What is governance?
We are trying to understand ‘Governance of Enterprise Architecture’. Let’s first understand the first word – ‘Governance’. Governance is decisions and actions on some entity( in our case it is enterprise architecture) taken by a group who run that entity. Government has decided to fund more in all of the school districts – this is a decision and it is an example of governance.
What is enterprise architecture?
First, understand this that business has mission and vision. Example Google’s mission is ‘To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful’ . Google’s vision is ‘To provide access to the world’s information in one click’. These are business goals, and to realize these organization’s goals management uses technologies. There is a path going to achieve business goals , and there is another path from technology which is going in parallel with business goals – this is what we call ‘technology alignment’ with the business. Enterprise architecture is there to determine how an organization can effectively achieve its current and future goals using technology. It involves technology and business both.
What is EA governance from a programmer’s perspective?
As a programmer you have been developing , deploying a solution. You are in power of choosing coding style ,tech stacks, infrastructure etc. What about many other solutions organization have been using? You are responsible for developing a building, someone like you is also developing another building. How to reduce the cost of parallel efforts, and how to create an escalator to go from one building to another? Enterprise architect is responsible for that.
Now, because EA is responsible for making sure technology that the whole organization is aligned with the business goals, EA forms a governance body ( typically 4-10 members) who are responsible for monitoring and directing your work.
Wanna learn more?
https://pubs.opengroup.org/architecture/togaf9-doc/arch/chap44.html