Introduction:
In Today’s digital world, time to market cycle [Inception to Implementation-
Release Cycle] of any product or services or delivery of projects cycle time
required to be reduced or shortened thus reducing risk of being late entrant or
being termed as obsolete.
Both agile and enterprise architecture* are designed to reduce risk or minimise
risk of being obsolete. Agile reduces risk during implementation or execution.
It works in short increments a.k.a. Sprints, supported by Backlog Grooming,
Sprint Planning, Sprint Review and Sprint Retro at implementation stage while
at enterprise level it means – Alertness, Accessibility, Decisiveness, Swiftness
& Flexibility.
Integrating Enterprise Architecture & Agile
The integration is four steps approach where EA Team –
- Define Agile Approach – Covering Product & Platform, Service delivery
strategy & fourth block is Identifying and tracking Value streams [ITIL4] - Defining Backlogs – Defining comprehensive Product roadmap covering
aspects like Scenarios, Value driven delivery, Addressing Changes impacting
architecture framework - Constrain Sprints – Drive architecture specifications into the software
within enterprise boundaries and constraints by meeting Acceptance
Criteria, Value driven measures and resting points, Implementation strategy
[ADM Phase E – Opportunities & Solutions] and enterprise constraints
*As per Gartner EA is – “the process of translating business vision and strategy into effective
enterprise change by creating, communicating, and improving the key principles and models that
describe the enterprise’s future state and enable its evolution”
- Solve Dependencies and conflicts – This will cover stake holders’
management thus resolving Portfolio prioritization by using Application.
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Summary
EA Team and Product Teams need to adjust approach so that agile and
enterprise architecture efforts reduce uncertainty of success. As an EA Team,
look for vehicles where you can use an incremental approach or iterative
approach to lower the probability and cost of mistakes. When you lower the
cost of failed change efforts, you are reducing or removing DOWNTIME.
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