In 2003, there was a view that IT didn't matter.  The argument at the time was that since IT trends to commodity and everyone has access; it could not be a strategic asset which requires differentiation.  Long term this is true of technology, it bends towards commodity.  This can be seen in Gartner's hype cycle for technology.  The flattening tail of the hype cycle is actually when functionality can be expressed in consistent, repeatable best practices.  The Right Strategy defines these best practices earlier through the use of the I-S-O (Investigate - Standardize -Optimize) philosophy, its focus  on capability,  and its focus  on standardized integration.; avoiding  the  Shiny Object anti-pattern.

Even if technology is a commodity, it is in the  unique, agile uses of the technology where an enterprise can thrive.  The  ability  for  an enterprise  to rapidly  adapt to business and  technological situations is the strategic  differentiation required.

One way to achieve technological excellence is to move away from a project based implementation to product management.  

Below is the template for all products in an enterprise  as  laid out in the  Right  Strategy  EA Diagram.  These are  the "organization's" products which  are a collection of domain specific capabilities.  The product road maps encompass the enterprises strategic roadmap.  

All products (domains) have similar defining  characteristics.  They all are a collection of capabilities that can be defined by:

• Description of the domain – an agreed to definition of how the domain functions within the business.

• Future State – those capabilities that are needed moving forward\

• Current State -   A description of the current environment.  In the Internal employee UI the goal is to have a single “one stop” shop of tools to get the job done, so the current state would describe the systems that need integration.  The current state may should describe strategic assets that should be leveraged and improved moving forward.  

• Current State Capabilities -The capabilities of a domain may be in many silos (customer info, name and address), but the goal is to have a future  state where this is a single enterprise  capability.  For capabilities already delivered as end state "aligned" (services, UI objects) the  list can drill down to detailed definition, the  "code", and even drill through to performance monitoring.

• Ownership - The product manager and the business product owner with contact information. There may be additional information on how to report problems or make new requests. The tool uses this acquisition policy approvals. It may be complicate in that there are domains that truly don’t have one owner (Customer). Every division thinks they own the domain until it comes to requirements and testing. The owner may vary by capability. This is where that  ownership is defined.

• Technologies of Influence – What technologies are emerging that could help deliver the capabilities of this domain.  This helps drive the innovation roadmap moving forward.  

• Potential Path to End State – This is a continuously changing list of research and strategic projects that improve domain capabilities.  The list of active projects are tied to the IT Project Portfolio.

 The outline for each product may look like the sample:

The EA Diagram and its composite products was originally  produced as a single strategic document.  It had links from the  diagram to all of its selected product  descriptions.  (it did not integrate monitoring, by  did drill down into the capability design documents.). The goal is to make it an intranet  site with  views for different consumers.  The product owner view would contain everything  in  the product matrix but  would include active  monitoring of the  inventory, where capabilities are used, implementations, and  the ability to  approve requested  enhancements.  

The goal is to move  EA from passive documentation  to an active  business  tool.  

(Disclaimer - my  limited web abilities has made this challenging.  Hopefully in  the future I  will  be  able to make the  model and drill downs (with hooks for monitors) available for simple  download  from this site).