BrainBlog for BIZZdesign by Jason Bloomberg
Solution and Enterprise Architects Must Collaborate for Successful Digital Transformation
At no time can an organization say they are finished digitally transforming, brush their hands off, and move onto the next thing. Instead, digital transformation requires organizations adopt change as a core competency. Change must be by design. Instead of looking forward to some theoretical final, transformed state, organizations must move from being less able to deal with change to being proficient with change.
As a form of enterprise transformation, digital transformation promised to transform enterprise architecture (EA). The role of solution architecture (SA), on the other hand, has always been relegated to the trenches, hammering out the design of one technology-centric solution or another for this business unit or that.
For solution architects, therefore, digital transformation has a more limited meaning, where individual solutions focus on incremental digital transformations rather than the end-to-end, comprehensive transformation that enterprise architects strive toward.
As a result, enterprise and solution architects have struggled with forces pulling them in separate directions. How can solution architects rethink their role to better align with customer needs where change is by design? How can enterprise architects leverage the hands-on impact of solution architects to better support enterprise transformation initiatives?
Organizations must rethink the role of SA today, just as they are revamping the role of EA to better deal with digital transformation. Only by realigning these two essential architectural disciplines can organizations succeed with their digital transformation initiatives.
Digital Transformation Rabbit Holes
As organizations proceed with such initiatives, the very definition of ‘solution’ evolves, often leaving solution architects in a dilemma.
Here is an example. When banks first rolled out mobile access to consumer accounts, solution architects stepped up to the plate. Such projects had well-defined stakeholders and clear goals.
But mobile enablement is but the first step on the long road to digital transformation.
Eventually, banks realized that to best meet the needs of customers, they must make the mobile app the primary point of interaction for all bank products and services, well beyond checking and savings.
Mortgages, business loans, wealth management, customer support, and every other business function should be represented – and the app interface should be streamlined, simple, and work across devices.
Such change is precisely what we mean by digital transformation.
The solution architect for such an effort now faces a Herculean task, as there are stakeholders from across the bank, and they each have different priorities. The organization must transform front-office and back-office business processes, cutting across departmental lines in order to deliver an outstanding customer experience (CX).
These architects soon find themselves in endless meetings, often dealing with contradictory priorities that lead them away from a delightful CX, rather than toward it.
Read the entire BrainBlog here.
