How much time should you spend talking to “management” as an architect? Some would argue that it is a waste of time – others see is as the silver bullet to solve all problems.
Let’s take a look at the Enterprise Architects that filled out the EA survey. Around one third of them says that the CXO level and the strategy department are the stakeholders they are interacting with most or as their second frequent interaction partner.
Henley Business School Analysis, 2024
If we run some analysis and try to figure out the difference between those that talk frequently with their CXOs and the rest (all differences are statistically significant with p<0.05) these are the things that emerge:
- Let’s start with the bad news: alignment takes time and those that talk regularly with their CXOs tend to spend more time on bringing smaller features to market. This makes sense as the schedules of these stakeholders tend to be busy and it is difficult to find a slot. This can slow down things where the actual implementation is rather quick.
- Those that are close to the CXOs are more likely to deliver sustainable business solutions and they are more engaged in strategy development. I think this might be the most important benefit of a close collaboration. It is not always easy for business stakeholders to understand the implications of their decisions. Involving Enterprise Architecture early makes for a better and more sustainable business solution.
- We will also see a higher maturity in business architecture, a higher likelihood to model the target architecture and better dependency management. When talking to stakeholders lower in the organization it is often difficult to reach a compromise. Both business stakeholders have their “orders” from their line of business and have a hard time to deviate from it. In particular a discussion with several CXOs at the same can be powerful to sort things out. From my point of view a capability map is only meaningful if discussed regularly with the top management team of the company.
- Very importantly being close the the CXO does not only produce more plans and paper but it also means that these companies are more likely to monitor benefits and there is a higher guideline adherence. This closes the loop to the first argument and is one important reason for more sustainable solutions. Monitoring benefits is the most effective measure against “black swan” type of project overruns in budget and schedule.
- Last but not least all of this leads to a higher awareness for EA work across the company. This will kick off a positive reinforcement cycle as the broader awareness will ensure Enterprise Architecture is more often involved in discussions and have more possibilities to create a positive impact on the company.
So clearly there are big benefits of being close to the CXO level — however it also requires a different set of skills than discussing more technical topics. What is your experience with senior managers? When are they helpful and when are they a roadblock?