Lesson 62 - Enterprise Architecture Strategies

Summary

In this episode of Software Architecture Monday, Mark Richards explores various enterprise architecture strategies, explaining their impact on team structure and standard governance. He outlines four types of standards: technology, architecture, methodology, and process, and discusses centralized strategies like prescriptive and classic alternatives, as well as decentralized strategies such as distributed and durable interface. Richards emphasizes the importance of selecting the right strategy for a company's growth and goals, promising detailed insights into each strategy in upcoming lessons.

Takeaways

• 👋 Introduction: Mark Richards, an independent consultant and founder of developer to architect.com, introduces the topic of enterprise architecture strategies.
• 🏢 Enterprise Architecture Strategy: Describes the structure of the enterprise architecture team and how standards are defined and governed across the enterprise.
• 📋 Types of Standards: Four types are discussed - technology, architecture, methodology, and process standards, each with its own scope and governance.
• 🔧 Technology Standards: Include platforms, databases, operating systems, and frameworks that can be standardized across the company or within units or teams.
• 📏 Architecture Standards: Refer to the documentation and diagramming of architecture, including the use of Architecture Decision Records (ADRs).
• 🛠 Methodology Standards: Cover the approaches used in software development, such as lean, SDLC, or agile methodologies, and their variations.
• 🔄 Process Standards: Define the processes for developing and releasing software, including documentation requirements.
• 🔮 Centralized Strategies: Involve a single enterprise architecture team that creates, applies, and governs standards across the entire enterprise.
• 📘 Prescriptive Strategy: A centralized approach where the enterprise architecture team dictates the standards to be applied company-wide.
• 🤝 Classic Alternatives: Another centralized strategy offering business units choices from approved standards to apply to specific problems.
• 🌐 Decentralized Strategies: Feature enterprise architecture teams distributed across business units, allowing for local definition and governance of standards.
• 🔄 Distributed Strategy: A decentralized approach with minimal enterprise standards but freedom for each business unit to define and govern their own.
• 🔗 Durable Interface Strategy: Focuses on a common standard for how business units interface with each other, with local autonomy over other architecture standards.
• ⚠️ Importance of Strategy Selection: Choosing the wrong strategy can hinder company growth or achievement of goals, emphasizing the need to validate the right strategy for a specific company.
• 📚 Upcoming Lessons: The series will delve into each strategy, exploring examples, details, pros and cons, and practical applications.
• 📝 Additional Resources: Information on enterprise architecture, software architecture lessons, private training, and upcoming events can be found on developer to architect.com.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the video script?

The main focus of the video script is to discuss various enterprise architecture strategies and what they mean in terms of team structure, standardization, and governance across an enterprise.

What are the four types of standards that enterprise architecture teams can define and govern?

The four types of standards are technology standards, architecture standards, methodology standards, and process standards.

What does 'technology standards' refer to in the context of enterprise architecture?

Technology standards refer to the platforms, databases, operating systems, different products, and frameworks that can be standardized across the enterprise, within each business unit, or even within teams.

Can you explain what 'architecture standards' are in the context of enterprise architecture?

Architecture standards primarily refer to the way architectures are documented or diagrammed, including the use of architecture decision records (ADRs) and the standardized sections within those records.

What are 'methodology standards' in enterprise architecture?

Methodology standards refer to the approaches used in software development, such as lean methodologies, SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle), or agile methodologies, and the variances within these methodologies.

What are 'process standards' and how do they differ from other standards?

Process standards pertain to the procedures for developing and releasing software, including documentation requirements and what is necessary or not within the enterprise architecture.

What are the two main types of enterprise architecture strategies mentioned in the script?

The two main types of enterprise architecture strategies are centralized strategies and decentralized strategies.

What is a 'prescriptive strategy' in enterprise architecture?

A prescriptive strategy is a centralized approach where the enterprise architecture team creates and governs standards that are applied across every business unit and team within the company.

Can you describe the 'classic alternatives' strategy in enterprise architecture?

The 'classic alternatives' strategy is a centralized approach where a single enterprise architecture team provides alternatives, allowing business units and teams to choose approved standards for their specific needs.

What is a 'distributed strategy' in the context of decentralized enterprise architecture strategies?

A distributed strategy is a decentralized approach where enterprise architecture teams are spread across business units, each free to define and govern their own standards, with minimal enterprise-wide standards.

What is the 'durable interface strategy' and how does it differ from other strategies?

The durable interface strategy is a decentralized approach where there are no enterprise-wide standards, but there is a common standard for how business units interface and interact with each other, with all decisions about architecture standards being distributed to each business unit.

Why is it important to choose the right enterprise architecture strategy for a company?

Choosing the wrong enterprise architecture strategy can lead to failure, lack of growth, or inability to achieve goals, making it essential to understand and validate the right strategy for a specific company.

Outlines

00:00

🏢 Enterprise Architecture Strategies Overview

In this introductory segment, Mark Richards, an independent consultant and founder of developer to architect.com, presents an overview of enterprise architecture strategies. He explains that these strategies define the structure of the enterprise architecture team and how standards are defined and governed across the enterprise. The paragraph delves into four types of standards: technology, architecture, methodology, and process standards. It also introduces two main types of enterprise architecture strategies—centralized and decentralized—with further subcategories within each. Richards emphasizes the importance of choosing the right strategy for a company to avoid failure or stagnation in growth and goals achievement.

05:00

📚 Deep Dive into Enterprise Architecture Strategies

The second paragraph outlines the plan for the next lessons, where Mark Richards intends to provide a detailed examination of the various enterprise architecture strategies. He promises to explore examples, details, and the applicability of each strategy, as well as their pros and cons. Richards also mentions that he will offer exercises to demonstrate the strategies in action. To support the learning process, he directs listeners to his website for more information on enterprise architecture, software architecture lessons, and details about private training sessions and upcoming public speaking engagements.

Keywords

💡Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise Architecture refers to the framework and set of practices used by organizations to describe, analyze, and improve their business processes, organizational structures, and decision-making mechanisms. In the video, it is the central theme, with the focus on strategies that define how the enterprise architecture team is structured and operates within the company.

💡Architecture Team Structure

This concept pertains to the organizational setup of the enterprise architecture team within a company. The video discusses whether the team should be centralized or dispersed among business units, which is crucial for determining the governance and application of standards across the enterprise.

💡Standards

In the context of the video, standards are the guidelines and specifications set by enterprise architecture teams to ensure consistency and compliance across the organization. The script mentions four types of standards: technology, architecture, methodology, and process standards, each playing a role in defining and governing the enterprise's operational frameworks.

💡Technology Standards

Technology standards are the specifications for the technological components used within an organization, such as platforms, databases, operating systems, and frameworks. The video explains that these can be standardized across the entire enterprise or within individual business units or teams.

💡Architecture Standards

These are the conventions for documenting and diagramming the architecture of a system. The video mentions the use of architecture decision records (ADRs) as an example of how architecture standards can be applied to ensure consistency in the way architectural decisions are documented and communicated.

💡Methodology Standards

Methodology standards refer to the agreed-upon approaches for software development processes, such as Agile or SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) methodologies. The video script discusses how enterprise architects might define variances within these methodologies to suit different needs within the company.

💡Process Standards

Process standards are the protocols for how software is developed, released, and maintained within an organization. The video emphasizes the importance of documenting what is necessary and what is not within these processes to streamline operations and ensure quality.

💡Centralized Strategies

Centralized strategies, as described in the video, involve a single enterprise architecture team that is responsible for creating, applying, and governing all standards across the entire enterprise. This approach ensures uniformity but may lack flexibility for individual business units.

💡Decentralized Strategies

Decentralized strategies, in contrast to centralized ones, distribute the responsibility for defining and governing standards across different business units within the company. The video outlines two types of decentralized strategies: distributed strategy and durable interface strategy, each offering different levels of autonomy for business units.

💡Prescriptive Strategy

A prescriptive strategy is a type of centralized strategy where the enterprise architecture team dictates specific standards that must be applied uniformly across all business units and teams. The video script uses this term to illustrate a classic approach where there is little room for variation.

💡Classic Alternatives

Classic alternatives is another form of centralized strategy mentioned in the video, where the enterprise architecture team provides a set of approved alternatives from which business units can choose, allowing for some degree of flexibility while still maintaining central control over standards.

💡Distributed Strategy

In a distributed strategy, which is a type of decentralized strategy, enterprise architecture teams are spread across business units, allowing each unit to define and govern its own standards while still adhering to minimal enterprise-wide standards. The video script highlights this as a way to balance local autonomy with overall corporate alignment.

💡Durable Interface Strategy

The durable interface strategy is the most decentralized approach discussed in the video, where there are no overarching enterprise standards, and the focus is on how business units interface with one another. This strategy emphasizes the importance of interoperability while allowing for maximum flexibility in how individual units operate.

Highlights

Introduction to enterprise architecture strategies and their meanings within an organization.

Explanation of the enterprise architecture team structure, including centralized and dispersed models.

Discussion on the governance of standards across the enterprise or within individual business units and teams.

Identification of four types of standards defined and governed by enterprise architecture teams: technology, architecture, methodology, and process standards.

Clarification of technology standards, including platforms, databases, operating systems, and frameworks.

Description of architecture standards, focusing on documentation and diagramming methodologies.

Introduction to methodology standards in enterprise architecture, such as lean, SDLC, and agile approaches.

Elucidation of process standards and their role in software development and release cycles.

Differentiation between centralized and decentralized enterprise architecture strategies.

Definition and explanation of the prescriptive strategy in centralized enterprise architecture.

Overview of the classic alternatives strategy, allowing business units to choose from approved standards.

Introduction to decentralized strategies and their distribution of enterprise architecture teams across business units.

Description of the distributed strategy, allowing business units to define and govern their own standards.

Explanation of the durable interface strategy, focusing on the common standard of business unit interaction.

Emphasis on the importance of choosing the right enterprise architecture strategy for organizational success and growth.

Announcement of upcoming lessons detailing each enterprise architecture strategy, including examples and applications.

Invitation to explore more about enterprise architecture on the speaker's website and upcoming events.

Transcripts

hello and welcome to software

architecture Monday my name is Mark

Richards I'm an independent consultant

hands-on software architect and also the

founder of developer to architect comm

in today's lesson number 62 we'll take a

look at various enterprise architecture

strategies and what those really mean

when we talk about an enterprise

architecture strategy those strategies

really describe the overall enterprise

architecture team structure in other

words is it a centralized team is it

dispersed among business units and also

how standards not only are defined and

but also governed across of the

enterprise or each business unit and

across teams let's talk a little bit

about what those standards really mean

because there's four types of standards

that could be defined and also governed

by enterprise architecture teams the

first of those are technology standards

things like platforms and databases

operating systems different products and

frameworks these could be standardized

across the entire enterprise within each

business unit or even within teams the

second kind of standard which might be

created and governed by Enterprise

Architect teams is also the architecture

standards architecture standards

primarily in terms of the way we

document or diagram our architectures

the way we document our architecture

decisions for example the use of

architecture decision records ad ours

and what sections are standardized

within those the third kind of standard

which might be defined by Enterprise

architects are all those also those

methodology standards whether it's lean

or some sort of SDLC or even an agile

kind of methodology and within these

methodologies what are the variances

within those and finally the process

kind of standards the way we develop

software the way we release software and

those kind of processes and again

documentation and what's necessary

what's not within the enterprise

architecture strategies there are two

main types of strategies that exist and

within those two in each of these

categories and so really what we have

our centralized strategies and

decentralized strategies centralized

strategies are those that really get its

name from the fact that there's a single

enterprise architecture team creating

applying and governing all of those

standards across the enterprise the

first of these is something called the

prescriptive strategy the most basic

this is also called the classic strategy

as well where enterprise architecture

teams create and govern these standards

and apply these across every business

unit and every team within the company

the other centralized one is called

classic alternatives now here we still

have a single enterprise architecture

team however unlike the prescriptive

this team provides alternatives hence

the name classic alternatives so that

business units and teams within those

business units can make choices on their

own about which approved standards

they're going to use for a particular

problem now on the other side of the

coin what we have are decentralized

strategies the decentralized strategies

is what we don't have a single

enterprise architecture team defining

and governing those standards across our

company rather those enterprise

architecture teams are distributed

across the business units and let's take

a look at the two decentralized

strategies the first is something called

a distributed strategy notice here that

there still are minimally applied

enterprise standards across the company

however each business unit is now free

to define their own standards and govern

their own standards and then finally the

durable interface strategy where there

really are no enterprise standards

however the only common standard in the

durable interface strategy across the

company is how the business units all

interface interact with one another

however all of the decisions about

creating applying and governing the

architecture standards are all

distributed to each business unit the

significance of these strategies is

choosing the wrong one can sometimes

cause a company not only to fail but

also not to grow or not to be able to

achieve their goals it is essential that

not only understanding these different

strategies but validating which one is

right for your particular company what

we're going to do in the next four

lessons is take a detailed look at each

of these various enterprise architecture

strategies we're going to find out

examples what they're really about

details about them and also kind of

where we would apply these standards and

where they're actually not useful for

we're going to see some pros and cons

alternatives the good and bad about each

of these kind of strategies then we're

gonna have a lesson or two where we kind

of wrap up the whole Enterprise

Architecture strategy piece with some

example exercises that we can actually

apply to actually see these strategies

in action so for more information the

first place you can go is less than

forty nine in my website developer to

architect calm

what is Enterprise Architecture this

will give you a good grounding about

enterprise architecture what it is what

are some of the goals of enterprise

architecture also all of these lessons

of course are in software architecture

Monday portion of my website under

developer to architect comm slash

lessons also I do private training in

software architecture also micro

services and also analyzing software

architecture and you can find out more

about those private training classes on

my website developer to architect at

comm slash training and finally I do

have a lot of upcoming events where I'm

speaking at public trainings maybe

conferences and also online training and

you can see where those kind of events

are by going to my website upcoming

events so this has been less than sixty

two enterprise architecture strategies

again my name is Mark Richards stay

tuned because the next four lessons will

actually be going into deep

tales about each of those four

strategies and then wrapping things up

so thank you so much for listening