Architecture Governance

Architecture Governance is concerned with the management and control of the architectural practices and the architectures that are created. It should be viewed in the context of the wider governance models of the enterprise and the more detailed governance models of business and technical implementations. These governance structures are typically hierarchical and can be distributed across geographies and lines of business. The concept of governance is more about guidance and ensuring that good practice is followed and that the architectural processes are appropriate and repeatable, ultimately to ensure value is delivered to the stakeholders.

Enterprise Architect has a number of facilities that can assist with Architectural governance, including the governance of implementation projects. These include an Organizational Chart that can be used to model the structure and the relationships of the governance roles. A Document Artifact can be used as the Governance Register and Process Models can be used to model the Governance processes. The Calendar can be used to schedule important events in the governance lifecycle.

This section lists the main tools available in Enterprise Architect that can be used to perform Architecture Governance. There is also a wide range of additional tools that a modeler might find suitable when applying the technique in a particular context. The complete list of tools is available from the topics Meet the Enterprise Architecture Tools and Additional Enterprise Architecture Tools.

Organizational Chart

An Organizational Chart is part of the Strategic Modeling extension that can be used to model the structure and the relationships of the governance roles and to make this explicit to the Architecture Team. These roles can be reused when defining the Governance Process by applying them as an Instance Classifier for the Pools and Lanes in a Process Diagram used to describes the Governance Process. Relationships in addition to the structural connections can be added to show important political or historical associations between team members.

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Document Artifact

A Document Artifact is the perfect tool to hold the Governance Register allowing it to be accessed inside the model and close to the Architectures and elements, diagrams, matrices and list that describe them. The Document Artifact is a word processor file that is stored inside the repository and can be structured with headings, sections and tables to store the details of the important events and decisions that are made by the architecture executive. Links to a variety of model content can be added to the document ensuring that the log is relevant and its application to architectural content is made explicit.

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Business Process Diagram

The Business Process diagram can be used to define and communicate the governance process to members of the Architecture team to ensure they all understand the sequence of activities that make up the process. Roles can be indicated by the use of Pools and Lanes, and Data Objects and Data Stores can be used to represent inputs and outputs of the process, including when the Governance Register is updated.

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Calendar

Then Calendar is a useful tool for recording important events in the governance lifecycle such as meetings, reviews and milestones. The Calendar is visible to all members of the Architecture team and if the solution architectures are located in the same repository it will also be visible to the solution teams. Event types and categories can be defined and recurring events can be set up for events such as the Architecture Steering Committee meetings.

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Model Mail

Model Mail is a mail system that exists entirely inside the model and is available to all users. It can be used to send and receive mail messages to any users or groups of users in the team and has the added advantage of being able to attach links to model content including diagrams, elements, operations attributes, matrices, images and more.

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Team Library

A critical part of the governance of the Architectural repository is the review process. The Team Library facility is a powerful in-model tool for managing all aspects of architectural reviews. The reviews can be held at any stage, including at the time the program is set up or during the creation and maintenance of architectures and other ancillary content, such as principles, standards and references. It is quite common for organizations to store these reviews separately to the repository, but the compelling thing about using the powerful Team Library facility is that the reviews are housed inside the repository and there is the ability to relate parts of the repository - such as diagram elements - as hyperlinks to the review.

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