ADOPTION OF AGILE ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE IN LARGE ORGANIZATION: A CASE STUDY

ADOPTION OF AGILE ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE IN LARGE ORGANIZATION: A CASE STUDY

ABSTRACT

In the past decade, agile methodologies have become widespread, and the many organizations that employ it have proved successful. To deal with the volatility of the market and to meet dynamic business needs, agile methods seem to be a pragmatic approach. Organizations are keen to scale agile methods across the enterprise to reap the benefits seen in agile teams. Agile Enterprise Architecture can be defined as a process for handling Enterprise Architecture (EA) by applying agile development principles and methods. However, there is a research gap in the adoption of agile Enterprise Architecture. In this paper, I analyze the factors that influence agile EA adoption in large organizations using a grounded theory approach. The evolution of the Enterprise Architect role during the agile EA adoption is presented based on the complex adaptive system theory. A case study is conducted in a leading transportation company which transitioned to agile Enterprise Architecture from traditional methods.

This paper focuses on agile Enterprise Architecture adoption from the Enterprise Architects’ viewpoint. My analysis shows that various significant factors influence agile Enterprise Architecture adoption in a large organization. Enterprise Architects are the key personnel in the Governance of Enterprise Architecture and deliver essential business value to an organization. My findings show the changing role of Enterprise Architects when agile Enterprise Architecture is adopted in a large organization. Furthermore, complex adaptive system theory assists in explaining this phenomenon.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

List of Figures………………………………………………………………………………… iv

 

List of Tables………………………………………………………………………………….vii

 

 

1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………1
   • Motivation and Research Focus……………………………………………………..1
   • Research Questions………………………………………………………………….2

 

2. LITERATURE REVIEW……………..………………………………………………………..3
   • Agile Methodologies…………………………………………………………………3
   • Enterprise Architecture Evolution…………………………………………………..4
   • EA Framework Analysis…………………………………………………………….8
   • Agile Adoption………………………………………………………………………10
   • Scaled Agile Adoption………………………………………………………………13
   • Organizational adaptation…………………………………………………………..14
   • Complex adaptive system theory……………………………………………………16
3. RESEARCH DESIGN………………..……………………………………………………….18
   • Research study methodology…………………………………………………………18
   • Organization overview……………………………………………………………….19
   • Research study settings……………..………………………………………………..19
   • Data collection……………………………………………………………………….20

 

4. RESEARCH FINDINGS…………………….………………………………………………24
   • Findings……………………………………………………………………………..24
   • Enterprise Architect perspective on agile adoption…………………………………29
   • Quotes table…………………………………………………………………………39
   • Discussion……………………………………………………………………………47

 

5. CONCLUSION…………..……………………………………………………………………49

 

References……………………………………………………………………………………….50

Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………………55

Phase 1 Interview questions……………………………………………………………………..55

Phase 2 Interview questions……………………………………………………………………..57

 

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Research Design……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 22

Figure 2 Data collection methodology………………………………………………………………………………. 23

Figure 3 Enterprise Architecture Role evolution………………………………………………………………… 29

Figure 4 Findings Enterprise Architecture perspective……………………………………………………….. 33

 

Figure 3 Enterprise Architect role evolution on agile EA adoption ……………………………39

 

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Enterprise Architecture comparison chart………………………………………………..8

Table 2 Research steps and outcomes……………………………………………………………24

Table 3 Quotes table……………………………………………………………………………..45

 

1. INTRODUCTION

Enterprise Architecture is a set of principles, models, and methods at an organizational level that is used in the realization of the enterprise’s business goals. Enterprise Architecture (EA) offers a holistic view of the company and serves as a blueprint for an organization’s current and future environments (Jonkers 2006). Enterprise architecture concentrates on planning and strategy, and includes building designs for business, infrastructure, and data to provide a solution to business problems (Fallmyr 2014). There are several traditional EA frameworks in use today such as TOGAF, Gartner and FEAF.

In the past decade, agile development methodologies have seen vast, widespread success, with many organizations moving towards agile development practices from traditional approaches. Recently, industry experts have been keen to scale agile practices to their larger projects and at the organization level to enhance performance with optimal resource utilization.

An agile firm stays more flexible and nimble; it is ready to embrace openness and to change directions for new developments, reassess the past, and develop better decision-making capacities which can reap benefits for an organization. Scaling agile practices at an enterprise level poses significant challenges to an organization, team and individual levels of the hierarchy, and remains a puzzle to be solved. However, the benefits of agile Enterprise Architecture seem to outweigh the costs of the existing challenges. The focus of this paper is on the agents responsible for implementing the adoption of agile Enterprise Architecture at firms that previously used traditional Enterprise Architecture methods, and how those agents can serve as a model for future adopters in practice.

1.1 Motivation and Research Focus

Recent interests of “agility” in EA research have led to cross-pollination of ideas between agile methods, and EA processes and frameworks (Isham 2008). Agile firms sense market changes and seize the opportunity to succeed by continuously enhancing and redefining the value of the company. Agility concentrates on the firm’s interaction with customers, and helps an organization to achieve its business goals (Sambamurthy 2003). Scaled Agile principles and characteristics, as defined by Laanti, equip researchers and practitioners with a preliminary set of ideologies that can assist them in building scaled agile framework solutions and gain a better understanding of the major components of an organization. (Laanti 2013). One such agile approach is the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) that employs layers within an iterative approach. This is one of the major motivating factors in considering an agile Enterprise Architecture framework in an organization, and can help the organization to respond faster, react to dynamic market scenarios, and assist the company to act proactively.

1.2 Research Question

In this section, I will introduce the research question which I am trying to address.

Research question: What are the factors that influence the adoption of scaled agile methods in Enterprise Architecture in a large organization?

Specifically, the focus is on

1. Enterprise Architects’ perspective on the adoption of agile adoption in a large organization

 

In the research question, I try to analyze the role of Enterprise Architects when an organization is adopting agile Enterprise Architecture.

ADOPTION OF AGILE ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE IN LARGE ORGANIZATION: A CASE STUDY

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