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EA Practice

EA Operating Model Assessment

Start immediately — no email required. Read the scoring guidance for each question — honest evidence-based scores produce actionable results. When you finish, print or save your scorecard, and optionally download the companion playbook.

Governance & Decision Rights

Effective EA governance clarifies who decides, on what evidence, and how exceptions are handled.

Rate each statement: 1 = not true · 3 = partially true · 5 = consistently true with evidence

Architecture review forums have clear intake, scoring, and decision authority.

Score based on whether ARB/ARB-equivalent produces traceable decisions — not slide reviews.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — No forum, or decisions are routinely ignored.
Score 5: 5 — Charter, scoring rubric, quorum, minutes, and binding decisions on material spend.

1 2 3 4 5

Architecture principles are documented and referenced in investment decisions.

Principles should appear in business cases and be used to resolve trade-offs — not wall art.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — No principles, or they are unknown to portfolio committees.
Score 5: 5 — Principles ratified by executives; mandatory section in business cases with compliance notes.

1 2 3 4 5

Exception and waiver process is transparent with risk acceptance on record.

Permanent exceptions are a governance failure — score accordingly.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — Waivers are informal or untracked.
Score 5: 5 — Exception register with risk owner, expiry, and remediation tracked in portfolio tooling.

1 2 3 4 5

Stakeholder Engagement

EA succeeds when business leaders co-own outcomes — not when architecture publishes diagrams into a void.

Rate each statement: 1 = not true · 3 = partially true · 5 = consistently true with evidence

Business and IT executives participate in architecture planning cadence.

Look for standing executive time on capability, portfolio, and risk — not one-off workshops.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — EA is seen as IT-only overhead.
Score 5: 5 — Quarterly executive architecture sessions with pre-reads, decisions, and follow-up owners.

1 2 3 4 5

Domain architects and product leaders have defined collaboration rituals.

Rituals include backlog refinement, design reviews, and shared OKRs — not email ping-pong.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — Architects are consulted too late or only during escalations.
Score 5: 5 — Embedded collaboration model with agreed touchpoints, SLAs, and feedback loops.

1 2 3 4 5

Architecture communications translate to business outcomes and risks.

Executives should understand "so what" — cost, speed, risk, compliance — not meta-model jargon.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — Deliverables are technical and unread by sponsors.
Score 5: 5 — Executive summaries standard; metrics tie architecture work to business KPIs.

1 2 3 4 5

Value Delivery

Value is measured in decisions accelerated, waste removed, and risk reduced — not diagrams produced.

Rate each statement: 1 = not true · 3 = partially true · 5 = consistently true with evidence

Architecture work is prioritized against measurable business outcomes.

Backlogs should show OKR linkage, not only "update domain model".

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — EA work is reactive and unfunded.
Score 5: 5 — EA backlog ranked by value/risk; funding aligned to strategic themes.

1 2 3 4 5

Standards and reference architectures reduce delivery time or defect rates.

If reuse cannot be evidenced, standards may be shelfware — score honestly.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — No evidence standards help delivery.
Score 5: 5 — Measured reuse, faster intake, fewer review cycles — tracked quarterly.

1 2 3 4 5

Technical debt and portfolio health inform roadmap and funding.

Debt registers should influence investment — not sit in a spreadsheet.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — Debt is invisible in portfolio decisions.
Score 5: 5 — Debt heatmaps linked to funding waves; retirement KPIs on executive dashboard.

1 2 3 4 5

Practice Sustainability

A sustainable practice develops people, tools, and methods — and survives leadership changes.

Rate each statement: 1 = not true · 3 = partially true · 5 = consistently true with evidence

EA roles, career paths, and skills matrix are defined.

Hero architects who hold everything in their heads indicate low sustainability.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — Roles unclear; retention risk high.
Score 5: 5 — Role definitions, leveling, mentorship, and hiring plan aligned to capability model.

1 2 3 4 5

Repository and tooling support federated contribution without chaos.

Balance central standards with team autonomy — score on whether tooling enables both.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — No repository, or it is outdated/untrusted.
Score 5: 5 — Living repository with ownership, quality gates, and federated update workflow.

1 2 3 4 5

Methodology adapts to agile/product operating models — not only waterfall gates.

EA must fit continuous delivery — lightweight views, just-in-time architecture.

What makes a 1 vs a 5?

Score 1: 1 — EA is perceived as blocking agile teams.
Score 5: 5 — Thin-slice architecture, agile rituals integrated, timeboxed reviews.

1 2 3 4 5

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