Identity Management
Enterprise Architecture
Intelligent and strategic alignment of business, data, and technology systems
Enterprise Architecture
Enterprise architecture is the practice of using models to evaluate the suitability of an organization’s operating environment for delivering its strategy.
eMentum's Approach To Enterprise Architecture
eMentum uses enterprise architecture as a tool to support strategic planning and to facilitate the development of an actionable implementation roadmap for realizing significant change. We work with our clients to align the four major transformational layers in their organization (business, information, applications/systems, and technology) to their goals and performance objectives.
- Reduce complexity, where multiple processes or multiple disparate systems influence an organization's ability to deliver successful initiatives, and where priorities and decisions can be negatively influenced when the operational environment is not well understood
- Manage frequent or significant changes to the operating environments, where there are varying levels of unpredictability that can influence day-to-day decision making and operations
- Maintain consistency throughout the terms of a strategic plan, where current or planned activities must provide a solution to support future operations and where the planning hoizon needs to cover the short, medium, and long term perspectives
As an enterprise architecture matures and becomes more robust, eMentum works with clients to ensure that the EA becomes a basis for performance improvement across the organization. Where a balanced scorecard or individual key performance indicators are mapped to the architecture, our clients gain the ability to pinpoint the cause and effect of their business decisions.
Program Management
Because the Federal Government uses enterprise architecture to support the Capital Planning and Investment Control process, eMentum assists our clients in defining a manageable approach that aligns with organizational size and direction. This allows rapid progress through quick wins, ultimately achieving a comprehensive assessment of the current IT situation, where the IT environment should be, and how it should evolve toward that future goal.
We believe that enterprise architecture should be flexible to accommodate the dynamic nature of the Federal regulatory environment. Using various techniques and frameworks (Zachman, TOGAF, DoDAF, and others), our consultants define an enterprise architecture program that is tailor-made for each client.
Once the models are developed, we work with our clients to apply the models in the development of transition plans. Each gap between the current and future state is evaluated for its potential contribution toward goals and objectives. This analysis leads to a prioritization of investments in which each initiative represents a comprehensive work stream, including the secondary dependencies that could affect success.
Risk Management
If an organization treats enterprise architecture like a technology project – rather than recognizing its importance in effective strategic planning, and assigning business leadership to the initiative – it runs a risk that the end-to-end impact of projects will not be recognized. This means that key transformational elements, like process improvements and information needs, will not addressed with business owners. The result is that a major project may be abandoned because the impacts on other systems or other processes were not accommodated.
- Treating enterprise architecture like a technology project, rather than recognizing its importance in effective strategic planning, and assigning business leadership to the initiative
- Developing enterprise architecture models to "check a box" on the OMB maturity framework by demonstrating Federal Enterprise Architecture alignment, rather than using EA models to understand the impact of proposed change and evaluate investment value
- Rigid adherence to templates and frameworks, rather than a judicious application of models based on resource availability and organizational culture
eMentum uses enterprise architecture to gain a 360-degree view of the organization, enabling our clients to understand the overall impact of small and large changes, and eliminating the last-minute surprises that arise from unknowns in our clients' environments.
If an organization adheres rigidly to templates and frameworks, rather judiciously applying models based on its resource availability and organizational culture, the architecture may be unwieldy, with excessive time needed to deliver a product that does not resonate with the individuals it was intended to support. This has the added effect of decreasing advocacy for future enterprise initiatives.
eMentum maintains the models to ensure they are up-to-date so that the impact of new and changing requirements is quickly known, and so that resource plans are always relevant.
Our Clients Succeed
By applying enterprise architecture during the strategic planning stage, we deliver more relevant, more complete transition planning and investment analysis for realizing our clients' goals and performance objectives. By applying enterprise architecture during the performance evaluation and reporting stages, we tie missed targets back to their causes, allowing more effective resolution analysis and planning.
Our clients increase their likelihood of on-time, on-budget initiative delivery by beginning from a more accurate understanding of each program's impact on the overall organization.
Our clients cannot avoid Federal oversight and constraints, but they can gain a more effective understanding of the scope and impact of new and changing regulations on their operational environment. Moreover, they can achieve this with greater efficiency and more appropriate use of resources.
