Is strategy and enterprise architecture same? Are there any differences? If they are different, how different are they? What is the best time to start enterprise architecture?
Do these questions sound familiar? These is one more question that needs to be answered before answering above questions. What is enterprise? Simplest (and general) answer is it’s an organization with well-defined mission, associated strategy along with ability to plan and execute strategies (implementation and operationalizing).
A quick representation is as below:
- At top is mission, this explains companies overall goals to internal audience. The goals are value driven and may have one or more objectives that are measurable.
- Next is strategy, it defines means for achieving long-term goals via objectives, sometime referred as strategic initiatives. It is important for strategy to be aligned with objectives to ensure better measurability.
- Strategic plan defines the course of action, timelines and resources required to execute the strategy.
- Execution is actual implementation and operationalizing of the strategic initiatives as a whole or in parts (projects).
It is important to understand difference between strategy and strategic plan. Let us consider famous toothpaste revenue increase case study to understand how above model works:
- Objective (aligned with mission): Increase toothpaste sales by 30%
- Strategy: Widen toothpaste dispensing hole from 5 mm to 6 mm (assuming there is only one size)
- Strategic Plan:
- Month 1-2: Assess impact on tube manufacturing plants and vendor ecosystem
- Month 3-4: Prototype new tube and promotion ideas
- Month 5-6: Change the tube manufacturing casts
- Month 7-8: Roll-out new shipments and promote new packaging
- Execution:
- Ensemble resources required for execution and operationalizing the project(s)
- Implement initiatives/projects
- Operationalize, monitor and report
Hope example helped in clarifying that the strategy refers to means for achieving goal, it is about what needs to be done to achieve goal(s). Strategic plan is about what exact path, timelines, approach and resources are required for the action (how, who, where, when). Strategic plan might also have to look at or be ready with alternates in case plan gets impacted due to some discrete events. It is also evident that having a good goal is of utmost importance for any strategy building. Knowledge of enterprise, offerings, customers, process and place of service/product consumption and packaging are also equally important. Based on scenarios some of these would vary.
Hope the relationship between strategy and enterprise architecture is emerging through example. Following is a perspective on how they are related, and yes there is an overlap.
Strategy frameworks are preferred for strategy, it is due to their business focus. The strategy frameworks extend to mission and strategic plan bands. In case of enterprise architecture strategic planning is at center with extension to strategy and execution layers. From the focus perspective strategy is more focused on business while enterprise architecture is focused on enterprise functioning (and aligned to business goals).
Would it be possible to arrive at strategy without enterprise architecture? Answer is yes, most of the new businesses or start-ups start from there. Would presence of enterprise architecture improve strategy, answer is yes, it can help in identifying hidden strategies as well as validating strategies. Now the right question to ask is whether an enterprise, new business or start-up survive without enterprise architecture. Answer is certainly no, each of these organizations are implementing enterprise architecture in some or the other form with varying magnitude. In absence of enterprise architecture the mission and strategy remain at the idea phase only, the enterprise is result of planning and execution of appropriate strategy. Enterprise architecture is the vehicle on which strategy rides.
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