What to expect from a Connected, Accessible EA Tool.

To set context before diving into this article lets just clear up what I mean by “a connected, accessible EA Tool.” Simply put it is a structured tool for documenting your current and future architecture states that connects your architectural artifacts to a central repository eliminating the need to rewrite, recreate or duplicate documentation and diagrams. It is fully configurable environment so that you capture pertinent information relevant to your organization in a way that suits your requirement Most importantly, it is accessible to a wide range of stakeholders through tools commonly used across the organization.

Key features to expect

Organizations are inherently complex; a profound advantage can be gained by having your organization documented. At a high level, you can model your organisations capabilities (what it does) and how it does it (people, technology, and processes).

By concentrating on a particular area, it can be documented and thereafter provide instant benefit from a deeper understanding and insight into how it fits together.

By analysing dependencies and relationships, EA teams can assess interconnected risks and prioritize areas for improvement or investment accordingly.

Beyond High Level Documentation

The high-level documentation described above should not be the only thing your tool is capable of. A robust EA tool should go beyond this and support detailed documentation and design work.

One great example is the documentation of integrations, not just showing which applications are connected, but capturing detailed information such as the Name, API Domain, URL, API type, Authentication, Pattern, etc.

This refined detailed view helps map the technical interconnections that make your organization tick and can surface insights that support operational excellence and strategic planning.

Taking it a step further

A step further should allow the capture of your integration success. Which integrations are successful, ill-performant, used/not used, shared between systems, etc.

This provides insights for future initiatives. This is just one example, but there are many, rather than list them here I invite you to peruse the Enterprise Modelling website and blog.

The Value of a Connected Central Repository

Returning to our opening paragraph. Any worth while EA Tool needs to provide a connected environment to the tools that are being used to document your organization. It needs to lend itself to effective updating with minimal or no rework and effort required.

For example, if you are taking time to capture data in an EA tool (as opposed to not, and just documenting initiatives, projects, environments, systems, etc statically), it should provide the ability to take this information and present it back to you cutting time on diagramming and documentation.

If you are already investing time capturing information in an EA Tool, it should be able to reuse those artifacts multiple times across multiple documents and diagrams. Updates should either happen automatically or preferably by a simple user-oriented action saving time and effort.

Accessibility is Key

Anybody who has used an EA Tool knows that keeping it updated and encouraging stakeholder participation is a constant challenge. The Enterprise Modelling App addresses this by integrating directly with Microsoft Office 365, making it immediately accessible to anyone within the organization who uses Office.

By embedding the tool directly in Office 365 it is instantly available to every user of your organization.

This ease of access allows collaborators to create or update data quickly, with changes reflected instantly in your reference architecture repository.

Reporting, Dashboards, and Insight

With role-based permissions, and with your repository available to your entire organization; this provides valuable insights and collaboration to every concerned Stakeholder allowing them to contribute to the EA function and realize its benefit.

Proper established business stakeholder engagement and contribution!

In a nutshell

So, there we have it, does your EA Tool provide such cohesion, is it accessible in everyday tools used across your organization, can it make effective and simple use of the captured EA repository. Can it integrate seamlessly into everyday tools like Office 365? Does it reduce time spent on documentation and diagramming?

Is it cost effective?

These are the critical questions to ask when evaluating your enterprise architecture toolset.