Lesson 63 - Prescriptive Strategy of Enterprise Architecture
Summary
TLDRIn this episode of 'Software Architecture Monday', Mark Richards explores the prescriptive strategy of enterprise architecture. He explains how this centralized approach mandates the use of common standards across the organization, reducing complexity and decision time. While this strategy offers cost-effectiveness and reusable assets, it can also lead to dissatisfaction due to its rigidity and the challenge of gaining enterprise-wide consensus. Richards also highlights the need for strong governance to prevent subversive projects. The episode invites viewers to consider the trade-offs of the prescriptive strategy in the broader context of enterprise architecture.
Takeaways
- 🏛️ The prescriptive strategy in enterprise architecture is a classic approach that dictates how solutions are developed using common standards across the organization.
- 🛠️ It involves a central governing body of enterprise architects who define a set of standards that every business unit and team must adhere to, such as specific technologies and methodologies.
- 🔍 The prescriptive approach aims to reduce complexity and decision-making time by providing predefined standards for all units, promoting consistency and reusability of assets like security frameworks and documentation techniques.
- 💰 One of the main advantages of the prescriptive strategy is cost-effectiveness, as it minimizes the need for individual units to develop their own standards and allows for the reuse of assets across the enterprise.
- 🚫 However, the strategy may not fit every purpose, as the central team's standards may not be suitable for every business unit, potentially leading to dissatisfaction and a lack of flexibility.
- 🤔 The strategy requires strong governance to prevent 'rebel camps' and ensure adherence to the defined standards, which can be challenging and may lead to resistance within the organization.
- 🔄 The centralization of standards can slow down the pace of innovation and the deployment of new projects, as teams must conform to the established infrastructure and technology choices.
- 👥 The enterprise architects enforcing the prescriptive strategy may become unpopular within the company, as they are responsible for imposing restrictions on technology and process choices.
- 📚 The script suggests considering both the pros and cons of the prescriptive strategy, acknowledging that while it has benefits, it also has significant drawbacks that need to be carefully weighed.
- 🔗 For further exploration, the speaker refers to lesson 62 for an introduction to enterprise architecture strategies and upcoming lessons for a deeper dive into other strategies and their applications.
- 🗣️ The speaker, Mark Richards, offers additional resources including private training classes, public speaking engagements, and online training through his website for those interested in learning more about software architecture.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the video script provided?
-The video script focuses on discussing the prescriptive or classic strategy of enterprise architecture, including its definition, how it is applied, and its advantages and disadvantages.
Who is the presenter of the video script?
-The presenter is Mark Richards, a hands-on software architect and the founder of developer to architect.com.
What are enterprise architecture strategies?
-Enterprise architecture strategies describe the overall structure of the enterprise architecture team, whether it's centralized or decentralized, and how standards are applied, governed, and defined across the enterprise.
What is the prescriptive strategy in enterprise architecture?
-The prescriptive strategy specifies how solutions are developed through a set of common standards applied across the entire organization, defined by a central governing body of enterprise architects.
What are the advantages of the prescriptive strategy according to the script?
-The advantages include reduced overall complexity, reduced decision time, reusable assets across business units, and the lowest cost type of strategy across the enterprise.
What are the disadvantages of the prescriptive strategy mentioned in the script?
-The disadvantages include potential lack of fit for every purpose, difficulty in gaining consensus, promotion of IT and user dissatisfaction, and the need for strong governance to prevent subversive projects.
Why might the central enterprise architecture team be disliked in the company?
-They might be disliked because they define all the standards that every department has to adhere to, which can lead to dissatisfaction if those standards do not fit well with the needs of every business unit.
What is the role of the central governing body of enterprise architects in the prescriptive strategy?
-The central governing body of enterprise architects is responsible for defining a set of standards that every business unit and team within the company must apply.
How does the prescriptive strategy affect the speed of deploying new projects like websites?
-The prescriptive strategy may slow down the deployment of new projects because every small team has to adhere to the basic infrastructure and standards defined by the central enterprise architecture team.
What are some of the trade-offs an architect should consider when evaluating the prescriptive strategy?
-Architects should consider the trade-offs between the reduced complexity and cost benefits of the prescriptive strategy and the potential for dissatisfaction, lack of flexibility, and the need for strong governance.
Where can one find more information about the topics discussed in the script?
-More information can be found on developer to architect.com, particularly under Software Architecture Monday and the Lessons section, as well as through private training classes and speaking engagements listed on Mark Richards' website.
Outlines
🏛️ Prescriptive Strategy in Enterprise Architecture
In this segment, Mark Richards introduces the prescriptive or classic strategy of enterprise architecture, which is a centralized approach dictating how solutions are developed using common standards across the organization. He explains the structure of the enterprise architecture team and how they define standards for technology, processes, and methodologies that every business unit must adhere to. The example given includes using Oracle for databases, F5s for load balancing, IBM hardware, Java, agile team structures, and standardized documentation. Richards also discusses the pros and cons of this strategy, noting that while it reduces complexity and decision time, leading to reusable assets and lower costs, it may not fit every purpose and can cause dissatisfaction due to its rigidity and the difficulty in gaining enterprise-wide consensus.
🚫 Challenges and Considerations of the Prescriptive Strategy
This paragraph delves into the challenges associated with the prescriptive strategy, such as the potential for IT and user dissatisfaction due to the inflexibility of the standards imposed by the central enterprise architecture team. Richards highlights the need for strong governance to prevent the formation of 'rebel camps' that might seek alternative technologies outside the prescribed standards. Despite the negatives, he reiterates the benefits of the strategy, including low cost and the promotion of reusable assets, which contribute to reduced overall complexity. The paragraph concludes with an invitation for further exploration of enterprise architecture strategies through additional lessons and resources available on the developer to architect comm platform, as well as information about private training classes, public speaking engagements, and online training opportunities.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Enterprise Architecture
💡Prescriptive Strategy
💡Centralized
💡Standards
💡Governance
💡Complexity Reduction
💡Reusable Assets
💡Cost Efficiency
💡Dissatisfaction
💡Governance Challenges
💡Trade-offs
Highlights
Introduction to Lesson 63 on enterprise architecture strategies by Mark Richards.
Definition of enterprise architecture strategies as they relate to team structure, standards application, and governance.
Explanation of centralized and decentralized strategies for enterprise architecture.
Introduction to the prescriptive or classic strategy of enterprise architecture.
Description of how the prescriptive strategy specifies solutions development through common standards.
Example of a central organization governing enterprise architecture standards.
Mandatory application of defined standards across all business units under the prescriptive strategy.
Illustration of a scenario where specific technologies and methodologies are standardized across the company.
Discussion on the potential downsides of the prescriptive strategy in terms of workplace flexibility.
Architectural trade-offs between pros and cons of the prescriptive strategy.
Advantages of the prescriptive strategy including reduced complexity and decision time.
Mention of reusable assets across business units as a benefit of the prescriptive strategy.
The cost-effectiveness of the prescriptive strategy as the lowest cost type of strategy.
Challenges of the prescriptive strategy such as lack of fit for all purposes and difficulty in gaining consensus.
Potential for IT and user dissatisfaction due to the prescriptive strategy's rigid standards.
The necessity for strong governance in the prescriptive strategy to prevent subversive projects.
Final thoughts on the balance between the advantages and disadvantages of the prescriptive strategy.
Invitation to review Lesson 62 for background information on enterprise architecture strategies.
Announcement of upcoming lessons covering other enterprise architecture strategies and case studies.
Information on private training classes, public speaking engagements, and online training offered by Mark Richards.
Conclusion of Lesson 63 with a preview of the next lesson on the classic alternative to the prescriptive strategy.
Transcripts
hello and welcome to software
architecture Monday my name is Mark
Richards I'm a hands-on software
architect and also the founder of
developer to architect comm in today's
lesson number 63 we'll take a look at
the prescriptive or classic strategy of
enterprise architecture as we learned in
lesson 62 enterprise architecture
strategies basically describe the
overall enterprise architecture team
structure whether it's centralized or
decentralized and how standards are
applied and governed and also defined
across the enterprise we saw in Lesson
62 that they were centralized and
decentralized strategies and there were
four total strategies we're going to
take a look in this lesson about the
prescriptive strategy the prescriptive
or classic strategy of enterprise
architecture really specifies how
solutions are going to be developed
through a set of common standards that
are applied across the entire
organization so let me give you an
example of what this looks like and so
we have a central organization in other
words a central governing body of
enterprise architects and those
enterprise architects and that team
define a set of standards now every
business unit and every team within
those business units across the company
have to apply those same sets of
standards let me show you an example so
with the prescriptive strategy let's say
that the enterprise architecture team
defines these set of standards that we
will be using Oracle for databases f5s
for load balancing compact hardware
we'll be embracing IBM along with Java
will have agile team structures and also
a standard way of document everything
across the entire company and the
prescriptive strategy says every
department has to adhere to these
standards hmm I imagine a lot of you out
there looking at this are probably
saying yeah right this would be a
horrible place to work
but Before we jump into any conclusions
a good architect always thinks about all
of the trade-offs the pros and cons of
any type of solution or any type of
anything for that matter so let's
actually take a look at both the good
and bad about the prescriptive or
classic strategy because although this
looks really bad there are some good
aspects to it first of all it reduces
overall complexity across the
organization as a matter of fact it also
reduces decision time in other words all
the business units already have all of
the standards again whether they be
technology architecture process or
methodology already defined for them and
because of that we get reusable assets
across each business unit if we think
about security frameworks or any sort of
persistence frameworks or any
documentation or diagramming techniques
or process we can reuse those assets
across each business unit across each
team and consequently because of that
one of the best advantages of the
prescriptive strategy of enterprise
architecture is that it's the lowest
cost type of strategy across the
enterprise and so if we look at these
advantages somehow you know it you could
say okay it's not all that bad but let's
look at the negatives to counter those
first of all as most of you probably
guessed this is not a good strategy in
the sense that it might not be a fit for
each purpose you see the central
enterprise architecture team is defining
all the kinds of standards and again
remember there's four different kinds
technology architecture methodology and
process and these may not be a fit
across every business unit as a matter
of fact it's also really hard across the
enterprise across the company to gain
consensus on these those poor enterprise
architects are the most hated people in
the company
and also the other thing is that it's
per does promote a lot of IT
dissatisfaction and consequently also a
lot of user dissatisfaction a small team
to put up a quick website has all this
basic infrastructure and those are the
standards they have to use and so we
can't get websites out as fast as we
possibly can and furthermore really
strong governance is needed in this kind
of model and because a lot of people are
going to be unhappy about those
standards and attempt to form kind of
rebel camps subversive kind of projects
to bring in other kinds of technologies
and so it's a lot of strong governance
and needed so we can see the negatives
are really really powerful here however
I do want to stress the fact that
low-cost reusable assets and also that
overall complexity across the company
are the advantages of the prescriptive
strategy so for more information
certainly as a background you can go to
lesson 62 and appraise architecture
strategies for really the introduction
to these and we're going to spend the
next three after this looking at the
other enterprise architecture strategies
and also then we'll have a lesson
looking at really case studies on how to
apply these all of these lessons can be
found in developer to architect comm
under software architecture Monday
that's slash lessons also I do private
training classes in software
architecture fundamentals microservices
architecture and design and also
analyzing architecture you can find more
information about those training classes
on my web site as well I do a lot of
speaking at conferences I also have
public training and also online training
that you can find through the upcoming
events portion of my website and so this
has been less than sixty three the
prescriptive strategy of enterprise
architecture get my name is Mark
Richards as stay tuned next lesson 64
for the other centralized one which we
can compare against prescriptive which
is the classic alternative stress
oh gee
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