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There are many similarities between making a physical journey and the “journey” of Enterprise Architecture implementation.  Many of my previous blog posts have touched on those similarities.  This week, I want to continue building on that metaphor as we take a look at the EA Roadmap.

According to Gartner, the EA Roadmap is “a concise and commonly graphical depiction of a planned migration toward a future state.” (Weiss & Robertson, 2006)  Just like a regular road map shows the path to follow to get to your destination, the EA roadmap charts the course to navigate from the current-state to the future-state.  And similar to a regular road map, the scope of the journey dictates the level of detail of the map.  Lets consider two different examples.

Suppose I am driving from Philadelphia to New York for a meeting. The level of detail I need to know and my overall plan is determined by my purpose of the trip.  My sole intent is to  get to my destination so, in this case, I simply need a high-level overview map which gives me the most direct route available.  I need to determine my destination (future-state) and take stock of my current situation (current-state).  Do I need to fill up my gas tank?  Do I need money for tolls?

However, let’s consider a longer trip such as driving from Philadelphia to Chicago. Again, my intent and purpose dictates the details and information I will need along the way.  I know ahead of time that this is a much longer trip.  In addition to the previous necessities, I now need to consider the need for food and beverage along the way.  Will I try to drive the 12 hours all in the same day?  Will I need to stop overnight?  If I am going to stop half-way, then I need to know the details of where I am going to be stopping as well.

The EA Roadmap operates in the same manner.  We have documented our future-state in detail.  We assess our current-state as needed.  We then determine the scope of our needed roadmap and create our EA plan accordingly.  Along the way, we rely on our Guiding Principles and Standards to keep us on track.

References:

Weiss, D. & Robertson, B. (2006) Enterprise Architecture Road Maps: Closing the Gap to the Future State (G00140082). Gartner, September

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