http://www2.cio.com/analyst/report2321.html
City Planning: A Metaphor for Enterprise Architecture
Meta Group, Inc.
By Brian Burke
Analyst
Enterprise Architecture or City Planning? "City planning" is an easily
understood metaphor that architects can employ to communicate more
effectively the nature and value of architecture by relating the "unseen"
enterprise architecture to real-world concepts that are well understood.
META Trend: Enterprise architecture (EA) success will be determined by the
extent to which corporate and line-of-business managers comprehend, support,
and enforce the architecture. By 2007, 15 percent of EA core teams will move
out from under the IT organization's management structure, with direct
reporting relationships to either corporate strategy or corporate change
management functions. By 2007, 40 percent of enterprise architects will have
primary expertise in business strategy or process engineering.
Global 2000 companies are increasingly using a "city planning" metaphor to
define the processes and deliverables of the architecture program. The
city-planning model helps architecture stakeholders - IT managers,
line-of-business (LOB) managers, and corporate managers - understand the
role of architecture. In particular, companies are focusing on "building
codes" that define the principles and guidelines for architecture and on
"building permits" that are granted to change initiatives that have been
deemed compliant through the architecture review process. Currently, 20
percent of companies issue "building permits" as part of the architecture
review process. By 2006, this number will increase to 35 percent, as
companies both formalize and institutionalize architecture review processes.
Currently, 50 percent of companies have issued a clear "building code" in
the form of architecture principles and guidelines.
The city-planning approach does not imply a radically new approach to
architecture. In fact, we can relate the city-planning model to META Group's
architecture process model that was developed in 1996. Translating the META
Group architecture model to the city-planning approach, the common
requirements vision becomes the city vision, the conceptual architecture
principles become the building code, and the future-state models become the
city plan. The advantage of the city-planning metaphor is that it represents
processes and deliverables that are broadly understood, enabling
communication that leverages common knowledge while avoiding introduction of
entirely new concepts.
A fundamental problem for many architecture programs is poor understanding
of the basics (for example, "What is architecture, and why are we doing
this?"). In many companies, architecture remains a mystery even to the
stakeholders, and as a result, the value of architecture is continually
questioned. Architecture programs occasionally will fail due to lack of
understanding and support.
A problem architects face (even within the team) is the level of abstraction
that is inherent to architecture. More specifically, technology architecture
often is the specification of the interaction of data between systems,
systems with networks, and systems with users. Unfortunately, although these
interactions are real, they are not sensorial - it is not possible to truly
see, smell, or touch them.
Conversely, city planning provides a model of the physical world and entails
activity similar to the enterprise architecture process, yet more familiar.
For example, it is relatively easy for anyone to relate to the idea of a
building code specifying that bedroom windows must be at least 30 inches
high and 20 inches across to allow access for emergency fire crews. Less
obvious, however, is the need for Ethernet connections to be 100 Mbps to
enable adequate performance for streaming data such as video or voice.
With the city-planning metaphor, the key deliverables are the following:
a.. The city plan (or city vision)
b.. The zoning plan
c.. The building code
d.. The approved building-materials list
The City Plan
The city plan document defines the vision for the evolution of the city and
is driven by the most important strategies for the city. The business
visioning activity in the enterprise architecture process is the equivalent
of the high-level city plan. These activities provide the context and
direction for the evolution of the architecture.
The Zoning Plan
The zoning plan specifies the guidelines for the city's evolution,
identifying which areas will be for residential use, for retail use, and for
industrial use or for parkland. The plan also includes standards for the
type of buildings that can be used in a particular area (for example,
single-family dwelling, apartment, warehouse). The equivalent "zone plan" in
enterprise architecture is the infrastructure patterns, which define the
technical infrastructure required for specific purposes (for example, n-tier
client/server for transactions). In communities, each single-family dwelling
may have some variations, but they all comply with the broader definitions
of single-family home, which is similar to IT, where there are many types of
systems that support different business functions (for example, HR, finance,
sales) but each of these systems can be classified as a transaction-oriented
system - and may employ the same type of "technology building blocks" in
their construction.
The Building Code
The building code specifies the building standards that are important for
the community, breaking them down into different areas (for example, fire
code, electrical code, plumbing code). Some codes are universally accepted
(for example, every bedroom must have a window), while other building codes
may be unique to a city (for example, a Mediterranean island might specify
that "all houses will be whitewashed with blue trim"). Enterprise architects
must first review the "universal building code" (META Group's enterprise
architecture best practices) to determine which of the common building codes
are applicable to their company, and then also extend that standard to the
building codes that are unique to their company.
The Building-Materials List
The approved building-materials list for the enterprise architecture is the
"formally approved hardware and software products, configurations, data,
information, and processes used to guide the engineering of information
technology solutions for a given enterprise." Standards identify an
organization's preferred means of creating and managing all components and
related processes for IT organizations. They protect both the company and
the users by ensuring that the products have been tested and are fit for the
purpose, and that the products can be migrated over time. In the enterprise
architecture process, building permits cannot be issued until the
architecture has been delivered, since the architecture provides the
standards for compliance.
Companies that have used this city-planning approach have had success in
establishing the value of architecture by providing a communication
mechanism (and metaphor) that is easily understood by architecture
stakeholders.
Business Impact: Enterprise architecture must be understood and supported to
be successful as a method for designing and implementing change in a rapid
and recurring manner. The city-planning metaphor helps accelerate the
understanding and acceptance of architecture.
Bottom Line: Selling the value of architecture to the program stakeholders
is an essential component of enterprise architecture success. If the
nomenclature of architecture inhibits understanding and support, more useful
terms should be applied.