1. Select an EA Tool Based on Business and User Need
Not all EA tools are made the same.
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2. ANALYST PERSPECTIVE
Move beyond functionality and ensure your EA tool will be adopted and used.
Most organizations that have chosen and implemented an EA tool have not achieved the value they expected, either because it’s not aligned to their design approach or through a lack of adoption and integration.
Selection of an enterprise architecture tool must be driven by knowledge as much as functional need. It is critical that you understand your organization’s strategic approach, the information your stakeholders need, and the design style and preferences of your architecture team to ensure the tool you buy is suited to your needs.
Taking the time to understand your full value proposition, and making sure resources will use the tool, is the first step in ensuring value for spend with your EA tool.
Valence Howden,
Director, CIO Practice Info-Tech Research Group

3. Our understanding of the problem
Those responsible for managing and mapping the architecture of the organization.  
Those looking to select an enterprise architecture (EA) tool that is the best fit for their organization.
Shortlist a subset of enterprise architecture tools that is most appropriate for your organization.
Understand and implement the process to select an EA tool.
Plan your enterprise architecture tool selection initiative.
Those seeking to have an overview of enterprise architecture tool vendors.
Allocate resources appropriate to the enterprise architecture tool selection initiative.

4. Executive summary
A mature EA function is increasingly becoming an organizational priority to drive innovation, provide insight, and define digital capabilities (Burns et al.). 
A large number of organizations do not have an EA tool, or have selected one that does not suit their needs or design requirements.
EA tool value largely comes from tying organizational context and requirements to the selection process.
Organizations that have selected an EA tool often fail to have it adopted and show its true value. To ensure successful adoption and value delivery, the EA tool selection process must account for the needs of business stakeholders as well as the modeling approach of the architecture.
Maturing EA practices for complex environments requires an EA tool with a core repository to enforce standards and enable quicker time to business insight while providing simplicity in design for architects (Blom).
Organizations lack the time to perform extensive due diligence on multiple vendors and have difficulty selecting a tool that fits their unique specifications (Troux by Planview).
Link the need for the EA tool to your organization’s EA value proposition. The connection enables the EA tool to address the future needs of stakeholders, and the design style of the EA team.
Define EA tool user requirements with Info-Tech’s EA Tool User Requirements Template.
Use Info-Tech’s EA Solution Recommendation Tool to shortlist a set of EA tools that is suited to the preferences of the organization.
Gather additional information on the shortlist of EA tool vendors to narrow down the selection using the EA Tool Request for Information Template.
Document and present the EA tool selection process with Info-Tech’s EA Tool Selection Process Template.

5. A digital-first mindset increases technological complexity
When organizations dive into digital investments and initiatives, it increases the need for integrated and aligned business process design. Digital investments and initiatives also require increased alignment with IT capabilities.
More CEOs are championing digital:
68%
33%
organizations in 2017
organizations in 2007
When digital is on the CEO’s agenda, complexity increases
+46%
-10%
Number of point-to-point connections
Quality of business-process documentation
Source: Bossert et al. “How Enterprise Architects Can Help Ensure Success with Digital Transformations”
Source: Curran et al. “2017 Global Digital IQ Survey”

6. Demands on the EA function increase with technological complexity
Organizations can expect increased complexity in systems and processes in both the near and long term. It has become critical for the EA function to provide insights and ensure integration with organizational goals.
Increase in digital
Added complexity
Higher demand on EA
More applications and more information leads to more integration needs.
More objects and elements in models to capture the increase in connections for integration.
Increase in number and size of models make it tougher to derive insights without a shared repository and principles/standards.

7. EA tools help design and visualize complex architecture to support strategic decision making
Enterprise architecture tools support the design, storage, improvement, and presentation of EA models and related artifacts. Artifacts, relationships, roadmaps, and standards are some of the key outputs EA tools support. The tools allow organizations to use different views to analyze and optimize their business strategies in relation to their technology.
Translates
As Is
To Be
Architecture framework, models, relationships, views, artifacts, roadmaps, and standards
Business strategy
Future business capabilities
Existing IT assets and processes
Future IT assets and processes
Supports
EA tools
Source: Minoli. “Enterprise Architecture A to Z”

8. As architectural complexity increases, basic in-house tools provide less value and insight
Most organizations begin the mapping of architecture through mapping tools like Visio or on paper. As designs become more complex and distributed, EA functions must move toward implementing enterprise architecture tools in order to provide timely business insight and innovation.
Visio and architecture-by-hand
Specific enterprise architecture tool
No relations or insight between different architecture domains.
Difficult to provide change impact analysis.
Few schemas visualizing the architecture.
Overall consistency of the architecture is hard to maintain.
Description of architectural domains are stored as part of the same model.
Optimized change impact analysis.
Increased consistency with checking mechanisms.
Automatic generation of tailored views for stakeholders.
Source: Blom. “Tools for Enterprise Architecture”

9. Selecting the optimal EA tool is challenging despite abundance of choice in the market
In the process of writing this research, Info-Tech spoke with numerous experts regarding their experience with using EA tools. The consensus was that there are several common pain points with selecting the right EA tool.
Common organizational pain points with EA tool selection:
An EA tool selection process must help organizations:
Found it difficult to encourage tool adoption.
Improve adoption of the selected EA tool. 1 1
Dissatisfied with their EA tool. 2
Understand EA stakeholder requirements. 2
Originally selected an EA tool based on factors other than stakeholder needs.
Test the capabilities of the tool to ensure user satisfaction. 3 3
Refer to the Appendix for statistics that Info-Tech has found that further validate the common organizational pain points.

10. Select and communicate the process
Use Info-Tech’s methodology to guide tool selection, drive adoption, and improve satisfaction
Info-Tech’s methodology links EA tools with organizational needs to holistically shortlist the EA tools that best fit organizational preferences.
Key outputs:
Link the need for an EA tool to the EA strategy and stakeholder needs.
Confirm that investing in an EA tool is the right step to address needs.
Choose EA tool selection committee members. 1
Make the case
Key outputs:
Introduce product capabilities and vendor characteristics.
Provide advice on how to select and weight your organization’s core drivers for product capabilities and vendor attributes.
Provide an overview of the vendors in the EA tool marketplace. 2
Shortlist the EA tools 3
Key outputs:
Produce a shortlist of vendors based on your organization’s preferences.
Create an RFI and demo script to help your organization gather more information on shortlisted vendors.
Document the EA tool selection process to show how the tool was selected.
Select and communicate the process

11. Consider the different EA key initiatives to complement selection of the EA tool
Select an EA Tool Based on Business and User Need is a part of Info-Tech’s EA Key Initiative Plan. EA tool selection occurs at a later stage in the set of EA key initiatives. EA tools are most effectively leveraged when the EA strategy, operating model, and the different EA domains are already constructed. Consider examining the other initiatives to help complement EA tool selection.
Select & Implement an EA Tool
Identify the key outcomes and needs of your users and stakeholders to ensure you select, and implement, an EA tool that will be adopted to provide quick time to value and insight.

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