Landing on a Target
I’ve been in workshops with a client talking about their Target Architecture, one of the consistent themes and challenges is getting the business areas to understand, to buy into or otherwise see the benefits the target state would bring.
Most Business Areas and the people in them have short term targets which effect their bonuses and promotions, real world stakes that are hard to put at risk for amorphous concepts like agility or future promises of reduced time to market, greater insight, more efficient systems, or less time spent on workarounds etc.
So to the crux how can we as Architects influence and build trust that investment now can create long term benefits without putting at risk business area and individual short term needs and goals.
Some noodling (in no order or even thematic order)
Executive Mandate – “we are doing this ..” still leaves multiple challenges in engaging the business areas but can be used to create a safe space around business area budgets and performance indicators
Alignment to Business Area KPIs & OKRs – understand the specific measures and goals for specific business areas and stakeholders, look for alignment and conflict and create plans to emphasise or neutralise.
Co-create benefits and pain view for specific business areas and work together to develop a clear view of ‘so what’
Business Champions – identify evangelists and champions who can promote change from within the business areas
Transparency and Honesty – Communicate both transparently and honestly in the language of the business area, understand pain points and conflicting goals and collaborate to address them
Make it Real – building on transparency make the change real what would look different, what would be unlocked, how does this effect ways of working and process ideate on the art of the possible hypothesis. If you didnt have to do x what would you do
Build Trust – In most organisations there is a distrust of IT built up over years and for many reasons, why is this time different? Architecture is not about IT but this is the connection most lay people make so building the right communications and communication strategy is a must, also if possible look for quick wins or pilots that can start to earn the trust back.
Burning Platforms and Regulatory Change– the fear or necessity levers, use them positively to build back better rather than life support or acceptance of risk. Look at the platform and service landscape in terms of its lifecycle sunrise to sunset including dependencies. This approach can also work well after severe cyber events.
Much more to discuss and investigate in this space, including both internal and external drivers (PESTLE)