International Process and Performance Institute

Seems like everyone in the IT world is talking about Clouds, and I'm not referring to those fluffy white things in the sky. The hype around Cloud Computing is in high gear, with visions of pay per use computing, elastic capacity and significant time-to-market improvements. In fact, many IT architectures are changing, or will be, as a result of this phenomenon.

Regardless of what Enterprise Architecture (EA) framework you like, they all supposedly start with the same thing; the vision and mission of the business. However, in looking around at various EA frameworks you'll find very little information on the principle driver of any business --- The Customer. This assumption can lead to Inside-Out thinking and a cloudy vision of where the business needs to go.

"If we want to know what a business is we have to start with its purpose…  There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer."
 - Peter Drucker

It's not too surprising that we lose sight of simple truths when the world around us is getting more complex. I recently read an article by McKinsey & Company titled "Why business needs should shape IT architecture" which stated,

"Complexity is rife in any growing business. … As application volumes grow in response to a fast-changing economic, regulatory and business environment, the issue of complexity is becoming acute for many organizations."

The growth in the number and complexity of business applications is causing a lot of analysis to be done about application characteristics, i.e., are they 'suitable' for cloud computing; but more analysis must be done to complete an accurate picture.

Cloudy Vision = Cloudy Future

It is not just architecture that's changing as a result of cloud computing, entire business models are changing as well. This screams for more focus on the external customers of the business; focusing on application characteristics alone may not be enough.

The McKinsey article went on to discuss Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM), as a framework to manage IT architecture. It also emphasizes the importance of the business in leading EAM initiatives, and establishing a Business Lane for your ITIL© Road Map is something I've been ranting about for some time now:

    Business Process Dependencies & Cloud Computing
    Is your IT organization driving the Bus?
    3 Days in the Bus Lane

One of the steps in creating an Enterprise Architecture is to establish a baseline model; the 'as is' state of your current business processes. The McKinsey article mentioned what can happen when IT/technical folks drive process documentation efforts:

"A weak linkage to the business creates a void that limits the quality of the     resulting IT architecture and the organization's ability to enforce and sustain the benefits of implementation over time."

However, even when individual business units take the lead in defining business processes they often restrict scope to their own functional unit. This encourages inside-out thinking and can blur the vision and mission for the business, since customer-facing processes routinely cross functional borders.

The frenzy to take advantage of cloud computing's benefits may lead some to place applications in the cloud without really understanding how they underpin Level 1 (customer-facing) business processes. This can increase risk significantly.

See clearly by looking through the eyes of the Customer

Concepts like Successful Customer Outcomes (SCO) and Moments of Truth (MOT), along with defining business processes in terms of how they serve (or do not serve) external customers are simple techniques that can be used consistently to ensure that you maintain an outside-in focus.

By defining business processes as Level 1 through 4, using the SCO and MOT techniques, organizations can create business process dependencies that are directly tied to how they serve external customers. This can improve decision making about when to use cloud services, but perhaps more importantly can provide a foundation for business process innovation.

Unless you take the energy to re-enforce these simple truths then the unrelenting pace of business and increasing complexity will blur your organizational focus.

Use of IPAPI's Education Program and the Customer Expectation Management Method can help you and your organization see clearly through the clouds that are ahead.