Align the technology portfolio roadmap with the enterprise architecture target state

Overview

The enterprise architecture target state is the authoritative declaration of the technology architecture the organization is working toward: the platforms, patterns, and principles that will characterize the technology landscape when the current strategic cycle’s architecture investments are complete. The technology portfolio roadmap is the plan for evolving the current technology portfolio toward that target state over the planning horizon. Aligning these two artifacts — ensuring that every technology portfolio roadmap decision is explicitly evaluated for its contribution to or deviation from the architecture target state — is the governance discipline that prevents the technology portfolio from evolving in directions that diverge from the intended architectural direction.

Best Practice

Establish the enterprise architecture target state as a required input to the technology portfolio roadmap development process, and require that every significant technology adoption, deprecation, and rationalization decision in the roadmap be explicitly evaluated for its alignment with the target state. Technologies that are on the target state roadmap should carry Move-To or Invest dispositions and Approved or Strategic Standards Register status. Technologies that are not on the target state roadmap and that provide capabilities the target state does not require should carry Move-Away or Avoid dispositions unless there is an explicit governance decision justifying their continued presence in the portfolio. Technologies that conflict with the target state architecture — platforms or approaches that the target state explicitly replaces — should carry Eliminate postures and Retire or Move-Away dispositions with deprecation timelines that are aligned with the target state migration plan. Conduct an annual alignment review between the technology portfolio roadmap and the enterprise architecture target state, identifying and resolving any misalignments that have accumulated between the two.

Benefit(s)

Aligning the technology portfolio roadmap with the enterprise architecture target state ensures that technology portfolio governance and enterprise architecture governance are moving in the same direction rather than evolving independently and diverging. Technology investments are made in technologies that the target state architecture supports rather than in technologies that will require replacement when the target state is reached. Technology rationalization programs eliminate the technologies that the target state replaces rather than accumulating them as a legacy estate that coexists unresolved with the target state architecture. And the organization develops a technology portfolio that progressively converges toward its architectural destination rather than oscillating between competing technology directions without a governing architectural reference.