Difference between revisions of "Strategy and Governance"

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<p> Superior governance leads to superior performance.  Superior performance is about doing the right things --it is not about putting in more hours—it’s about prioritizing, planning, and executing the most impactful work. Good leadership provides clear direction on where the business is going and how to overcome the challenges that arise. Setting a clear direction not only gets people on board but also builds confidence in the organization's abilities to get results.</p>
 
<p> Superior governance leads to superior performance.  Superior performance is about doing the right things --it is not about putting in more hours—it’s about prioritizing, planning, and executing the most impactful work. Good leadership provides clear direction on where the business is going and how to overcome the challenges that arise. Setting a clear direction not only gets people on board but also builds confidence in the organization's abilities to get results.</p>
 
<p> Good leadership makes sure that the processes used to get things done are effective in facilitating work, not impeding it. Such processes are transparent and well-understood, so they help people get their jobs done. They are the foundation of EIT governance. </p>
 
<p> Good leadership makes sure that the processes used to get things done are effective in facilitating work, not impeding it. Such processes are transparent and well-understood, so they help people get their jobs done. They are the foundation of EIT governance. </p>
<p> Good leadership and good governance also depend on well communicated policies whose values and purposes are understood. Policies often reflect an organization's culture. A policy can let people know it's OK to bring their dogs to work, or that People are entitled to a day off with pay for their birthdays. They let people know what sorts of behaviour are expected and what the organization values.</p>
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<p> Good leadership and good governance also depend on well communicated policies whose values and purposes are understood. Policies often reflect an organization's culture. A policy can let people know it's OK to bring their dogs to work, or that people are entitled to a day off with pay for their birthdays. They let people know what sorts of behaviour are expected and what the organization values.</p>
 
<p>Businesses with superior EIT governance record 25 percent higher profits than those with poor governance.&nbsp;[[#Eleven|[11]]] This type of positive value assessment for EIT governance is well established and clearly maps to EIT governance objectives of reliable, trusted, responsive, and evolving EIT synced to business plans and needs. </p>
 
<p>Businesses with superior EIT governance record 25 percent higher profits than those with poor governance.&nbsp;[[#Eleven|[11]]] This type of positive value assessment for EIT governance is well established and clearly maps to EIT governance objectives of reliable, trusted, responsive, and evolving EIT synced to business plans and needs. </p>
  
<p>EIT audits are a specialized type of monitoring that challenge the self-reporting on governance metrics by performing direct assessment.&nbsp;[[#Twelve|[12]]] Some topics that an audit may cover include:</p>
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<p>EIT assessments are a point-in-time type of monitoring that supplement the regular monitoring and reporting process.  When doen by people outside the organization, they are often seen as audits. Some topics that an audit may cover include:</p>
 
<ul>
 
<ul>
 
<li>[http://eitbokwiki.org/Glossary#roi Return on investment (ROI)] </li>
 
<li>[http://eitbokwiki.org/Glossary#roi Return on investment (ROI)] </li>
 
<li>Data quality</li>
 
<li>Data quality</li>
<li>Inventory of licenses, hardware in use/owned</li>
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<li>Inventory of licenses, software, hardware in use/owned</li>
 
<li>Process performance, rationalization, adherence as required from asserted levels of organization maturity</li>
 
<li>Process performance, rationalization, adherence as required from asserted levels of organization maturity</li>
 
<li>Security effectiveness</li>
 
<li>Security effectiveness</li>
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<li>Regulatory requirements adherence </li>
 
<li>Regulatory requirements adherence </li>
 
<li>Self-assessment of EIT governance </li>
 
<li>Self-assessment of EIT governance </li>
<li>Overall assessment of EIT</li>
+
 
 
</ul>
 
</ul>
 
<p>The resulting reports include gaps found and remediation recommendations. </p>
 
<p>The resulting reports include gaps found and remediation recommendations. </p>
<p>The effort and cost to establish and operate EIT governance can be scaled to meet the strategically sensitive areas for the overall organization. Business and EIT share the EIT governance responsibility. Good governance requires exceptional leaders who can communicate across business and EIT subject domains. </p>
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<p>The effort and cost to establish and operate EIT governance can be scaled to meet the strategically sensitive areas for the overall organization. Business and EIT share the EIT governance responsibility because the business must communicate its needs to EIT and its satisfaction with EIT services. Good governance requires exceptional leaders who can communicate across business and EIT subject domains. </p>
<p>The value of EIT assets may not be regularly included on balance sheets. However, EIT governance will be asked to participate in a valuation at a time of mergers, acquisitions, and liquidations.</p>
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<h3>Ethics&nbsp;[[#Thirteen|[13]]]</h3>
 
<h3>Ethics&nbsp;[[#Thirteen|[13]]]</h3>
 
<p>Ethical behaviors in an organization are judged relative to their cultural and regulatory framework. In some countries, money paid to gain business advantage is neither unethical nor illegal. </p>
 
<p>Ethical behaviors in an organization are judged relative to their cultural and regulatory framework. In some countries, money paid to gain business advantage is neither unethical nor illegal. </p>
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<p>EIT governance can create numerous policies and processes to establish overall control, or can establish only a few policies that drive action in various delivery areas to create and maintain their own local aligned policies and processes. Determination of the right fit for control should be based on risk assessment by EIT governance and the resulting level of oversight that should be maintained. For example, security policies and processes should typically be set centrally so that all areas of the company are measured on exactly the same basis and changes are uniformly applied. Decentralization and therefore more coordinated information management policies and processes may be acceptable in a business that is more product oriented than service (data) oriented. </p>
 
<p>EIT governance can create numerous policies and processes to establish overall control, or can establish only a few policies that drive action in various delivery areas to create and maintain their own local aligned policies and processes. Determination of the right fit for control should be based on risk assessment by EIT governance and the resulting level of oversight that should be maintained. For example, security policies and processes should typically be set centrally so that all areas of the company are measured on exactly the same basis and changes are uniformly applied. Decentralization and therefore more coordinated information management policies and processes may be acceptable in a business that is more product oriented than service (data) oriented. </p>
 
<p>Even at the initial phase, an overall EIT governance policy, driven from an enterprise policy, is required to establish its authority.</p>
 
<p>Even at the initial phase, an overall EIT governance policy, driven from an enterprise policy, is required to establish its authority.</p>
<h3>Cost Control</h3>
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<h3>Budgets and Asset Management</h3>
<p>Cost control is a central activity in EIT governance. EIT products and services are bundled into operations sustainment, major projects, and small changes. Business cases for the work are budgeted, prioritized, and funded. See also [http://eitbokwiki.org/Change_Initiatives Change Initiatives]. </p>
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<p>EIT management must plan for all needed EIT resources in its budgeting. These resources to be budgeted for include salaries and overhead for personnel, as well as acquisition of outside services and material assets. Assets represent value to the organization. While they aren't always included on balance sheets, they must be considered at the time of an acquisition, merger, or liquidation.</p>
<p>The business sets priorities for development and operations. Those priorities must include the factors in the strategic environmental scan. For example, to ensure the rapid expansion of business geography plans, methods and designs may be adopted that diverge from the formal EIT strategies realizing cost savings. The cost control priority can be the important overriding priority that guides the possible easing of EA visions and plans for controlling the overall EIT system evolution, but at the risk of mounting technical debt.</p>
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<p>EIT products and services are typically bundled into operations sustainment, new development projects, and modifications. Business cases for the work are prioritized according to business needs and strategies, budgeted, and funded often as part of portfolio management. See also [http://eitbokwiki.org/Change_Initiatives Change Initiatives]. </p>
<p>[http://eitbokwiki.org/Glossary#tco Total cost of ownership (TCO)] improvements can be addressed by careful application of strategies, such as:</p>
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<p>Those priorities must include the factors in the strategic environmental scan. For example, to ensure the rapid geographic expansion of business plans, new methods and designs may be adopted that diverge from the existing EIT strategies and mean incurring new costs. Sometimes cost control can be the important overriding priority that limits EA visions and plans for the overall EIT system evolution. However, such short-term thinking can be at the risk of mounting technical debt.</p>
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<p>[http://eitbokwiki.org/Glossary#tco More and more, organizations are looking at Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), utuilizing  careful application of strategies, such as:</p>
 
<ul>
 
<ul>
 
<li>Infrastructure allocation/management</li>
 
<li>Infrastructure allocation/management</li>
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<li>Various outsourcing initiatives</li>
 
<li>Various outsourcing initiatives</li>
 
</ul>
 
</ul>
<h3>Investment Concept/Business Case Management</h3>
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<p>Outside all operations and sustainment work, all activities are proposed through a standard funding process as shown in [[#Fig7|Figure&nbsp;7]].</p>
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[[File:Figure2.5.JPG|700px]]
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<div id="Fig7"></div><p>'''Figure 7. Steps in Business Case Development'''</p>
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<p>Work is prioritized and moved forward into the realization phase based on the business and EIT strategic plans within the [http://eitbokwiki.org/Change_Initiatives Change Initiatives chapter]. The process is monitored for continuing business alignment and need, feasibility factors, stakeholder interest, resourcing opportunities, competitor activity, new EIT tools and approaches, and government requirements in the industry. All of these factors influence the speed at which concepts move through the process or even get dropped entirely from the plan.</p>
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<p>[http://eitbokwiki.org/Glossary#contract Contract] management with vendors including outsourcing, licensing, SLA, [http://eitbokwiki.org/Glossary#ola OLA], cloud computing, and project resourcing is also the responsibility of EIT governance (see also the [http://eitbokwiki.org/Acquisition Acquisition chapter]).</p>
 
<p>[http://eitbokwiki.org/Glossary#contract Contract] management with vendors including outsourcing, licensing, SLA, [http://eitbokwiki.org/Glossary#ola OLA], cloud computing, and project resourcing is also the responsibility of EIT governance (see also the [http://eitbokwiki.org/Acquisition Acquisition chapter]).</p>
 
<h3>Quality&nbsp;[[#Fourteen|[14]]]</h3>
 
<h3>Quality&nbsp;[[#Fourteen|[14]]]</h3>
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<li>The [http://eitbokwiki.org/Glossary#pmo project management office (PMO)] supports a subset of all projects. This formal oversight body is setup to instantiate best repeatable practices in project management and to assist in reporting status. PMO scope is usually limited to those projects holding significant risk to the organization, and significant cost.</li>
 
<li>The [http://eitbokwiki.org/Glossary#pmo project management office (PMO)] supports a subset of all projects. This formal oversight body is setup to instantiate best repeatable practices in project management and to assist in reporting status. PMO scope is usually limited to those projects holding significant risk to the organization, and significant cost.</li>
 
</ul>
 
</ul>
<h3>EIT Portfolio and Program Management</h3>
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<h3>EIT Portfolio and Program Management through Business Case Management </h3>
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 +
<p> In budgeting for all EIT activities, their value to the enterprise must be evaluated. So called "support" activities are no exception. All proposed efforts should be evaluated through a common lens, and use a standard funding process as shown in [[#Fig7|Figure&nbsp;7]]. This approach enables the EIT organization to escape the problem of 80% of its resources being allocated to "sustainment," becasue it forces business and EIT management to examine the cost-effectiveness of sustaining old systems rather than adding new services.</p>
 +
[[File:Figure2.5.JPG|700px]]
 +
<div id="Fig7"></div><p>'''Figure 7. Steps in Business Case Development'''</p>
 +
<p>Work is prioritized and moved forward into the realization phase based on the business and EIT strategic plans. The [http://eitbokwiki.org/Change_Initiatives Change Initiatives chapter] describes how new projects are treated as change initiatives in order to be successful. The process is monitored for continuing business alignment and need, feasibility factors, stakeholder interest, resourcing opportunities, competitor activity, new EIT tools and approaches, and government requirements in the industry. All of these factors influence the speed at which concepts move through the process or even get dropped entirely from the plan.</p>
 
<p>Reporting and oversight is also applied to aggregates of projects into portfolios and programs. EIT portfolios are a set of scoped applications and systems that are closely interrelated; for example, the accounts payable, accounts receivable, and ledger production in an organization. Programs may span portfolios as multi-phase, multi-year initiatives. Project and portfolio grouping allows for more holistic views on change, impact analysis and synergies, business case development, upgrading, operations problem identification, communication and recovery, vendor and business relationship management, and multi-project oversight. </p>
 
<p>Reporting and oversight is also applied to aggregates of projects into portfolios and programs. EIT portfolios are a set of scoped applications and systems that are closely interrelated; for example, the accounts payable, accounts receivable, and ledger production in an organization. Programs may span portfolios as multi-phase, multi-year initiatives. Project and portfolio grouping allows for more holistic views on change, impact analysis and synergies, business case development, upgrading, operations problem identification, communication and recovery, vendor and business relationship management, and multi-project oversight. </p>
 
<p>Portfolio managers work closely with project managers, architects, operations managers, and business users to make sure that the relationships and the understanding between the business and EIT are strong and transparent. </p>
 
<p>Portfolio managers work closely with project managers, architects, operations managers, and business users to make sure that the relationships and the understanding between the business and EIT are strong and transparent. </p>

Revision as of 01:24, 16 November 2016

Note: This wiki is a work in progress, and may contain missing content, errors, or duplication. We welcome feedback, edits, and real-world examples.


1 Introduction

Enterprise information technology (EIT) strategic planning defines the goals of the EIT organization and communicates those goals --and how they support the enterprise's goals, while EIT governance assesses their impact on the organization, and drives change to achieve those goals. Taking into account various perspectives (financial, historical, environmental, future projections), a strategic plan is a framework for action and change, both vertically and horizontally, across the EIT organization. EIT governance is based on the EIT and enterprise strategic plans and acts as a control framework to achieve and sustain strategic goals and objectives. Thus, EIT governance is completely interdependent with the EIT strategy.

The nature of the enterprise's and EIT's goals and objectives depends on the type, status, and size of the enterprise. For example, the main goal of EIT development for a trading company might be to support the rate of turnover of the warehouse, but for a consulting company the important goal might be assuring full utilization of all consultants on client engagements.

This chapter provides an overview of EIT strategic planning and governance including the approaches to create an EIT strategic plan based on enterprise strategy, and the role of the EIT architecture. The strategic planning and governance context diagram is shown in Figure 1.

2 Goals and Principles

  1. EIT strategy — To achieve a common understanding of EIT and enterprise intent:
    • Recognize that enterprise strategy drives EIT strategy.
    • Understand your purpose for creating an EIT strategy.
    • Understand current EIT operations.
    • Plan for working on the things that matter to enterprise.
    • Take a multi-year perspective, and revisit the plan on a periodic basis for confirmation or changes.
    • Enable reliable, nimble, and efficient response to strategic objectives.
    • Sustain EIT capability.
  2. EIT governance — The goal of governance is to direct activities in a way that fulfills the EIT strategy. These are critical activities required to achieve this goal:
    • Plan for flexibility and change in governance structure, accountability, and priorities.
    • Measure progress and performance against the strategic roadmap as well as on a project and operations basis.
    • Enable change, even to the plan itself, as required.
    • Advise and align other EIT discipline strategic plans into an overall framework for delivery.
    • Foster communications and understanding between EIT and enterprise.
    • Set expectations within a code of ethics framework.
    • Foster a continuous learning organization.
    • Look ahead for continuity planning as part of risk management planning.

3 Context Diagram

02 Strategy and Governance CD.png

Figure 1. Strategy and Governance Context Diagram

The inputs to strategy and governance include various enterprise planning and strategy inputs, financials (budgets, plans, and performance), as well as enterprise architecture and enterprise governance artifacts including policies.

The roles involved in supplying input to and drafting EIT strategy and governance include C-level executives, senior management, and certain specialists such as communications personnel and architects.

While strategic planning occurs at different organization levels, and horizontally as well, it must be coordinated so that there is a hierarchy of strategic plans for each unit of the enterprise that defines how each unit supports the next higher level. Although EIT strategy is developed by senior management, it needs to be supported by EIT standards, frameworks, and guides to facilitate EIT self-governance activities.

Deliverables from the strategic planning process include the strategic plan, the communication plan, and the socialization plan. They inform a governance framework necessary to deploy those plans in EIT. These deliverables are consumed by C-level executives and business and EIT management and staff.

4 EIT Strategic Planning

4.1 Introduction: EIT Strategy is a Business Strategy

EIT is a business unit within the enterprise. The enterprise's business strategy document is the most significant single input to the EIT strategy document. The business strategy frames the scope and expectations for the EIT strategy. Any supply chain, outsourcing, onboarding, or other EIT practice, should be driven out of this strategy. For example, if the business chooses to add vendor relationships, the focus would be on a value stream called an onboard supplier, and capabilities that would include partner management, asset management, agreement management, and related capabilities that are supported by associated EIT capabilities in these areas.

The resulting activities could involve consolidating and improving automation around this value stream and capabilities, as well as numerous other non-technical activities that do not involve systems and technology. Specific topics may include best practices on:

  • Outsourcing of systems, process, maintenance, technical risk management and transition approaches, cloud contracting advice, mobile strategies, data and information management and integration strategies, SLA framework strategies, logistical and business cultural constraints, and resource optimization options.
  • EIT strategy is a component of an enterprise strategy when considering activities that include designing, building, and managing information and information technology for business change. [1]

4.2 Perform Environmental Scan

There are multiple ways to leverage the concepts portrayed in Figure 1. However, the process begins with strategy mapping.

  • Strategy mapping articulates a strategy in such a way that it can be readily interpreted and acted on.
  • Strategy maps vary, but are essentially graphical depictions of goals, objectives, and related courses of action, often aligned against an organizational and broader environmental backdrop.
  • Shifts in technology in the marketplace, regulatory change for transparency, corporate marketing channels, and competitor’s enterprise models are a few environmental considerations when building an EIT strategy.

A current assessment of EIT systems, capabilities, and resources is necessary to complete the full 360-degree scan.

EIT maturity assessment results are input to strategy mapping and desired outcomes. See EIT Maturity Management for an overview of the assessment process.

Strategy mapping has existed in one form or another for some time. Sample strategy mapping approaches that apply to enterprise and EIT strategies are listed below:

  • Strength/weakness/opportunity/threat (SWOT) analysis
  • SWOT surfaces internal and external perspectives that should be capitalized on or otherwise addressed. SWOT findings are one input to strategy formulation providing possible focal points in strategy development.
  • The Norton Kaplan Strategy Map [2] links actions to value creation along four dimensions: financial, customer, internal (employees), and learning and growth. The strategy map offers a complete, in-context perspective on the strategy.
  • Hoshin Kanri [3] provides similar cross-mapping concepts include tying mission, goals, and objectives with action items, and key performance indicators (KPIs).
  • The business motivation model (BMM) [4] provides a mapping between the ends to be achieved (i.e., goals and objectives) and the means (i.e., strategies and tactics) needed to achieve those ends.

Generally only one approach is selected for a strategy map. Regardless of the approach taken, the end result of any strategic EIT planning process is a clear set of measurable objectives, priorities, and action items that management can act on to deliver change leading to improved EIT performance.

4.3 Establish an EIT Strategic Planning Framework

The strategic planning context diagram shown in Figure 1 provides a good focal point for strategic planning from a business, process, and EIT perspective. In practice, EIT strategy formulation incorporates business strategy as a fundamental driver.

EIT strategy is deployed by leveraging the best architecture, design practices, and technologies. The tension between delivering systems that meet business objectives, particularly from a tactical perspective, must deliver solutions in a delicate balance between forward-looking tools and techniques, current practices, and pressures to implement quickly.

4.4 EIT Strategy Formulation

Drafting an EIT strategy requires alignment with enterprise and business strategies, measured adherence and compliance to EIT best practices, and governance. While enterprise and business strategies come from business, adherence to best practices falls within the EIT domain. Of course, best practices continue to evolve and differ from organization to organization and even project to project. Therefore, EIT faces the challenge of satisfying strategic business objectives through the application of evolving and situational best practices.

Best practice conformance can be difficult when EIT owns numerous systems that were designed and developed in a prior era. These legacy or heritage systems often have associated challenges or issues. These systems are typically developed using older technologies and their architectures often do not conform to modern design principles (e.g., SOA) or to current business needs. In addition, changing business architecture and rules can, over time, lead to data- and information-quality issues. Lack of business alignment and data-quality issues are some of the more difficult and time-consuming issues to address.

EIT organizations typically address technical debt through legacy modernization (upgrade or replacement), but often do not tie these projects to strategic business objectives. Additionally, the costs are often high and the business benefits for continuing to deliver the same functionality as before upon completion of the project can be a hard sell to the business.

The following six-stage framework for EIT strategic planning ensures that the business strategy is integrated into the planning process and that EIT strategy is not driven solely by technological upgrades:

  1. Craft the EIT strategy and plan to support well-articulated enterprise and business objectives.
  2. Leverage EA to feed the strategy. Vet various perspectives.
  3. Highlight EIT focal points for each objective.
  4. Establish KPIs for each strategic enterprise objective and related action item.
  5. Establish a plan timeline roadmap including a review plan.
  6. Establish or leverage EIT governance to ensure that business strategy is realized.

Each of these stages presents a unique challenge and occasionally can be in conflict with another stage. For example, adherence to best EIT architecture practices is difficult when architecturally inelegant legacy systems must be updated to accommodate the current business strategy, or when time-to-implement constraints override preferred plans. When a conflict occurs, the organization begins to build technical debt. Technical debt is defined as “the negative effects of applying ill-advised or problematic changes or additions to software systems and their data, negatively impacting the delivery of future business value.” [5]

As depicted in the context diagram in Figure 1, the steps in the planning process should work for most organizations as they embark upon their business and EIT planning efforts, keeping in mind that the framework provides a guide into what should specifically be addressed at each stage of the planning process. Finally, much of what is considered as strategic planning within EIT is just a portion of the broader context for business planning. Therefore, planning for EIT and business scenarios that are essentially the same scenario, such as outsourcing a capability or managing suppliers, should take an integrated, holistic, and enterprise view of the planning process.

4.5 Establish Planning Approach

A defined EIT strategy provides the roadmap needed for getting from where the enterprise is at present to where it needs to be. The strategy identifies how the enterprise needs to change. EIT must determine effective ways to take the enterprise strategy and transform it into EIT strategic change.

Strategic change employs a wide array of disciplines and techniques to enable change on a large scale and on an incremental basis. These techniques are often discussed in the context of types of focuses, such as: [6]

  • Governance
  • Information/data
  • Solution
  • Technology
  • Security

Each focus has constraints that must be understood and reflected explicitly in the strategy. These typically include time, quality, and cost. The focus may also include organizational scope such as Western Hemisphere operations only, or a timeframe such as a 2-year horizon, as well as constraints from the environmental scan such as regulatory requirements for the industry. An EIT strategy also acknowledges existing EIT constraints through enterprise architecture (EA), human resources, legacy systems, staff capability, and capacity to deliver.

The strategic planning team takes risk into account within the plan. They recognize the risk appetite of the organization as a potential constraint in the plan. They also suggest risk responses that require vetting and approval as part of overall strategy adoption.

4.6 Role of Architecture in Strategy Planning

Enterprise architecture (EA) informs the EIT strategic plan in a number of ways. EA supplies “a blueprint of the enterprise that provides a common understanding of the organization and is used to align strategic objectives and tactical demands.” [7]

Standard methods include strategy maps, capability maps, information maps, value maps, and organization maps.

Some other artifacts include operating models, product maps, stakeholder maps, process models, dynamic rules-based routing maps, data models, network models, systems models, vitality and renewal plans, and a wide range of hybrid blueprints and models that have specialty uses based on the challenge at hand.

Blueprints and models provide valuable input to the EIT strategic plan. Typically, few artifacts exist when initiating a strategic planning effort and they must be developed together with business input. The EIT strategy document then becomes an extrapolation from the enterprise strategy with an EIT lens.

4.6.1 Blueprints and Models — Business and EIT

Blueprints and models require consistent, standardized components. These components draw from the abstract representations of the business shown in Figure 2. In the figure, the center circle represents concepts and includes capability, value, organization, and information. These concepts are considered core, because they are very stable business and EIT perspectives that remain relatively constant. Changes occur as required to accommodate business and EIT as they evolve. EIT inherits some of these blueprints from the business and transforms them into aligned, EIT-focused forms.

The yellow circle in the figure shows influencing perspectives. For example, strategies continue to evolve in real time while new business and EIT products and services are introduced routinely. These examples show how the outer circle of business abstractions are more dynamic than the stable core. Collectively, when mapped and presented appropriately, the core and extended views provide a complete and holistic planning view.

Figure2.2 BusinessArchitectureEcosystem.JPG

Figure 2. Business Architecture Ecosystem [8]

Sophisticated blueprint mappings can emerge from the collection of components shown in Figure 2, which represents the business ecosystem. Even simple concepts, like value stream or capability cross-mapping, serve as a basis for business-driven roadmaps and investment planning. Collectively, all of these perspectives answer important questions such as why take action, what is impacted, or how to accomplish a particular task.

4.7 Turn Business Strategy into Actionable Results

4.7.1 Using Blueprints and Models

The reason for developing the various blueprints and models is to use them in some way to achieve strategic and tactical needs. Strategy drives changes that can be collectively represented by abstractions depicted in Figure 2. When management has the ability to view the impact of change using these abstractions, everyone from the executives and planning teams to the deployment teams can have a shared perspective of the context and scope of these changes.

For example, consider the goal to provide more customer and transactional transparency throughout the product sales cycle; where “transparency” across the sales cycle means visibility into transaction history and sales potential. Business architects would determine that this strategy targets the acquire product value stream and account file management, customer management, and account routing capabilities. Other enterprise and solution architects would then look at the goal from their delivery perspectives. These perspectives are likely implemented today using a cross-section of technologies and processes, some of which are well understood and adaptive, while others are not. Together with EA, the EIT strategy provides a framework for assessing current state implementations, crafting target-state solutions, and establishing a transition strategy for moving from current to target state solutions.

There are many strategic planning approaches. Regardless of the approach selected, turning strategies into actionable results requires identifying the EIT delivery impacts on the current state and current future state plans.

Figure2.3 TurningStrategyIntoResults.JPG

Figure 3. Turning Strategy into Actionable Results via Enterprise Architecture

Figure 3 represents the ability to leverage perspectives to identify specific areas of EIT that require initiative investment. In turn, these investments result in projects that incorporate business and EIT transformations.

  • Business strategy represents all motivational factors including policy, regulation, goals and objectives, product and stakeholder considerations, and the resulting action items required to achieve various goals and objectives.
  • EIT strategy represents the EIT perspective of the enterprise business strategy and includes capability, capacity, ROI, information, organizations, responsibilities, funding plan, stakeholders, initiatives, products, and decisions.
  • Enterprise architecture identifies actionable items as inputs to design concepts, EIT business priorities, business-driven roadmaps, fundable initiatives, and business-driven EIT architecture transformation.

4.7.2 Using Enterprise Architecture to Interpret Business Strategy [9]

EA is both an input to the strategy by supplying methods and as-is architectures, and a follow-on activity that interprets, performs gap analysis, and supports execution the strategic plan and adjusts the to-be architectures to new or changed direction from the plan.

A brilliant business design can be too costly and take too long to satisfy executive demands, or can be technologically infeasible. This is where enterprise architecture can help ensure that selected business designs and innovation options are not only desirable, but cost effective and implementable.

We stated earlier that EA includes business, solution, information, and technology architectures. Business architecture has a direct relationship to and reciprocal impact on the remaining aspects of EA, particularly solution and information architectures. For example, information architecture leverages the information aspects of business architecture to craft a wide range of technology options for maximizing accessibility and usage to a various information categories. These range from “big data” to more traditional relational database architectures. Information architecture establishes the critical underpinnings for business automation solutions.

The solution architecture is the implementation perspective of the business architecture and includes business design concepts such as case management and process management. Business capabilities drive the evolution of applications and service-oriented architecture (SOA) service deployments. Value streams provide the framework for service orchestration, business design options, and stakeholder interface requirements.

The technology architecture plays two important roles. First, it enables the delivery of business solutions as articulated through the blueprints and models. Second, it ensures that the required degree of technological innovation is in place to maximize business solutions while ensuring stability, security, and business continuity.

Figure2.4 BusinessArch ContinuousITAlignment.JPG

Figure 4. Business Architecture and Continuous Business/EIT Alignment

The two-way relationship between business architecture and solution, information, and technology architecture is depicted in Figure 4. Continuous business/EIT alignment reflects the value of maintaining these interdependent relationships across business and EIT. A change in either of these aligned layers should be transparent, duly assessed to determine reciprocal impacts, clearly linked to a specific business objective, and addressed through a funded initiative.

When business needs are mapped appropriately to current and future EIT plans, it ensures that business objectives are known, quantified, clearly articulated, and linked to business value. Any EIT investment must also demonstrate a link back to business value. For example, an application change may require significant funding. Architects should be able to trace the planned application process changes back to the business capabilities, value streams, and information that the change implements, and back to business objectives and link the change to value. A network planning team, for example, should be able to trace the usability of that network up the chain, through the solution architecture, and directly into the business architecture. In this way, all EIT activities can be tied back to business impacts and business strategy.

Business architecture not only helps identify change impacts and investment focal points derived from a given business strategy, but also provides a basis for business design and innovation analysis.

Consolidated platforms (CP) are emerging as multi-vendor pre-packaged solutions that can efficiently use resources in operations and release management activities with the providers in an oversight role; however, evaluating the detailed solution for suitability and viable exit planning becomes more complex. CP can be seen as a mid-way solution between complete solution insourcing and complete outsourcing.

5 EIT Strategy Execution

What you measure is what you get. When navigating to a destination, you use a variety of measurements to make sure you're on track to your destination. These include things like estimated time to arrival, distance covered, and signposts encountered along the way. The same holds true when executing EIT performance to achieve strategic goals.

Poor strategy execution is the most significant management challenge facing public and private organizations in the 21st century according to Gartner (Lapkin & Young, 2011). [10] No matter what EIT strategy an organization decides to adopt, the organization should:

  • Outline the means for achieving desired outcomes, such as:
    • Link all EIT strategies to business goals and objectives.
    • Specify realistic timeframes and targets that reflect the organizations needs and priorities.
    • Create and support a means to generate, capture, evaluate and implement ideas for improving execution in progress.
    • Acknowledge and propose change within known constraints and risks including budgets, staffing capability and EA plans.
    • Implement the strategy into portfolios and projects.
    • Create or refer to control processes in organizations that can give oversight to strategy execution. (Are we doing the right things and are things being done right?)
    • Create and live a culture of collaboration between the core business and EIT through shared communications, training plans, and change management support.
    • Ensure that the EIT strategy is captured in a living document as a game plan that states targets for strategy achievement and specifies accountabilities.
    • Actively monitor and adjust the EIT strategic plan to meet changing business priorities.

    To ensure full engagement across the business/EIT boundary, business and EIT executive sponsors can benefit from an enterprise and local interaction model for monitoring, guiding, and reporting. The interaction model seeks to:

    • Understand and work through the people side and the organizational side of proposed change and existing culture impacts. This is critical to the long-term success of strategy implementation and oversight (governance) efforts.
    • Establish business/EIT collaboration and a communication governance model to ensure open communication and collaboration for business-to-business, business-to-EIT, and cross-EIT perspectives.
    • Establish collaborative principles, measurements, and escalation procedures as required.
    • Ensure that external regulations and laws, market perspectives, and external perspectives are included.

    5.1 Measurement: the Key to Strategy Execution

    EIT managers and staff should jointly participate in selecting meaningful metrics to monitor and thus direct internal effort to those activities that provide the "most bang for the buck" in reaching their strategic objectives. The measures and metrics should extend from the lowest hands-on level to the level reported to the Board of Directors. All of these controls should fit within a hierarchy of goals and their measures.

    What this means in simple terms is that you must define discrete goals that can be measured in order to know whether or not an enterprise strategy is being achieved. The measures used to determine if the goals are being met are high-level metrics that are built from lower-level, more detailed metrics. For example, "Increase customer satisfaction" is a common goal. How do you know if it is happening? First, determine the components (the attributes) of customer satisfaction. They may range from sales order accuracy to length of time to reach customer support to billing accuracy. All of these can have a technology component as well as a business component. The hierarchy of goals and measures will thus need to include both business unit goals as well as EIT goals, with corresponding metrics. COBIT 5 describes this hierarchy as a goals cascade and provides examples of 17 generic enterprise goals related to corresponding EIT goals.

    6 EIT Operations Governance

    EIT governance must also make sure that EIT processes, mechanisms and responsibilities provide the organization with the capability to govern itself in all areas of responsibility, such as reporting against budgets, project performance, service management, and risk assessment and management.. Lines-of-EIT business have their own special concerns that align to overall governance objectives, such as:

    • Security — for example, local goals and measures for blocking threats
    • Data — for example, identifying and tracking key financial data for accuracy in transactions
    • Application — for example, Service Level Agreement (SLA) goals for availability
    • Enterprise architecture — for example, milestones reached toward EIT strategy realization

    Figure2.6 BusinessGovernanceEngagementModel.jpg

    Figure 6. Example of a Business and Governance Engagement Model

    6.1 Measuring Superior EIT Performance

    Superior governance leads to superior performance. Superior performance is about doing the right things --it is not about putting in more hours—it’s about prioritizing, planning, and executing the most impactful work. Good leadership provides clear direction on where the business is going and how to overcome the challenges that arise. Setting a clear direction not only gets people on board but also builds confidence in the organization's abilities to get results.

    Good leadership makes sure that the processes used to get things done are effective in facilitating work, not impeding it. Such processes are transparent and well-understood, so they help people get their jobs done. They are the foundation of EIT governance.

    Good leadership and good governance also depend on well communicated policies whose values and purposes are understood. Policies often reflect an organization's culture. A policy can let people know it's OK to bring their dogs to work, or that people are entitled to a day off with pay for their birthdays. They let people know what sorts of behaviour are expected and what the organization values.

    Businesses with superior EIT governance record 25 percent higher profits than those with poor governance. [11] This type of positive value assessment for EIT governance is well established and clearly maps to EIT governance objectives of reliable, trusted, responsive, and evolving EIT synced to business plans and needs.

    EIT assessments are a point-in-time type of monitoring that supplement the regular monitoring and reporting process. When doen by people outside the organization, they are often seen as audits. Some topics that an audit may cover include:

    • Return on investment (ROI)
    • Data quality
    • Inventory of licenses, software, hardware in use/owned
    • Process performance, rationalization, adherence as required from asserted levels of organization maturity
    • Security effectiveness
    • Maturity assessment/reassessment
    • Regulatory requirements adherence
    • Self-assessment of EIT governance

    The resulting reports include gaps found and remediation recommendations.

    The effort and cost to establish and operate EIT governance can be scaled to meet the strategically sensitive areas for the overall organization. Business and EIT share the EIT governance responsibility because the business must communicate its needs to EIT and its satisfaction with EIT services. Good governance requires exceptional leaders who can communicate across business and EIT subject domains.

    6.2 Ethics [13]

    Ethical behaviors in an organization are judged relative to their cultural and regulatory framework. In some countries, money paid to gain business advantage is neither unethical nor illegal.

    • Ethical assertions should be expressed in EIT, tied to the overall business code of ethics, and signed off by all staff so that violations can be cause for reprimand or dismissal.
    • Vendors should be held to similar ethical standards.
    • A code of EIT ethics is created, and socialized.
    • Lists of employees who have signed off on the code are maintained by EIT governance.

    EIT ethical topics include those that may also be illegal, such as:

    • Consideration of the social impact of the work at hand — if it will cause harm
    • Alignment of business and EIT strategies and policies to an ethical standard
    • Incorporation of the ideals of professionalism
    • Adherence to applicable regulatory intent
    • Protection for whistle blowers

    Call out these things specifically:

    • Activities that interfere with or corrupt the proper function of computers, applications and systems
    • Activities that interfere with digital privacy or intellectual rights of others
    • Respect for confidentiality, privacy, permissions, and access rights
    • Inappropriate bias (skewing) of analysis and reporting
    • Inaction in the face of likely ethics violations

    6.3 Policy and Process

    EIT governance can create numerous policies and processes to establish overall control, or can establish only a few policies that drive action in various delivery areas to create and maintain their own local aligned policies and processes. Determination of the right fit for control should be based on risk assessment by EIT governance and the resulting level of oversight that should be maintained. For example, security policies and processes should typically be set centrally so that all areas of the company are measured on exactly the same basis and changes are uniformly applied. Decentralization and therefore more coordinated information management policies and processes may be acceptable in a business that is more product oriented than service (data) oriented.

    Even at the initial phase, an overall EIT governance policy, driven from an enterprise policy, is required to establish its authority.

    6.4 Budgets and Asset Management

    EIT management must plan for all needed EIT resources in its budgeting. These resources to be budgeted for include salaries and overhead for personnel, as well as acquisition of outside services and material assets. Assets represent value to the organization. While they aren't always included on balance sheets, they must be considered at the time of an acquisition, merger, or liquidation.

    EIT products and services are typically bundled into operations sustainment, new development projects, and modifications. Business cases for the work are prioritized according to business needs and strategies, budgeted, and funded often as part of portfolio management. See also Change Initiatives.

    Those priorities must include the factors in the strategic environmental scan. For example, to ensure the rapid geographic expansion of business plans, new methods and designs may be adopted that diverge from the existing EIT strategies and mean incurring new costs. Sometimes cost control can be the important overriding priority that limits EA visions and plans for the overall EIT system evolution. However, such short-term thinking can be at the risk of mounting technical debt.

    [http://eitbokwiki.org/Glossary#tco More and more, organizations are looking at Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), utuilizing careful application of strategies, such as:

    • Infrastructure allocation/management
    • Application rationalization
    • Device and data access policies
    • Process assessment (identification of wasted effort)
    • Application lessons learned
    • Feedback loops
    • Process improvement/re-engineering
    • Licensing re-negotiation
    • Various outsourcing initiatives

    Contract management with vendors including outsourcing, licensing, SLA, OLA, cloud computing, and project resourcing is also the responsibility of EIT governance (see also the Acquisition chapter).

    6.5 Quality [14]

    Quality is a key control in EIT governance that is manifested across all policies, processes, and procedures. There are two basic ways of approaching quality. The first is to take a passive approach; in effect to adhere to the idea that quality is “baked in” to the organization through the policies, processes, and procedures, and where quality controls are established as an output measurement much like in manufacturing environments. The second approach is more active, setting out a separate responsibility for quality that establishes responsibility, checks adherence, and advises and reports on quality risk and failures along at many points along work streams.

    The adoption of best practices is an indication of a more mature organization requiring active quality-assurance management as part of overall EIT governance. For example, Quality standard ISO 9001 applies when an organization:

    • Needs to demonstrate its ability to consistently provide product that meets customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.
    • Aims to enhance customer satisfaction through the effective application of the system, including processes for continual improvement of the system and the assurance of conformity to customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.

    Monitoring and performing impact analysis of regulatory and changes in industry standards is also a quality assurance activity shared with legal and enterprise architecture.

    An organization can address the risk of damage to its reputation and potential fines due to information leakage and misinterpretation by adopting strong data quality-assurance practices within a data-governance program. [15]

    The EIT functions described below all have quality dimensions to their activities. See also the Quality chapter.

    6.6 EIT Risk Management and Regulatory Compliance [16]

    EIT policies, standards, and processes all deal with risk to some degree. Policies typically include explicit sections on risk approaches that the organization wants to adopt including EIT security policy, EIT governance policy, EIT financial management policy, data privacy and classification policy, disaster preparedness policy, supply chain management, vendor management, employee ethics, and regulation adherence policy.

    Risk management in EIT involves the following activities:

    • Risk identification — Relevant EIT risk profiles on systems are specified. Types of risks are financial, reputational, regulatory (projected and current), security, EIT disaster, market innovation speed, and supplier performance.
    • Risk evaluation — All identified risks are evaluated for their severity and likelihood.
    • Risk response — Response plans are generated for the most severe and likely risks. Generally, the response is either to accept the risk and do nothing because likelihood or organization concern is low, to accept the risk and plan contingencies for the occurrence, or to transfer the risk to a third party via insurance.

    6.7 EIT Maturity Management [17]

    The maturity of EIT functions directly relates to the ability to execute the EIT strategy. Therefore, there is a need to assess maturity as an input to a realistic plan and as a guide to maturing EIT to desired levels. In other words, unless the EIT organization understands its own needs and abilities, it can’t make plans to do more or to improve. The adoption of lessons learned is a key improvement strategy.

    Some principles in mounting and actioning maturity assessments are:

    • Business and EIT culture and interaction are key elements to capability and performance and cannot be ignored in an evaluation.
    • Outputs of the maturity analysis are direct inputs to planning and the strategy plan execution roadmap.

    Maturity assessment involves scoring against criteria and a ranking scheme. This assessment is generally organized in ascending steps with strategies on how to move up the maturity scale. Scales are often 1-5 and indicate increasing levels of maturity. Some schemes allow for scoring that includes decimal points (e.g., 2.5).

    1. Performed: Activities are performed in an ad hoc manner.
    2. Managed: Activities are performed with managed processes.
    3. Defined: Activities are defined so the organization can performed them in a uniformed manner.
    4. Measured: Oversight is given to the performed activities to ensure performance and uniformity.
    5. Optimized: Continuous improvement processes are in place on the defined and measured processes.

    Periodic reassessments are performed to gauge progress against the baseline assessment and prior periods. Adjustments to the efforts to maintain and improve maturity can then be made against possible strategic priority changes, governance initiatives, and roadmap resets.

    Maturity assessments on internationally recognized frameworks generally involve external auditors with certification and recertification requirements. Engagement in the maturity assessment and improvement process requires a minimum level of organization self-awareness to the issues and commitment to the improvements necessary. A cultural readiness, resistance, and capability assessment may be built into a maturity assessment.

    Bodies of knowledge guides exist as capability and light maturity assessment frameworks many of which are referenced by EITBOK.

    Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) [18] is a standard reference model for process improvement with cross-sector applicability with special focuses:

    1. Product and service development — CMMI for Development (CMMI-DEV)
    2. Service establishment, management, — CMMI for Services (CMMI-SVC)
    3. Product and service acquisitionCMMI for Acquisition (CMMI-ACQ)
    4. Data management — CMMI for Data (CMMI-DMM)

    When reviewed and areas prioritized by management, a maturity assessment is an input to the EIT roadmap development for change.

    Organizing and communicating for change in order to move up the maturity scale is managed by EIT governance.

    EIT governance also provides reality checks on the goals and timing to the desired objectives as materialized through EIT change initiatives. (See also Change Initiatives).

    6.8 Service Management [19]

    Service management in EIT has its own strategic plan encompassing the full system life cycle support from concept to deployment and retirement. It is the EIT function that designs and implements control structures within the EIT governance framework including:

    6.9 Project Management Oversight [20]

    Project management is an integral part of EIT governance, and a requirement for all change initiatives in EIT including new projects, enhancements, upgrades, and significant operations changes. These include traditional EIT activities as well as supporting activities such as communications and human resources.

    EIT governance mandates that project-level controls are initiated and sustained at a level appropriate for the scale of the work that satisfies EIT governance reporting requirements. Required project-level controls include quality, cost, risk, schedule, deliverables, process, and authority.

    • All EIT activities require a planning horizon and it is EIT governance that ensures that the adequate resources (including staff, material, and funding) are available to approved activities in a timely manner. In this way, EIT governance at the CIO-level works closely with vendors, project managers, financial management staff, and suppliers to achieve these aims.
    • The project management office (PMO) supports a subset of all projects. This formal oversight body is setup to instantiate best repeatable practices in project management and to assist in reporting status. PMO scope is usually limited to those projects holding significant risk to the organization, and significant cost.

    6.10 EIT Portfolio and Program Management through Business Case Management

    In budgeting for all EIT activities, their value to the enterprise must be evaluated. So called "support" activities are no exception. All proposed efforts should be evaluated through a common lens, and use a standard funding process as shown in Figure 7. This approach enables the EIT organization to escape the problem of 80% of its resources being allocated to "sustainment," becasue it forces business and EIT management to examine the cost-effectiveness of sustaining old systems rather than adding new services.

    Figure2.5.JPG

    Figure 7. Steps in Business Case Development

    Work is prioritized and moved forward into the realization phase based on the business and EIT strategic plans. The Change Initiatives chapter describes how new projects are treated as change initiatives in order to be successful. The process is monitored for continuing business alignment and need, feasibility factors, stakeholder interest, resourcing opportunities, competitor activity, new EIT tools and approaches, and government requirements in the industry. All of these factors influence the speed at which concepts move through the process or even get dropped entirely from the plan.

    Reporting and oversight is also applied to aggregates of projects into portfolios and programs. EIT portfolios are a set of scoped applications and systems that are closely interrelated; for example, the accounts payable, accounts receivable, and ledger production in an organization. Programs may span portfolios as multi-phase, multi-year initiatives. Project and portfolio grouping allows for more holistic views on change, impact analysis and synergies, business case development, upgrading, operations problem identification, communication and recovery, vendor and business relationship management, and multi-project oversight.

    Portfolio managers work closely with project managers, architects, operations managers, and business users to make sure that the relationships and the understanding between the business and EIT are strong and transparent.

    Programs can affect multiple portfolios and often have their own multi-year separate organization structure and board-level interest and oversight. In this way, activities are:

    • A new layer of activity that introduces broader change impacting large parts of existing EIT through replacement, incremental improvements, and significant new approaches, such as mobile application, CP, and cloud computing.
    • Geared tightly to high business priorities and strategies. Every program is directly linked to achieving specific business (and by inheritance EIT strategy) goals and objectives.

    6.11 EIT Change Management [21]

    The change management function exercises the authority to introduce change into the EIT environment and is the responsibility of both the business and EIT. The governing of change management activities occurs at varying levels of detail depending on the nature of the change. Any change, whether a commissioning of a new system, an application enhancement, a sustainment activity to maintain operations, or corrective action to repair a defect, is approved through governance processes.

    • Changes may be at the strategic re-alignment level as plans and architecture responses move to adjust projects and programs that are prioritized or in flight, including the possibility of activity shutdown.
    • Changes may be at the operational level where a change control board or change advisory board approves code or systems, or data changes into the production environments and can include planned and unplanned (emergency) changes, projects, and releases.
    • Incidents occurring from change handling activities are reported to EIT governance for possible response particularly if additional funding is required for corrective action. Other incident handling occurs at a more local response level.
    • Change patterns are monitored and advice on adjustments to programs and procedures are generated for EIT governance consideration.

    The Transition into Operation chapter discusses release management including the preparation of the environment prior to promotions into production operations.

    6.12 EIT Governance Reporting

    Governance reporting keeps an eye on strategic themes, potentials for intervention on processes, and projects that are at risk, and offers opportunities for supported learning and improvement in underperforming areas. Appropriate accountability drives change and control authority and can ensure that active oversight is in place to handle possible performance penalties to third parties. Also see the Acquisition chapter.

    • Build a feedback or action model to ensure that issues are addressed quickly. Review and remediation actions are authorized at the appropriate level.
    • Typical EIT governance reporting consists of interval reports to C-level officers in a steering committee, oversight committee, or operations committee with measures of performance and issues from the governance management streams described in brief. Reporting at a board of directors level integrates a smaller set of measures from EIT governance.

    Metrics [22] standardize the reports and allow the tracking of progress over time. Some metrics can be characterized as KPI that are of special significance to EIT and business as they are considered to best support the highest priorities.

    • General themes are based on strategic plan, project, and operations demands:
      • Adherence to action plan and funding
      • Goal achievement measures (e.g., balanced scorecard)
      • Plan execution achievement
      • Organization change
      • Financial position trending, demand forecast
      • Outstanding work tickets
      • Emergency preparedness/disaster drills results
      • Quality scorecard
    • All metrics should have measurable targets. There are a number of reporting approaches, with the scorecard approach being the most common. [23]
    • Participant reporting from EIT areas often have more stringent targets set to ensure higher-level aggregate successful target achievement overall. Participant reporting may also combine with other lateral participant reporting metrics in an additive or algorithmic manner to construct higher-level metrics and measures.

    It is becoming common for senior managers to have compensation partially or entirely driven by these performance measurement results.

    7 Effective Strategy and Governance

    EIT governance is effective only if cultural and management buy in are deeply established and carried on in a continuous manner to the appropriate level of management with a communication plan. However, that is not enough to ensure governance success. Reasons for ineffective governance include:

    • Compliance activities and reporting without any review, action, or consequences
    • Poorly designed engagement model
    • Uneven authority in governance oversight
    • Ineffective delegation of authority
    • Untimely actioning of governance issues
    • Poorly thought out governance metrics (measuring the wrong thing, or encouraging the wrong activities)
    • Inaccurate data collection and spotty reporting
    • Drifting from the enterprise and business strategies over time so that governance is misfocused


    8 Summary

    According to Michael Porter (Porter, M.E. (2008). The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy. Harvard Business Review, January 2008, pp. 79–93), more than 80% of organizations do not successfully execute their business strategies. He estimates that in over 70% of these cases, the reason was not the strategy itself, but ineffective execution. Poor strategy execution is the most significant management challenge facing public and private organizations in the 21st century according to Gartner (Lapkin, Anne, & Young, Colleen M. (2011). The Management Nexus: Closing the Gap Between Strategy and Execution. Gartner). What good does it do for an organization to have a well-considered strategy that it cannot execute? Such a scenario, which is all too common according to Porter, has a dual downside. The organization will fall further behind the competition and sub-optimize resources and revenue opportunities. But that same organization will spend significant capital on failed projects that can undermine confidence with customers and investors in the management team and the organization as a whole. This is not a good position to be in and, therefore, organizations must determine effective ways to take business strategy and make it actionable.

    EIT strategy determines the basic long-term goals of an enterprise. Effective EIT governance is the key to executing that EIT strategy.

    Good governance is good processes and actions in making and implementing decisions. Strategy and its clear goals provide the yardstick for making decisions. Good governance has several characterisitics that underpin all of the governance areas described above. These characteristics include well-understood meeting procedures, service quality protocols, management conduct, role clarification and good working relationships, all of which contribute to the hallmarks of effective EIT governance: accountability, transparency, participation and ethical behavior.

    9 Key Competence Frameworks

    While many large companies have defined their own sets of skills for purposes of talent management (to recruit, retain, and further develop the highest quality staff members that they can find, afford and hire), the advancement of EIT professionalism will require common definitions of EIT skills that can be used not just across enterprises, but also across countries. We have selected 3 major sources of skill definitions. While none of them is used universally, they provide a good cross-section of options.

    Creating mappings between these frameworks and our chapters is challenging, because they come from different perspectives and have different goals. There is rarely a 100% correspondence between the frameworks and our chapters, and, despite careful consideration some subjectivity was used to create the mappings. Please take that in consideration as you review them.

    9.1 Skills Framework for the Information Age

    The Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) has defined nearly 100 skills. SFIA describes 7 levels of competency which can be applied to each skill. Not all skills, however, cover all seven levels. Some reach only partially up the seven step ladder. Others are based on mastering foundational skills, and start at the fourth or fifth level of competency. It is used in nearly 200 countries, from Britain to South Africa, South America, to the Pacific Rim, to the United States. (http://www.sfia-online.org)


    Skill Skill Description Competency Levels
    IT governance The establishment and oversight of an organisation's approach to the use of information, digital services and associated technology. Includes responsibility for provision of digital services; levels of service and service quality which meet current and future business requirements; policies and practices for conformance with mandatory legislation and regulations; strategic plans for technology to enable the organisation's business strategy; transparent decision making, leading to justification for investment, with appropriate balance between stakeholder benefits, opportunities, costs, and risks. 5-7
    Enterprise and business architecture The creation, iteration, and maintenance of structures such as enterprise and business architectures embodying the key principles, methods and models that describe the organisation's future state, and that enable its evolution. This typically involves the interpretation of business goals and drivers; the translation of business strategy and objectives into an “operating model”; the strategic assessment of current capabilities; the identification of required changes in capabilities; and the description of inter-relationships between people, organisation, service, process, data, information, technology and the external environment. The architecture development process supports the formation of the constraints, standards and guiding principles necessary to define, assure and govern the required evolution; this facilitates change in the organisation's structure, business processes, systems and infrastructure in order to achieve predictable transition to the intended state. 6-7
    IT strategy and planning The creation, iteration and maintenance of a strategy in order to align IT plans with business objectives and the development of plans to drive forward and execute that strategy. Working with stakeholders to communicate and embed strategic management via objectives, accountabilities and monitoring of progress. 5-7
    Information management The overall governance of how all types of information, structured and unstructured, whether produced internally or externally, are used to support decision-making, business processes and digital services. Encompasses development and promotion of the strategy and policies covering the design of information structures and taxonomies, the setting of policies for the sourcing and maintenance of the data content, and the development of policies, procedures, working practices and training to promote compliance with legislation regulating all aspects of holding, use and disclosure of data. 6-7
    Information systems coordination Typically within a large organisation in which the information strategy function is devolved to autonomous units, or within a collaborative enterprise of otherwise independent organisations, the coordination of information strategy matters where the adoption of a common approach (such as shared services) would benefit the organisation. 6-7
    IT management The management of the IT infrastructure and resources required to plan for, develop, deliver and support IT services and products to meet the needs of a business. The preparation for new or changed services, management of the change process and the maintenance of regulatory, legal and professional standards. The management of performance of systems and services in terms of their contribution to business performance and their financial costs and sustainability. The management of bought-in services. The development of continual service improvement plans to ensure the IT infrastructure adequately supports business needs. 7
    Financial management The overall financial management, control and stewardship of the IT assets and resources used in the provision of IT services, including the identification of materials and energy costs, ensuring compliance with all governance, legal and regulatory requirements. 6
    Portfolio management The development and application of a systematic management framework to define and deliver a portfolio of programmes, projects and/or ongoing services, in support of specific business strategies and objectives. Includes the implementation of a strategic investment appraisal and decision making process based on a clear understanding of cost, risk, inter-dependencies, and impact on existing business activities, enabling measurement and objective evaluation of potential changes and the benefits to be realised. The prioritisation of resource utilisation and changes to be implemented. The regular review of portfolios. The management of the service pipeline (proposed or in development), service catalogue (live or available for deployment) and retired services. 7
    Programme management The identification, planning and coordination of a set of related projects within a programme of business change, to manage their interdependencies in support of specific business strategies and objectives. The maintenance of a strategic view over the set of projects, providing the framework for implementing business initiatives, or large-scale change, by conceiving, maintaining and communicating a vision of the outcome of the programme and associated benefits. (The vision, and the means of achieving it, may change as the programme progresses). Agreement of business requirements, and translation of requirements into operational plans. Determination, monitoring, and review of programme scope, costs, and schedule, programme resources, inter-dependencies and programme risk. 7
    Project management The management of projects, typically (but not exclusively) involving the development and implementation of business processes to meet identified business needs, acquiring and utilising the necessary resources and skills, within agreed parameters of cost, timescales, and quality. 7
    Systems development management The management of resources in order to plan, estimate and carry out programmes of solution development work to time, budget and quality targets and in accordance with appropriate standards, methods and procedures (including secure software development). The facilitation of improvements by changing approaches and working practices, typically using recognised models, best practices, standards and methodologies. The provision of advice, assistance and leadership in improving the quality of software development, by focusing on process definition, management, repeatability and measurement. 7
    Relationship management The identification, analysis, management and monitoring of relationships with and between stakeholders. (Stakeholders are individuals, groups, or organisations who may affect, be affected by, or perceive themselves to be affected by decisions, activities and outcomes related to products, services or changes to products and services). The clarification of mutual needs and commitments through consultation and consideration of impacts. For example, the coordination of all promotional activities to one or more clients to achieve satisfaction for the client and an acceptable return for the supplier; assistance to the client to ensure that maximum benefit is gained from products and services supplied. 7
    Sourcing The provision of policy, internal standards and advice on the procurement or commissioning of externally supplied and internally developed products and services. The provision of commercial governance, conformance to legislation and assurance of information security. The implementation of compliant procurement processes, taking full account of the issues and imperatives of both the commissioning and supplier sides. The identification and management of suppliers to ensure successful delivery of products and services required by the business. 7
    Quality management The application of techniques for monitoring and improvement of quality to any aspect of a function or process. The achievement of, and maintenance of compliance to, national and international standards, as appropriate, and to internal policies, including those relating to sustainability and security. 7
    Service level management The planning, implementation, control, review and audit of service provision, to meet customer business requirements. This includes negotiation, implementation and monitoring of service level agreements, and the ongoing management of operational facilities to provide the agreed levels of service, seeking continually and proactively to improve service delivery and sustainability targets. 7
    Information assurance The protection of integrity, availability, authenticity, non-repudiation and confidentiality of information and data in storage and in transit. The management of risk in a pragmatic and cost effective manner to ensure stakeholder confidence. 6-7
    Information security The selection, design, justification, implementation and operation of controls and management strategies to maintain the security, confidentiality, integrity, availability, accountability and relevant compliance of information systems with legislation, regulation and relevant standards. 6-7
    Business risk management The planning and implementation of organisation-wide processes and procedures for the management of risk to the success or integrity of the business, especially those arising from the use of information technology, reduction or non-availability of energy supply or inappropriate disposal of materials, hardware or data. 7


    9.2 European Competency Framework

    The European Union’s European e-Competence Framework (e-CF) has 40 competences and is used by a large number of companies, qualification providers and others in public and private sectors across the EU. It uses five levels of competence proficiency (e-1 to e-5). No competence is subject to all five levels.

    The e-CF is published and legally owned by CEN, the European Committee for Standardization, and its National Member Bodies (www.cen.eu). Its creation and maintenance has been co-financed and politically supported by the European Commission, in particular, DG (Directorate General) Enterprise and Industry, with contributions from the EU ICT multi-stakeholder community, to support competitiveness, innovation, and job creation in European industry. The Commission works on a number of initiatives to boost ICT skills in the workforce. Version 1.0 to 3.0 were published as CEN Workshop Agreements (CWA). The e-CF 3.0 CWA 16234-1 was published as an official European Norm (EN), EN 16234-1. For complete information, please see http://www.ecompetences.eu.

    e-CF Dimension 2 e-CF Dimension 3
    A.1. IS and Business Strategy Alignment (PLAN)
    Anticipates long term business requirements, influences improvement of organisational process efficiency and effectiveness. Determines the IS model and the enterprise architecture in line with the organisation’s policy and ensures a secure environment. Makes strategic IS policy decisions for the enterprise, including sourcing strategies.
    Level 4-5
    A.3. Business Plan Development (PLAN)
    Addresses the design and structure of a business or product plan including the identification of alternative approaches as well as return on investment propositions. Considers the possible and applicable sourcing models. Presents cost benefit analysis and reasoned arguments in support of the selected strategy. Ensures compliance with business and technology strategies. Communicates and sells business plan to relevant stakeholders and addresses political, financial, and organizational interests.
    Level 3-5
    A.4. Product / Service Planning (PLAN)
    Analyses and defines current and target status. Estimates cost effectiveness, points of risk, opportunities, strengths and weaknesses, with a critical approach. Creates structured plans; establishes time scales and milestones, ensuring optimisation of activities and resources. Manages change requests. Defines delivery quantity and provides an overview of additional documentation requirements. Specifies correct handling of products, including legal issues, in accordance with current regulations.
    Level 2-4
    D.3. Education and Training Provision (ENABLE)
    Defines and implements ICT training policy to address organisational skill needs and gaps. Structures, organises and schedules training programmes and evaluates training quality through a feedback process and implements continuous improvement. Adapts training plans to address changing demand.
    Level 2-3
    E.1. Forecast Development (MANAGE)
    Interprets market needs and evaluates market acceptance of products or services. Assesses the organisation’s potential to meet future production and quality requirements. Applies relevant metrics to enable accurate decision making in support of production, marketing, sales and distribution functions.
    Level 3-4
    E.2. Project and Portfolio Management (MANAGE)
    Implements plans for a programme of change. Plans and directs a single or portfolio of ICT projects to ensure co-ordination and management of interdependencies. Orchestrates projects to develop or implement new, internal or externally defined processes to meet identified business needs. Defines activities, responsibilities, critical milestones, resources, skills needs, interfaces and budget, optimizes costs and time utilisation, minimises waste and strives for high quality. Develops contingency plans to address potential implementation issues. Delivers project on time, on budget and in accordance with original requirements. Creates and maintains documents to facilitate monitoring of project progress.
    Level 2-5
    E.7. Business Change Management (MANAGE)
    Assesses the implications of new digital solutions. Defines the requirements and quantifies the business benefits. Manages the deployment of change taking into account structural and cultural issues. Maintains business and process continuity throughout change, monitoring the impact, taking any required remedial action and refining approach.
    Level 3-5
    E.9. IS Governance (MANAGE)
    Defines, deploys and controls the management of information systems in line with business imperatives. Takes into account all internal and external parameters such as legislation and industry standard compliance to influence risk management and resource deployment to achieve balanced business benefit.
    Level 4-5


    9.3 i Competency Dictionary

    The Information Technology Promotion Agency (IPA) of Japan has developed the i Competency Dictionary (iCD), translated it into English, and describes it at https://www.ipa.go.jp/english/humandev/icd.html. It is an extensive skills and tasks database, used in Japan and southeast Asian countries. It establishes a taxonomy of tasks and the skills required to perform the tasks. The IPA is also responsible for the Information Technology Engineers Examination (ITEE), which has grown into one of the largest scale national examinations in Japan, with approximately 600,000 applicants each year.

    The iCD consists of a Task Dictionary and a Skill Dictionary. Skills for a specific task are identified via a “Task x Skill” table. (Please see Appendix A for the task layer and skill layer structures.) EITBOK activities in each chapter require several tasks in the Task Dictionary.

    The table below shows a sample task from iCD Task Dictionary Layer 2 (with Layer 1 in parentheses) that correspond to activities in this chapter. It also shows the Layer 2 (Skill Classification), Layer 3 (Skill Item), and Layer 4 (knowledge item from the IPA Body of Knowledge) prerequisite skills associated with the sample task, as identified by the Task x Skill Table of the iCD Skill Dictionary. The complete iCD Task Dictionary (Layer 1-4) and Skill Dictionary (Layer 1-4) can be obtained by returning the request form provided at http://www.ipa.go.jp/english/humandev/icd.html.

    Task DictionarySkill Dictionary
    Task Layer 1 (Task Layer 2)Skill ClassificationSkill ItemAssociated Knowledge Items
    Formulation of basic policies
    (IT strategy formulation and execution promotion)
    System strategy planning methods Computerization strategy methods
    • CRUD analysis
    • CSF (Critical Success Factor)
    • ER diagram
    • IT portfolio model
    • KGI (Key Goal Indicator)
    • KPI (Key Performance Indicator)
    • EA (Enterprise Architecture)
    • System lifecycle
    • Formulation of computerization strategy
    • Data Flow Diagram (DFD)
    • Balance score card
    • Business process modeling
    • Business process re-engineering (BPR)
    • Business model
    • Program management
    • Modeling
    • Understanding of user vision, goal and business strategy
    • Risk analysis techniques
    • Computerization strategy formulation using application package
    • Business operations model
    • Business analysis methods
    • Information systems model
    • Total optimization

    (More)


    10 Key Roles

    These roles are common to ITSM.

    • Enterprise Architect
    • Service Portfolio Manager
    • Service Catalog Manager
    • Business Relationship Manager
    • Financial Manager
    • Availability Manager
    • Capacity Manager
    • Service Continuity Manager
    • Risk Manager
    • Supplier Manager

    Other roles can include:

    • Board of directors
    • C-level officer
    • Business partner
    • Architect
    • Governance body
    • Regulatory authority
    • Stockholder
    • Vendor

    11 Standards

    Commonly used formal risk standards include:

    • ISO 31000 2009 — Risk Management Principles and Guidelines
    • ISO/IEC 31010:2009 — Risk Management — Risk Assessment Techniques
    • ISO/IEC 16085:2006, System and Software Engineering — Life Cycle Management — Risk Management
    • ISO/IEC 38500:2015, Information technology -- Governance of IT for the organization

    12 References

    [1] See also Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT).

    [2] R. S. Kaplan and D. P. Norton, Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2004).

    [3] www.hoshinkanripro.com.

    [4] Business Motivation Model (BMM), www.omg.org/spec/BMM.

    [5] A Guide to the Business Architecture Body of Knowledge (BIZBOK® Guide), Release 4.1, Glossary, Business Architecture Guild, www.businessarchitectureguild.org.

    [6] Adapted in part from A Common Perspective on Enterprise Architecture, The Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations (FEAPO), 2013, www.feapo.org.

    [7] OMG Business Architecture Special Interest Group, http://bawg.omg.org, and Business Architecture Institute, www.businessarchitectureinstitute.org.

    [8] A Guide to the Business Architecture Body of Knowledge (BIZBOK® Guide), Release 4.1, Section 1, Introduction, Business Architecture Guild, www.businessarchitectureguild.org.

    [9] Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution, Peter Weill and Jeanne Ross, Harvard Business School Press, 2006.

    [10] A Common Perspective on Enterprise Architecture, The Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations (FEAPO), 2013, www.feapo.org.

    [11] IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results, Peter Weill and Jeanne Ross, Harvard Business School Press, 2004.

    [12] See also ITGC — EIT Global Controls - Global Technology Audit Guide (GTAG), Institute of Internal Auditors.

    [13] See also IEEE Code of Ethics and ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct as examples.

    [14] See also Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT).

    [15] See also DAMA-DMBOK Guide to the Data Management Body of Knowledge (DAMA-DMBOK), Chapter 4 Data Governance.

    [16] See also EIT Risk Management guidance - ISACA.

    [17] See also Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) for assessing primarily software development processes, but can be applied to other processes.

    [18] Capability and Maturity Model Integration.

    [19] See also Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

    [20] See also Project Management Institute, Project Management Body of Knowledge guide (PMBOK).

    [21] For change management guidance — Project Management Body of Knowledge, Chapter 4 Version 5 December 31, 2012.

    [22] Metric is the algorithm or mathematical and logical description of how measurement are to be taken. A measurement or measure is a score given at a point in time on that metric.

    [23] R. Kaplan and D. Norton, Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System, July 10, 2015, https://hbr.org/2007/07/using-the-balanced-scorecard-as-a-strategic-management-system.

    Also to be considered are:

    • COSO 2004 — Enterprise Risk Management — Integrated Framework
    • OCEG “Red Book” 2.0: 2009 — a Governance, Risk, and Compliance Capability Model
    • A Risk Management Standard — IRM/Alarm/AIRMIC 2002 — developed in 2002 by the UK’s 3 main risk organizations