Case Study: Danforth Manufacturing Company Scene 5: Linking E A to Other Management Processes The Case Study continues the scenario at Danforth Manufacturing Company (DMC) that was presented in Sections I and II. The CIO and Chief Architect have now completed a project with the sponsors of two lines of business who currently have requirements for IT systems. The sponsors, CFO Jim Gorman, and COO Kate Jarvis, had their teams work with the EA Working Group to develop EA segment documentation for the financial and production lines of business. These segments represent the first parts of the companys architecture. This scene describes how the EA segment documentation will be used in the companys new capital planning process that will support IT investment decision-making. This scene also includes a discussion about how the EA artifacts support project management and security planning activities. Upon Sams recommendation, Jim agreed to lead a new Capital Planning Working Group, and DMCs CEO Robert Danforth acknowledged that the Executive Committees would serve as the companys Capital Planning Board with final investment decision approval. CIO Sam Young opened a day-long workshop for DMCs EA Working Group, which included members of the newly formed Capital Planning Working Group. Todays workshop will be a bit different because we are going to use the EA documentation that we have developed during the past few weeks to help Kate and Jim make decisions about solutions to their IT requirements. Vince Albright, our Chief Architect, will lead the morning session and will start by describing the documentation of current and future views of the production and financial segments and how that will support the analysis and decision-making process. Then, Jim Gorman, our CFO, will lead the afternoon session, which is also the first meeting of the Capital Planning Working Group, who will work with us to develop a combined recommendation on the solution to Jim and Kates requirements for new IT systems. Vince, what have we learned from the EA documentation activities? Thanks Sam said Vince. The EA Working Group did a great job with Jims and Kates staff teams over the past two weeks in developing EA artifacts for the EA components in the production segment and the financial segment of the DMC architecture. We now have EA artifacts that describe the components in these two segments at each level of the framework. This includes the strategic goals, initiatives, and output/outcome measures related to finance and production, the flow diagrams of processes in these two lines of business, the data structure and flow diagrams for the IT systems, application/web service lists and interface diagrams, and network diagrams. Further, we were able to develop a future operating scenario together that looks three years in the future and highlights both the unique and common IT requirements in the two lines of business that these segments represent. From this scenario, several planning assumptions were revealed, which may help us determine a common solution to several IT requirements. The other aspect of the EA framework that we addressed was a set of EA components that represent IT security resources that serve these two segments, as well as an initial set of standards for voice, data, and video infrastructure resources that serve the segments. Finally, we identified the current IT workforce and training requirements related to these lines of business, but are waiting on developing the future requirements until the groups determine the recommended solution. Vince led the two working groups in a more detailed review of the EA documentation that had been developed, and Jim then opened the afternoon working group session. Thanks again Sam and Vince for providing the approach and oversight for the documentation of the EA segments for production and finance. Kate and I are now going to review the requirements that we have for additional IT support within our lines of business. We would like the Enterprise Architecture and Capital Planning Working Groups and our staff members to help us this afternoon to determine what the most effective way is to meet those requirements, be it separate systems or a combined solution. DMC is always interested in maximizing the return on any investment in resources we make, and it already is apparent that by looking across the entire enterprise of DMC, that our planning and decision-making will be enhanced. Jim and Kate discussed their previous proposals for IT systems in their respective lines of business. Jim had initially identified a commercial ERP solution (WELLCO) which had the service modules that he needed. Kate had initially identified a custom-built Sales and Inventory System (SITS) as the solution for new requirements in those areas. The working groups and line of business staff members reviewed the information from the initial requests, and then used the EA documentation of these lines of business to establish what the most operationally efficient and cost effective solution would be. They were able to determine that the WELLCO commercial ERP application suite had a module available for sales and inventory functions. By contacting the vendor, they were also able to determine that this module could support the addition of some custom functionality, which would then allow it to fully meet Kates requirements. The cost of this additional WELLCO module would be approximately $1,675,000, as opposed to the $3,000,000 that was estimated to create SITS. Further, the use of the WELLCO ERP product within both lines of business promoted additional information exchanges through the use of common data formats. Jim addressed the group in the late afternoon after the analysis work and discussions had been completed. Thank you all for taking the time today to help us review the creation of the first two segments of our companys architecture, and use that information to evaluate two requests for new IT support. Originally, these two requests were submitted by Kate and me separately at our annual planning conference several months ago. The estimated cost of the two separate solutions was $3,600,000. By looking at our business areas from an enterprise-wide architecture perspective, we have been able to find a combined solution that will save the company $1,325,000 and promotes higher levels of information sharing than we otherwise would have achieved. Sam, this is a win-win for Kate and me. I believe it is a win for you and Vince, because you have just shown why the EA program is needed, and how it will more than pay for itself. Sam and I will now take the combined recommendation of the EA Working Group and the Capital Planning Working Group to the Executive Committee for final approval. If approved, we will be calling on the two groups to assist in conducting the control reviews and evaluation review of the project that are part of our new capital planning and investment control process. This will lower the risk of failure and help us to mature our EA and capital planning processes. I look forward to seeing you all at those reviews. The DMC Executive Board approved the recommendation of the working groups, and CEO Robert Danforth commended Kate, Sam, and Jim for working together to identify a more cost efficient solution for their needs. The EA program was then approved for funding to complete the remaining segments of the DMC architecture over the following 18 months, as well as annual operations and support funding for the next two years, at which time the value of the EA program would be reviewed by the Executive Committee.

Select at least two (2) DMC LOBs or crosscutting components and develop models for a current and future EA business process, function, or initiative. Discuss the elements and the differences between the current and future models. What would be important parameters and variables to specify in the model in order to run simulation experiments and gain insight into the degree of improvement expected from the transformation?