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Architecture Vision phase

Linking Preliminary Phase to Architecture Vision

Objectives

Steps to be followed in this phase

• Establish the Architecture Project
• Identify Stakeholders, Concerns, and Business Requirements
• Confirm and Elaborate Business Goals, Business Drivers, and Constraints
• Evaluate Business Capabilities
• Assess Readiness for Business Transformation
• Define Scope
• Confirm and Elaborate Architecture Principles, including Business Principles
• Develop Architecture Vision
• Define the Target Architecture Value Propositions and KPIs
• Identify the Business Transformation Risks and Mitigation Activities
• Develop Enterprise Architecture Plans and Statement of Architecture Work
• Secure Approval

 

Inputs

The inputs of Phase A are:

• Request for Architecture Work
• Business Principles, Goals, Drivers.
• Existing framework description and documents in the Repository

Outputs

The outputs of Phase A are:

Ø Approved Statement of Architecture Work

o Scope and constraints

o Plan for the architectural work

o Roles and responsibilities

o Risks and mitigating activity

o Work product performance assessments

o Business case and KPI metrics

Ø Refined statements of Business Principles, Business Goals, and Business Drivers

Ø Architecture Principles

Ø Capability Assessment

Ø Architecture Vision, including:

o Refined key high-level stakeholder requirements

o Baseline Business Architecture, Version 0.1

o Baseline Technology Architecture, Version 0.1

o Baseline Data Architecture, Version 0.1

o Baseline Application Architecture, Version 0.1

o Target Business Architecture, Version 0.1

o Target Technology Architecture, Version 0.1

o Target Data Architecture, Version 0.1

o Target Application Architecture, Version 0.1

Ø Communications Plan

Ø Additional content populating the Architecture Repository

 

What are Business Drivers ?

we can consider Business Drivers [BD]are People , Internal and External influences that you practice to reach your business goals, Business drivers are the factors in the industry or the broader business environment that either impact the financial institution or provide opportunity for business expansion. The strategic responses identify the business priorities or initiatives designed to take advantage of those drivers. The technology initiatives identify the key areas of focus to provide the infrastructure and tools to support the business initiatives.  some examples of BD include

• Provide complete and Transparent access of Information to the Stake holders and Customers
• Accurate , SLA based Service Delivery on-time every-time
• Provide single point of customer contact
• Respond to competitive pressure
• Accomplish higher quality of work with limited number of resources
• Bring in Operational Efficiency
• Quickly Adapt to Business process changes
• Explore alternative funding and resource backups
• Increase delivery efficiency

Business Principles

The Principle that Business follows to achieve its Business goals guided by its business drivers. ( not sure if this is perfect definition lets see some of the business principals others follow. Some Business Principles companies follow

1. Nutrition,Health and Wellness
2. Quality assurance and product safety
3. Consumer communication
4. Human rights in our business activities
5. Leadership and personal responsibility
6. Safety and health at work
7. Supplier and customer relations
8. Agriculture and rural development
9. Environmental sustainability
10. Water Resources

Some Other Principle

1. Provision of a safe and healthy workplace
2. Fair employment practices, including avoidance of child and forced labor and avoidance of discrimination based on race, gender, national origin, or religious beliefs; and respect for the right of association and the right to organize and bargain collectively;
3. Responsible environmental protection and environmental practices;
4. Compliance with U.S. and local laws promoting good business practices, including laws prohibiting illicit payments and ensuring fair competition;
5. Maintenance, through leadership of all levels, of a corporate culture that respects free expression consistent with legitimate business concerns, and does not condone political coercion in the workplace; that encourages good corporate citizenship and makes a positive contribution to the communities in which the company operates; and where ethical conduct is recognized, valued, and exemplified by all employees.

United States Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration Reference :  http://actrav.itcilo.org/actrav-english/telearn/global/ilo/guide/usmodel.htm

Business Goals

Business goals, are the things an organization hopes to achieve during its time in operation and the very purpose of forming the Organization

1. To achieve 30 % profit ROI
2. To be No1 Service Provider in the country
3. To be rated No 1 in Customer Satisfaction
4. To be Number 1, Best Employer of the year
5. To go ahead with mergers and acquisitions of new business
6. what ever u can think of …

Statement of Architecture Work

I would say this is more a project specific than the entire architecture specific, but still this is a major deliverable in phase A [Architecture Vision] SOW usually consists of

• SOW Title
• Project Request, Background and Scope
• Project Details Description and the Business problems it is trying to Solve.
• Overview of Architecture Vision , Approach
• Scope Change Management plan
• Project Plans , Roles and Responsibilities, Deliverable artifacts of the SOW, e.g re-usable components , project source .
• Acceptance Criteria

Architecture Vision Document

This is more detailed SOW 1. Stake holders , their concerns , problem description and the problems this Architecture Solution would address 2. Detailed Objectives 3. Environment and Process diagrams ( includes information flow and process description) 4. Actors , roles and responsibilities , Human Actors, Systems and Sub Systems , UML Models ( if needed ) 5. Constraints, Out of Scope, Requirements Mapped to Architecture

Stakeholder Management

It is very important to identify key stake holders for the success of any project, more frequent interaction with the stake holders ensure that more resources are released as and when needed ( subjected to resource justification ) , Stake holder management leads to Communication plan with in the org. Also not identifying right stake holders can cause embarrassment during final stages or approval stages with in ADM

Stakeholder Management Process

1. Identify Stakeholder

2.Clarify Stake holder position —————> Ability to Disrupt the change ——–> High / Medium / Low —————> Current Understanding ——————–> High / Medium / Low —————> Required Understanding ——————> High / Medium / Low —————> Current Commitment ———————> High / Medium / Low —————> Required Commitment ——————–> High / Medium / Low —————> Required Support —————————> High / Medium / Low

3. Stakeholder Management Approach  Identify people and classify them in A , B, C, D boxes ( this approach can be contradicted as its always difficult to know level of interest and power can keep changing, new players can come in and others might be losing power ), people in Box D are very important to keep them in loop ( or mail chains , call them or talk to them in person , as often as possible and keep them updated)

Communication Plan

Since multiple teams start working on common business goals it becomes very important that there is no communication gap between the teams , and key stake holders from various team / departments are identified and communication plan is set up so that they are fully informed what each other are doing So , Key players, meeting time, location , teams are all planned with in Communication Plan

Business Transformation Readiness Assesment

Identify the Org readiness for under going a change , the changes caused due to business changes, make a risk and impact analysis ,  what if ? we start using an Automated Software instead of manual entry how are the staffs trained and prepared for it , will the existing staff be able to meet new changes or new staffs with various skill sets need to be added in , or train the exisiting staff to meet new technology of IT Initiatives which are made to meet business goals e. g Order Management getting Automated earlier it was done manually by experienced people who are not fully computer and IT literate

Risk Management

This talks about Risk Identification in Business Transformation 1. Risk Classification 2. Risk Identification 3. Initial Risk Assessment

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