Enterprise Architecture Management

Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) serves as key for optimizing of IT infrastructures through transparency, strategic planning and efficient communication. The central tasks of EAM are the collection, documentation and planning of the IT landscape to ensure an efficient and sustainable IT architecture.

What is EAM, what is it about?

EAM means Enterprise Architecture Management. Enterprise Architecture organically and technically deals with the question how an organization must be positioned regarding information technology to efficiently manage its tasks and to comply with the superordinate targets of the organization in coordination with the business processes. The organization can be both a private sector company and also an authority like we do in the public sector. In the strictest sense of the word, EAM means the management of the enterprise architecture and deals with the questions relating to existing and planned IT systems in application landscapes as well as IT strategies and governance that control the complex, which is the area in which we as msg are acting.

What are the tasks of Enterprise Architecture Management?

EAM has three main tasks that address the aforementioned items. One task is communication to record the current status but also to determine recommended actions. Where does which IT system run and what does it specifically do there? Where is a system required to map new or modified business processes? Where are deficits?

A second important task is the documentation that needs to be done as a result of communication. Communication either takes place informally in conversations, workshops or interviews or formally in committees such as architecture boards. Documentation, in turn, is done informally by means of WIKI articles, office documents or formally and structured using corresponding EAM tools. The third task is planning and deriving measures. These are usually IT projects that implement transformations in the course of an IT strategy and which replace legacy systems, for example.

 What is the added value in Enterprise Architecture Management?

In practice, we can closely observe what happens when EAM is not clear-cut organized or missing at all: In the worst case, systems exist multiple times or do not comply with the requirements of the users. Or several products carry out the same tasks, the purpose of a system is unknown and in the worst case, not even your IT department knows that such a system exists. The added value thus lies uniquely in the creation of transparency. What exists, what is planned but also in the transparency of reached decisions and strategies. An architecture vision can help and highlight where I, as an organization, want to go and what are the next right steps on the path towards this goal. For example, to newly tender certain systems. Sometimes, the value of EAM systems is very practical: In which systems do I need to update the system library or basic technology such as Java because of security gaps? For this, there are frameworks such as TOGAF in place, which assist enterprise architects to find the optimized way.

What are the challenges?

The main challenges related to EAM are similar in all organizations: As enterprise architect, I need to establish communication channels, collect the required information and must find the suitable persons that work on documenting the information and to keep the documentation up-to-date. In order to get a complete picture of the application landscape in an organization, many experts need to be involved. All levels of the enterprise architecture, including business processes, applications and technologies, must be included and penetrated. A major task. EAM in itself is not an end to itself – guidelines and guardrails developed by enterprise architects need a good team for implementation. From consulting architects to specialist employees and development teams, everyone must be involved in order to overcome difficult challenges and achieve sustainable results.

How can I design enterprise architecture more transparent?

The mentioned EAM tools are important means to achieve transparency. Ideally, they offer different approaches: For experts, which maintain data and for stakeholder, which easily collect and analyze information. In doing so, not only information on the systems and their modules should be available in an EAM system but also cost information and facts about the life cycle of the underlying technical modules. Also the functional basis, such as requirements and assisting business processes and their evaluation regarding functional and technical matching for a solution or a utilized product are important. A solution of product finally implements the mentioned business systems.

How is data maintenance done using an EAM tool?

The Standard ArchiMate is available for data maintenance in an EAM tool, which helps to collect data by means of different element types and to establish relationships between the collected elements. This is important to be able to perform well-informed analyses. For data maintenance, it is recommended to establish a corresponding process that includes persons responsible for the system, sometime also referred to as persons responsible for components. Data needs to be kept up-to-date in order to be able to derive the vision of a future application landscape on this basis – this is called “development planning”. For this, running and planned IT projects are to be included in the EAM system.

What are the costs to be expected?

The costs need to be considered holistically and are incurred, on the one hand, from license costs for the EAM tool, which, depending on the manufacturer, may be in the five-digit range per year. To this, costs for training and implementation of the tool need to be added as well as HR costs for data maintenance but also for regular coordination of the system landscape, strategy and organization transformation. In comparison, there are huge savings potentials as outdated or redundant systems are switched off, expensive systems are replaced and new systems are implemented. In comparison, there are huge savings potentials as outdated or redundant systems are switched off, expensive systems are replaced and new systems are implemented.

What are the differences between private sector and public administration?

From our experience, there is little difference. In the private sector, the focus is more on cost aspects of IT solutions and the mapping of architecture goals to corporate goals. In the public administration, the focus is more on aspects such as open source, prevention of dependencies to certain product manufacturers and the implementation of legal requirements. However, the public sector is investing just as heavily in the topic as the private sector. This offers us great opportunities to sustainably invest into this business segment and to expand it. My first contact with EAM was already in 2012 at the Bavarian state capital of Munich.

How can we as msg Public Sector provide specific assistance?

We, as public sector, assist the public administration in the entire range of the enterprise architecture. This starts with the organization consulting and addresses aspects such as the establishment of communication channels or establishment of formats for information exchange and conducting corresponding regular meetings and workshops. Furthermore, we assist in the selection of EAM tools, their organization-specific configuration, tailoring, when specific model elements are to be implemented, and setting up the necessary maintenance processes. We also provide concrete support in mapping the application landscape: in modeling, in data collection and in recording and maintaining the collected data. Our customers are local authorities but also public authorities in the federal government and federal states as well as their IT service providers.