Guide the Modernization of

Digital Technology Foundations

A roadmap for enterprise architecture leaders

© 2023 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GTS_2462951
Can you keep pace with rapid Hype Cycle™ for Enterprise Architecture, 2023
technology change in a VUCA world?
The pace of digital business transformation is rapidly increasing as organizations
strive to provide services and products in a challenging operating environment.
To navigate this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world, it is
crucial for enterprise architecture (EA) leaders to enable digital business change
Innovation Management
while also ensuring organizational resilience. Total Experience
Customer Experience

Composable Applications
Machine Customers
To effectively drive digital business change, EA leaders must create effective

Expectations
Journey Maps
Value Stream Mapping
Roadmapping
practices and disseminate deliverables that offer guidance for implementing Product Architecture

transformation through digital platforms. As companies onboard new and Decision Intelligence
Business Ecosystem
EA Governance Enterprise
EA Tools
Conversational
Information
advanced technologies, such as AI, cloud and data solutions, the responsibility Modeling
Operational Experience
Architecture
AI Platforms

Business Architecture
falls on EA to provide consumable business architecture guidance and expertise AI Engineering
Knowledge Graphs
Business Design Digital Design
to an increasingly distributed and diverse technology team. Minimum Viable
Architecture
Business
Capability
Modeling Enterprise Architecture
Democratized
Architecture Machine Learning
Autonomic Digital Twin
Continuous Delivery
Systems Solutions Architecture
Trendspotting
Customer Technology Platform

Peak of
Innovation Inflated Trough of Slope of Plateau of
Trigger Expectations Disillusionment Enlightenment Productivity

Plateau will be reached:

Time
less than 2 years 2 to 5 years 5 to 10 years more than 10 years obsolete before plateau As of May 2023

Source: Gartner

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How can EA leaders foster innovation 4 Styles of Adaptive EA Governance
with distributed technology teams?
As the pace of digital change quickens and technology decisions are increasingly
made closer to the point of value, EA leaders know that their ability to manage and Mat
uri
govern the IT estate is threatened. To meet the evolving demands of the business, ty
EA must embrace flexibility and adaptability in their interactions with distributed Autonomous Drive value and manage risk from autonomous
technology teams, while also ensuring that ongoing IT modernization is executed decisions made in real time by people and things
in a resilient, secure and manageable way.
Agility
Today, EA leaders have a critical mandate to drive growth by aligning business Enable enterprise agility through distributed
authority to make value-based decisions
and technology strategies, providing guidance for solution design and delivery
decisions, and building consumable business architecture deliverables that are Outcomes
embraced by the entire organization. Achieving business outcomes while balancing
risk, return and performance on investments

Control Decision making according to rules, policies,

standards, directives and compliance requirements

Source: Gartner

Source: Gartner

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Some of the top questions of the modernizing business
through technology initiative are:

1 In what ways does an EA leader

support business and technology
strategists in achieving their
2  ow can I advise business unit
H
leaders and heads of functions in
determining the future-state vision
3  ow can I provide an effective
H
architecture framework that
supports and coordinates across
business goals? and architecture for the enterprise? distributed product teams?

The 5 key steps to drive modernization

From business design strategy to solution design to building the architecture deliverables, the
thread of EA involvement runs deep through all aspects of digital business strategy and change. The
challenge for EA leaders is establishing their team seat at decision-making tables and providing a
clear and actionable plan for success. To that end, they need to understand disruptive threats and
opportunities, build technology roadmaps and provide the tool that teams need to execute the plans.

Build Consumable
Align Business and Foster Technology Guide Solution Design Apply Adaptive
Architectural
Digital Strategy Innovation and Delivery Governance
Deliverables

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 Build Consumable
Align Business and Foster Technology Guide Solution Design Apply Adaptive
Architectural
Digital Strategy Innovation and Delivery Governance
Deliverables

Align business and digital strategy

Ensure EA work is business-aligned and that the EA group is viewed as a trusted advisor.

Actions to take: Sample of associated Gartner resources

• Research: How to Design Strategic Portfolios Using

  
Business Architecture
Help EA leaders identify Advise business leaders and Ensure strategic actions and
and monitor trends that will functional heads in determining corresponding portfolios are • Expert inquiry: Discuss how you can work across
impact the organization and its future-state vision and aligned to targeted business the organization to extend analysis of threats and
technology. architecture for the enterprise. outcomes. opportunities beyond a technology lens
• Tool: The Gartner Trendspotting Framework:
Driving Operations, Innovation and Strategy

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 Build Consumable
Align Business and Foster Technology Guide Solution Design Apply Adaptive
Architectural
Digital Strategy Innovation and Delivery Governance
Deliverables

Foster technology innovation

Understand how new technologies and practices can be applied to drive new
business opportunities.
Actions to take: Sample of associated Gartner resources

• Research: Assessing Emerging Technology

  
Adoption Readiness
Help design and facilitate Shape and build a culture Use business architecture
transformative changes to our for business-led innovation, deliverables like capability • Expert inquiry: Discuss the role of EA in the
business and operating models focused on capabilities that models and value streams company’s business and technology innovation
through technology. operationalize the innovation to identify opportunities for strategy
life cycle. innovation. • Presentation: New Ways for Enterprise Architecture
to Support Business Growth Strategy

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 Build Consumable
Align Business and Foster Technology Guide Solution Design Apply Adaptive
Architectural
Digital Strategy Innovation and Delivery Governance
Deliverables

Guide solution design and delivery

Build an adaptive model that provides services and deliverables that support
distributed decisions.
Actions to take: Sample of associated Gartner resources

• Research: EA’s Role in Supporting Fusion Teams

  
Support delivery teams with Coach delivery teams to make Help product and development • Expert inquiry: Discuss how to coach delivery
services appropriate to their good product and solution teams leverage Agile and SAFe teams to make good product/solution design and
adopted methodologies, be design and architecture methodologies and DevOps architecture decisions
it an Agile or waterfall project decisions. best practices. • Tool: Solutions Architect Job Description
approach.

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 Build Consumable
Align Business and Foster Technology Guide Solution Design Apply Adaptive
Architectural
Digital Strategy Innovation and Delivery Governance
Deliverables

Apply adaptive governance

Governance and assurance postures and supporting mechanisms that pivot around
business outcomes.
Actions to take: Sample of associated Gartner resources

• Research: Quick Answer: How Must EA

  
Governance and Assurance Change to Support
Develop governance and Ensure team compliance, while Design in adaptive governance Product Management?
assurance that balances risk also shaping architectural that can scale and flex
and agility that allows for governance, to meet team accordingly to risks and risk • Expert inquiry: Establish governance and
distributed decision making at needs. appetite, and empower digital assurance protocols that enable high-quality
the point of value. platforms and product teams. digital delivery at speed
• Tool: Ignition Guide to Creating an Effective
Architecture Review Process

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 Build Consumable
Align Business and Foster Technology Guide Solution Design Apply Adaptive
Architectural
Digital Strategy Innovation and Delivery Governance
Deliverables

Build consumable architectural deliverables

Business architecture informs planning and execution decisions.

Actions to take: Sample of associated Gartner resources

• Research: Quick Answer: How to Document

  
Product Architecture
Facilitate the design of, or Manage the reference Offer consumable and
changes to, business and architecture life cycle in minimally viable business • Expert inquiry: Discuss how business architecture
operating models to drive line with the cadence of architecture tactics and can inform strategy, planning and execution
business transformation and business change. deliverables to inform decisions. decisions
optimization. • Infographic: Developing a Business Case for EA
Tools With User Stories

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Who needs to be involved?
The most successful companies establish cross-functional teams for their modernization initiatives.
We have outlined the recommended functions to involve and their roles to ensure the best success
in hitting the milestones.

CIO
The CIO creates a collaborative working structure with
the CEA, with clear responsibilities for each role to
achieve the goal of operationalizing the EA activities
across the organization.

Application leaders Data and analytics leaders Infrastructure and operations Security and risk management
Application development and integration EA teams work with data and analytics leaders leaders
teams rely on EA to define and leaders to ensure that data and EA leaders influence and drive Security, risk and compliance concerns
communicate common standards and information are relevant, accessible and technological planning, and platform are pervasive. EA and security leaders
policies and provide guidelines to drive consumable by architects, developers architects must work with infrastructure must collaborate to protect key assets
distributed decision making. and engineers across the enterprise. and operations leaders to design the without sacrificing usability.
digital foundations.

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Client success story:

How Gartner Helped Establish Capability-Based Investment Planning


Mission-critical priority How Gartner helped Mission accomplished
Gartner experts and advisors have had Gartner experts and advisors were critical Gartner experts and advisors were
450+ distinct interactions with Gartner in providing strategic input to clients able to unearth a best practice from
clients between June 2022 and May 2023 linking business and IT capabilities to a manufacturing client for investment
regarding the value proposition of EA in business outcomes and key results, which prioritization based on business
a federated, distributed or democratized informed investment planning and decision architecture deliverables.
enterprise, supported by a variety of client prioritization. Gartner helped make strategic This best practice has been able to help
case studies consolidated through Gartner execution quicker and more efficient. clients across every industry in many ways,
researchers. including:
• Identify, evaluate and prioritize
opportunities by value, complexity
and time.
• Align its five-year technology roadmap
to its business strategy and business
capabilities.
• Improve the ROI and business value
for IT investments.

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Actionable, objective insight
Position your organization for success. Explore these additional
complimentary resources and tools for enterprise architecture leaders:

eBook Research Webinar Research

2023 Leadership Vision for Enterprise Architecture Function 5 Steps to Architect Your 8 Steps to Select and Obtain
Enterprise Architecture Primer for 2023 Enterprise Operating Model Value From Enterprise
Discover four opportunities to drive digital Enable growth and resilience in a project- Understand business and operating Architecture Tools
era hypergrowth. and product-oriented digital enterprise. models and how they fit together. Identify and assess what data you need
and how to use it to deliver value.

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