Enterprise Architect

The enterprise architect establishes a technology strategy and roadmap that enables a portfolio to support current and future business capabilities.

They drive design, engineering, reuse, application of patterns, and create Enabler Epics for the architectures that comprise the solutions in a portfolio. Relying on continuous feedback, these architects foster adaptive design, and engineering practices, and drive programs and teams to rally around a shared technical vision.

Enterprise Architecture Strategy

The strategy for enterprise architecture enables embracing organizational change faster, providing a significant competitive advantage.

Choice of technology and usage – Choosing appropriate technologies is a critical element of strategy development. Supporting activities include research and prototyping, understanding applicability and scope, and assessing the maturity of innovative new technologies.

Solution architecture strategy – The Enterprise Architect works closely with the Solution and System Architects to ensure that individual program and product strategies align with business and technical objectives. For example, emerging solutions to local problems should be consistent with the overall enterprise strategy. When that’s not the case, decisions should be explicit, as the inconsistent option may well influence future enterprise strategy.

Infrastructure strategy – Developing and maintaining plans for infrastructure can be more challenging, as it overlaps with the work of System Architects. Some of these responsibilities include the reuse of configuration patterns, common physical infrastructure, knowledge sharing across ARTs and Solution Trains, and—especially—System Teams. Also, some of the development and deployment infrastructure will likely intersect with internal IT systems. The Enterprise Architect can provide direction there as well.

Inter-program collaboration – Standard design and infrastructure practices help simplify and align architecture across different teams and programs. However, it’s also essential that value streams and ARTs have sufficient degrees of freedom. Otherwise, innovation decreases. Therefore, both standard and variable architectural designs should be actively discussed and shared among the ARTs.

Implementation strategy – The importance of an active, incremental Agile implementation strategy can hardly be overstated. Building the technical foundation for business epics into the architectural runway must be a gradual process. Continuous learning and fast feedback allow architecture and business functionality to grow synchronously over time. This rapid pace of change requires Agile Teams to refactor their code as necessary and to preserve multiple possible design options wherever practical. Abstraction and generalization help avoid binding specificity too early, which maintains architectural flexibility for future business needs.