What is Enterprise Architecture Roadmap?
An enterprise architecture roadmap is a global outline of how a project is going to be delivered to reach business objectives. This is a strategic document that tries to grasp the enterprise architecture vision defined by the enterprise architecture planning (EAP) process and summarizes what is required to achieve the project goals.
This type of roadmaps can be used for company-wide initiatives, such as:
- Change management – ensuring that everyone in the company get support while transitioning to a new way of work
- Digital transformation – moving the company’s processes to digital platforms
- Legal changes – making necessary modifications to comply with new standards or regulations, such as GDPR.
Types of EA Roadmaps
There exist four basic types of enterprise architecture roadmaps different in their complexity:
- Heatmaps and recommendations
This style is the most basic and focuses on making recommendations on what should happen without specifying how or when. It uses metrics like Retain-Redesign-Refresh-Retire to heatmap business capability maps to visualize WHAT is changing.
- Gantt charts
This type requires a deep understanding of Project Portfolio Management (PPM) and explores how the proposed initiatives should happen and within which timeframe. The drawback of these roadmaps is their inefficient dealing with interdependencies, as they remain on the surface of business processes merely mapping projects to the parts of the business they impact directly.
- Dynamic roadmaps
Dynamic roadmaps use hidden dependencies or n-degrees of separation structure to reveal the true impact of one change that can become life-changing for another, like, for example, putting on hold one project may kill another that relies on the application the former was supposed to deliver.
- Multiple architectures roadmap
The most complex and mature roadmap models multiple scenarios treating them as individual architectures. This allows you to conduct the feasibility and reachability analysis by comparing each scenario with the current states against planned states.
Best Practices in EA Roadmapping
- Develop a clear understanding of the current state of the organization, its business objectives, technical assets, and operational costs before launching any change initiative.
- Learn what it takes to achieve the change goal, including revenue targets or cost reductions and any other measurable improvements that the change might bring to the organization to secure stakeholders’ support.
- Define the gap between the current state and the state you want to achieve: what the current issues are, why they happen, how we can correct current mistakes and improve processes, and how we can measure success.
- Set priorities after defining all the actions that need to be done. When you define the gap between the current and the future states, you can make a list of all items that need to change. Next, they must be prioritized and sequenced with regard to their interdependencies and resources available at any point of time.
- Draft the roadmap. You can publish the first draft of the roadmap so that it can be reviewed by stakeholders and subject matter experts and modified as needed.
A good enterprise architecture roadmap can become a point of reference for the team where they can immediately see if something goes wrong and make adjustments or eliminate blockers before they inflict too much harm. At the same time, it keeps stakeholders aligned clearly stating what the expected outcome is and what the benefits will be. Finally, a roadmap visualizes complex initiatives making it easier to map all smaller steps to a bigger picture.
