In order to be successful in today's insurance landscape, insurer CIOs need a strong architecture to ensure that tech projects are consistent with the company's overall direction.

Architecture governance is in direct conflict with project management, according to a recent Novarica report "Architecture Governance: a CIO checklist." The project manager builds technology solutions in the shortest possible time, for the lowest cost. But this may not be ideal for creating long-term business functions that deliver strategic business capability.

"Enterprise architecture is about taking a holistic view of risk, avoiding long-term unforeseen consequences, and making informed decisions to manage total company risk to within pre-defined appetites," writes Mitch Wein, principal in the insurance practice at Novarica, and one of the report authors, along with Steven Kaye, research and knowledge systems manager.

In order to determine how to set up an effective architectural governance process, Novarica put together a list of guidelines. Read them below and on the following pages.

1. Identify key business and IT strategic drivers and create reference documents that arbitrate technology decisions

2. Establish a target technology reference architecture that reflects all possible investment needed without economic constraint

3. Link architecture governance to funding governance through logical gates

4. Create a standard template to capture all dimensions of the architecture review and highlight the tradeoffs that may be needed

5. Gain commitment in writing for future projects and investments

6. Adopt a test-and-learn culture for architecture. Test the proposed solution and its expected benefits, implementation complexity and its technical feasibility

7. Support the architecture process consistently

Special Reports /

7 steps for CIOs to build strong architecture governance

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