Enterprise Architecture Value Model

The following signals indicate that your architecture function is operating at Level 1. Review them as an executive — not through the optimistic lens of the function’s own self-assessment, but through the lens of what you actually observe about its organizational presence and impact.

• The primary measure of the architecture function’s productivity is artifact output — documents produced, reviews completed, standards published — rather than delivery or operational outcomes.

• Architecture standards are documented and formally approved but inconsistently followed in practice, with no effective enforcement mechanism or consequence for non-compliance.

• The architecture function engages with delivery programs primarily at formal review gates rather than continuously throughout the delivery lifecycle.

• The architecture repository contains documentation that is known to be outdated but is not systematically maintained because doing so competes with the bandwidth required for active advisory work.

• The architecture function has no direct budget ownership for any technology platform, solution, or service in the enterprise.

• When a significant architectural violation occurs in a delivery program, the architecture function’s recourse is to document the violation and escalate to a governance body whose response is measured in weeks or months.

• Reduction of the architecture team is discussed as an option during budget planning cycles.

• You, as the IT leader, struggle to articulate a specific business outcome that the architecture function directly produced in the past twelve months.