Successful Architecture Implementation: A practical guide on how to implement your EA/BPM program

by Roland Woldt

Overview

Nobody wakes up one morning in their early years and says, "I want to become an [enterprise] architect!"

But there is a need for this skill set in organizations. The better ones — you know, the ones who seemingly can change on the fly — have implemented a practice ... either focusing on the whole enterprise, or on process management or IT architecture in a lower maturity state.

But what are some reasons for the sad state of affairs when it comes to architecture?

• • Organizations have outdated or no documentation.
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• • Nobody understands what was implemented in the necessary detail.
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• • The impact of proposed or actual changes downstream is not clear and doing the analysis is a painful exercise, so often it will be replaced with a "wild guess".
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• • You will be able to collaborate with all affected parties. There might be a tension between business and IT as the two largest players here, that can be resolved by creating a shared view of the changes.
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• • Upstream planning ("How does my change fit into the bigger picture, or our project landscape?") is also a wild guess, and the pet project of a stakeholder gets priority.
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• • The potential improvements of your suggestions are not seen or cannot be quantified. Creating a business case becomes a nightmare (of wild guesses).
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• • Regulators might require the establishment of the capability, and you have to stand it up if you like it or not. But you don't know how to do this...
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  If you go down the route of implementing an architecture program and capability, you can reap multiple benefits. Some of them are:
  
  
• • Enable planning and 'bigger picture' when it comes to structures, architectures, and projects.
• • Establish common language and approach in your organization.
• • The structured discipline will help to find operational and compliance improvement potentials. You can literally see what is going on in your organization, and only what you can see can be improved!
• What is this book about?
  
  The main promise of the book is that you will be able to implement a BPM/EA program in your organization and cover all aspects that are needed to be successful and bring the people with you on this exciting journey.
  
  It covers all aspects from strategy, through governance design and tool selection/configuration, to import and creation of content in an easy-to-follow approach. In addition to this, it also shows how a "real-world application" of this approach could look like.
  
  Who is this book for?
  
  This book is for the brave people who understand that organizations are complex systems and that changes in one place will have an impact on many people (ask anyone who has ever implemented an ERP system). Typically, every stone will be upturned in a transformation program.
  
  It is for those people who realized that they have to implement an architecture capability in their organizations. They have to be able to describe, analyze, plan, support the implementation of changes, and measure their impact to be able to manage the enterprise in a responsible and sustainable way.
  
  It is also for the people who have tried that before and failed. Maybe because they only focused on the implementation of a tool (the "make it, and they come" approach), or they "forgot" that people typically do not want to change.
  
  It is also for the curious people who are not 100% convinced that this architecture thing is not too big of a bite for your organization. They would like to learn what it takes before they make the decision, if they are ready for it.
  
  But wait, this is not all.
  
  This book also comes with a code for the accompanying website which includes additional tools: all graphics as a downloadable PDF, a worksheet that will help you to select your architecture tool, and a tracker (in Notion) when it comes to importing your existing content into your tool.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940184472898
Publisher:	What's Your Baseline?
Publication date:	03/24/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	14 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Roland Woldt is a well-rounded executive with 25+ years of Business Transformation consulting and software development/system implementation experience, in addition to leadership positions within the German Armed Forces (11 years).

He has worked as Team Lead, Engagement/Program Manager, and Enterprise/Solution Architect for many projects. Within these projects, he was responsible for the full project life cycle, from shaping a solution and selling it, to setting up a methodological approach through design, implementation, and testing, up to the rollout of solutions.

In addition to this, Roland has managed consulting offerings during their lifecycle from the definition, delivery to update, and had revenue responsibility for them.

Roland has had many roles: VP of Global Consulting at iGrafx, Head of Software AG's Global Process Mining CoE, Director in KPMG’s Advisory (running the EA offering for the US firm), and other leadership positions at Software AG/IDS Scheer and Accenture. Before that, he served as an active-duty and reserve officer in the German Armed Forces.

Besides that, he also runs the “What's Your Baseline?” podcast, where he and his co-host demystify EA and BPM since 2021.