Decoding Value in Enterprise Architecture: Beyond the Obvious

The question "What value does enterprise architecture deliver?" triggers heated debates across boardrooms. After years in the field, I've observed that our struggle to answer this question stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of what business value actually means.

What Business Value Really Is

Business value isn't just a deliverable, a financial benefit, or even the achievement of strategic goals. It's the measurable improvement in an organization's ability to achieve its purpose. Now, read that again. Business value is:

"The measurable improvement in an organization's ability to achieve its purpose".

This improvement manifests across multiple dimensions that interconnect and reinforce each other. In my 25 years working in a dozen industries, some of the fiercest boardroom conflicts have been (whether they understood it or not) about value - how is is generated? What types of values exist? What isn't value? How can we best generate value? It was coached in other terms such as new initiatives, programmes, products, services, etc. But they were really talking about value. So, let's dive into it - what constitutes value?

• Financial Value emerges when architecture streamlines operations, creating efficiencies that translate to bottom-line results. Nordea Bank's application management initiative demonstrates this clearly. By implementing enterprise architecture practices to rationalize their application portfolio, Nordea achieved significant cost reduction in "maintaining the application data, maintaining applications generally, and updating the documentation." Their structured approach allowed them to consolidate applications into logical groups, reducing the overall costs of both running and developing applications across the bank.
• Operational Value is demonstrated through enhanced business velocity and resilience. VINCI Construction's case study illustrates this perfectly. Following their strategic merger with Eurovia in 2021, VINCI implemented enterprise architecture practices to "improve performance and prepare for short- and medium-term challenges," according to Aurore Peureux, their Enterprise Architect. Similarly, a Stanford University Global Supply Chain Forum study found that companies implementing proper B2B architecture and integration capabilities were able to drastically reduce their partner onboarding time and improve overall supply chain performance.
• Strategic Value often materializes as adaptability and positioning advantages. Nordea's application portfolio management approach enabled them to gain strategic insights for future planning. With a "structured list of technology that enables them to assess applications at a comparable level," Nordea could now "identify redundancy, promote reuse, and roadmap transitions accordingly." This strategic visibility allowed them to align technology investments with business priorities more effectively. Similarly, VINCI Construction's architecture initiative directly supported their strategic merger, enabling them to restructure around their three new key pillars.
• Human Value emerges as organizations reduce complexity and improve workflows. Nordea's application consolidation approach reduced the burden on application managers who were previously trying to "manage up to 160 data points on single applications" - an "unsustainable level of work." By streamlining this process, Nordea created significant human value through reduced cognitive load and frustration. VINCI Construction achieved similar results by ensuring their HOPEX architecture tool was "easy to access and understandable" for all employees.

What Value Isn't

Common misconceptions about architectural value deserve closer examination:

Nordea's experience directly challenges the notion that architectural documentation alone creates value. Their previous approach of maintaining excessive application documentation (160 data points per application) had become "high maintenance to manage and required repetitive manual work to carry out the simplest administration tasks." Only when this documentation was consolidated and made actionable did it begin delivering value. Deliverables without influence create no value.

The B2B case study found that many organizations initially fell into the trap of focusing on activities over outcomes. Nordea avoided this by ensuring their architectural efforts directly supported concrete goals: "This exercise enabled Nordea to see the bigger picture with application performance management. It also made it possible to truly understand its application portfolio and manage it more efficiently." Activity without outcomes creates no value.

VINCI Construction specifically chose HOPEX because it "met our need to integrate the different layers of architecture—business, application, and technical—while enabling progressive adoption," demonstrating the importance of organizational fit over technical sophistication. Technical elegance without organizational fit destroys value.

How to Recognize Real Value

True architectural value reveals itself in outcomes that meet three criteria:

• It's Measurable – Nordea's application management initiative produced clearly measurable benefits across four areas: data maintenance and analysis, decommissioning, dependency mapping, and application portfolio management. These outcomes were tangible and quantifiable, with measurable reductions in effort required for "day-to-day management" and increases in "data accuracy on managing applications." Similarly, the B2B case study demonstrates how companies that successfully implemented architecture-driven integration were able to measure concrete benefits.
• It's Sustainable – Nordea's architectural approach created sustainable value by establishing a system where "when application architects move on to other initiatives and projects, continuous delivery requires that the data can still be updated." This sustainability came from embedding architectural thinking into operational processes, not just creating documentation. VINCI Construction's gradual approach to architecture implementation similarly ensures sustainability, with Aurore noting, "The next step is to roll out the feature to all willing divisions soon. And there are many!"
• It's Attributable – Nordea's case study clearly demonstrates attribution between architectural decisions and business outcomes. Their "consolidated list of applications" directly enabled more efficient compliance assessments (for GDPR and Information Security), more effective decommissioning, feasible dependency mapping, and improved portfolio management. This clear line of sight from architectural work to business outcomes establishes undeniable attribution.

The Intangibles Matter

Some of the most powerful architectural value manifests in ways traditional metrics struggle to capture.

Nordea's architectural initiative improved cross-organizational trust and communication: "This enables applications to be re-used in the knowledge that the data can be trusted for other initiatives such as transformation, business architecture, regulatory compliance, and internal controls." This trust, while difficult to quantify directly, has profound implications for organizational efficiency and effectiveness.

VINCI Construction's case illustrates how architecture supported broader professional growth: "I like to build things, discover, and maintain a global vision of the company. [...] I discovered enterprise architecture, a profession I didn't know at all, and it opened me up to a broader perspective of the organization." This broader perspective represents intangible value that improves decision-making and organizational alignment.

The B2B case study notes how architectural approaches improved relationships and coordination, creating "networks of companies working in mutual self-interest to achieve specific goals and objectives" - another form of intangible but crucial value. This network effect generates value in multiple ways that would be impossible without proper architecture:

First, it enables collaborative innovation that no single organization could achieve alone. Without architectural frameworks defining clear interfaces and standards, each partner would implement proprietary solutions, creating digital barriers rather than bridges. The research notes that companies with mature B2B architecture can "better orchestrate activities in a multitier, federated supply chain" – orchestration that directly impacts market responsiveness and operational efficiency.

Second, it creates scalability in partner relationships. Without architecture, each new partner integration requires custom effort, creating a linear cost curve that eventually limits growth. The B2B study found that companies with architectural approaches to integration could connect to "tens of thousands of individual firms" rather than the "hundreds" typical of companies using ad-hoc approaches.

Third, it builds resilience through standardization. Organizations without architectural governance face constant disruption when partners change systems or processes. As the research notes, architecture enables "heightened expectations from the user community, relentlessly pushing the industry toward pervasive electronic connectivity" – connectivity that becomes a competitive necessity, not just an efficiency play.

VINCI Construction's case illustrates how architecture supported broader professional growth: "I like to build things, discover, and maintain a global vision of the company ... I discovered enterprise architecture, a profession I didn't know at all, and it opened me up to a broader perspective of the organization." This broader perspective represents intangible value that improves decision-making and organizational alignment.

A Framework for Architectural Value

Rather than viewing architectural value through arbitrary time-frames, consider these interconnected value streams:

• Foundation Value flows from creating coherence and stability. Nordea's approach started with foundational work: "Consolidate the application information model on an application." This created the stable base required for all subsequent value. Similarly, VINCI Construction began with "the application inventory functionality," focusing first on "applications managed directly by VINCI Construction's IT team."
• Optimization Value emerges when architecture reveals efficiency opportunities. Nordea's consolidated application list "makes application assessments for compliance (i.e. GDPR, Information Security) much easier and less time and resource consuming for Application Owners and Providers." This optimization value directly reduced operational costs and improved efficiency. VINCI Construction similarly aimed to "assess the current state of the information system and identify areas for improvement."
• Transformation Value materializes when architecture enables new possibilities. Nordea's architectural foundation now supports "transformation, business architecture, regulatory compliance, and internal controls" - enabling broader organizational transformation. VINCI Construction's architecture initiative directly supported their strategic merger, with Aurore noting, "evaluation and transformation follow the inventory. At that point, we will have completed the loop!"

The Value Paradox

The greatest architectural value often comes from what doesn't happen – invisible benefits that would go unnoticed without deliberate effort to highlight them.

Nordea's application consolidation approach directly supports this paradox. By implementing dependency mapping, Nordea created value through "impact analysis when planning for change, new applications and incident management analysis." This capability helps prevent integration failures and implementation problems that would otherwise occur - value that manifests through non-events rather than visible interventions.

VINCI Construction's focus on "ensuring complete traceability across architecture layers to anticipate operational impacts" similarly demonstrates how architecture helps avoid problems before they occur. Their approach to impact analysis is "crucial for the IT department in managing risks and ensuring service continuity" – value that manifests as disruptions that never happen.

Moving Forward

To articulate architectural value effectively, we must change our approach:

• Document decision journeys – Nordea's application management initiative demonstrates this approach, with clear documentation of how architectural decisions led to specific outcomes across four key benefit areas. This explicit connection between architectural work and business value makes the contribution undeniable.
• Create value narratives – Nordea created an internal website generated from HOPEX that communicates what has been documented on each application. This communication tool helps tell the story of architectural value across the organization. VINCI Construction similarly made architecture accessible to all employees through HOPEX 360, creating opportunities for value storytelling.
• Measure what matters – Nordea focused on outcomes that matter to the business: reduced maintenance effort, more efficient decommissioning, improved dependency mapping, and enhanced portfolio management. These metrics directly connect to business performance rather than architectural activities.
• Embrace counterfactuals – Consider what would happen without architectural guidance. Nordea's previous state of managing 160 data points on single applications provides a clear counterfactual to their current, more structured approach. The contrast between "before" and "after" states helps demonstrate architecture's value.

The debate about architectural value persists because we're often looking in the wrong places. Value isn't in the artifacts we create but in the improved outcomes they enable. It's not in the processes we establish but in the better decisions they facilitate. When we shift our focus from outputs to outcomes, from activities to improvements, the value of enterprise architecture becomes undeniable. As Aurore Peureux from VINCI Construction concludes, enterprise architecture plays a "central role... in managing organizational change and optimizing information systems." Now, that's real, generated value!

What's your experience with defining and demonstrating architectural value? How do you make the intangible tangible?

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