Five tips on implementing a new IT architecture

1 Develop a business architecture based on business capabilities, and use it to facilitate strategic conversations. A capability-based architecture provides the Rosetta Stone for mapping business goals, plans, outcomes and metrics to the IT systems and costs which support them. Business and IT can work together on where technology spending is going versus where it should go, based on the need for improved capabilities.

2 Build roadmaps for business services. Business services are orchestrations of IT applications and supporting services, with associated capacity and cost, which support business capabilities. Business services break down the IT silos of projects and operations into a model where business can understand the connection to their functions. This enables discussions as to whether the focus for a business service should be on operational efficiency, or on rapid change to support dynamic business strategies ­ with IT resources aligned to these needs.

3 Adopt a strategy of “street-level execution”. This involves collaborating with colleagues towards a business architecture vision, and continuously adjusting both the vision and the roadmap based on the business strategy ­ the actions taken in response to market conditions. Through this process architects develop the skills to analyse alternative strategies in terms of their relative return on investment.

4 Monitor change metrics. This covers everything from measuring architecture activity and conformance to standards, to measuring impact on business outcomes and improvements to business agility. Architects will use understanding gained from the business architecture to identify and measure key agility indicators ­ the metrics that show the ability to change rapidly at acceptable cost.

5 Integrate business and IT planning using planning tools. Products such as those from Troux and Alfabet, among others, can be used by IT managers and architects for IT planning, and by business staff to chart business transformation programmes.

Alex Cullen is a principal analyst at Forrester Research

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