People feel that principles are academic and unresponsive to change. While both of these points may be valid, they miss out on the key value of principles — their ability to drive organizational consensus.
Architectural Principles are essential to any successful Enterprise Architecture practice for several reasons:
1. Principles Are Easy To Socialize
Enterprise Architecture is about people. Organizational politics are one of the key inefficiencies in the architectural process.Principles are one tool in the architect's pocket that can breakdown political barriers and get everyone aligned behind an architectural approach.
Principles are concise, actionable and catchy.
2. Principles Stabilize
Like the Constitution of the United States or any democratic government — principles should be enduring statements that are difficult to change.This protects the architecture from wild swings based on the organizational politics of the day.
3. Principles Make You Smarter
What are your key architectural decisions based upon? Social dynamics (the outcome of a meeting)? The whims of an architect?You can do much worse than basing your architectural decisions on a set of principles.
4. Principles Make Governance Less Terrible
It's no fun to be governed when there are no laws on the books. It's unfair to judge a project's architecture without first communicating the principles and roadmap of your Enterprise Architecture.5. Principles Sell
Your business likely views IT as an irrational ball of mud.When your business asks you where your architecture is headed — principles are one thing everyone in IT can point to.
6. Principles Help You Ship
An organization that is confused about its core values and direction is as organization that will make slow decisions.7. Principles Drive Metrics
Looking for some Enterprise Architecture governance metrics? Start evaluating projects against a set of principles — it's a great source of EA metrics.Example: 45% of IT spend was tactical (non strategic approaches) in the fourth quarter.
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