Connect Application Management to Enterprise Architecture and Change Governance

This chapter explains how the management of individual Applications connects to the enterprise’s governance bodies and leaders.

The Governance Bodies and Leaders Involved

Several governance actors shape and enforce how Applications are managed, without being roles assigned to any individual Application:

• Business and IT leadership, such as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO), who mandate the Minimum Application Documentation Policy, hold accountability for it, and approve exceptions.

• Enterprise Architecture, which, together with or instead of Software Engineering, owns the Application Documentation Template, reviews Application architectures and decisions, tracks documentation conformance, and maintains enterprise-level views such as Architecture Decision Record logs.

• The Change Review Board, or equivalent Release and change governance body, which checks documentation conformance at the Production Deployment gate and evaluates exceptions.

• Change Management, which may track conformance and evaluate exceptions alongside Enterprise Architecture.

• Risk and Compliance, which audits documentation independently and oversees documentation Risks in the Enterprise Risk Register.

Establish the Connections

Define, in the enterprise’s governance documentation and in the Minimum Application Documentation Policy, how each governance actor participates in Application Management: which reviews they perform, at which points in the SDLC, what evidence they require, and what decisions they make. Ensure that Application teams know when and how to engage each one.

Document and Share Governance Interactions

Record, in each Application’s documentation, the governance reviews and decisions that affected it, such as architecture reviews, Release gate decisions, and exception approvals, linked to the governance bodies’ own records.

Best Practice: Connect Application Management to Enterprise Architecture and Change Governance

It is a best practice to both establish and document the solution for how Applications are governed: define how leadership, Enterprise Architecture, the Change Review Board, Change Management, and Risk and Compliance each participate in Application Management, and record their reviews and decisions in each Application’s documentation.

Benefits: Clear governance connections let Application teams engage the right bodies at the right time, instead of discovering requirements late. Recording governance decisions in each Application’s documentation gives a complete picture of how and why the Application was approved and changed.

Connections to Related IF4IT Practices and Inventories

The Enterprise Architecture Value Model describes how Enterprise Architecture creates value through governance. The Release Management Best Practices addresses Release governance and the Change Review Board’s role.