Communication and Stakeholder Management
Manage communication with stakeholders who are interested in, or are influenced by, enterprise architecture management, and manage their expectations of what it can deliver.
Improvement Planning
Practices-Outcomes-Metrics (POM)
Representative POMs are described for Communication and Stakeholder Management at each level of maturity.
- 2Basic
- Practice
- Identify key IT stakeholders.
- Outcome
- Key stakeholder needs are identified and addressed first.
- Metrics
- Survey results that identify where organization support and resistance to architecture projects lie.
- Satisfaction ratings for the architecture function.
- Basic counters and trends for architecture artefacts creation and usage.
- Budgets, costs, and resource usage.
- Aggregated project portfolio, programme, and project metrics for dash boards, and project phase and task metrics for diagnosis.
- Practice
- Put in place a basic communication process.
- Outcome
- Communications address fundamental needs for the enterprise architecture and the other stakeholders.
- Metrics
- Survey results that identify where organization support and resistance to architecture projects lie.
- Satisfaction ratings for the architecture function.
- Basic counters and trends for architecture artefacts creation and usage.
- Budgets, costs, and resource usage.
- Aggregated project portfolio, programme, and project metrics for dash boards, and project phase and task metrics for diagnosis.
- 3Intermediate
- Practice
- Document and periodically refresh the list of architecture stakeholders.
- Outcome
- The stakeholder list is maintained up-to-date.
- Metrics
- Counts, averages, variances, and associated trends of errors and rework.
- Variance from targets and mean.
- Issue counts and trends (by severity and urgency).
- Open to close metrics (e.g. time, total cost of fix).
- Metadata enabled aggregate metrics by department, function, business unit, geospatial region, product, service, and so forth.
- Surveys on awareness of, usability, and use of architecture artefacts and guidance.
- Project portfolio, programme, and project life-cycle metrics.
- Ratio of technology debt reduction budget to technology debt size.
- Practice
- Ensure architects engage and communicate directions to key vendors to align expectations.
- Outcome
- Architecture guidance is extended into the procurement chain.
- Metrics
- Counts, averages, variances, and associated trends of errors and rework.
- Variance from targets and mean.
- Issue counts and trends (by severity and urgency).
- Open to close metrics (e.g. time, total cost of fix).
- Metadata enabled aggregate metrics by department, function, business unit, geospatial region, product, service, and so forth.
- Surveys on awareness of, usability, and use of architecture artefacts and guidance.
- Project portfolio, programme, and project life-cycle metrics.
- Ratio of technology debt reduction budget to technology debt size.
- Practice
- Consult stakeholders regularly, using established communication channels, with feedback and satisfaction measures in place.
- Outcome
- There is improved cooperation and there are fewer architectural issues.
- Metrics
- Counts, averages, variances, and associated trends of errors and rework.
- Variance from targets and mean.
- Issue counts and trends (by severity and urgency).
- Open to close metrics (e.g. time, total cost of fix).
- Metadata enabled aggregate metrics by department, function, business unit, geospatial region, product, service, and so forth.
- Surveys on awareness of, usability, and use of architecture artefacts and guidance.
- Project portfolio, programme, and project life-cycle metrics.
- Ratio of technology debt reduction budget to technology debt size.
- Practice
- Make architecture part of IT communication channels such as newsletters, educational events (brown bags), etc.
- Outcome
- Organizational awareness and understanding of the enterprise architecture activities are enhanced.
- Metrics
- Counts, averages, variances, and associated trends of errors and rework.
- Variance from targets and mean.
- Issue counts and trends (by severity and urgency).
- Open to close metrics (e.g. time, total cost of fix).
- Metadata enabled aggregate metrics by department, function, business unit, geospatial region, product, service, and so forth.
- Surveys on awareness of, usability, and use of architecture artefacts and guidance.
- Project portfolio, programme, and project life-cycle metrics.
- Ratio of technology debt reduction budget to technology debt size.
- Practice
- Use quarterly or bi-annual architecture summits as forums for disseminating roadmaps, key processes and frameworks, governance decisions, compliance metrics, value metrics, and other relevant information to the enterprise architecture organization.
- Outcome
- Roadmap updates are regular and can be incorporated into the organization and its planning updates.
- Metrics
- Counts, averages, variances, and associated trends of errors and rework.
- Variance from targets and mean.
- Issue counts and trends (by severity and urgency).
- Open to close metrics (e.g. time, total cost of fix).
- Metadata enabled aggregate metrics by department, function, business unit, geospatial region, product, service, and so forth.
- Surveys on awareness of, usability, and use of architecture artefacts and guidance.
- Project portfolio, programme, and project life-cycle metrics.
- Ratio of technology debt reduction budget to technology debt size.
- 4Advanced
- Practice
- Put in place a comprehensive process for identifying architecture stakeholders across the business and IT, and to cover all significant business units, functions, countries etc.
- Outcome
- All stakeholders are identified and their needs and expectations are managed.
- Metrics
- Counts and trends of governance compliance and governance exceptions.
- Elapsed time and trends for governance steps such as approvals cycles.
- Counts and trends for first time fixed and count issues re-opened.
- Pareto of missing information types that cause delays in decision-making.
- Frequency and time in use of tool features.
- Cost, cycle-time, and resource utilization impact of automation and architecture driven process changes.
- Baseline measurements of business (unit) operations before an architecturally significant change implementation so that its impact can subsequently be determined more accurately.
- Comprehensive project portfolio, programme, and project metrics.
- Stakeholder surveys on communications, architecture engagement, and architecture artefact utility.
- Practice
- Segment stakeholders — e.g. by level of influence, degree of supportiveness, frequency of interaction.
- Outcome
- Prioritization of communications is simplified.
- Metrics
- Counts and trends of governance compliance and governance exceptions.
- Elapsed time and trends for governance steps such as approvals cycles.
- Counts and trends for first time fixed and count issues re-opened.
- Pareto of missing information types that cause delays in decision-making.
- Frequency and time in use of tool features.
- Cost, cycle-time, and resource utilization impact of automation and architecture driven process changes.
- Baseline measurements of business (unit) operations before an architecturally significant change implementation so that its impact can subsequently be determined more accurately.
- Comprehensive project portfolio, programme, and project metrics.
- Stakeholder surveys on communications, architecture engagement, and architecture artefact utility.
- Practice
- Document the architecture communications plan with key messages/themes for discrete audiences.
- Outcome
- The communications plan acts as a guide to enterprise architecture staff in preparing and participating in communications.
- Metrics
- Counts and trends of governance compliance and governance exceptions.
- Elapsed time and trends for governance steps such as approvals cycles.
- Counts and trends for first time fixed and count issues re-opened.
- Pareto of missing information types that cause delays in decision-making.
- Frequency and time in use of tool features.
- Cost, cycle-time, and resource utilization impact of automation and architecture driven process changes.
- Baseline measurements of business (unit) operations before an architecturally significant change implementation so that its impact can subsequently be determined more accurately.
- Comprehensive project portfolio, programme, and project metrics.
- Stakeholder surveys on communications, architecture engagement, and architecture artefact utility.
- Practice
- Use appropriate communication channels to engage effectively with each audience segment.
- Outcome
- More effective communications are evident.
- Metrics
- Counts and trends of governance compliance and governance exceptions.
- Elapsed time and trends for governance steps such as approvals cycles.
- Counts and trends for first time fixed and count issues re-opened.
- Pareto of missing information types that cause delays in decision-making.
- Frequency and time in use of tool features.
- Cost, cycle-time, and resource utilization impact of automation and architecture driven process changes.
- Baseline measurements of business (unit) operations before an architecturally significant change implementation so that its impact can subsequently be determined more accurately.
- Comprehensive project portfolio, programme, and project metrics.
- Stakeholder surveys on communications, architecture engagement, and architecture artefact utility.
- Practice
- Put a range of feedback loops in place — e.g. online stakeholder surveys, regular stakeholder interviews, and post-implementation reviews.
- Outcome
- The voice of the enterprise architecture customer is heard.
- Metrics
- Counts and trends of governance compliance and governance exceptions.
- Elapsed time and trends for governance steps such as approvals cycles.
- Counts and trends for first time fixed and count issues re-opened.
- Pareto of missing information types that cause delays in decision-making.
- Frequency and time in use of tool features.
- Cost, cycle-time, and resource utilization impact of automation and architecture driven process changes.
- Baseline measurements of business (unit) operations before an architecturally significant change implementation so that its impact can subsequently be determined more accurately.
- Comprehensive project portfolio, programme, and project metrics.
- Stakeholder surveys on communications, architecture engagement, and architecture artefact utility.
- Practice
- Use an effective process to review feedback and to identify the appropriate response, and follow up with actions and updated communications.
- Outcome
- Effective two-way communications are maintained with stakeholders.
- Metrics
- Counts and trends of governance compliance and governance exceptions.
- Elapsed time and trends for governance steps such as approvals cycles.
- Counts and trends for first time fixed and count issues re-opened.
- Pareto of missing information types that cause delays in decision-making.
- Frequency and time in use of tool features.
- Cost, cycle-time, and resource utilization impact of automation and architecture driven process changes.
- Baseline measurements of business (unit) operations before an architecturally significant change implementation so that its impact can subsequently be determined more accurately.
- Comprehensive project portfolio, programme, and project metrics.
- Stakeholder surveys on communications, architecture engagement, and architecture artefact utility.
- 5Optimized
- Practice
- Include stakeholders from across the business ecosystem — i.e. customers, partners, and suppliers, in the communications process.
- Outcome
- Enterprise architecture guidance reaches everyone in the business, and anyone who needs to can influence and shape enterprise architecture.
- Metrics
- Pareto of architecture guidance principles explicitly used in decision-making.
- Count of decisions adjusted by enterprise architecture governance committee.
- % of decisions getting enterprise architecture approval without modification.
- Cost to projects of technology debt.
- Complexity metrics (e.g. # of decisions in process, divergent process path counts, count of tasks requiring experts/consultant level staff).
- Satisfaction rating surveys that are value focused (i.e. how valuable is the enterprise architecture function to the stakeholders).
- Benefits realization metrics from project portfolios, programmes, and the benefits realization function.
- Practice
- Track, review, and continually improve the effectiveness of the communications and stakeholder management process.
- Outcome
- The communications used and their channels are the most effective for the targeted stakeholder participative segments.
- Metrics
- Pareto of architecture guidance principles explicitly used in decision-making.
- Count of decisions adjusted by enterprise architecture governance committee.
- % of decisions getting enterprise architecture approval without modification.
- Cost to projects of technology debt.
- Complexity metrics (e.g. # of decisions in process, divergent process path counts, count of tasks requiring experts/consultant level staff).
- Satisfaction rating surveys that are value focused (i.e. how valuable is the enterprise architecture function to the stakeholders).
- Benefits realization metrics from project portfolios, programmes, and the benefits realization function.