Immediately following the Preliminary phase on the Architecture Development Model (ADM) is the Vision phase. At this point, the Enterprise Architecture Practice is up & running, like we saw defined in the ADM post. Looking at the ADM “Lollypop”, we can see that this is the first time the Agile EA will look at the Business Requirements.

As we described in the post From Idea To Revenue, we know that a well-defined business has a model or a plan. And that Business Model should be the starting point for the Architectural Vision. The plan clearly defines the Problems, Solutions and Metrics used to bring the Enterprise’s product or service to market.

Depending on what phase your Enterprise is in, you may choose to approach the Architecture Vision differently:

In Startup Mode your entire entire business may have been founded on “I have this really cool idea – how do we monetize it ?”. In which case, everything has to be built from the ground up.

your entire entire business may have been founded on “I have this really cool idea – how do we monetize it ?”. In which case, everything has to be built from the ground up. In Maintenance Mode the business model is well-defined, and you may be at a point in the Architectural Continuum where you are looking to deliver new products or services to your customers, augmenting your existing capabilities.

In the middle of the ADM Lollypop, and connected to every single phase of the model, is Requirements Management. And we know from the post Agile EA – NFRs & CAPSS how important it is to capture useful requirements, and validate them throughout the ADM Lifecycle (sometimes referred to as an EA Project).

Finally, it is the Business Drivers which define helps the Agile EA answer the question “Where do we go from here ?”.