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Architecture Engagement Process

This methodology involves the usage of a simple to use Architecture Success Scorecard, technical impact assessment and engagement tiers. The methodology allows architects to allocate appropriate time to the most critical projects while facilitating a rapid review and governance process for the balance of projects.

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Frequently Asked Questions

  • Due to the number, diversity and complexity of IT projects across CES, the limited resources of the CES IT Architecture group must be capable of scaling appropriately and engage in projects based on risks associated with each new initiative.

    This methodology involves the usage of a simple to use Architecture Success Scorecard, technical impact assessment and engagement tiers. The methodology allows architects to allocate appropriate time to the most critical projects while facilitating a rapid review and governance process for the balance of projects.

    This process will also support a framework of reference architectures and approved design/implementation patterns that if chosen, allow projects to be "fast-tracked" through the governance process.

    Architectural reviews will be conducted on a regular basis using the same scorecard methodology to provide reporting on the health, improvement progress and accuracy of the IT portfolios.
  • IT Architectural alignment is an important principal for making key IT decisions for CES institutions. While we are all trying to make the best possible decisions for our customers, the size of our IT enterprise, the complexity of custom software development, maintenance of large legacy platforms, and the overwhelming technology options available on the market often make our IT decisions difficult.

    The Architecture Success Scorecard is a simple and easy-to-use scorecard that project teams fill out during the early phases of the Product Life Cycle (PLC) and helps facilitate timely architectural reviews and educating stakeholders on architectural standards.

    More information can be found in the Architecture Success Scorecard section.
  • The Product Life Cycle (PLC) defines the general stages that an IT product moves through as it enters, becomes established and is retired from the environment. In other words, the PLC describes the stages that an IT product is likely to experience.

    Each CES institution has defined their own PLC process, but in general, most PLC processes encompass the following stages:
    • Definition
    • Exploration & Planning
    • Implementation
    • Management (inc. maintenance and retirement)

    As described previously, the intent of the Architecture Engagement Process is to directly integrate with this PLC process and provide key checkpoints to assess IT architectural quality and determine level of architectural engagement across products.
  • The diagram presented on this site provides a high level overview of how the engagement process works. The process follows closely with the Product Life Cycle (PLC) with some key architectural outcomes.

    There are a few key architectural outcomes as part of this process:
    1. Project teams fill out the Architecture Success Scorecard during the "Explore & Plan" phase to assess architectural quality and alignment with standards. Based on the outcome of this scorecard, the project will either enter a "bulk review" cycle or enter an engagement tier
    2. The engagement tiers consist of two stages. The first is an assessment against the "Technical Impact Heatmap" which allows stakeholders and project teams to assess the overall impact to existing IT enterprise services and portfolios. From there, a determination is made on how much architectural engagement is needed on the project (ranging from low to high).
    3. The engagement tiers allow project teams to understand the level or architectural involvement needed to plan project plans accordingly. For example, for large, highly complex institutional projects it may be necessary to embed an architect with the project teams for the duration of the project.

    All key outcomes and/or artifacts in this process are identified by the green check ✅ icon on the process diagram.