I received my Forrester alert this afternoon, top of which was a teleconference ‘The EA Team: Size and Structure‘ – it got me thinking. Does every enterprise need a permanent enterprise architecture team? If you’re constantly architecting something, doesn’t that mean it never reaches a stable state of operation?

Consider the physical, everyday parallel of town planning. Town planning is largely an administrative function, governed and funded by public bodies, such as the town council. However, there are occasions where the town planners will call in the services of reputable planning consultants and urban architects, often stimulated by crisis events, such as unconscionable traffic levels during peak hours or terrain forcing a re-think on how to manage development to allow for growth.

So town planning is a governance function that reviews & approves building plans, monitors & assesses growth demands and commissions the work of external advisors & architects to plan for the future of the town. Is it possible that this should be paralleled for businesses that do need enterprise architecture? Yes, I think - afterall, there’s nothing new under the sun, right?

So, to gainfully get the most out of Enterprise Architecture, first ensure there is an Enterprise Planning function running that has a policy mandate to:

• govern projects & initiatives (and their solution architectures)
• monitor the health & growth prospects of the enterprise.

Once a planning function has been installed, then:

• assess the need for an enterprise architecture
• engage enterprise architects to devise a design & plan to enable business strategies & objectives, being specific about & focused on the desired outcome.

What do you think? …