Client Background
The client is a leading bank in the Levant pursuing an enterprise-wide modernisation of its applications, data, integration and infrastructure. Its IT function faced siloed working practices, a complex environment in which changes were hard to coordinate, no standard architecture frameworks or processes, and recurring issues with downtime, fix quality and time to market. The bank also lacked specialised architecture skills and clarity on who owned architecture decisions. Building on an earlier architecture assessment that recommended stronger governance, the bank engaged Cedar to design and help set up a best-fit Enterprise Architecture Office.
Cedar’s Approach
Cedar combined industry reference frameworks such as TOGAF with practical lessons from EA office set-ups, guided by one principle: the office should act as a catalyst for change rather than another control function. The design was delivered across five modules:
Charter, Vision and Principles – Cedar defined the office's objectives, vision and mission, its areas in and out of scope, and five governance principles of independence, accountability, discipline, transparency and fairness, together with the value the office would deliver over immediate, medium and long-term horizons.
Organisation Design – Cedar designed an interim structure and a target structure led by a lead enterprise architect, with technology, integration and domain solution architects for core banking and ERP and for CRM, digital and channels, while data and security architects are drawn from the wider IT team. Cedar also set out how the office would co-exist with demand, change and release management, the PMO, the strategy office and information security, and defined core hiring capabilities, detailed role responsibilities and KPIs for each architect role.
Governance Forums – Rather than adding layers, Cedar introduced a single new forum, an EA Board, and connected it to the existing IT steering committee and change control board. For each forum Cedar specified the chair, attendees, frequency, purpose, inputs and outputs, with architecture reviews routed through change control, escalations to IT steering and decision logs maintained by the office.
Governance Framework and Operating Model – Cedar defined governance processes covering policy management, business control, compliance, dispensation, monitoring and reporting, a ten-component EA target operating model, governance of business, information, application and technical architecture, the stages of architecture review, and checklists for periodic reviews, new projects and artefact refresh.
Tooling and Artefacts – Cedar specified EA tool requirements across fourteen capability areas, profiled leading EA tool suppliers and set guidelines for maintaining and refreshing architecture artefacts.
Strategic Outcome and Way Forward
The bank received a complete, ready-to-implement blueprint for its Enterprise Architecture Office, with a lean governance model that builds on existing forums and a clear path from an interim to a target structure. The operating model sets a first period of around six months to establish the office, its framework, processes and core artefacts, after which it moves into steady-state running with annual refresh cycles.
Four next steps were agreed: management approval of the EA structure and governance framework, recruitment for the interim structure, institutionalisation of EA governance and processes, and initiation of procurement for an EA tool.