Contributed by and published with permission from Andy Nielsen and Fragile to Agile
Humans are inventive creatures and our history boasts a long series of innovations. Our first cities appeared nearly 10,000 years ago and we invented the wheel around 3,500 years later. The first car was manufactured in 1886 and by 1966 we put men on the moon.
Change has always been part of the human experience – but now it’s happening faster than ever before. With technology advancing at such incredible speeds, how are businesses supposed to keep up?
Enterprise Architecture (EA) is helping businesses adapt to an increasingly digital world and equipping them to operate in an era of constant change. It provides the framework and tools to align every part of an organization – including people, processes and technology – with the business strategy.
The purpose of EA is to construct agile organizations that can quickly and cost-effectively adapt to changes in market conditions. This is how it works in practice…
Understanding the business and its goals
To prepare for the future, it’s important to understand the business as it exists today. Enterprise Architects analyze and record what a business does, creating a Business Capability Model (BCM) – an important tool for business planning and design.
Working with senior decision-makers and consulting with people from across the organization, Enterprise Architects also perform critical assessments. The ‘current state’ examines existing solutions and determines how well they support the business strategy. The ‘target state’ outlines how the business will operate in the future, identifying what solutions are needed and how they will work together.
Transforming the business
Transformation begins with a roadmap: the pathway between where the business is now and where it wants to be. It plots the series of changes the organization has to go through to achieve its target state.
This phase usually involves a lot of technological changes so people often think of it an IT project. In reality, transformation affects every part of the business and everyone has a role to play.
The process can take several years but, done properly, will be the last large-scale transformation the organization will ever need.
An ongoing cycle of change
Once the target state is achieved, the organization is continually optimized through an ongoing series of small changes.
In an agile business, executives will be equipped to monitor the market and alter the business strategy accordingly. Management will be supported to make informed decisions, plan the transition and implement changes. Every level of the organization will be able to adjust with relative ease.
The rise of agile business
Agility isn’t just desirable, it’s becoming essential. COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war have shown how quickly circumstances can change; businesses around the globe have struggled with unexpected disruptions. Organizations that can respond and adapt have a big competitive advantage – for some, it will be the difference between failure and success.
We live in a world where change is the only constant… it’s an exciting but challenging time to be in business. Thankfully, Enterprise Architecture gives us the tools to survive and thrive in unpredictable times.
