Boosting The Value And Impact Of EA, Crafting Your Technology Strategy For Business Impact by Randy Heffner, Vice President, Principal Analyst, Forrester
Randy opens with “Technology strategy is fundamentally about dealing with change”. Historically, technology strategy has been technology focused – applications, data, boxes and networks. That is not a recipe for business impact. You need to keep track of the business – traceability of business scenario across technology portfolio [my interpretation of Randy’s message].
Need to begin with the end (business end) in mind. Want to improve business outcomes. Improving business outcomes is CEO agenda. Four major metrics, categories, of business outcomes: balance sheet, income statement, cash flow and market influence (broad set of softer metrics – customer sat, sustainability, market share, market perception, etc).
Two technology strategy goals then: (1) improve business outcomes and (2) deal with change.
Areas/ways to improve business outcomes: optimize, extract more value, add to/enhance products, deepen market penetration, expand to adjoining markets and/or reframe the markets.
Randy’s thesis: Business gets better outcomes building on what they currently do. Build on current capabilities.
Now, Randy is re-iterating business capability mapping from Alex Cullen’s keynote this morning. Business capabilities fundamentally changes the nature of the business – technology conversation. However, we also need to drill from capabilities to implementation. Strategy, according to Randy, is about business implementation.
Business implementation is through business capability architecture. Nascent industry term and conversation. Goes beyond the business capability map. Reframe your thinking on implementation.
The scope of a capability implementation: CEO’s physical world, digital world. “Business becomes embodied in our technology”. An integrated, operational, measurable combination of people, process, technology and physical resources.
Business change design principles: (1) measured (2) connected (capabilities) (3) modular (4) optimized
The middle two – connected and modular – are old hat for architects. The first and last are quite new for architects. [I would say, not new for all architects].
Focal points of capability implementation:
- Portfolio: what set of apps and assets support the implementation and operation of a capability?
- Platform: Upon what integrated set of patterns and technologies do you implement your capabilities?
From here, Randy is showing the reference architecture pattern for business capability implementation. He has also referenced Forrester’s Digital Business architecture.
[Editorial note: There is no magic leap from capability map to reference architecture/digital business architecture. Lots of business architecture, business analysis, and business to technology capability matching work in the middle.]
Randy reminds us: Don’t design solutions, design your business. Define your technology strategy with the end in mind.
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