Architecture Governance in Practice

Key Success Factors Elements of an Effective Architecture Governance Strategy

Architecture Governance - Key Success Factors

It is important to consider the following to ensure a successful approach to architecture governance, and to the effective management of the Architecture Contract:

Establishment and operation of best practice for the submission, adoption, reuse, reporting, and retirement of architecture policies, procedures, roles, skills, organisational structures, and support services.
Establishment of the correct organizational responsibilities and structures to support the architecture governance processes and reporting requirements.
Integration of tools and process to facilitate the take up of the processes, both procedurally and culturally.
Management of criteria for the control of the architecture governance processes, dispensations, compliance assessments, Service Level Agreements and Operational Level Agreements.
Meeting the internal and external requirements for the effectiveness, efficiency, confidentiality, integrity, availability, compliance, and reliability of all architecture governance related information, services and processes.

Elements of an Effective Architecture Governance Strategy

Architecture Governance and Corporate Politics

There is a similarity between enterprise architecture and architecture in the physical world, in that politics has an important role to play in the acceptance of both architectures. In the real world, it is the dual politics of the environment and commerce, while in the world of enterprise architecture a consideration of corporate politics is critical.

An enterprise architecture imposed without appropriate political backing is bound to fail. In order to succeed, the enterprise architecture must reflect the needs of the organization. Enterprise Architects, if they are not involved in the development of business strategy, must at least have a fundamental understanding of it and of the prevailing business issues facing the organisation. It may even be necessary for them to be involved in the system deployment process and to ultimately own the investment and product selection decisions arising from the implementation of the technical architecture.

Key Strategic Elements

There are three important elements of Architecture Governance strategy that relate particularly to the acceptance and success of architecture within the enterprise. While relevant and applicable in their own right apart from their role in Governance, and therefore described separately, they also from an integral part of any effective Architecture Governance Strategy:

A cross-organizational Architecture Board must be established with the backing of top management to oversee the implementation of the IT governance strategy.
A comprehensive set of Architectural Principles should be established, to guide, inform and support the way in which an organization sets about fulfilling its mission through the use of IT.
An Architecture Compliance strategy should be adopted - specific measures (more than just a statement of policy) to ensure compliance with the architecture, including project impact assessments, a formal architecture compliance review process, and possibly including the involvement of the architecture team in product procurement.