Architecture Process Improvement

Business Case:

A global financial services client required Enterprise Architecture assistance to support their Canadian business unit, a credit card issuer with revenue of $50 million a year.

Solution: 

CapTech partnered with the internal architecture team and Canadian line of business to provide enterprise architecture services, including:

  • Maintenance of a rolling 3-year Target Architecture tracking as-is infrastructure and all initiatives planned by the business that would require significant IT support.
  • Developing project architectures for each significant IT initiative. These efforts included:
    • The company’s first integration with an external web service, to meet anti-terrorism regulations by positively identifying credit card applicants with no prior relationship to the company.
    • The company’s first successful attempt to migrate to a new data warehouse and completely decommission the legacy platform.
    • Establishing a multi-vendor payments solution enabling electronic fulfillment of payments in the Canadian market while aligning with the broader organization’s payment outsourcing arrangement.
  • Contribution to various architecture process improvements, including:
    • Effective coordination between architecture groups with long term goals and Agile Development project teams with a get-it-done focus.
    • Auditability of project design reviews, in order to extend the overall audit trail of the project from architecture through code implementation.
Tools: 
  • Agile Methodology
  • MS Project
Results: 
  • Business unit executed 30% of the target architecture roadmap under CapTech’s guidance.
  • Several projects involving CapTech architectural oversight were honored with the company’s internal “Circle of Excellence” award.
  • Effective balance between meeting architectural goals and business needs was established.