Tuesday, February 12, 2013

The Five Essential Metrics for Managing EA

In November 2009, @Forrester Research published a report by Jeff Scott with Alex Cullen, Mimi An. Cost $499. Five Essential Metrics for Managing EA.
"Enterprise architects frequently ask what metrics they should use to demonstrate EA's progress and value to the organization. CIOs want to know what they are getting for their investment in EA, and EAs see metrics as an important tool for promoting their value. Yet establishing meaningful metrics remains challenging. Today, most EA teams report only on internal-activity-based metrics. The key to success is choosing a small number of metrics that provide a balanced view of EA's performance to EA stakeholders and the EA team. Every EA team should measure five metrics: strategy momentum, financial impact, customer satisfaction, skills and capability growth, and process improvement."

(Note the assumption that it is the CIO to whom EA is accountable.)

Forrester analyst Tim DeGennaro now predicts "they’re going to kill off the usual EA metrics" (Five Predictions For EA Practices In 2013 January 2013)

"Our data shows that standard EA metrics (maturity, perception, value, etc.) are less and less likely to actually be used, even though they’re an extremely popular topic of conversation. A recent experience of mine confirmed that even when trapped in a room for a few hours, not even industry peers can agree on a set of common metrics. Powerful metrics are too company- and initiative-specific to standardize. And in the end, the usual metrics might become irrelevant."

See also John Spacey, 7 Key Enterprise Architecture Metrics (Simplicable, April 2011)



Updated 20 February 2016

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