Seven reasons why Enterprise Architects need an EA Tool

Below are seven reasons why using an EA tool for creating visual communication products in the organization is recommended.

Especially when working with enterprise architecture is a priority on the agenda, the architecture documents are piling up in chaos, and every year, the discussion is redone about what architecture is and if entity relationship diagrams are architecture models, without actually getting any further.

Any of these seven arguments below show how I, as a Visual Enterprise Architect, have observed, practiced, and experienced Enterprise Architecture and how I have used Dragon1 Enterprise Architecture Tool, to create pragmatic visual architecture solutions.

1. Management

If we see enterprise architecture as an instrument that needs to be taken and managed seriously, like Sales or Purchasing, it is advisable to use a specialized EA Tool. Professional sales, such as cross-selling and up-selling, using a 360 client view, or smartly doing purchasing, like eProcurement and Maverick buying, none of this is easy, and few people do this without the use of a specialized CRM tool or Purchasing tool. The administration and management of personnel files at the HR department, as well as bookkeeping at the Finance department, are rarely done without specialized tooling. To have enterprise architects perform their work properly, efficiently, and effectively, and to control the number of architecture documents produced, it is smart to start using specialized EA tools from the beginning of working with architecture in the organization.

2. Consistency

When an organization first starts to explore 'how to work with architecture' using various methods and techniques, chances are that the created fragments of architecture do not fit (gaps and overlaps). Nor can they be assembled into one coherent piece of work. By utilizing EA tools and modifying or adjusting the existing examples in the tool to suit your specific situation, you can ensure that the architecture is stored and administered as a consistent and coherent whole.

3. Reuse

Every organization has a current architecture (the AS-IS architecture). Every physical operation and logical construction of a change project in the organization is enabled or constrained in its freedom of moment by the AS-IS Architecture of the organization. With EA tools, it is much easier to collaborate on documenting, charting, and visualizing the complete AS-IS architecture coherently and consistently, with everyone focusing on their part (fragment, system, or domain). Building blocks defined and designed by one architect can be published in a repository as a tool for reuse by other architects to chart their part of the architecture. The mere presence of an EA tool in organizations sometimes already sets architects on the path of charting the organization's current (as-is) architecture spontaneously. Without an EA tool, the chances are significantly lower that the AS-IS architecture will be charted spontaneously or that activities will be planned.

4. Distribution of Tasks

With cloud-based EA tools, tasks can be distributed much more easily than without a cloud-based EA tool: tasks can be distributed based on experience and specialism. One team member may focus on shapes, definitions, and relationships of terms, while another creates the blueprints and roadmaps. A third one takes care of the underlying meta models, and someone else researches the correct concepts and principles. If and when an organization chooses to work with cloud-based enterprise architecture tools, the benefits of collaboration with a repository will be immediately revealed. At any time, from anywhere, team members and stakeholders can collaborate on architecture using the same tool.

5. Administration

The world is changing rapidly daily, as is your organization's coherent set of information systems. If architecture documents are created with office automation software, such as a word processor, spreadsheet application, or presentation tool, then it requires a lot of manual labor and time to continuously process all changes 100% consistently in all the separate documents. With EA tools, one can generate complete Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and Excel sheets using building blocks. Also, model changes will be automatically processed in the visualizations used in real-time generated documents. So, we will always have an accurate and up-to-date report on the current situation.

6. Costs / Benefits Ratio

It is always justified to invest in EA tools because of the significantly increased productivity of its users; Users can process changes more quickly, consistently, and integral, and no more time is wasted on making documents consistent by several people and time is saved because the wheel is not reinvented anymore. The reuse of building blocks is made very easy using a repository mechanism. The business case for or return on investment (ROI) of an EA Tool is sometimes less than a month, as it can prevent employees from spending hours searching for a specific document with relevant information, using outdated document versions, or failing to find documents, thereby duplicating existing ones.

7. Maturity

An often-heard remark from practitioners is: we are just starting to work with architecture in the organization. It is much too early to go and use an EA tool. First, we need to gain some experience working with architecture to create a TO-BE architecture and implement organizational changes that better embed architecture. With professional EA tools, you start with a phased approach and maturity levels. For instance, if you have never worked with architecture before, first chart the as-is architecture of a domain or system within your organization that you are familiar with. Furthermore, your apprentice colleagues in the sales department typically start by entering the current contacts, clients, and products of the organization, before analyzing the market for trends and opportunities using graphical reports generated with complex queries in the CRM tool.

Dragon1 Tools for Enterprise Architects

You probably will understand I am not talking about any EA tool here, and not every EA Tool holds features to comply with each mentioned argument. The Dragon1 EA tool complies with all seven of these arguments. Dragon1 is increasingly used as a source for the base of working with enterprise architecture within an organization. With Dragon1, you practically take over visual control of your organization. Dragon1 is more than just a modeling tool for creating views on Entity-Relationship Diagrams. Dragon1 is a cloud-based EA Tool for designing architectures (total concepts) and monitoring the realization of these integral businesses and IT concepts for enterprise structures.

Next to creating models, it is possible to create with care and attention in Dragon1 powerful visualizations of these models. These visualizations can be made interactive (clickable). For instance, the objective is to support the organization's board, directors, and management in making strategic decisions with accurate and timely generated, up-to-date architecture visualizations. Such interactive maps, atlases, and design books have proven to be very effective means of communication. And alas, in most cases, it has not already been done. Creating a design book or interactive map is what I call an Architectural Quick Win!

Finally

Rounding up, from a proactive management point of view, increased consistency, more reuse, better or improved balanced distribution task, realistic administration capacity utilization, and correct cost/benefit analysis, enterprise architects are entitled, just like their colleagues, to a specialized tool. In their case, an EA Tool.

My advice to organizations is to start at any time by creating an architecture framework diagram and visualize their AS-IS Enterprise Architecture and domain architectures on that Architecture Framework Diagram. This is because the current situation of architecture constantly impacts business operations and projects of change.

Also implement a process to regularly, on a monthly or quarterly basis, update your AS-IS architecture visualization as an EA Baseline for every architecture recognized. Once the AS-IS Enterprise Architecture is well-defined, it becomes more tangible and manageable. Compliance views on company standards, policies, and architecture principles can be generated using the AS-IS architecture. A set of coherent and reinforcing measures can be taken to transform the AS-IS architecture into a new architecture plateau that provides more room for the company's strategy to execute. By using Dragon1 as a cloud-based EA Tool for this task, success is inevitable.