2019-07-27 Saturday - Repeatable Architecture Processes

Photo by Suzanne D. Williams on Unsplash

In my consulting practice, there are several tools that I've created over the years to help clients move toward establishing repeatable architecture processes - and eventually moving toward an Agile (and Lean) Architecture approach.

For example:

1) Architecture Assessment Checklist - useful for quickly assessing an enterprise, application, or vendor product/service offering (often used in collaboration with a client's procurement team during their RFP process and preparing recommendations and vendor evaluation feedback to the leadership team).  Using this particular tool - primarily focused on evaluating technical aspects, this level of assessment analysis can often be completed over a period of 3-5 days.

2) Enterprise Architecture Assessment Template - A template for a deeper-dive assessment process - that is typically completed over a period of four (4) weeks - with the report usually consisting of 60-80 pages - that is intended to examine the following areas:

• Business Operations
• Product Management
• Enterprise Architecture
• Engineering
• Infrastructure
• Data Management
• DevOps
• Non-Functional Requirements
• Information Security

3) Enterprise Architecture Artifact Category Taxonomy - Currently in a working draft status, with 369 entries. I recently completed a major revision (v2) to its organization and structure. The next version (v3) will be another major revision and restructuring - and will be formally defined via OWL/RDF - to help facilitate some additional automated processing capabilities that I have in mind for the future.

4) Architecture Decision Record (ADR) Template - used to help facilitate the adoption of Agile Architecture practices - and help an organization move away from historically centralized governance of the majority of their architecture decisions - and minimizing the historically draconian "gating" function of more heavy-handed choke-point processes such as Architecture Review Boards (ARBs)

5) Solution Architecture Document (SAD) Template - An "illustrative, not exhaustive" exemplar - to provide a team or organization with a starting point of establishing a repeatable level of analysis in the preparation of a Solution Architecture - intended to provide guidance to team members that may be new (or, less experienced) - with respect to the concerns that are often missed. Always customized to suit the culture of the client - depending on their level of Enterprise Architecture Maturity, regulatory/compliance requirements, progression on their journey toward adoption of Agile Architecture practices, and on complexity and mission-critical nature of their systems and business operations.

The journey with a client is always a process of evolution - seeking to: "Accelerate. Innovate. Elevate".