Enterprise Architecture Value Model

The move from Level 2 to Level 3 is qualitatively more significant than the move from Level 1 to Level 2, and it requires your direct involvement as the IT leader. It is not an engagement model change. It is an accountability model change — from recommending to owning. This requires your authorization of a new operating model that gives your architecture function real decision authority within the scope of specific program engagements.

The organizational prerequisite for Level 3 is your willingness to negotiate a new arrangement with your delivery leadership — one in which the architecture team embedded in an at-risk or high-risk program is not merely invited to participate but is given real authority over architectural decisions within the scope of that engagement. Without that authority, taking on delivery accountability is setting your architecture team up to be held responsible for outcomes it cannot control. The conversation with your delivery leadership is not difficult to make when you can point to the organizational evidence of what happens to delivery programs without architectural ownership — which is precisely why the at-risk initiative model is the right starting point for building that evidence.