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Another View at Extend Enterprise Architecture
Viewpoints
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VIEWPOINT: POINT OF VIEW, STANDPOINT.
o
POINT
OF VIEW: a position from which something
is considered or evaluated.
o
STANDPOINT:
a position from which objects or principles
are viewed and according to which they are
compared and judged.
Viewpoint
and views are representing specific stakeholder
concerns and are describing the enterprise
from a specific perspective.
In
IEEE 1471-2000 (Architectural Descriptions)
[1
], viewpoints
and views are introduced to describe stakeholder
concerns when describing systems architectures. This article is
adopting the basic concepts from IEEE 1471-2000
and is transforming them to the Enterprise
Architecture domain.
To
understand the basic concepts of IEEE 1471-2000
a short summary of these concepts are taking
down in this article to show the differences
between viewpoints and views in systems
architecture and in enterprise architecture.
Based
on these definitions, viewpoint
and views are meaningful things in describing
Extended Enterprise Architectures from specific
perspectives. So they are playing an important
role in the communication with stakeholders.
From
the concept of architecture viewpoints another,
relatively new view on enterprise architecture
sets of viewpoints is given, to reflect extended enterprise stakeholders’
responsibilities and involvement in organisations
and societies.
The
following concepts are central to the topic
of views. These concepts have been adapted
from more formal definitions contained in
ANSI/IEEE Std 1471-2000; Recommended
Practice for Architectural Description of
Software-Intensive Systems. [1 ]
-
A system is a collection of components organized to accomplish a specific function
or set of functions.
-
The architecture of a system is the system's fundamental organization,
embodied in its components, their relationships
to each other and to the environment,
and the principles guiding its design
and evolution.
-
An architecture description is a collection of artefacts that
document an architecture.
-
Stakeholders are people who have key roles
in, or concerns about, the system: for
example, as users, developers, or managers.
Different stakeholders with different
roles in the system will have different
concerns. Stakeholders can be individuals,
teams, or organizations (or classes thereof).
-
Concerns are the key interests that are
crucially important to the stakeholders
in the system, and determine the acceptability
of the system. Concerns may pertain to
any aspect of the system’s functioning,
development, or operation, including considerations
such as performance, reliability, security,
distribution, and evolvability.
-
A view is a representation of a whole system from the perspective
of a related set of concerns.
In
capturing or representing the design of
a system architecture, the architect will
typically create one or more architecture
models, possibly using different
tools. A view will comprise selected parts
of one or more models, chosen so as to demonstrate
to a particular stakeholder or group of
stakeholders that their concerns are being
adequately addressed in the design of the
system architecture.
A
viewpoint defines the perspective
from which a view is taken. More specifically,
a viewpoint defines: how to construct and
use a view (by means of an appropriate schema
or template); the information that should
appear in the view; the modelling techniques
for expressing and analyzing the information;
and a rationale for these choices (e.g.,
by describing the purpose and intended audience
of the view).
A
view
is what you see. A viewpoint is where you are looking
from - the vantage point or perspective
that determines what you see.
Viewpoints
are generic, and can be stored in libraries
for reuse. A view is always specific to
the architecture for which it is created.
Every
view has an associated viewpoint that describes
it, at least implicitly.
ANSI/IEEE
Std 1471-2000 encourages architects to define
viewpoints explicitly. Making this distinction
between the content and schema of a view
may seem at first to be an unnecessary overhead,
but it provides a mechanism for reusing
viewpoints across different architectures.
In
summary, then, architecture views are representations
of the overall architecture in terms meaningful
to stakeholders. They enable the architecture
to be communicated to and understood by
the stakeholders, so they can verify that
the system will address their concerns.
Translating
the IEEE 1471-2000 definitions to the Extended
Enterprise Architecture domain is resulting
in a redefinition of these concepts and
terms. Below you will find a set of concepts
and terms [2 ]
related to enterprise
architecture.
-
Extended in this context are all the elements, relations and influences that
are touching the boundaries of the enterprise.
-
Enterprise Architecture is about understanding all of the different elements that go to make
up the enterprise and how those elements inter-relate.
-
An Enterprise in this context
is any collection of organizations that
has a common set of goals/principles and/or
single bottom line. In that sense, an
enterprise can be a whole corporation,
a division of a corporation, a government
organization, a single department, or
a network of geographically distant organizations
linked together by common objectives.
-
Elements in this context are all the elements that enclose the areas of People,
Processes, Business and Technology. In
that sense, examples of elements are:
strategies, business drivers, principles,
stakeholders, units, locations, budgets,
domains, functions, processes, services,
information, communications, applications,
systems, infrastructure, etc.
-
An enterprise architecture
description is a collection of representations
that document an enterprise architecture
in such a way that it can be communicated
to enterprise stakeholders.
-
Enterprise Stakeholders are groups of people
who have key roles in, or concerns about,
the enterprise: for example, shareholders,
customers, partners or managers. Different
enterprise stakeholders with different
roles in the enterprise can have different
concerns. Enterprise Stakeholders can
be representative people, teams, or organizations.
-
Concerns are the key interests that are
crucially important to the stakeholders
in the enterprise, and determine the status
and behaviour of the enterprise. Concerns
may pertain to any generic or common aspect
of the enterprise’s functioning, organization,
or operation, including considerations
such corporate governance, security, privacy,
risks, culture, laws & legislations,
costs and benefits.
-
Extended Enterprise Architecture Viewpoints defines the perspectives
from which views are taken. From an extended
enterprise perspective these viewpoints
are addressing generic and common concerns
covering the whole enterprise.
Here
is an important differentiator between the
IEEE 1471-2000 definition that is addressing
viewpoints from a stakeholder's perspective,
where in extended enterprise architecture
the viewpoints are representing generic,
common business and technology concerns
derived from enterprise stakeholders groups
or dictated by the extended environment
(e.g. law & regulations).
-
Extended Enterprise Architecture Views are
representations of the overall enterprise
architecture that are meaningful to all stakeholders in and outside the organization.
The enterprise architect chooses and develops
a set of views that will enable the enterprise
architecture to be communicated to, and
understood by, all
the stakeholders, and enable them
to verify that the Enterprise Architecture
will address the generic concerns.
Extended
enterprise architecture is usually represented
by means of a set of enterprise architecture
representations that together provide a
coherent description of the extended enterprise.
A single, comprehensive representation is
often too complex to be understood and communicated
in its most detailed form, showing all the
relationships between the various business
and technology elements. As with zoning
planning, it is normally necessary to develop
multiple views of the architecture of an
enterprise, to enable the enterprise architecture
to be communicated to, and understood by
all
stakeholders of the enterprise.
Extended
Enterprise Architecture Viewpoint Sets are
themes of viewpoints that can be determined
based on different ways to look at the enterprise
and its environment. From literature [3 ]
and best practices
the following Extended Enterprise Architecture
Viewpoint sets are generic and common for
all extended enterprise architecture programs
and activities and represents stakeholders’
responsibilities.
Despite
the variety of stakeholder groups and their
demands in Enterprises, stakeholders’ responsibilities
can be classified into four broad sets of
extended enterprise architecture viewpoints:
Economic,
Legal, Ethical, and Discretionary responsibilities. Strategic governance can therefore
be defined as the extent to which organisations
meet the responsibilities imposed by their
various enterprise stakeholders.
As
social economic elements, organizations
are expected to generate and sustain profitability,
offer goods and services that are both desired
and desirable in society and of a good quality,
and reward employees and other elements
that help create success. To satisfy these expectations, organizations
develop strategies to keep abreast of changing
customer / citizen needs, to compensate
employees and investors fairly, and to continually
improve and innovates the effectiveness
and efficiency of organizational processes.
A long-term perspective is essential when
establishing these strategies: A responsible
organization must continue to earn profits
from its ongoing activities in order to
benefit its stakeholders. Examples of economic
viewpoints are: Benefits, Costs, Quality,
Innovation, etc.
Regardless
of their economic achievements, organizations
must abide by established laws and regulations
in order to be good citizens. Even so the
privacy legislations have to be respected.
The identification of legal issues and implementation
of compliancy requirements are the best
approach to preventing violations and costly
litigation. Accounting and control mechanism have to be
in place according to the rules and legislations.
Examples of legal viewpoints are: Law &
Regulations, Privacy, Accounting & Assessment,
etc.
The
establishment of strict ethical standards
in the workplace may also be an excellent
way to prevent legal violations by creating
a focus on integrity in management style.
In addition, an organization guided by strong
ethical values may also be better able to
satisfy ethical responsibilities, the third
type of responsibility imposed by enterprise
stakeholders.
Incorporating ethical standards and
handling in the corporate culture will create
respectful organizations where the corporate
governance structure is reflecting these
ethics and where people are involved in
identifying legal violations, corporate
risks and security vulnerabilities. Examples
of Ethical viewpoints are: Culture, Strategy,
risks, etc.
In
addition to meeting economic, legal, and
ethical responsibilities, organizations
are also expected to display a genuine concern
for the general welfare of all constituencies. Companies must balance the costs of these discretionary
activities against the costs of manufacturing
and marketing their products or services
in a responsible manner. Example of Discretionary
viewpoints is: stakeholder groups individual
perspectives or specific enterprise stakeholder
themes, etc.
An enterprise stakeholder analysis
[4
] is
a technique you can use to identify and
assess the importance of key people, groups
of people, or institutions that may significantly
influence the success of your activities
or your organisation.
The first step in the enterprise
stakeholder analysis is to brainstorm who
the enterprise stakeholders are. As part
of this, think of all the groups of people
who are affected by the organisation, who
have influence or power over it, or have
an interest in its successful or unsuccessful
conclusions.
The table below shows some
of the groups of people who might be stakeholders
of your Enterprise:
Remember that although enterprise
stakeholders may be both organizations and
groups of representing people, ultimately
you must communicate with individuals. Make
sure that you identify the correct individual
enterprise stakeholders within a stakeholder
organization.
You may now have a long list
of groups of people and organizations that
are influencing the enterprise. Some of
these may have the power either to block
or advance. Some may be interested in what
you are doing, others may not care.
Map out your stakeholder groups
using the Power / Interest Grid shown in
the next figure and classify them by their
power over the enterprise and by their interest
in the enterprise.
For example, management is
likely to have high power and influence
over the enterprise and high interest. Analysts
may have high interest, but are unlikely
to have power over it.
Someone's position on the grid
shows you the actions you have to take with
them:
-
High power, interested groups
of people:
these are the groups of people you must
fully engage and make the greatest efforts
to satisfy. Their viewpoints must been
considered with a high importance.
-
High power, less interested
groups of people:
put enough work in with these groups of
people to keep them satisfied, but not
so much that they become bored with your
message. Their viewpoints play a role
but don’t focus too much at them.
-
Low power, interested groups
of people:
keep these groups of people adequately
informed, and talk to them to ensure that
no major issues are arising. Their viewpoints
can play an important role but balance
them against the high power interested
groups of people.
-
Low power, less interested
groups of people:
again, monitor these groups of people,
but do not bore them with excessive communication.
Now the enterprise architects
need to know more about the key enterprise
stakeholder groups. You need to know how
they are likely to feel about and react
to the enterprise architecture activities
and results. You also need to know how best
to engage them in your (extended) enterprise
architecture program and how best to communicate
with them.
Key questions that can help
the enterprise architecture group to understand
enterprise stakeholders are:
-
What financial or emotional interest do they have in the outcome of
the enterprise architecture program? Is
it positive or negative?
-
What motivates them most of all?
-
What information do they want from you?
-
How do they want to receive information from you? What is the best
way of communicating your message to them?
-
What is their current opinion about the enterprise architecture activities?
Is it based on good information?
-
Who influences their opinions generally, and who influences their opinion
of the enterprise architecture group?
Do some of these influencers therefore
become important stakeholders in their
own right?
-
If they are not likely to be positive, what will win them around to
support the enterprise architecture activities?
-
 If you don't think you will
be able to win them around, how will you
manage their opposition?
-
Who else might be influenced by their opinions?
-
Do these groups of people become stakeholders in their own right?
A very good way of answering
these questions is to talk to your enterprise
stakeholder group’s representatives directly
- people are often quite open about their
views, and asking people's opinions is often
the first step in building a successful
relationship with them.
You can summarize the understanding
you have gained on the enterprise stakeholder
map, so that you can easily see which enterprise
stakeholders are expected to be blockers
or critics, and which enterprise stakeholders
are likely to be advocates and supporters
of the enterprise architecture program.
A good way of doing this is by colour coding:
showing advocates and supporters in green,
blockers and critics in red, and others
who are neutral in orange.
After
identifying the power and interests of extended
enterprise stakeholders, their corresponding
sets of viewpoints has to be weighted against
two dimensions.
-
Priority in terms of contributing to the goals and objectives
of the enterprise.
-
Dependency in terms of how difficult is it to fulfill the
needs of this group of enterprise stakeholders.
 Enterprise Stakeholder Management (ESM) is the process by which you identify
your key enterprise stakeholders and win
their support.
Enterprise
stakeholder analysis is the first stage
of this, where you identify and start to
understand your most important extended
enterprise stakeholders and their set of
viewpoints. The next step is to prioritize
them by power and interest, and to plot
this on a Power / Interest grid. The final
stage is to get an understanding of what
motivates your stakeholders, what is their
set of viewpoints and how you need to win
them around.
- ANSI/IEEE Std 1471-2000; Recommended
Practice for Architectural Description
of Software-Intensive Systems.
- Book ‘How to survive in the jungle of
Enterprise Architecture Frameworks’, Schekkerman
Jaap, publisher Trafford, 2003, ISBN 141201607-X.
- 'A Three-Dimensional Conceptual Model
of Corporate Performance', Carroll, Archie
B., 1979, Academy of Management Review.
- Book, 'Redefining the Corporation: Stakeholder
Management & Organizational Wealth'
by James Post et al, Publisher Stanford
University Press, ISBN 080474310-X
(C)
Copyright, 2001-2006, Institute For Enterprise
Architecture Developments
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