Challenge #1: Communication
“I’ve noticed that it doesn’t matter what the organization is, one of the challenges is always going to be communication”, said Troy. Within the technology field, there is a lot of technical jargon which can be interpreted in diverse ways. Hence, it is important to make sure that communication is clear, and messages are well received and understood.
Solution: A picture is worth a thousand words.
Producing a visual or framework can facilitate discussions for teams. Visuals provide a simple single thing to look at, compare, and discuss. Alternatively, a framework has a common language, vocabulary, terms, and relationships to describe any type of architecture in a standard way.
Challenge #2: Technology disruption
“Technology is constantly changing, and our job is to plan for that transition so that there will be no visible interruptions.”
Solution: Planning
From a project-planning point of view, we must ensure that the project teams are not impacted by other process issues. For example, to make sure that procurement is on track, other activities such as security assessment and the documentation of a technical architecture document must also happen in parallel to prevent additional delays.
Challenge #3. Ownership and Accountability
“With a task being distributed across several groups, the concept of who owns a task versus who is responsible and accountable for a task can be unclear. In particular, with a change in personnel or when an activity isn’t done consistently.”
Solution: A RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed) matrix
This simple tool also allows them to identify visually, who should be doing the work, who should be informed, who should be involved in related consultations or discussions. When supporting the Architecture Review Board, Troy is responsible for helping the Enterprise Architecture team and the Architecture Working Group to produce a set of standards to guide faculties and services on which technologies they should choose. Anytime they propose an IT standard, other IT teams would be included in the Consulted column of RACI to encourage more acceptance towards that standard.