Gene Leganza, Forrester VP Research wrote a post today titled “Babies, Bath Water, and Enterprise Architecture Maturity Models”. He gave an overview of why he discounted capability maturity models in the past as a technique for maturing EA. In the post, Gene wrote positively about the roadmap approach we use to plan, mature and assess our EA practice – our EA roadmap. I will keenly follow any comments and feedback from Gene’s blog post.
Here are the links to my earlier posts on our EA CMM approach that Gene referenced:
Gene, thank you for commenting on our roadmap approach. I will be looking into the “Goal-Question-Metric” technique you mentioned to further refine our approach (and I will blog on it when I am ready!).
If any of you want the templates, just email me at ldesousa12 AT gmail.com and I will be happy to send them to you.
I wrote about how we use an Enterprise Architecture Capability Maturity Model as a roadmap and measure of the success of our EA practice. This post has been the most responded to on my blog. I have sent the Excel template to colleagues around the globe to over 15 different people.
Just a quick refresher on the process I use for our EA CMM development:
- Identify 5 stages of maturity (processes: Level 1=Informal, Level 2=Development, Level 3=Defined, Level 4=Managed, Level 5=Optimized)
- List Attributes that describe the maturity level
- Develop Attribute Descriptions for further clarification
- Review with stakeholders particularly management and peers
- Create a spreadsheet to record the CMM
- Evaluate and score each Attribute (I used a simple scale of 0=not started, 0.5=underway, 1=complete)
- Total scores for each level to determine CMM level and total EA Maturity score
- Publish and review regularly (annually might be the best option)
So what were the big changes in our EA CMM from the last iteration? Unfortunately, not as much as I hoped. Managing a team of 24 systems analysts is more than a full time job.
There were some tangible improvements …. Read more...
We all know James McGovern has a strong dislike for things like CMMi and heavy weight processes but I wanted to share a light weight way to use a Capability Maturity Model to plan and build out your Enterprise Architecture. This tool has been a great way for me to build an EA practice from scratch.
In April 2005, I successfully competed for the Enterprise Architect position in the IT Services department at BCIT. Here is the list of initial responsibilities of the position:
- Developing and delivering presentations on EA to all levels of the organization
- Detailed development of the Data/Information EA as part of an TEK activity (Information Access and Management 3 Year Action Plan)
- Participation and assimilation into departmental processes and projects
- Approving all Project Charters and Change Requests for EA compliance
- Development of a plan for the integration and maturation of EA
- Provide direction and guidance for all technology related acquisitions
At the suggestion of my Director, I tried using a simple CMM to develop a plan for integration and maturation of EA. It took many iterations and consultation with colleagues and senior IT leadership to be able to publish a plan. The end result is the maturity plan I use to grow our EA practice. Read more...