The technology landscape of most companies evolves organically as the company grows, with technology decisions happening instantaneously or over a short period of time.
At some point, however, the complexity of the environment no longer supports the company and starts to limit it and slow it down. This is where enterprise architects can help, although most companies don’t have them.
What does an Enterprise Architect do?
Enterprise architects address this by striving to rein in complexity — in part by understanding the IT environment, mapping it to business capabilities, showing dependencies, highlighting opportunities for rationalization/optimization, and then injecting strategic thinking into technology decisions.
Enterprise architects can answer questions such as “If we want to achieve these goals, what should our landscape look like?” and “Once we define our future state, how do we get there?”
Although challenging and complex, the role of enterprise architect offers solid career opportunities in the IT world.
A recent Glassdoor report listed enterprise architect as the best job in America, with a starting salary of nearly $145,000 and more than 14,000 enterprise architect job openings.
Enterprise architects must ask questions, think strategically
According to James Stanger, CompTIA’s chief technology evangelist, as organizations increasingly rely on technology to run all aspects of their operations, there is a growing recognition that the role of the enterprise architect is a position in its own right.
“The need has arisen because you really need someone to guide these changes,” he said. “An enterprise architect creates the program, does the design, and then communicates continuously with the CIO, the CEO, and others who report to the CIO.”
Whether implementing an automation initiative or migrating to the cloud, it is the enterprise architect’s responsibility to ask the questions that guide the technology implementation and ensure that strategic goals across all departments are aligned.
“Enterprise architects are never saying no — they’re looking for the impact of changes that are happening,” Stanger said.
He added that smart companies have realized that they need an architect to be the navigator of the company, because the CEO doesn’t have time to always “drift” on all these separate elements of IT across all the different business units of the enterprise, no matter how big or small.
“They realized they needed someone who absolutely understood the leadership and could liaise and work with the technical people to make sure the system was always aligned with the business strategy,” he explained.
Part of the job is asking a lot of questions, because an enterprise architect will work deeply with every element of IT responsible for data management, application development, IT infrastructure, security and automation, Stanger said.
“What sets them apart is that they have experience, but they also have a great understanding of how all these things work together and play out, and what happens when they don’t,” he said.
Communication skills are critical, as enterprise architects must be able to communicate whether technology is advancing the company, not the other way around.
“Maybe there’s an element here that we’re overlooking, or the CTO can’t figure it out, and the CIO is busy making it all work,” Stanger said. “It’s the enterprise architects, so to speak, that bring the balance of power. They’re the ones who make sure everything works together, sometimes in unusual ways. That’s the point of an enterprise architect.”
Growing IT Complexity Adds to Challenges
Demand for enterprise architects is on the rise, as the complexity of IT environments poses serious challenges to businesses, from wasted IT spending and security and compliance concerns to a lack of organizational agility and adaptability, according to Andrek said Rist, co-founder and CEO of Lean IX.
“The fact that companies are not only relying on technology to operate but are increasingly investing in developing their own software and technology shows that the challenges will only increase,” he said. “The only way to address this growing complexity is through systematic, comprehensive and strategic enterprise architecture management.”
There are several ways that enterprise architects can help drive business process transformation — and business transformation more broadly, according to Christ.
First, they can help map the path from the current state to the transformed state, highlighting dependencies that need to be resolved as the organization moves forward, and show the pros and cons of different options.
Second, they can identify inefficiencies in the IT environment, such as redundant applications (two or more applications serving the same business function) or avoidable technical debt (such as maintaining obsolete applications when they can be retired or replaced program).
“Overcoming these inefficiencies is key to any meaningful transformation,” Christ said.
In the end, enterprise architects can provide valuable insights into which technologies are involved in which business processes and who owns or is responsible for them, he said.
“This simplifies the actual details of business process transformation, such as discovering who used which solutions, who is currently responsible for them, who will notice if something is shut down or replaced, and so on,” Christ said.
From a Stanger perspective, it’s all about communication, because the role of the enterprise architect involves making sure everyone speaks the same language.
“Even if they speak different languages, it’s the enterprise architect’s responsibility to make sure everyone is still looking to achieve the same goal,” he said. “In my opinion, the communication and liaison function is the most important part of the enterprise architecture.”
Enterprise Architects Play a Key Role in Cloud Migration
Enterprise architects also play a key role in determining which applications are the best candidates for cloud migration and what steps need to be taken to move them to the cloud effectively, Christ said.
“When looking at cloud readiness, EA can also determine what needs to be done to make this or that application cloud-ready,” he said.
Because applications in the cloud form part of the overall IT environment, enterprise architects also connect execution and strategy by maintaining a meaningful overview of what’s in the cloud, what’s not, and how they’re connected.
“This enables companies to track their progress, while also helping to plan next steps or new cloud migration opportunities,” Chris said.
Stanger agrees that as organizations undergo migrations, enterprise architects must step in and take a high-level view of the plan.
“Moving to the cloud may indeed make sense, but has everyone considered the business impact of moving to the cloud?” he asked. “Sometimes a migration can be from one cloud to another.”
Stanger said he’s recently seen organizations move elements from the cloud to the data center because it makes more sense.
“As an enterprise architect, the responsibility is to make sure that if you move something to the cloud, do you have continued functionality, flexibility or service?” he said. “How does this change other elements of the system? Enterprise architects are the ones who have [to ask] Tough questions: ‘You’re doing it to save money, which is great, but are we losing some kind of business capability and making other people’s jobs harder? ‘”
From a Stanger perspective, it boils down to the ability to gain a deep understanding of how business solutions are being used at every level of the organization and then determine how changes will affect the organization moving forward.
The Evolution of the Enterprise Architect
As the role of the enterprise architect evolves, Christ says the biggest change he’s seen is its shift from a governance role — where the enterprise architect acts as the technology police or professional buyer deciding what technology people can use or buy — to a strategic role.
“EA is now helping company leadership not only consider evolving technology needs, but also help them make informed decisions,” he said.
Stanger agrees that while most SMBs do not have an explicit EA role, larger organizations increasingly need to hire an EA to help them with their digital transformation initiatives.
“As with any higher-end job role, EA positions have a lot of opportunity for people,” he said. “Sometimes you see that the enterprise architect hat can fit into the CTO’s world or even the CIO’s world. But, especially in large organizations, the enterprise architect role is best served as a separate entity.”
about the author
Nathan Eddy is a freelance writer for ITPro Today. He has written for Popular Mechanics, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine, FierceMarkets, and CRN, among others. In 2012, he made his first documentary “The Absent Column”. He currently lives in Berlin.
