Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Stakeholder expectations will strongly affect the subjective assessment
of an enterprise architectural project's success. It is important to convey
successful gains to stakeholders throughout the realignment process. Sub-
jective perception of success can be strongly affected by small gains such
as reduced product count easing evaluation and contract negotiations, or
a reduced deployment envelope achieved through reduced variety in the
types of deployed technologies.
An Objective View
Objective metrics are also needed in order to assess the impact of archi-
tectural change in a manner that is not subject to subjective assessment
and argument. Many different systems have been evolved to create lists
of possible metrics. Individual metrics typically fall into one of several
general categories:
Quality:
A measure of the performance metrics for personnel, users,
or partner consumers of provided services
Efficiency:
A measure of the cost per unit of storage, processing, or
support for each client supported
Uptime:
A measure of the raw time during which services are avail-
able to consumers
Alignment:
A measure of the alignment of services and competen-
cies with an organization's business strategies and goals
Extensibility:
A measure of the ability to integrate services with other
solutions, both within the enterprise and with external partners
Individual metrics can be identified and assigned relative values to
best fit specific business goals and may include such measures as the num-
ber of full-time employees
dedicated to patch management each year or
the number of lines of code generated by each programming staff mem-
ber in a month within a specified limit of errors-per-line. A vast number
of other metrics can be identified, and the lead architect should identify
as many as possible before initiating changes. If challenged on subjective
grounds, these objective measures can be used to prove the value gained
through change.
