How Google built their central design function (known as UXA – User Experience Alliance) can be a lesson and guidance on how to built a central EnterpriseArchitects function.

This dawned on my reading the great Fast Company article about how design finally made its way into Google, not only within each product, but also as a function within the company with a central team. So here is the take away for Enterprise Architects and Governance teams:

How to build your corporate Enterprise Architecture Function:

• Start and spend a month with all participating stakeholders to see what is out there as BusinessArchitecture, Projects, IT, Infrastructure, BusinessModel, …
• Try to deliver as much value in that month, so that all the different projects and stakeholders come back to get guidance
• Never name things Standards or Governance
• Accomplishes your unifying goal in a subtle way: Use conversations and collaboration.
• Don’t try to be measurable as a corporate function, but try to lean in with local problems and build a way that good decisions emerges an bubble up. Value the ideas of local EA/IT and let it grow
• Name it Project Kennedy, because in most organisations Enterprise Architecture is like a moonshot worthy of JFK

The mentioned article is also part of the October 2013 Issue of Fast Company, which I read over the weekend to prepare for a call with Google 🙂

Also posted on  the SMART360°Biz-Blog!