How we used EA principles without the labels.

The Enterprise Initiatives Back in the 90's, I worked as a data architect in a large project which included the system conversion initiative for the Loans Management System of the Social Security System agency in the Philippines. This was undertaken from 1993 through 1996, and involved upgrades to hardware, software, and database design to support the agency’s services provision at all servicing locations nationwide. The project is a multi-vendor engagement, to include IBM, and Digital Equipment, and the local consulting firm Strategic Partners. The SSS-LMS conversion initiative is a strategic project with a project mission aligned to the agency’s overall mission and strategic objectives. The project’s goal was to transform and improve benefits services for the SSS members, specifically loans provisioning and administration, and to be especially responsive in times of emergency and calamity assistance. Although the term "enterprise architecture" was not in vogue at the time, it is now clear to me that we were effectively following EA principles, and the projects were successfully executed because the agency was strongly operating with a notion of an EA framework with which the IT architectures were developed, and from which governance for IT projects were based. Why the Enterprise Context was important. Clearly, we must have operated with a coherent Enterprise Context in place, in which the agency has developed a clear vision of its strategic business objectives in line with what it has identified as its business drivers in the face of economic trends and challenges. The organization had a clear big picture of its context, identifying all stakeholders, their concerns, and their relationships to each other. The enterprise context was  developed as a result of the activity for "Strategic Planning for IT Development", and included the set of anchor models along with narratives which were compiled in a substantial document.  This documentation provided a consistent view of the organization – a context for common understanding, language/terminology, and an important basis for communication.  It provides a “big picture, enterprise view” which facilitates understanding of what needs to be done, and why the organization has to do it, and becomes a reference which promotes buy-in for senior executives. The big picture context allows the organization to see major components sufficiently to identify capability gaps, as well as unnecessary redundancies in its operations.  As an overall view to which the organization has signed-off, the enterprise context and its set of models become the anchor which serve to be the foundation on which the future-state architecture, with its other derivative models (business, information architectures, business capability portfolios, etc.) are developed.  This story illustrates that a well defined enterprise context is a factor which allowed the organization to evolve their enterprise architecture over time, and execute to deliver IT solutions which are highly integrated with their mission. A Strong Foundation for Project Execution. As per definition argued by Ross, et al (Enterprise Architecture as a Strategy), our projects were operating on a strong foundation for executing the agency's strategy.  The organization had a clear operating model which delineates the necessary level of business process integration and standardization needed to meet its objectives. The organization was equipped with a set of enterprise architecture views that represent the organizing logic for developing business process, information provisioning,  and its IT infrastructure, towards building the organization's capabilities to meet its objectives. And lastly, the organization has been using an  IT engagement model centered in a deep-seated system of governance, with clear protocols for decision-making in order to ensure that IT solutions and projects are optimally aligned with its strategic goals and objectives. With this solid foundation for execution,  the SSS-LMS project met all of the primary objectives set out for the initiative.  As a result, customer service for the agency’s membership have all improved because of the system upgrade.  Loan servicing became faster, cutting the time from application to loan disbursement to one third of the original time during the first year.  The efficiencies of the new system provided operational savings of at least 25% on the first year of implementation.  Monthly service request completions are now better tracked and further automated for measurement and notifications.  And the same efficiencies have reduced the time to monitor delinquencies and track dunning correspondence and collections. The Benefits of an Enterprise Architecture practice. EA systems-thinking certainly helped our projects. EA provided the use of frameworks for doing the project initiatives from a perspective of systems thinking. With such perspective the project team and the client organization was clearly made aware that components of the project portfolio are all related, and changes in one aspect must be assessed for impact on other areas.  It was important for us to understand that the project is part of a bigger picture, influencing, and being influenced by other entities both internal and external to the initiatives. This clarity facilitated by EA principles allowed the organization to simplify their decision-making requirements. EA gave a governance framework to communicate project requirements with stakeholders. It is an imperative for project survival to know the stakeholders and manage their expectations. As argued by Philip Allega, we practiced the principle of "Just enough, just in time", in which we showed early meaningful results to maintain the strong perception of a moving project, in the face of many complexities and project obstacles. EA and its principles facilitated these perspectives, and simplified the assessment of risks that certain stakeholders bring to bear to the project, as well as enabled project support that others can provide as champions. EA provided the framework to review and promote standardized processes and procedures in the organization. This focus and assessment of standards allowed increased operational efficiencies, and helped make things very clear to everyone in the organization, which in turn improved the quality of communications. EA processes helped facilitate the review of the way the organization does things, and provide assessments, and a system to introduce improvements.