Enterprise architecture review boards are a key part of the TOGAF EA maturity journey. but they need the right tools to democratize EA. Discover how architecture decisions empower review boards.
Enterprise architecture review boards are an essential part of a mature enterprise architecture function. They're even listed as a metric for maturity by The Open Group, the industry body for enterprise architecture.
Yet, a siloed and ineffective EA review board isn't going to revolutionize your enterprise architecture. To be useful, a review board needs to be closely integrated into operations across your organization. [p]This is what we mean by 'democratizing' enterprise architecture. To really drive the value you need, your review boards must:
To find out more about how SAP LeanIX can empower your enterprise architecture review board to drive value for your organization, book a demo of the new feature today:
An enterprise architecture review board is a multidisciplinary team of stakeholders from across your organization that assesses and feeds back on proposed changes to your company's IT landscape. Whether ensuring a new software application is compatible with the rest of your technology or considering cloud migration or artificial intelligence (AI) integration, a review board will guide and support your IT team.
The purpose of the board is to act as a microcosm of your organization. It brings together representatives of the users who will be impacted by the change, leaders who understand your ongoing business strategy, technical specialists who understand the technology being assessed, and enterprise architects who understand your IT landscape.
We've gone into detail before about how an enterprise architecture review board is an essential part of building a mature enterprise architecture function within your organization, and in turn vital for maintaining agility in an evolving technology landscape. However, they can also easily go wrong.
Critics of enterprise architecture often call it an 'ivory tower exercise' that is too far separated from the everyday activities of your organization to be of any real, practical use. This doesn't have to be the case, but without a central workplace to act as a source of truth and area for collaboration to your review board, your board can easily become unmoored from the rest of your organization.
SAP LeanIX ensures that your enterprise architecture review board remains informed by live data about your IT landscape. It then gives them an environment in which they can make enterprise architecture decisions and document them for everyone in your organization.
With SAP LeanIX, you can ensure your enterprise architecture review board is always grounded in the reality of your organization and that your entire company is working with the board to improve your architecture. This means that you can derive the real value offered by a mature enterprise architecture function.
Enterprise architecture review boards can easily become isolated from the rest of your organization. This means the information they're working with will be inaccurate and their decisions and guidance will be an obstruction to creating an effective IT landscape.
There are three main reasons why this happens and each has its respective consequence:
You can't know how best to optimize your IT landscape if you don't have clarity on its current function. Without accurate data, your enterprise architecture review board will make imperfect decisions, holding back innovation and reducing efficiency.
To collaborate effectively, you need a shared workspace so that you can direct your efforts into one model. Without one toolset for your review board and your architects, each member will effectively be creating their own model for your architecture that will have no value to your organization.
Engaging your organization in the work of your review board requires transparency. Unless your enterprise architecture decisions are published to your entire organization, none of your stakeholders will see the value of your efforts.
Enterprise architecture review boards are a key component of a mature enterprise architecture function because they drive efficiency and best practice. By bringing together technical expertise, strategic oversight, and user feedback, you can ensure that all your enterprise architecture decisions are informed and proficient.
This, of course, doesn't mean every decision will be perfect, but guidance from an effective enterprise architecture review board will give your initiatives the best chance of success. It will also mean you're in the best position to correct course when you aren't achieving the value you need.
Your review board should be built from a rotating membership made up from:
Yet, putting all these people in a room together isn't enough. You also need to inform them with access to the right data sources, enable them to collaborate within a shared workspace, and give them the means to document and share their decisions with your organization.
With architecture decision records, enterprise architecture review boards can bring their entire organization, and all of its technology, together into synergy. This empowers them to steer your organization towards its strategic goals, whatever they might be.
Enterprise architecture review boards must document their decisions, and also tie them directly into live insights from their IT landscape. To unlock this, SAP LeanIX documents and records your IT landscape as it develops..
This functionality allows enterprise architecture review boards to work with live information about their architecture within SAP LeanIX. This will inform decisions that can then be logged within our platform and linked directly to the applications and architecture features that are impacted by them.
Since anyone in your organization can view information in your instance of SAP LeanIX, review board decisions are transparent and concrete. This ensures that your EA review board never becomes siloed from the day-to-day reality of your business.
To find out more about how SAP LeanIX empowers enterprise architecture review boards, book a demo now: