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Assurance Frameworks for Enterprise Digital Transformation:
We discussed in a previous article, the impacts of Agile introduction on the Architecture team. Then we have analysed the Architecture and Design deliverables required to effectively govern a large Agile Transformation.
In this article, we’ll introduce two effective and mature Assurance Frameworks for Enterprise-level Digital Transformation.
Assurance, which is the continuous assessment of all aspects of the Programme performance is key to a successful Digital Transformation. Governance is the framework within which timely informed decisions are made. To achieve the Business Objectives, the Digital transformation Programmes must be assured by governance frameworks.
When multiple Organisations, Teams and Stakeholders (and business interests) are involved, assurance activities are needed to ensure effective governance, so the expected business objectives are met and the benefits are delivered.
To deliver effective transformation governance, an organisation needs two fundamental frameworks in place:
- an Architecture and Design Assurance Framework and
- an Architecture, Design and Delivery framework.
We are now going to discuss them in more detail.
ADAFTM: Architecture and Design Assurance Framework
ADAF is Bruhati’s Architecture and Design Assurance Framework.
The Bruhati Architecture and Design Assurance Framework spans across the whole Digital Transformation Value Chain assuring that Architecture and Design team are involved in every aspect of the Transformation delivery lifecycle. The following assurance aspects should be considered for each of the delivery phases.
Strategy
- Are Enterprise Architecture deliverables clearly defined and aligned to strategy?
- Are internal and External Stakeholders correctly engaged and aligned?
Portfolio
- Are all the required Planning activities and dependencies in place?
- Is the Organisation structure ready to undertake digital transformation?
- Is the Change Management framework aligned and ready to undertake digital transformation?
Delivery
- Are PMO & Programme teams in place?
- Does the Solution Architecture and Design have access to the right tools, information and processes
- Is Design Assurance correctly planned and executed?
- Is there End to End Requirements traceability?
- Are Release dependencies correctly defined and Managed?
- Are all aspect of Migration correctly defined and planned?
- Is the Integration between applications correctly defined and managed?
- Can you control the Delivery Artefacts planning and quality?
Service
- Is service management fully defined and ready to operate the live service?
- Is the solution secure?
- Is the infrastructure able to support the live service?
- Is the solution ready for production and large scale use?
ADDFTM: Architecture, Design and Delivery framework
Deployment of an Architecture and Design Framework tailored to the organisation is key to successful transformation. Such a framework must include the definition of tools, processes, templates, metamodel, and taxonomy that will be used to model, document and govern the Architecture and Design of the solution.
ADDF is a SIMPLE, COMPLETE and FLEXIBLE framework that is tool-agnostic, which can be tailored to the Digital Transformation needs and integrated with the existing tools of your organisation. There framework is organised in 3 interconnected layers.
Business Layer
The responsibility of the Business layer is to Define and Refine Business Objectives, Architecture and Processes. This layer can be implemented using Enterprise Architecture modelling tools like SoftwareAG ARIS or BiZZdesign HoriZZon.
Delivery Layer
The Delivery layer supports Business Executives and Programme managers for Programme Scope definition and Delivery Management. This layer can be implemented using Delivery tools like Atlassian Jira or Azure DevOps.
Solution Layer
In the solution layer, Solutions Architects can define and explore Strategic and Release Architecture and Designs. This layer offers a platform to be used to define both the planned and the emerging architectures. It can be used to drive the programme Architecture and Design activity as well as a Strategic Enterprise Architecture Repository. This layer can be implemented using Enterprise Architecture modelling tools like SoftwareAG Alfabet or BiZZdesign HoriZZon.
With the implementation of an effective Repository, the organisation can :
- Easily Drive Impact Assessments connecting Epics and User Stories to Processes, Applications, Interfaces that are impacted by them. Vice Versa, given a business capability, identify all Application and Interfaces that support it.
- Achieve End to End Design Traceability linking Application Designs to Strategic Themes, Epics & User Stories in scope of each release.
The picture above represents all the main Architecture and Design deliverables necessary to successfully deliver a Large Scale Digital Transformation. The green boxes in the picture, depict an example ADAF and ADDF deployment . The main difference between Bruhati’s frameworks implementation and legacy frameworks and tools is that Bruhati’s frameworks and tools are fully connected through a common metamodel and offer a seamless experience that implement best practice process, templates and tools..
For more details on ADAF and ADDF, attend the webinar on Agile Architecture for Digital Transformation (clicking on the banner below) and you’ll be able to watch a Demo implementation of these frameworks.
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Manuel Di Toma
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