Enterprise architecture: agile transition and implementation

TLDR

Enterprise architecture is essential for coordinating the remediation, renovation, or replacement of multiple systems in large organizations, and prior work has outlined its development phases, baseline and target architectures, and the need to account for interdependencies and differing timeframes and audiences in implementation planning. The study completes the methodology by focusing on transition and implementation planning. Transition planning derives a time‑phased set of actions to implement the target architecture, accounts for system interdependencies in activity scheduling, and maps resources to those activities.

Abstract

In our previous articles, we made the case for having an enterprise architecture and discussed the first phases of an architecture development process. The second article concentrated on describing the baseline architecture and defining the target architecture. We complete our discussion of the methodology by focusing on transition and implementation planning. Transition planning focuses on deriving a time-phased set of actions to achieve a given goal-in this case, implementation of the target architecture. Large organizations will remediate, renovate, or replace many systems concurrently. In doing so, they must recognize interdependencies among systems and accommodate them in activity scheduling. Implementation planning has a different time frame and a different audience. It maps resources (people, places, things, and funding) to transition planning activities.