Creating a Business Case for Enterprise Architecture

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Introduction

Despite an impetus to the contrary, Enterprise and thus the Enterprise Architectural program still have not adopted real risk-return analysis of the actual program and project investment, using either some subjective case study, or relying on others’ numbers published by vendors / separate consulting groups / evangelists with, at best, a traditional cost-benefit analysis that makes no attempt to capture the “intangible” benefits of EA or the risks in an actuarially-sound manner. Enterprise budget is mostly emotionally charged investment into a large Enterprise Transformation programme without a scientific Risk Return analysis.

Ideally, the Enterprise Architecture program should be tightly aligned with business effectiveness through technology innovation. But how do we measure “business effectiveness through technology innovation”? Applied Information Economics explains exactly how to define the “Unit of Measure” for anything. AIE is a powerful tool that uses “calibrated probability assessments”, computes the value of information, then uses empirical measurements exactly where and at what level it is justified. This article aims at empowering the reader with the amazing AIE tool.