agile and open to uncertainty. It’s to thrive in chaos—and many companies have had trouble withstanding the storm. Perhaps that’s why—on the other hand—we’ve learned that despite its recklessness, we do need to harness digital transformation for it to be most effective. For many of us, that harness comes in the form of enterprise architecture.
Call it digital transformation strategy—call it smart business—enterprise architecture is a method your company can use to organize your IT infrastructure to align with business goals. This isn’t a new concept. In fact, enterprise architecture has been around since the 1960s. But the overwhelming presence of tech in every facet of business today has forced us to rethink it, and to make it a more central focus of business management.
Is enterprise architecture a “must” for every company managing digital transformation? Yes and no. In some form, every company needs a smart and agile digital transformation plan. But it doesn’t have to look like the standard enterprise architecture styles of old. Below are some things to guide your company in creating an effective enterprise architecture of your own.
Think big picture. Enterprise architecture deals with your organizational structure, business model, apps, and data just as much as it does information technology. When you put it together, you need to think from an employee perspective, a customer perspective, and from the perspective of meeting your business goals. After all, your digital transformation will impact your entire company, and your enterprise architecture will need to support it.
Create standard language. Your enterprise architecture is of no use to anyone if no one but IT geeks can understand it. When you develop it, use common language. Create easy-to-understand examples. Develop best practices that everyone at every level of the organization can get onboard with. Enterprise architecture isn’t something to help IT show off its skills.
