08.04.11
Technology Decisions
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Technology changes come at business organizations so fast that it is difficult to know which ones to deflect and which ones to absorb. It is like being in a hail storm where some ice is needed for survival, but too much ice would kill the organization. It is truly a live or die situation.
Management must make the decision on the strategy to use to deal with the technology bombardment. They have to decide whether the decisions should be made centrally or should they apply a decentralized model.
Often, the management approach is to base decision-making on expense levels. In this way, decisions of apparently less significance can be handled further down the management hierarchy. This model seems to place the decision-making in the hands of those that know the most about the needs for applying a new technology.
Consider an analogy where a corporation decides to build a skyscraper to hold the entire organization’s personnel and equipment. In a decentralized model, each organization in the management hierarchy would decide upon the construction in their area. Just imagine how strange this building might look. Some floors might have an outward appearance of solid glass while others might have columns and windows.
Clearly, when designing a skyscraper there must be some consistency in construction since all of the floors must connect together. Information systems are no different. They too must all connect together.
Skyscrapers constructed under a decentralized approach would produce an outrageous looking result. Constructing information systems in a decentralized approach also produces outrageous results, only know one can see it. The outrageous results are only apparent in the excessive cost of integration.
A decentralization strategy is not the problem. The problem is that the ability to integrate into the existing environment must be part of any technology decision. Along with an expense limit, there must also be connectivity constraints.
Connectivity is an Enterprise Architecture issue. It must be addressed in the Enterprise Architecture plan as a strategy rather than a specific technology. It must be a strategy because the underlying technologies are always changing. The strategy should also include the decision-making process. In a distributed strategy, decisions could be make down the management hierarchy based upon connectivity levels rather than only on expense level.
Technology decisions can make or break an organization. When a distributed strategy for making decisions is applied, both expense level and connectivity should be considered. Enterprise Architects can contribute by defining the approach to connectivity decisions. By considering both of these decision-making criteria, business organizations have the greatest potential for survival in the barrage of technology opportunities.
The Enterprise Architects can see what is coming and are already preparing. They know that this will be their time. Corporations will be able to completely focus on their business, and automation will be viewed as an agile enabler. Automation will finally become the self-service contributor that the Corporate Office has always wanted it to be. –Enterprise Architects Masters of the Unseen City
Closing the Business / IT gap.
