EA 872 Week14: Why EA Performance Management is Important

As EA872 class approaches the last few weeks bringing this long series of blogs to the final few, one recurring theme I have subconsciously reiterated multiple times is the importance of EA in these times of digital changes, and how the prospect of IT being an asset driving revenue rather than a cost center is increasingly important for the business to understand and adopt.

I was part of a customer workshop recently - predominately with the IT leaders of the enterprise. Of the many conversations we had, one statement that stuck with me was that “the executive business leadership still looks at IT as a cost center with the expectation of a CIO to mainly lower cost and increase efficiency”. The IT leaders, on the other hand, were saying “we have so much to give to the business; let us help drive value from IT, from data and benefit from the rise of digital business technology”. This made me think of the importance of EA to bridge that communication and trust in value gap between the two organizations. 

Specifically, having a performance management EA plan with a set of metrics that can be used to show the business the increased value of the EA investments would be a huge payoff to change that perception of IT. Once chosen, this set of metrics would be mapped to the strategic or vision statement of the enterprise. In other words, the metrics will measure the performance set of activities, systems and processes that are translated from the strategic or vision statement.This way, these Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) would ensure track and exposure of progress and value. At a high level, the KPIs will be addressing the progress though four basic levels of architecture: Business, Information, Technology, and Solutions. Additionally, the KPIs will need to be presented within the context of what kind of value or progress is being observed. For example, running the business KPIs are different than growing or transforming the business.

Going back to the statements I mentioned above, EA team should use EA performance management toolkits, like the one referenced below from Gartner, to show that not only EA and IT can help running the business by lowering operating costs and increasing efficiency, but also presenting opportunities for growth by maximizing business impact (ex. data insights across silos), and even transforming business by maximizing revenue and business impact through new opportunities, market area, competitive intel and possibly new products.

Reference: “Gartner for IT Leaders: Developing High-Impact EA Performance Metrics ”, (Gartner).