Architecture is a Strategic Advantage

Over the last few years, I've been thinking about what it means to have a value proposition. Not only is it important for business and the engineering teams; but, it is something that should be important to each and every one of us on a daily basis. We should be constantly asking ourselves, our leaders, and our teammates, "What is the value of what we are doing and how can we validate that we are making the right choices?" Every decision that we make should be focused on the business value of what we do.

Conservatively, enterprise architecture can play a role in cutting costs, making the technology environment simpler, more effective, better integrated, and better managed. This is important in areas of our business where IT is an element of a non-differentiating support capability so that we need only match others in the competitive space.

However, the role of Enterprise Architecture has evolved. It is no longer about just clarifying technologies, streamlining processes, and establishing standards - it is really about optimizing business value and realizing business goals. Thought of more aggressively, enterprise architecture can and should be broadened from its IT roots to a full partnership with the business, addressing the capabilities that the business needs to build, adapt, or sustain in order to execute its business strategy. The reward is a path to better alignment of IT with the business, and, more importantly, a more effective strategy followed by a more effective strategy execution. It allows the organization to consider what capabilities it should build collaboratively at the enterprise level to deliver value across the business and establish strong competitive advantage through leverage and synergies. This is the route to making the enterprise greater than the sum of its parts, which is, after all, the goal of system architecture.