Agenda

  1. Roll Call (by timezone - East to West)
  2. Scribe Shout-out - It's easy to scribe: How To Scribe Itana Calls Guide
  3. Agenda Bash
  4. Topic: Capturing Architectural Posture : a Metrics-based Approach - Brendan Bellina (UCLA) | Download PDF | Download PowerPoint Slidedeck |
  5. Itana Org Updates
    1. Working Group Updates
      1. New2EA Working Group
      2. API Working Group
      3. Business Architecture Working Group
      4. EA Maturity Model Working Group
    2. Book Club - Reading "How to Measure Anything"
    3. Steering Committee Update


Attendees


Announcements - Itana News, Working Group Report out

Capturing Architectural Posture : a Metrics-based Approach

UCLA – by the numbers

Budget $7.5b, with less than 7% of UCLA revenue from California. So part of system, but not strongly dependent upon it.

Culture of distributed systems and responsibilities.

Herd of cats, no strong central dictate of what people can do.

Brand is important, so risk management is important value of architecture.

IT Services doesn't tell other department IT what to do.

IT is a microcosm of U: a bunch of units that function somewhat independently.

If IT says we are doing something, others will watch and see if its something worth pursuing.

Generally not "Symphonic"

ITAC (IT Architecture Committee) facilitated by UCOP (Office of the President) and has campus representatives.

U-wide BoK: campus by campus decision whether to adopt artifacts.

Office of President drafts outcomes and campuses decide whether to adopt, reject, adopt with conditions.

Need for certain types of technology agreements for inter-campus applications and systems, e.g. Payroll.

UCOP resources assigned to ITAC may also author best practices that aren't necessarily required for system-wide implementations.

No central function that can override individual campuses. Very few exceptions to this.

Timeline:

  • 2012 IT architecture directed unit
  • 2016 IT architecture relaunched
    • no more architecture reviews
    • restrict R&D
    • restrict collaboration outside UCLA
    • new governance with fewer directors but more campus participation
    • establish collaborative groups with architectural aids e.g. models to get to value as quick as possible
    • rotate leadership quarterly
  • 2017 workshop
    • outside consultants to define roadmap
    • 2018 state of enterprise architecture (diagram)

Decision to demonstrate value with metrics.

How often are artifacts viewed, reviewed, used ..

The "valuation decline" (see slide)

  • Potentiality limiters: Lack of political support, getting positions posted, lack of trust between architecture and IT teams ....
  • Capability limiters: Not having right skills, consistent direction (due to change of leadership).
  • Influence limiters: Not enough outreach, no public materials or people don't know where they are, lack of presence on campus

In addition to metrics on things we are doing, consider metrics on limiters that are preventing architecture from maximizing influence.

"Program value gap" determined by mapping these measures:

  • Vanguard and Foundational activities
  • Drivers and Implementations

Can be used to ask leadership whether this is appropriate focus of architecture team.

Have not had opportunity to use this yet in conversations with CIO, CTO, CISO due to recent leadership changes.

Piet: Could it be used with other service teams to understand how the organization as a whole fulfills the capabilities?

Serge: Central group could help reduce the diversity of tools in use.

Brendan: Units tend to be on board as long as everyone adopts what they want.

Jim: Could you represent federated architecture on this graph?

Inward and Outward facing activities.

  • Find metrics that ensure the right balance.

EA metrics (cutter)

  • most have to do with money, but is cost reduction primary driver in higher education?
  • At UCLA, EA is more about protecting brand and managing risk
  • Higher ed pace is not same as corporate

Proposed metrics for EA

warning: metrics have not yet been tested

Scope

  • foundational/vanguard/drivers/implementation

Engagement

  • utilization of EA resources

Impact

  • compliance with standards
  • architect resource on projects
  • OTS
  • roadmaps, 2 yr plan
  • vendor support

Delivery

  • repository curation
  • portfolio management

Management

  • customer satisfaction

Next steps

  • need to implement platform to share metrics

Chat HIstory

From Jim, Rupert, Piet, Jacob to Everyone: (11:08 AM)

Hi All - you can jump in with questions and or comments on the call or put them in chat

From Alberto Mendoza (Boston College) to Everyone: (11:09 AM)

can these meetings be recorded?

From Jim, Rupert, Piet, Jacob to Everyone: (11:09 AM)

Not at this time.

From Alberto Mendoza (Boston College) to Everyone: (11:09 AM)

OK

From Jim, Rupert, Piet, Jacob to Everyone: (11:09 AM)

We are using Internet2 Zoom and we do not control the instance.  I keep working on that.

From Jim, Rupert, Piet, Jacob to Everyone: (11:24 AM)

That is also our experience.  We have a site but I'm not sure that people use it.
I would add to these Capability Limiters - the capabilities and readiness of teams you are engaging with.

From Matt House - WashU in St. Louis to Everyone: (11:28 AM)

We often have to use the phrase “meet them where they are”

From Matt House - WashU in St. Louis to Everyone: (11:37 AM)

Would love to see this weighted by hours spent along the axes

From Me to Everyone: (11:38 AM)

I could see us doing this based on our points in JIRA
We could put labels on our stories and then run that report
We also put hours effort on tasks in JIRA when we close them so we could do that report

From Lonnie (Manitoba) to Everyone: (11:39 AM)

We are also tracking our assignments to projects and other items like Architecture Practice development and could come up with a rough measure

From Me to Everyone: (11:44 AM)

Rupert led an effort like the one that Serge is describing here at UW.  Happy to talk off-line
Or if there is time at the end.

From Matt House - WashU in St. Louis to Me: (Privately) (11:45 AM)

We help facilitate a lot of those conversations at WashU

From Louis King to Everyone: (11:55 AM)

Brendan, Very nice preso. Thanks a million. Gotta run to my next gig. Take care all.

From Me to Everyone: (11:55 AM)

Ciao Louis

From Dana Miller-Miami University of Ohio to Everyone: (11:55 AM)

Nice work.  Plenty of metrics to consider.

From Lonnie (Manitoba) to Everyone: (11:56 AM)

Agreed. Some great ideas to consider

From Dana Miller-Miami University of Ohio to Everyone: (12:00 PM)

Perhaps have a follow up in 6 months with metrics results from UCLA?

From Brendan Bellina to Everyone: (12:02 PM)

I think an update makes sense but not sure about the timeframe.  I’m also interested in any other metrics people might be using that I didn’t touch on.

From Majeed Abu-Qulbain to Everyone: (12:02 PM)

Agreed, great info. ISU currently has a POC effort going on evaluating Influxdata'a tick stack as an on-prem metrics platform. Initial efforts are to offer visibity into several technology architectures, but soon we'd like to collect more operational or process oriented metrics

Itana Org Updates

  1. Working Group Updates

    1. New2EA Working Group – steering committee working to charge group with co-chairs selected; targeting 2019

    2. Business Architecture Working Group – last meeting for year just happened, working on agenda for 2019

  2. Book Club - Reading "How to Measure Anything" – first meeting happened 12/14, next 1/6

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