EA Survey: talk the talk!

Scott Ambler is in the habit of doing some very interesting surveys. One that caught my attention this morning was on Enterprise Architecture.

The interesting part is the tables on success and failure factors. The highest rated success factors are about involvement and communication with both business, management and the development teams.

The highest rated ‘reasons for cancelling enterprise architecture programs’ are getting insufficient time, not being able to prove any benefit, and rejection of the EA work (and sometimes the EA) by the development team. Again, all factors of involvement and communication.

So there you have it: If you want to get some architectural improvements off the ground, the important thing is that you need to talk about it. Sell it to the business, by providing them with convincing arguments on how this change will benefit them. Talk to the development teams, and get them involved. Not just in execution of the idea, but in improving the concept and generating alternatives. You can’t know everything, and even if you did, you’ll get more done if the teams are involved in defining the needed changes.