The Turning Point: A Novel About Agile Architects Building a Digital Foundation

Kathleen arrives back in her office after meeting with her Enterprise Architecture team. She focuses on her plan to include the IT4IT Reference Architecture to structure the flow of work through the product lifecycle. This could be the way to keep track of all the artifacts and deliverables for this initiative, from strategy through execution and operations. A plan forms and she emails Dick to schedule a meeting.

As she studies Strategy to Portfolio Value Stream Diagram, Kathleen realizes that the results of the Architecture Vision (Phase A of the TOGAF ADM activities) can be stored in the Enterprise Architecture Management tool, covering two of the IT4IT Reference Architecture components: Enterprise Architecture and Policy.

This plan, she learns, can be expanded using the functionality available in Sarah’s Portfolio Management tool, which has a wider set of capabilities than just managing a list of Portfolio Backlog Items. It can be used to manage an Idea (the Portfolio Backlog Item) from initiation to decision-making, allowing the storage of necessary information as soon as it is created. It can also be used to link the Enterprise Architecture Management tool, and other systems, such as the Finance system, to prevent the retyping of information, and to start streamlining the whole process.

An approved Idea will automatically become a definition of a Proposal (Scope Agreement) and a corresponding service item can be created using the captured information. This means the Portfolio Management tool will cover the remaining IT4IT Reference Architecture functional components and data objects, and provide the linking of information:

With this plan, the ArchiSurance Digital Product Portfolio will have complete coverage of the IT4IT Strategy to Portfolio value stream automatically linking the TOGAF ADM Architecture Vision results to the decision-making of an Idea.

However, one thing keeps nagging her. Changing and integrating the tooling used in the process will optimize the current way of working, but will not change how ArchiSurance plans its investments. The budget is still allocated to projects just once a year, so even if a new Idea can be better processed, it is highly likely it will still need to wait till the next budget round. She knows her Idea will get funding, but in between budget cycles it is impossible to change the course of the organization unless you are backed by the CEO. Remembering she had read something in her investigation on the DPBoK Standard, she decides to get some inspiration from that body of knowledge. In Section 6.3.2 [1] she finds the root cause of her concerns. The “budget contracts” become a top-down performance commitment forced onto the teams. If ArchiSurance wants to become Agile as an organization, it requires a rethinking of the way investments are managed. Luckily, there are a number of principles and guidances provided which will have to be implemented as part of the way of working. Kathleen is happy to see that the adjustments in tooling based on the IT4IT Standard are actually going to support ArchiSurance in this adjustment.

“So, how about we apply the same approach we took with the business?” asked Kathleen hypothetically, as they reviewed the plan in Dick’s office. “What if we could implement a value stream that supports us in making better and faster investment decisions? What if we could free up resources to do more valuable activities than retyping information from documents into systems?”

Dick is very interested and once Kathleen has explained her Idea, he gives her the green light to go ahead and implement it, using a discretionary budget so she will not be delayed or blocked by the existing approval process. He also commits in helping Kathleen to establish the new way of working, starting with the executive level. It will not change overnight, but he is convinced it will work once everybody starts to see the benefits.

Excited about this new way of tracking the company’s products and services throughout the lifecycle in one place, she calls her Enterprise Architecture team together to let them know the good news.

“Now, not only will there be a consistent way to store architecture artifacts, but we may also have the capability to continually drive Ideas through the decision-making process more easily.”

Kathleen goes on to tell the team that she plans to focus her efforts on getting the Strategy to Portfolio value stream pieced together.

Kathleen forms a small team which, over the course of the next three weeks, sets out to build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) leveraging the existing systems. The team started by looking at the Strategy to Portfolio value stream in the IT4IT Reference Architecture and were very quickly able to sketch out a simple diagram of the proposed system integrations for the MVP.

First, the team researches Section 6.3.2 “Investment and Portfolio” in the DPBoK Standard [1] to gather information requirements. Then, the team updates the configuration of the Portfolio Management tool to capture the additional needed information, create the necessary dashboards to support the decision-making, and capture the decision to budget within the tool. The team agrees with the Finance and Human Resources team on how to export the information, which they agree is “good enough”. They then implement a first integration with the Enterprise Architecture Management tool. Sarah and her team chip in and guide the Implementation Team during this work. They even manage to identify ways to further reduce the amount of information that needs to be captured while still allowing proper decision-making.

By the end of the third week, there is agreement on the simplified approach, reducing the time it takes to bring an Idea to decision from six weeks down to just a couple of days. Using her own initiative as a pilot to validate it, she does a demo for the leadership team and in the weeks following, one by one, all of their Ideas are acted upon using the new approach.

The next step, thinks Kathleen, is to change from budget reviews with monthly updates to a Quarterly Business Review (QBR), so we can make decisions based on value and not only on cost. The implementation we have completed based on the Strategy to Portfolio value stream is ready to make the shift. Now it’s time to help other people make the shift.

This will be her topic to discuss with Dick when she sees him next.