SAP LeanIX includes powerful diagramming tools that go beyond simply engaging stakeholders to driving enterprise architecture democratization. Let's explore the power of SAP LeanIX diagrams.
The SAP LeanIX enterprise architecture diagramming tools allow technical and non-technical stakeholders to communicate about enterprise architecture in a common language. Regardless of their understanding of enterprise architecture, any user can look at a visualization of your IT landscape and gain clarity on its functioning.
As your enterprise architecture function matures, this will go beyond simple conceptualization and engagement. Eventually, your diagrams can act as a rallying point for business transformation and IT optimization.
In the first two parts of this series, we considered the value of the SAP LeanIX diagramming capabilities for enterprise architects and their stakeholders. In this final part, let's look at how enterprise architecture diagrams can empower your organization to collaborate on optimizing their IT landscape.
SAP LeanIX diagramming capabilities allow you to recruit everyone in your organization to work on improving your IT landscape. To find out more about diagramming in SAP LeanIX, book a demo:
Leveraging Visual Languages
Language is challenging. A large part of the reason that human translators are still important in the age of Google Translate is the need to establish taxonomy to gain a shared viewpoint on complex concepts.
We've all seen comedic examples of translations that are technically worded correctly, but still miss the mark. For example, when HSBC bank launched its new slogan, "assume nothing", in other markets, it found the phrase commonly translated as 'do nothing' in many languages.
Confusion with translation is normal, and a common solution is to create a universal language using imagery. This is why washrooms have male and female stick figures instead of words on their signs, and signposts have arrows rather than directions.
Yet, this is equally valid when you're speaking the same language at different levels. Imagery can bridge the gap between different technical disciplines, and non-technical users, to establish a shared point of reference.
To an enterprise architect, it may be a 'SaaS micro-service with a high functional and technical fit'; to a CIO, it could be a 'key, cloud-native application'; but to a casual user, it's just Salesforce. Regardless, in a diagram, everyone can refer to the same part of the image and have the same understanding of what it means.
This is why establishing a visual language for enterprise architecture is so beneficial. It's far less likely that there will be any misunderstanding between stakeholders with a taxonomy-free point of reference.
An Enterprise Architecture Art Gallery
Expecting your stakeholders to read and comprehend a huge library of technical documentation is never a sound strategy to win engagement. However, a large repository of diagrams is not only easier to understand, but also far more appealing.
A good enterprise architecture diagram repository should be something like an art gallery. Exploring will offer a range of visually interesting and appealing images that will provide unique perspectives and insight into their subject.
Ideally, these will be carefully indexed by topic and stakeholder, allowing anyone involved in your IT landscape to find a curated selection of diagrams that offer them insight into the parts of the landscape that are relevant to them, particularly. These should all be based upon the same data and act as different viewpoints on the same landscape.
Effectively, you can think of each diagram in your gallery as a zoomed-in and enhanced section of a single, sprawling model of your entire IT landscape. This allows your stakeholders to look at the details of your model that are relevant to them and ensure they aren't overloaded with information.
While all your stakeholders are looking at different diagrams that meet their needs, they're also all working together on the same representation of your architecture. Of course, these could rapidly fall out of relevance if they aren't dynamic, and supported by live data.
To keep your diagrams relevant and easily accessible, you need a repository that empowers you to build and store live diagrams that can be updated based on your current enterprise architecture information. This goes beyond enabling collaboration, and ensures all your enterprise architecture stakeholders are working together to the same goals.
Keeping Everyone On The Same Page
We've all had occasions where we determine that an application should be retired, but find we need to engage in change management to persuade a user group that their toolset isn't optimal. With a diagram repository, your user group can look up their application and see the live data in a way they can interpret themselves.
Trying to explain APDEX, uptime, and technical fit is far more challenging than simply showing a traffic light diagram that's glowing red. With this instant recognition and shared visual language, everyone can work together towards a shared goal.
Rather than enterprise architects necessarily interfering with the work of other teams, you can bring together representatives from across your organization to work together as an architecture review board. This is an essential step towards enterprise architecture maturity, according to The Open Group.
READ: Enterprise Architecture Review Boards: How And Why
Architecture review boards not only serve to persuade all your stakeholders of the value of your enterprise architecture initiatives, but also bring ground-level insight on the day-to-day user pain points of your application portfolio to your planning. EA initiatives are far more effective when you operate holistically with your entire organization driving your work, rather than an isolated team working in a silo.
To enable enterprise architecture democratization of this kind, you need a diagram-focused enterprise architecture information repository that can both gather and collate your data, and also feed that data into dynamic, live diagrams of whatever kind you need. That's the power of SAP LeanIX.
SAP LeanIX Diagramming
SAP LeanIX acts as a central repository for all your application and IT component data, automatically gathering information from a variety of integrations and sources. Our solution will then leverage that data to drive powerful enterprise architecture capabilities, including diagramming.
We couldn't have become a market leader for enterprise architecture without advanced diagramming capabilities, including three different tools for creating and editing impactful visualizations:
- Free Draw: allows you to create any diagram you can imagine within SAP LeanIX
- Data Flow: is a similar, but more-prescribed type of interface, that allows you to model the flow of data through your landscape
- LucidChart: is another option that integrates with the leading visual collaboration tool, Lucid
These tools allow you to build diagrams that will inspire and engage stakeholders across your organization to empower enterprise architecture democratization. This drives synergy between IT and the rest of your business, and continual optimization of your IT landscape.
SAP LeanIX' powerful diagramming toolset is vital for driving enterprise architecture democratization across your organization. Discover the capabilities of our diagram tools by booking a demo of SAP LeanIX:
