Lecture 5: EA as a strategy Flashcards
What are the dimensions of PWC’s generic EA framework and what do they represent?
- Strategy: provides the context or why we are building a new customer strategy (because demographics have changed)
- Architecture: provide conceptual background and logical solutions to deliver the strategy answering ‘what’ (back-office needs new operating model delivered through new order-to-cash and purchase-to-pay business processes)
- Design: provides the physical solution ‘how’ (we will need a new HR service centre in this location staffed with these skills and tools)
- Operation: the physical operation business
What is the Project Start Architecture (PSA)?
The PSA ensures that new business developments and IT changes are realised in a cohesive manner and in line with organisation-wide management goals.
It translates the overall enterprise or domain architecture to the specific situation of the project.
What is Novus Diamond: Business Information Planning (BIP)?
The BIP is a bridge between business and IT. It consists of four dimensions: Business strategies, Principles, Architectures, Spearpoints and Projects.
Business strategy defines the strategy (SMART). Principles include design criteria (requirements of future applications). Architectures help to find key areas to improve (Ist-soll). Spearpoints are more specific key areas that need improvements. These spearpoints lead to project proposals.
What are the four key questions to ask for a digital transformation?
- What is our vision for improving the lives of our customers?
- What is our strategic driver? (customer engagement or digital solutions)
- What are our digital capabilities?
- How will we architecct our business?
Why is it important that EA is based on the operating model?
Because the purpose of the enterprise architecure (diagrams) is:
- to decide and communicate on
- high level requirements for the Foundation for Excecution
- in order to create shared understanding of how to company will operate
What is the EA Core diagram?
A one page picture (because EA diagrams should not have too much detail) representing a high-level view of the core processes, data and technolgies that constitute the foundation for excecution.
(It helps managers to discuss and understand their company’s enterprise architecture.
What key components are included in the EA Core diagram and what are some key questions to ask while building the model?
The key components are:
- core business processes,
- shared data driving core business processes,
- key linking and automation techniques (ERP),
- key customers (channels, segments)
key questions to ask:
- do the units have shared customers?
- do the units have shared processes?
- do the units have shared data?
- do the units have shared technologies?
What does a network value diagram describe?
It enables executives to make sense of complex relationships.
It consists of an enterprise, its customers, intermediaries and suppliers. It is the highest level model in the architecture.
(who are the customers and target markets, who are the trading partners, how are cpabilites sourced across trading partners?)
What does a capability diagram describe?
It only represents the enterpise subset of the value diagram and it introduces additional information concerning:
- capability definitions,
- information flows between capabilities,
interaction between internal capabilities, vale network actors and customers.
(what is the operational scope of the enterprise,
how do the capabilities work together to produce end-to-end results, what are the interfaces between capabilities and trading partner relationships?)
What does a capability blueprint include?
- What is the scope of each capability?
- What is the strategic and performance context of the capability?
- What are the elements involved in the capability?
- What are the relationships between capabilities?
What are the three types of enterprise architectures?
- EA as a model: zachman framework -> EA for one application
- EA as a change process: a picture of the AS-IS and TO-Be to guide business and IT decisions
- EA as a business strategy: operating model -> core diagram -> navigate to maturity and governance
What are three examples of organizations that digitally transformed?
- Lego: from making toys to transforming teaching and learning for the creators of tomorrow
- Philips: from X-ray’s to creating home-centered health care
- schlinder’s elevators: from elevators to moving people in buildings
Lower level architectural layers fill in the details:
- business process architecture -> key processes
- data of information architecture -> shared data
- application architecture -> apps and interfaces
- techology architecture -> infra services and technology standards
A value network:
consists of an enterprise, its customers, intermediaries, and suppliers
- it defines the full scpe of capabilities that support the value proposition to the customer
- allows the enterprise to access the set of capabilities that extends beyond the boundaries of the enterprise and the traditional value chain
- sources capabilities and defines the interfaces with firms in the network
an enterprise may have different roles in the network: a central node, suppliers, intermediaries, complementors
