EA - Assessment & Strategy Development​

Business Problem

Organizations often operate without a clear view of how applications, infrastructure, and strategic goals intersect, leading to misaligned IT investments, overlapping technologies, and a lack of cohesive planning. This limits the organization’s ability to optimize costs, improve efficiency, and rapidly adapt to market changes.​​

Pre-Conditions

• Basic understanding of the application landscape and ownership (even if only partial).​
• Executive awareness of the need for structured EA planning.​
• Willingness among key stakeholders (business and IT) to collaborate on establishing or refining EA goals.​​

Common Pitfalls

• Focusing solely on technology without aligning with business outcomes.​
• Underestimating the importance of executive sponsorship, resulting in stalled initiatives.​
• Trying to solve every EA challenge at once, leading to scope creep and minimal tangible progress.​​​​

Value Journey

• SmartStart: Establish a baseline inventory of applications and owners. The focus is on building a trustworthy single system of record for EA data and clarifying basic lifecycle processes.
• Walk: Expand the assessment to include cost, usage, and business alignment data. Begin defining rationalization criteria (e.g., application redundancies or compliance needs) to optimize the portfolio.​​
• Run: Integrate broader metadata (relationships between applications, business capabilities, IT demands). Define multi-objective rationalization goals, ensuring that new and ongoing demands are aligned with the bigger picture.​​
• Fly: Periodically re-assess architecture strategies using real-time data, trends, and analytics. Evolve criteria for evaluating technology investments or retirements, ensuring continuous alignment with changing business priorities.​

Service Offering

SmartStart:

• High-level EA maturity assessment (focus on application visibility).​
• Establishing ownership and core EA KPIs.​
• Initial roadmap outlining quick wins for centralizing EA data.

Walk:

• Detailed data collection methodology (e.g., cost, risk, usage).​
• Early rationalization framework with manual input and goals.​
• Refined roadmap incorporating rationalization and optimization efforts.​

Run:

• Advanced EA assessment integrating relationships (business capabilities, IT services).​
• Multi-objective rationalization plan, weaving in demand and change roadmap.​
• Comprehensive roadmap bridging strategic and tactical goals across departments.

Fly:

• Ongoing iterative assessments, measuring improvement through trends and analytics.​
• Continuous updates to governance and strategic priorities.​
• Evolving roadmap reflecting advanced optimization and future innovation.

Why Capture?

• Deep Industry Expertise: Over 15 years of experience bridging business strategies and IT execution.​
• Tailored EA Frameworks: Our assessments are customized to your organization’s structure and culture, ensuring actionable outcomes.​
• Action-Oriented Roadmaps: We do not only deliver assessments; we translate findings into tangible next steps that adapt as your maturity grows.​​