Enterprise architecture is still relatively new and continuously rising. There are only a few companies today that can effectively measure their Enterprise Architecture program with metrics. You will discover that most enterprise architecture software tools don’t include much on the EA metrics. Also TOGAF doesn’t include anything on the metrics side. Maybe TOGAF 10 will fill this gap.
Below is a list of top 7 metrics that were successfully used for measuring EA impact:
1. Total Cost of IT Ownership as a Percentage of IncomeOne of the best ways to measure EA effectiveness is reducing expenses by using standard solutions and rationalizing technology, data, and processes.
This metric is important for the business value accomplished by the IT department. It has an impact on business partners and allows comparison of IT costs with regional and industrial averages.
Example: The total cost of IT ownership is 3.9% of income, which is 7% less than the regional average.
2. Total Cost SavingsIf implemented properly, Enterprise Architecture is usually able to achieve expense reductions and save money by:
- Consolidating licenses
- Removing a legacy system
- Rationalizing investments in infrastructure
- Using common shared services
If the Enterprise Architecture team can save company's money regularly - then Total Cost Savings can be seen as a meaningful EA metric.
Example: In this quarter, Enterprise architecture initiatives saved 4.3 million dollars of company's money.
3. Percentage of Spent That's StrategicThe Enterprise Architecture team is in charge for assessment of all projects and assigns them as strategic or tactical. The total IT cost percentage for strategic projects can be calculated afterwards by using project information about the budget.
PSTS is a solid prediction tool of the long-term efficiency and health of IT. On the other hand, it might be of little importance to the business.
Example: In this quarter, 45% of project budget was spent on strategic projects.
4. Common Services Compliance RateEA typically defines common services - per example BPM, ESB, Infrastructure platform, etc. The Compliance Rate of Common Services measures the portion of new projects that are completely compliant with the roadmap of common services.
Example: 78% of projects completed this year were compliant with Enterprise Architecture common service strategy this year.
5. Architectural Due Diligence RateThis metric presents the portion of projects that are completely compliant with governance process defined by EA. The governance process includes steps such as macro design, EA blueprints, and architectural reviews.
Architectural Due Diligence Rate is a solid metric for reporting any violations of the Enterprise Architecture processes. Typically, it is helpful to report by the project manager, business unit or something similar - to emphasize problem areas.
Example: 83% of IT department projects have completely complied with EA governance, but only 14% of sales department projects have complied.
6. Sunset Technologies This represents the portion of the technology stack which is considered sunset by Enterprise Architecture department. Measures the ability of IT to introduce new technology and retire old systems.
Example: 52% of production systems were marked as sunset technologies at the end of the year. This is 10% less compared to the 62% last year.
7. Business SpecificBusiness specific EA metrics adjusted to your business strategy and objectives. Per example:
- reducing IT costs
- reducing human error percentage
- reducing launch time for new products
- reducing the number of security incidents
- speeding up the ordering process
ConclusionThese are some of the
EA metrics that were valuable for certain companies. Unfortunately most EA frameworks including
TOGAF don’t offer much help either. So the ways for measuring EA are still open for debate, we believe that this is a good place to start.
As a closing note it is worth calling out that we have big plans for leading the enterprise architecture software for this area starting with our Q3 release!
keywords: enterprise architecture metrics, enterprise architecture software, TOGAF, enterprise architecture tools