MAY 2016CIOAPPLICATIONS.COM 19nterprise Architecture (EA) emerged in the 1990's as a tool for better understanding and assessing a portfolio of fragmented IT investments. It guided these investments both towards more effective business support and implementation of common platforms, technologies and standards. Enterprise Architects first developed standardized terms and language to support an objective assessment, and then conducted deep, complex analyses to understand and document the "As-Is" and "To-Be". Only then would they develop an enterprise-wide transition plan defining actual steps for realizing positive enterprise changes. Consequently, EA efforts in large enterprises could take several years and cost upwards of $100 million, just for analysis and planning. Though CIOs clearly need analysis to support their strategic decision making, few have either the patience to wait this long for advice on what to do, nor the infinitely deep pockets to support this kind of deep enterprise self-analysis without beneficial results in sight.EA and the CIO's role as a dynamic leader of digital change may have once been like oil and water, but two emerging trends are now helping to reshape EA into a relevant enabler of rapid, customer-driven digital change:1. CIOs are embracing an IT lifecycle that is customer-driven, component and platform-based, and much more agile. 2. CIOs now need much greater visibility into the full IT lifecycle due to the pace of change, security issues, and growing financial pressures.EA and AgileCIOs are increasingly grappling with the industry trend towards adopting agile methodologies and tool sets both for software development and across the full lifecycle--to include DevOps elements impacting testing, deployment and continuous operations monitoring. Applying an agile philosophy goes hand and hand with adopting a user-centered design.According to MIT and Deloitte, most maturing digital organizations have a Digital Strategy in place that defines the ends or outcomes, not the technical means. The latter is left to the creative energies of an agile team composed of those most impacted, supported by skilled developers. Such a team designs a little, tries a little, and hones in on the most impactful How EA is Evolving to Support a Dynamically Changing Digital EnterpriseRobert Damashek, Principal Consultant, Binary Group ECIOs can engage Enterprise Architects to help bring objectivity to an agile digital change lifecycleRobert DamashekCIOINSIGHTS
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