Enterprise architects have a great deal to accomplish in 2024. Let's look at eight things architects can do to drive their organization forward in the New Year.
Happy New Year, enterprise architects! We hope you have a great list of New Year's resolutions prepared, not just for your home life, but also in your work.
2024 is going to be a big year for enterprise architecture. It's time to finally wrap up your long-standing digital transformation efforts and launch into the revelation of generative artificial intelligence technology.
As such, we've put together a list of eight New Year's resolutions that enterprise architects should make in order to drive their field forward in 2024. Let's get started.
1 Get Involved With AI Governance & LLMOps
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) have been the predominant topics on the minds of both press and enterprise leaders for the last 12 months. There's little doubt that this is a revolutionary technology, but there are still questions over how it can be leveraged and, more importantly, controlled.
First of all, there has been a sudden flood of hundreds of AI vendors offering all manner of software solutions. This means enterprise architects need to take the lead in finding the right AI toolset for their organization and integrating it into their application portfolio.
Equally, we know that AI can be dangerous. This is both due to its propensity to 'hallucinate' about the validity of information, and also its pro-activity.
AI doesn't lie, per se, but it doesn't know the difference between a factual answer to a prompt and a creative one. If it offers you a plausible-sounding, but ultimately false, answer to a question, it's fulfilled its function.
This could, potentially, put your business at risk if you don't take the proper precautions. What if an AI that was integrated into your software portfolio hallucinated a good reason for it to delete all your customer data or decided your employees were hackers and locked everyone out of your system?
This is why enterprise architects can't shy away from dealing with AI. As a first New Year's resolution, we should all agree to support the adoption of AI and LLM operations (LLMOps), but also help institute proper AI governance.
READ: LLMOps - Is Your Enterprise Architecture Function Ready
2 Start Taking Sustainability Seriously
Sustainability is becoming increasingly important for organizations across all markets. Not only are regulators pushing for a 'greener' economy, but tech-savvy Gen Z talent is abandoning organizations that aren't driving sustainability forward.
Since IT runs on electricity, there's a great deal of pressure on us to reduce our carbon footprint. Yet, since IT runs as a connecting framework across the entire organization, understanding how computing can become more sustainable is far from simple.
For our next resolution, enterprise architects should be looking to understand the sustainability of their IT landscape and how it can be improved. We worked with PwC to create a solution for this, which you can read more about in their white paper:
DOWNLOAD: Sustainable Enterprise Architecture with PwC and LeanIX
3 Manage Your Data
It's often said that data is the new oil. The data your organization holds is its most valuable resource, and that's also true of your enterprise architecture data.
Since the information you've gathered about your IT landscape and application portfolio is so precious, it's time to start looking after it. So, your next new year's resolution should be to treat your enterprise architecture data better.
The first step is to move it from that awkward spreadsheet into a dedicated enterprise architecture management tool. To find out why, read about our recent partnership with Collibra:
READ: LeanIX Platform Powers Up Data Governance With Collibra
4 Have A Strategy For Cloud Application Modernization
To cloud or not to cloud? That is the question in 2024.
As much as some organizations are still lagging behind in their cloud transformation, some of the early adopters of cloud technology are reversing course and going back to on-premise solutions. Just as there are many innovative data streams you can bring into applications when they're based in the cloud, there can also be performance or security issues.
Both cloud and on-premise options are valid for different applications in different organizations, but you need to make a decision about which is right for you. As such, completing a cloud readiness assessment and putting yourself in a position to give a firm yes or no to the cloud for each app should be a resolution.
READ: App Modernization - Have You Completed A Cloud Readiness Assessment?
5 Stress The Soft Skills
As the world becomes increasingly automated and digital, the practical, hands-on aspects of IT are becoming less important. What is key now is for IT professionals to become educators and ambassadors for technology.
Creating synergy among your business process, strategic decision-making, and technology teams is much more important than it once was. For traditionally introverted IT professionals, diplomacy and collaboration can be a challenge.
This can lead to some business process experts not wanting to collaborate with IT and vice versa. More than ever, enterprise architects need to be bringing these functions together in co-operation.
For 2024, a key resolution for enterprise architects should be to develop their soft skills and communication with their stakeholders to build a better rapport. This can overcome objections and accelerate transformation.
6 Grow Your EA Maturity
So, you have an enterprise architecture (EA) function, but is it as developed as it needs to be? It's far too easy to list your applications in a single spreadsheet stored in an obscure corner of a shared drive and tick off that item on your to-do list.
To get true value from an EA function, however, it needs to be more than just a one-off initiative. It's not just about a single digital transformation, but a repeatable, iterative process of continuous optimization of your IT landscape.
So, item six on our EA New Year's resolution list is to start progressing towards EA maturity. To find out how mature your architecture function is, take our maturity benchmarking test:
START: EA Maturity Assessment
7 Measure Your Digital Transformation KPIs
70% of digital transformations fail, according to an infamous BCG report. As such, merely completing a business transformation initiative is cause for celebration.
The question, however, is whether it was worth all the effort. When you're finished, can you look back at the reasons you began the process and say for sure that you achieved your aims?
Some time soon, your CIO is going to call on you to present data on how your transformation compares to key performance indicators (KPIs). That means your seventh resolution should be to prepare a transformation KPI dashboard be ready when the ask comes in.
8 Leverage An Enterprise Architecture Tool
So, for our first seven resolutions, we've established that we need to be monitoring:
- Artificial intelligence applications
- IT sustainability
- Data quality
- Cloud readiness
- Application ownership and collaboration
- Your own enterprise architecture maturity
- Digital transformation KPIs
How do you do all of that? Well, you need an enterprise architecture management platform that can store, track, and analyze all of this information to ensure you keep on top of your resolutions for 2024.
As such, your final resolution should be to learn more about how LeanIX can enable your enterprise architecture function. To do so, book a demo of our platform below:
