Architecture Governance & Assurance

What is Architecture Governance?

Architecture governance is the framework of processes, standards, and controls that ensure technology decisions align with organisational objectives and architectural principles. It includes architecture review boards, design review processes, standards and guidelines, and mechanisms for ensuring compliance.

Effective architecture governance balances control with agility, ensuring that governance supports rather than hinders delivery. It provides clear guidance on architectural standards and principles, making it easier for teams to make decisions that align with organisational objectives.

Architecture governance is particularly important in financial services organisations, where there are often complex regulatory compliance requirements, security standards, and risk management frameworks that need to be considered in technology decisions. Governance helps ensure that these requirements are met consistently across the organisation.

Problems Architecture Governance Addresses

Many organisations struggle with technology decision-making and architectural consistency:

• Inconsistent Technology Decisions: Teams making technology choices that don't align with organisational strategy or standards, leading to complexity and duplication.
• Lack of Architectural Review: No systematic process for reviewing architectural designs, leading to solutions that don't meet standards or create technical debt.
• Compliance Gaps: Difficulty ensuring that technology decisions meet security, data protection, and regulatory requirements consistently.
• Slow Decision-Making: Lack of clear governance processes leading to delays in technology decisions and project delivery.
• Architectural Drift: Solutions diverging from architectural standards over time, creating inconsistency and complexity.

Typical Outcomes

Organisations that invest in architecture governance typically achieve:

• Effective Review Processes: Architecture review boards and processes that ensure technology decisions align with strategy and standards.
• Consistent Application of Standards: Clear architectural standards and principles that are understood and applied consistently across the organisation.
• Reduced Architectural Risk: Governance processes that identify and address architectural risks early, reducing the likelihood of project failure or technical debt.
• Improved Decision-Making: Clear governance frameworks that enable teams to make technology decisions more quickly and confidently.
• Compliance Assurance: Processes that ensure technology decisions meet security, data protection, and regulatory requirements.

When Organisations Need Architecture Governance

Architecture governance is essential when:

• Multiple Delivery Teams: When multiple teams are making technology decisions and there's a need for consistency and alignment.
• Complex Compliance Requirements: When organisations need to ensure technology decisions meet security, data protection, or regulatory requirements.
• Financial Services Organisations: When organisations need to demonstrate regulatory compliance and adherence to industry standards and frameworks.
• Architectural Drift: When organisations notice that solutions are diverging from architectural standards and need to re-establish consistency.
• Risk Management: When organisations need to identify and manage architectural risks systematically.

How Architecture Governance Relates to Other Services

Architecture governance integrates with other architecture services:

• Enterprise Architecture: Governance processes use enterprise architecture frameworks and models to evaluate technology decisions and ensure alignment with strategy.
• Solution Architecture: Governance review processes evaluate solution architectures to ensure they align with standards and principles.
• Technology Strategy & Roadmapping: Governance ensures that technology decisions support the objectives outlined in technology roadmaps and strategies.

Cohesive Architecture's Approach

Our architecture governance services focus on creating practical governance frameworks that support delivery rather than hinder it. We design governance processes that are proportionate to risk and complexity, avoiding unnecessary bureaucracy.

We work with organisations to establish architecture review boards and processes that provide value to both governance bodies and delivery teams. We help create clear architectural standards and principles that teams can use to guide their decisions, reducing the need for extensive review whilst maintaining quality.