Building a transformational roadmap would be easy - if people liked change. Most people don’t. If you could read minds in a meeting, you might hear people thinking loudly, “If the map looks alright, there’s no need to change it.” As an Enterprise Architect (EA), part of your job is helping people understand transformation is vital, especially when the business and IT landscape around us shifts and changes.
When working on transformation, it’s best to have a clear overview of where you are and where you’re going. With this understanding, you have a better chance of gaining executive buy-in and driving change as a strategic advisor for the C-level.
In a recent episode of Behind the Future, Mark Thomas, Consultant and Principal EA sat down with me, Henrik Holth. Mark gave his advice on building an enterprise transformation roadmap, outlining 5 clear stages of transformation. He also shared vital questions for each stage to help focus on what needs to be achieved.
“Some companies have the main goal of moving from place A to B, taking them from where they are now to a place that they want to be in the future. However, the best companies in the world are those in a continuous state of transformation.”
- Mark Thomas, Consultant, and Experienced Principal Enterprise Architect
As a consultant, Mark always starts with strategy. First, he looks into an organization's high-level goals, visions, and outcomes. It can be as simple as going to the corporation's website and looking at the strategy and goals. From there, he breaks everything down into the tangible deliverables needed to move them from their current state to the vision that the organization wants.
Mark recommends examining your current state first and using it to build your target state. Next, begin to draft a roadmap of moving through the stages. For example, your project might be a six-month project or years-long transformation work. Either way, this draft should be a starting point to achieve value during the transformation.
Questions to ask for developing value and strategy:
Questions to consider on transformation:
Timeline and monitoring are two additional points for shaping your strategy. It's more than delivering one thing; you need a holistic view of how the whole transformation fits together. Remember to consider:
📖 If you’re digging into your business capabilities, here is a quick starter read on How to Understand What Your Business Capabilities Are.
Once you’ve nailed down where you’re going, it’s time for one of the most vital steps: getting approval. First, check the stability of the organizational structure. For example, the C-Suite’s position in their life cycle impacts your buy-in. Mark explains, “I've been in some organizations where we get the buy-in, but the stakeholders are looking to the next step in their career. So when a new CFO level comes in, you have to do the work again.” However, with solid sponsorship from the senior stakeholders, you'll have people and resources going forwards.
“You have to get that buy-in from the C-Suite, and it’s a hard job to bring all of these people together. ”
Questions to explore for getting buy-in:
💡Read our Top 3 Tips to Engage Employees and Stakeholders in Change Initiatives to help begin that conversation around buy-in with your stakeholders.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to start a project and hear, ‘It's unlimited resources, unlimited time.” A nice dream, but we're not in that world. So instead, we have to think about the value of the business case, scope out the solution, and decide which approach to take. It could be a drastic approach to throwing away the old organization and starting a new one, or something smaller like incremental steps.
Questions to ask about your scope and approach:
📖 Interested in digging deeper into the approach? Read our article The Business Value of EA: a Data-driven Approach.
You'll need to build up the roadmap work by continuously monitoring progress to achieve value during the transformation. Your roadmap will help you decide how to move from your current state to your target state. It’s best to have a holistic view of how the whole transformation hangs together and moves forward in each stage.
Questions for exploring your mapping and monitoring:
It's essential to keep track of how things are moving forward and how each step of progress is achieved. After each increment, remember to go back to your primary strategy. After each increment, look back at the strategy.
One secret to good governance is simply executing the first 4 steps correctly. When we define good patterns and principles which help us lead, maintain, and develop technical and business solutions, we're putting in place essential delivery vehicles for a series of projects. At this point, we have the roadmap and resources. As the deliveries start, it’s very important to reflect on each deliverable.
“Without good governance and good control, the whole thing will fall apart very quickly, like the proverbial House of Cards.”
Mark has found that governance occurs at many levels: technical level, CXO sitting above the business, and in development and design and delivery teams. Consider the type of organization you’re working in, and remember to manage your risks as part of the governance processes accordingly. For example, in the mobile phone world, an organization can't take many risks with their network because if there are problems, they get complaints very, very quickly, and customers may even leave. Questions for checking-in with your governance:
📖 Governance has many layers. Take a closer look at our story about Good Enterprise Architecture Governance: What It Is, Why We Talk About It, and Why It Matters.
As Mark and I wrapped up the session, Mark offered some final insight from his perspective as a consultant.
“I don't have a personal relationship with what’s going on. If you’re inside an organization maybe you've owned and you've built a system or process or department over years. It's very hard as a person inside the organization to want to change - because you might be in a comfortable pair of shoes. As a person from coming outside as consultant and with experience of being in many organizations. I sometimes can bring a fresh perspective.”
We’re thankful to Mark for sharing his knowledge with us. Make sure to watch Developing an Enterprise Transformation Roadmap on YouTube, to hear all of what he shared.
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