In ever-evolving commercial landscapes, companies find themselves in a constant state of transformation – driven by an urgent need to innovate and to adapt. From replacing legacy systems to introducing groundbreaking products to market, successful transformations demand a nuanced understanding of the organization’s entire enterprise architecture. It should come as no surprise that the approach to planning these transformations will vary significantly, based on the nature and objectives of any given project.
In this article, we’re going to consider two approaches to transformation planning – strategic and tactical – reviewing their characteristics, and taking a look at the steps Enterprise Architects can take to make a success of each.
Strategic planning — in contrast to tactical changes aimed at optimizing current state architecture — is typically reserved for complex transformations that align with the broadest level of organizational objectives and strategy. Truly strategic initiatives typically first require the creation of a revised, future-state architecture, and then the design of appropriate new solutions – followed, of course, by the implementation of these new solutions.
The initial phase of planning strategic transformation involves a thorough analysis of the drivers instigating the change. Understanding the unique factors at play and how they align with new business goals is crucial at this stage. Given the diversity of these drivers, employing a variety of analytical approaches is going to be necessary. Consider, for example, external factors influencing the market as well as your current customer journey (and check out the variety of BlueDolphin templates designed to capture and assess these insights).
An example of analyzing drivers for change using BlueDolphin. Here, we’re using the Customer Journey template to analyze the processes and apps integral to servicing customers online.
Once the drivers behind the transformation are identified, your focus can shift to capturing new business goals and/or strategic objectives. Enterprise Architecture should be playing a key role in helping C-level executives to define them. Here are three ways in which EA teams contribute to this process:
Tactical planning within the context of enterprise architecture involves taking a focused and practical approach to optimizing your existing systems, processes and technology. Unlike strategic planning, tactical planning addresses the immediate needs of the organization. It's a dynamic process that aims to continuously enhance your organization’s efficiency, help resolve its current challenges, and deliver quick wins. What tactical planning is unlikely to do is significantly move your strategic needle.
While strategic planning does set the stage for large-scale transformation, tactical planning is unsurprisingly equally crucial for optimizing existing systems and ensuring operational efficiency within the organization – a day-to-day for many enterprise architects .
Before you dive into tactical planning, it's vital to conduct a thorough analysis of the current state architecture. This involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses of your organization’s capabilities – as well as the applications, processes, data and infrastructure enabling those business capabilities. Utilizing an EA tool like BlueDolphin lets you create visual representations of your current state and a clear overview of the existing landscape. This step (and we’ve more ‘how-to’ guidance here) sets the foundation for informed decision-making in any subsequent tactical planning.
With insights from the analysis phase, the next step in tactical planning is to identify short-term objectives. These should complement immediate business priorities and aim to enhance specific aspects of the current architecture. Whether it's upgrading legacy applications, identifying and mitigating data risk, or implementing new systems, the focus should be on making targeted adjustments that yield tangible and immediate benefits.
Having taken that whistle-stop tour of the ins and outs of strategic vs tactical planning, it should come as no surprise to Enterprise Architects that creating synergy between your strategic and your tactical planning is the key to helping your organization develop resilience and agility.
By utilizing an Enterprise Architecture platform like BlueDolphin, organizations can streamline both the strategic as well as the tactical planning processes and ensure an appropriate balance of the two.
By maintaining a close grip on insights from the current state, EA and operational teams can remain adaptable and ready to act on tactical improvements. By mapping, understanding, and assessing the entire current state architecture, teams can flag risks and streamline inefficiencies in processes, applications, data, or technology infrastructure.
Strategically, teams can consolidate high-level goals and objectives, create and adjust business- and operating model- canvases, and detail the design of effective solutions, based on business capability requirements.
By relying on complete and data-driven insights, Enterprise Architects can direct the organization towards an optimized future state architecture, and ensure the delivery of new and innovative solutions.
Want more strategic planning for Enterprise Architecture? Don’t miss our eBook: A Guide to Strategic Planning with Enterprise Architecture.