CIO — If they do it right, enterprise architects can add tremendous value to their organization's selection of a packaged application solution. The architecture inherent in any new technology acquisition can have unintended consequences, and this is especially true with a major apps solution — whether it's deployed on-premise or via software-as-a-service (SaaS).

Historically, in a packaged apps selection process, architects have often acted primarily in their role as the stewards of the organization's technology standards. Their default assumption may be that they participate in the selection process to ensure that the final selection adheres to enterprise IT standards.

Why do architects tend to focus so heavily on standards? Because it just so happens that, all other things being equal, adherence to IT standards helps to achieve long-term value. And there's the rub: Seldom are all other things equal, which means you can't rely on the shortcut of mere standards compliance. Your proper contribution to a packaged apps decision is to analyze and estimate each candidate's Architectural Business Value (ABV), which Forrester defines as:

The estimated Total Economic Impact (TEI), for a candidate solution, of: 1) ongoing costs incurred for process, organizational, and technical adaptations required because of a solution's divergence from IT standards; and 2) ongoing benefits created by the solution's comparative architectural strengths vis-à-vis other candidates.

Educating the selection team on the concept of ABV is your first challenge. From there, across the four phases — organize, narrow, evaluate, and decide — of the selection process, you will build initial ABV models, identify key factors that will affect ABV, test key factors and document their impact, and integrate ABV into the comprehensive economic analysis prepared by the team.

During The Organize Phase, Establish ABV as a Part of The Selection Process

As the team gets organized, your primary aim is for the team to incorporate ABV as a recognized part of the selection process. To accomplish this:

Establish your business credibility. Make it clear that your goal is business analysis, and that your technology analysis is only for the purpose of identifying business costs, benefits, risks, and future options.

Build support for ABV. Introduce ABV as the framework for your analysis. Describe it as a way of quantifying downstream impacts, hidden costs, and future opportunities inherent in today's technology decisions.

Build ABV into the project charter. Among other things, the charter defines how the selection decision will be made. Your goals are for ABV to be a recognized, agreed part of the decision model and for the selection project to build in tasks and budget for assessment of ABV.

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