Teamwork and Enterprise Architecture

User-centric EA helps people in the enterprise work together as a team, rather than in individual or functional silos.

EA helps foster teamwork by:

• Information Transparency: creating repositories of information that everyone can use and share
• Bridging Disparate Parts of the Enterprise: aligning business and information technology and thereby bridging the gap between operations and support in the organization
• Showing People Where They Fit: Modeling business processes, information requirements, and technology solutions, so all users and entities in the organization understand where and how they fit.
• Consolidating and Coordinating a Common Way Ahead: developing consolidated strategies, enterprise plans and solutions versus individual or stove-piped ones.

How does teamwork help an enterprise succeed?

Well for one, teams are where most innovations takes place and innovation and creativity are key for an organization to survive and thrive.

The Wall Street Journal in conjunction with MIT Sloan School of Management on 15 September 2007 reports that “most companies assume that innovation comes from an individual genius or small, sequestered teams. Yet…most innovations are created through networks—groups of people working in concert. To lay the groundwork, organizations must make it easy for employees to talk to their peers, share ideas, and collaborate. Among other strategies, companies should make an effort to break down the walls between company departments and rapidly test and refine ideas.”

Also, teams are where ideas are shared and vetted. You get a better end-product by valuing individual and cultural diversity and hearing opposing points of view.

EA benefits from and contributes to teamwork and innovation by bringing together, documenting and making transparent information, planning, and governance across the enterprise. This aids people in sharing ideas, projects, products, and standards, and in capitalizing on sound innovations by developing these into new IT investments and possibly enterprise solutions. EA, teamwork, and innovation go hand-in-hand.

Teamwork and Enterprise Architecture