Case Study:
The Jewel in the Crown – Enterprise Architecture at Chubb
Chubb’s enterprise architecture (EA) has evolved considerably since it was reported in this journal in 2012.1 The need to continually adapt to changing technologies and demands can make a solution that worked well a few years ago unsuitable for the current business climate. Chubb moved from a difficult to enforce a federated model to consistent centralized standards and shared services to enable the digital organization is sought.
To make the transition, Chubb selected a leader with management and leadership skills rather than technical expertise. The major components of the new EA are target architecture and EA practice. The target architecture, consisting of architecture principles, architecture governance, conceptual reference architectures, and emerging technology, is designed to maximize integration.
The Organizational Adaption Problem
Adaption is a central problem of economic organization.3 In order to persist, firms must continually react to competition and changing demand. In the digital age, an Enterprise Architecture (EA) can determine the speed of adaption. If an EA is a hindrance, then the firm cannot co-evolve as fast as its competitors. Alternatively, a flexible EA can enable an enterprise to set the pace of its industry’s evolution by responding to changing market forces with alacrity and integrating new technology rapidly and successfully. An EA is not static. As a critical platform for enabling adaption, it must be adapted to enable the organization to prosper. This case describes how Chubb transformed its EA to support organizational adaption.
EA Management plan
Your management plan should follow the structure shown in Figure 9-2 (page 183) of the textbook:
Introduction– Introduce the enterprise, and state the purpose of the report
Part 1. EA Program Management
- Governance and Principles
- Support for Strategy and Business
- EA Roles and Responsibilities
- EA Program Budget
- EA Program Performance Measures
Part 2. EA Current Architecture Summary
- Strategic Goals and Initiatives
- Business Services and Information
- Systems and applications
- Technology Infrastructure
- IT Security
- EA Standards
- Workforce Requirements
Part 3. EA Future Architecture Summary
- Future Operation Scenarios
- Planning Assumptions
- Updating Current & Future Views
- Sequencing Plan
- Configuration Management
Part 4. EA Glossary and References
While there is no specified length for this report, I would expect it to be around 5000 words, not including references.
