Enterprise architecture involves the art of crafting, constructing, and overseeing an organization's IT systems to help its business objectives take flight.
The purpose of preliminary analysis is to understand the organization's business context and establish a solid foundation that aligns with its strategic vision. The preliminary phase sets the stage for the rest of the digital transformation. In this post, we will discuss conducting preliminary analysis using TOGAF®.
The Preliminary Phase
The Preliminary Phase of TOGAF® ADM establishes enterprise architecture capability. It defines the scope of the architecture effort, understands existing governance and support structures, establishes the enterprise architecture team and organization, and identifies architecture principles.
The key activities of the Preliminary Phase are as follows:
Identify the scope of impact: This includes the people and teams who will be affected by the architecture effort, both directly and indirectly.
Understand the existing governance and support structures: Understand how the current architecture is governed and supported. This includes identifying the roles, responsibilities, processes, and procedures that are in place. Identify any gaps or areas for improvement.
Establish the enterprise architecture team and organization: Establish the team's governance and reporting structure. This includes defining the roles, responsibilities, and decision-making processes for the team. Ensure that the team is structured in a way that is effective and efficient. This includes considering the team's size, skills, and experience.
Identify and establish architecture principles: These principles will guide the architecture effort and ensure that it is aligned with the organization's business goals and objectives, as well as the key drivers shaping the company's journey towards innovation and resilience.
The following activities will not be addressed in this article:
Tailor the TOGAF® framework: This may involve adapting the framework to the organization's specific needs, such as by adding or removing specific components or tailoring the processes and procedures.
Develop a strategy and implementation plan for tools and techniques: This includes identifying the tools and techniques that will be used to support the architecture effort and developing a plan for their implementation.
We understand that these activities are important, but we want to focus on the most essential aspects of the Preliminary Phase in this article. We will provide more information on these activities in future articles.
Alchemist Solutions' Findings
Alchemist Solutions is in the early stages of transforming its architecture. They plan to move their claim management system to a microservices architecture, allowing for modularity, separation of concerns, independent scalability, and seamlessintegration of new digital services. As part of their preliminary analysis, Alchemist Solutions conducted a review of their existing architecture.
The review revealed the following challenges:
Inadequate governance and support framework: The existing governance and support framework was inadequate to handle the increasing complexity of operations as the business scaled. This resulted in slow and inefficient decision-making, reduced agility, and delayed responses to operational challenges.
Obscured architectural principles: The architectural foundation that supported the system was no longer transparent. This lack of clarity made it difficult to introduce changes or enhancements without unintended consequences, stifling innovation and adaptability.
Growing misalignment between business goals and technology strategies: The rapid evolution of the business created a growing gap between what the technology could deliver and what the business required. This misalignment resulted in inefficiencies, redundancies, and missed opportunities.
Strategic Architecture Modernization
Alchemist Solutions is adopting TOGAF® to help them transform their architecture in response to emerging challenges. By adopting TOGAF®, Alchemist Solutions expects to achieve the following benefits:
Better communication: TOGAF® can help improve communication between stakeholders, such as business users, IT professionals, and architects.This helps ensure everyone is on the same page and that decisions are made together.
Better decision-making: TOGAF® can help ensure that architectural decisions are made in the business's best interests and aligned with the company's goals.
More agility: TOGAF® can help Alchemist Solutions to adapt to change more quickly. This is important in today's fast-paced business world.
Better governance: TOGAF® can help ensure that the company's architecture is managed in a consistent and controlled manner. This can help to reduce risks and improve efficiency.
Better visibility: TOGAF® can help to increase the visibility of the company's architecture. This can help identify potential risks and opportunities and help make better resource allocation decisions.
Alchemist Solutions is also focused on laying a solid foundation for the future by organizing its documentation via a well-managed Architecture Repository. They are also committed to a broad range of initiatives, including:
Aligning technology with business goals: Alchemist Solutions is committed to ensuring that its technology strategy is aligned with its business goals. This means understanding the needs of the business and developing solutions that meet those needs.
Building relationships and understanding through stakeholder engagement: Alchemist Solutions understands that the success of its architecture transformation depends on the support of its stakeholders. They are committed to building relationships with stakeholders and understanding their needs.
Maximizing value through cost-effectiveness: Alchemist Solutions is committed to ensuring that its architecture transformation is cost-effective. They are developing a plan to measure the benefits of the transformation and ensure that the investment is worthwhile.
Proactively protecting their interests through robust risk management: Alchemist Solutions is committed to proactively managing risk. They are developing a risk management plan that will identify and mitigate risks associated with the architecture transformation.
Each pillar is carefully designed to ensure Alchemist Solutions' transformation is holistic and value-driven.
Scope of Impact
As Alchemist Solutions transitions to a microservices architecture through a phased approach, it is recognized that this is not just a technological shift but a transformative journey that will impact multiple facets of the enterprise.
The following are some of the key areas that the migration to a microservices architecture will impact:
Claims Department: The new system will streamline claim resolutions by introducing a culture of continuous feedback, innovation, and learning. This will enable the department to adapt faster to unforeseen challenges and industry changes.
Member Department: The transformation will deliver bespoke services and an enhanced user experience powered by data analytics, AI-driven insights, and faster response times.
Policy Department: With the agility offered by microservices, the department can create policies that meet current market needs and proactively forecast and adapt to future demands.
Document Generation & Storage Departments: The migration to a microservices architecture will enable automated document generation and on-demand capabilities for the Document Generation & Storage Departments. This will improve efficiency by eliminating the need for manual document creation and maintenance, and it will also make it easier to find and access documents, ensuring long-term resilience and scalability.
Payment Department: In addition to faster payment processes, the migration will enable the department to integrate new payment gateways and methods in the future easily.
Claims Processing Department: The microservices approach will allow the department to solve problems more systematically by breaking down the claims processing system into smaller, more manageable services with clear separation of concerns. This will lead to quicker identification of bottlenecks, streamlined workflows, and easier addition of new features or functionality.
Customer Service Department: The transformation will improve support and empower representatives with real-time data and insights, making customer interactions more personalized and effective.
Reporting Department: Leveraging the power of microservices will make data streams more organized and accessible, providing richer and more insightful reports that can guide business strategy.
IT Department: The IT department will assimilate new technologies, such as infrastructure as code (IaC) and DevOps, to drive a culture of innovation and continuous integration and development (CI/CD). This will ensure that Alchemist Solutions stays technologically relevant and can deliver high-quality software more quickly and efficiently.
Regulatory Compliance: The migration will ensure that current regulatory requirements are met and that the organization is prepared to adapt to future changes in regulatory landscapes.
Alchemist Solutions is taking a strategic approach to this migration by conducting the TOGAF® Preliminary phase. This approach considers the impact of the migration on the organization's business, customers, and employees. This ensures that the migration is not viewed separately from the organization's goals and objectives.
Governance and Support Frameworks
Effective governance and support frameworks are essential for shaping an organization's decisions and strategies, ensuring they are aligned with its strategic goals.
Federated Governance Framework
A federated governance framework is a collaborative approach to decision-making and oversight within an organization's architectural initiatives. It combines elements of centralized and decentralized models to achieve agility, alignment, and accountability across diverse domains.
When discussing the transition to a federated governance framework, it's essential to understand the key distinctions between different governance models. In centralized governance, all decision-making power is held by a single person or group. This can make decision-making faster and easier but also make it difficult to keep up with change. In contrast, decentralized governance distributes decision-making power among different teams or departments. This can give teams more flexibility to make decisions that meet their specific needs. However, it can also lead to inconsistent decision-making and a lack of alignment across the organization. Federated governance, the focus of Alchemist Solutions' transition, emphasizes collaborative decision-making among multiple governing bodies, each specializing in specific areas. This model achieves agility in addressing needs while maintaining transparency, risk mitigation, and alignment across domains.
Current State and Transition
Alchemist Solutions has identified specific challenges within its current governance framework, such as the lack of clarity and consistency in decision-making roles. This has led to inefficiencies and misalignment between business objectives and technology strategies.
To address these challenges, Alchemist Solutions is transitioning to a federated governance framework that combines the strengths of both light and heavy engagement, and adapts its approach as the organization evolves.
The federated governance framework will foster collaboration, transparency, and effective decision-making through clear roles, responsibilities, and well-defined interactions among governing bodies. This will empower key governing bodies to collaboratively address architectural challenges, ensuring alignment, compliance, and effective change management. By adopting the federated governance process, Alchemist Solutions aims to foster a culture of accountability, responsiveness, and adaptability.
Governing Bodies and Roles in the Process
Alchemist Solutions' federated governance framework bolsters architectural and strategic directives. It integrates various governing bodies to achieve synergy and alignment.
The federated governance framework at Alchemist Solutions comprises the following governing bodies:
Architecture Board: This body is responsible for setting the strategic direction for the organization's architecture. It ensures that all architectural initiatives are aligned with the organization's business goals and objectives.
Technical Review Committee: This committee is responsible for evaluating the technical feasibility of proposed architectural changes. It ensures that all changes are made in a way that is consistent with the organization's technical standards and guidelines.
Business Steering Committee: This committee ensures that architectural changes support the organization's objectives. It ensures that all changes benefit the organization's customers and users.
Compliance/Audit Committees: These committees ensure that all architectural changes comply with applicable laws and regulations. They ensure that all changes are made in a way that minimizes the organization's risk of legal or regulatory violations.
Change Control: This is a formal process for approving and implementing architectural changes. It ensures that all changes are made in a controlled and systematic manner.
Governance Repository: This is a central repository for storing all architectural artifacts, including policies, procedures, and standards. It provides a single source of truth for all architectural information.
Key Roles
The following roles are also essential to the governance framework:
Enterprise Architect: This role is responsible for integrating technology solutions with business requirements and curating a forward-looking architectural roadmap.
Business Architect: This role translates business objectives into tangible architectural strategies.
Solutions Architect: This role designs and implements specific solutions that meet the needs of the business. They work closely with the business architect to translate business requirements into technical solutions.
Application Architect: This role designs and implements specific applications that meet the needs of the business. They work closely with the solutions architect to translate business requirements into technical solutions.
The federated governance framework at Alchemist Solutions is designed to ensure that architectural decisions are made in a way that is aligned with the organization's strategic goals, technical capabilities, and regulatory requirements. By fostering collaboration and transparency among the governing bodies, the federated governance framework helps ensure that architectural changes are made to benefit the organization.
Key Drivers
Alchemist Solutions is dealing with several important drivers that are shaping its journey towards innovation and resilience. These drivers are interconnected, which means they influence each other and work together to push the company forward. Understanding these drivers is essential for Alchemist Solutions to successfully navigate its transformational journey.
Scaling Demand
One major driver is the increasing number of claims. This means Alchemist Solutions needs a more responsive and efficient system for processing claims.
Enhanced User Experience
In addition, the company wants to improve the experience for its customers who file and track claims. For example, when operational efficiency is improved, the user experience also gets better. Likewise, scalability and competitiveness are linked, as being able to handle increased demand enhances the company's position in the market.
Market Competitiveness
Another crucial driver comes from the competitive nature of the claims management industry. To stay ahead, Alchemist Solutions needs to be quick and efficient, which means having streamlined processes that can adapt to changes in the market.
Compliance Mandates
Moreover, Alchemist Solutions has to follow various regulations to keep its operations running. This involves having strong measures in place to protect sensitive customer information.
These drivers are closely connected, forming a network of forces that guide Alchemist Solutions' journey. By understanding and addressing these drivers together, the company can confidently navigate its transformation.
Principles
For Alchemist Solutions, a clear set of architecture principles is essential. These principles guide the technical design and decisions, upholding the company's core values and business goals. Establishing these principles ensures clarity and direction as the company embarks on its digital transformation journey. They will be the foundation, guiding the company during its new microservices architecture's implementation, management, and evolution.
User-centered design
All architecture designs and implementations will focus on ensuring a good experience for users.
Alchemist Solutions believes that their users – policyholders, claimants, or employees – are the most important people to them. By focusing on user needs, Alchemist Solutions can improve customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.
This principle might lead to more investments in user research, user interface (UI) design, and frequent feedback cycles. It would also require Alchemist Solutions to understand the pain points of their users and design solutions that address them.
Scalability and performance
Systems will be designed to handle increased demand and ensure enhanced performance.
Alchemist Solutions is growing rapidly, and they must ensure their systems meet the demand. By designing for scalability, Alchemist Solutions can avoid having to make costly upgrades in the future.
This principle will require Alchemist Solutions to use a scalable architecture like microservices. It may also require Alchemist Solutions to invest in cloud infrastructure.
Data security and privacy
Ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data, especially sensitive customer data, is critical.
Alchemist Solutions collects sensitive data about their users. They must protect this data from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure.
This principle will require Alchemist Solutions to implement strong security measures like encryption and access controls. They may also need to invest in security tools and training.
Data as a First-Class Client
Alchemist Solutions designs systems to ensure timely access to critical data and insights, empowering stakeholders to make informed decisions swiftly.
Alchemist Solutions recognizes the value of responsive decision-making and enables quick access to real-time data, so stakeholders can respond rapidly to market changes and customer needs.
This principle may lead to investments in real-time data integration, analytics infrastructure, and user-friendly dashboards.
Regulatory compliance
All architectural decisions and implementations will comply with local and national regulatory standards relevant to the claim management industry.
Alchemist Solutions is subject to various regulations. By complying with these regulations, Alchemist Solutions can protect themselves from legal penalties and maintain the trust of their customers.
This principle will require Alchemist Solutions to stay up-to-date on regulatory changes. They may also need to invest in compliance tools and training.
These architecture principles are not just technical guidelines for Alchemist Solutions. They encapsulate the company's mission, values, and commitment to its users. As the company moves forward with its TOGAF®-guided transformation, these principles will ensure that each decision and action aligns with its overarching objectives and the needs of its stakeholders.
Goals
As Alchemist Solutions embarks on its architectural transformation journey, strategic goals have been identified to guide and shape this transformative endeavor. These goals reflect the organization's commitment to becoming more innovative, efficient, and agile.
Operational Efficiency
To enhance operational efficiency, Alchemist Solutions will streamline its operations and eliminate inefficiencies. This will mean automating processes, reducing manual interventions, and accelerating claim resolutions. By doing this, Alchemist Solutions can provide a better experience for its customers and stakeholders.
Customer Experience
To elevate customer experience, Alchemist Solutions will provide personalized interactions, faster response times, and data-driven insights. This will help Alchemist Solutions strengthen its market presence and competitiveness.
Scalability
To enable scalability, Alchemist Solutions will design an architecture that can scale seamlessly without compromising performance or user experience. This means handling a growing number of claims without sacrificing performance or user experience. By achieving scalability, Alchemist Solutions can support its expansion plans and accommodate future growth.
Data Security and Compliance
To ensure data security and compliance, Alchemist Solutions will implement a secure architecture that meets regulatory standards and instills trust among customers and partners. This means protecting sensitive customer information and operating with confidence in a compliance-driven environment.
Innovation
To foster innovation, Alchemist Solutions will create an environment that encourages experimentation, rapid prototyping, and the integration of emerging technologies. This will help Alchemist Solutions stay ahead of industry trends and remain adaptable in a dynamic market.
Technology Alignment
To achieve technology alignment, Alchemist Solutions will design an architecture that bridges the gap between technology capabilities and business requirements. This means ensuring that its technology investments deliver tangible value to the organization.
These six strategic goals collectively define the direction of Alchemist Solutions' transformation, laying the groundwork for a comprehensive and impactful architectural journey.
Setting the Stage for the Next Part
We have finished exploring the Preliminary Phase, and now we are ready to move on to the next critical stage: Introduction to Phase A: Architecture Vision and its Importance. In this upcoming article, we will introduce you to the foundational Phase A within the TOGAF® framework. By understanding its significance, we will pave the way for an in-depth journey through architecture vision, scope, and stakeholder engagement. Stay tuned as we unravel the initial steps of architectural transformation and set the course for our ongoing exploration.
Conclusion
This article explored the TOGAF® Preliminary Phase and its role in Alchemist Solutions' transformation journey. We emphasized the importance of preliminary analysis in enterprise architecture, explaining the need to understand an organization's business context, build a strong foundation, and align with its strategic vision.
We provided a general overview of the preliminary analysis process, highlighting its main points. However, it is important to remember that each phase of this process is complex and multifaceted. The real value in this domain comes from understanding the nuances, intricacies, and step-by-step details of preliminary analysis.
We hope this article has been helpful in understanding the importance of conducting preliminary analysis and how to make it a more accessible and understandable process for everyone involved.
TOGAF® is a registered trademark of The Open Group®. This article is intended for informational purposes only and should not be construed as an endorsement by The Open Group® of any mentioned products or services.
The Alchemists Solutions Case Study Series is a work of fiction and does not represent any actual organization, including Alchemists Solutions. All characters, events, and situations described in this case study are fictional. The purpose of this case study is to illustrate concepts and ideas related to enterprise architecture within a fictional context. It is not meant to accurately depict any specific organization, its practices, or its strategies.
