Innovation Norway’s Automated Knowledge Assortment With Ardoq

When Innovation Norway determined to embark on their Enterprise Structure (EA) journey, they recognized 3 challenges to resolve. They wanted to: 

1. Construct an correct overview of their purposes and integrations in order that they may perceive the affect of change
2. Talk the effort and time it takes to scale back technical debt 
3. Have a transparent overview of who controls possession of purposes

Most significantly, they wished an automatic information assortment answer that might assist them to effortlessly keep an entire, up-to-date overview of their structure. 

Meet Innovation Norway

Innovation Norway is the Norwegian authorities’s most vital instrument for nurturing innovation and improvement for Norwegian companies, investing billions of Norwegian Kroner in companies every year. It contributes to sustainable progress and exports for Norwegian companies via capital and experience, with representatives in 30 international locations worldwide. 

The corporate makes use of an agile method, the place architects and senior builders work in interdisciplinary product groups. These agile product groups have the autonomy to make selections, set updates, and take accountability for his or her architectures. This brings an total stronger scalability by empowering the product groups to work with focus and effectiveness. 

Whereas Jon Loken is Innovation Norway’s sole devoted Enterprise Architect, many others in his group additionally make the most of EA. Working throughout their groups they’ve achieved a terrific take care of Ardoq since April 2018.

Advantages for the IT workforce:

• Robotically capturing 40% of the structure
• Releasing up time to spend on worthwhile tasks as an alternative of manually creating documentation fashions for integrations
• An in depth overview of the mixing elements
• A complete understanding of the affect of proposed modifications
• Extra correct venture estimations
• “Bridging the hole between enterprise and IT.” IT groups at Innovation Norway can now simply clarify the complexity of tasks and the affect of change on management.

Advantages for the entire group:

• Fast time to worth. Innovation Norway finds Ardoq’s iterative and incremental method to modeling structure useful to producing insights quick. New elements and different information similar to value and well being rating might be simply added as they go when wanted.  
• Prepared-made, up-to-date, and customizable displays for the administration workforce.
• Displaying a steady up-to-date overview of their structure.
• Recognized 97 elements between APIs and Features which might be linked. 
• Constantly correct overview for selections and insights via computerized information updates each 24 hours.

They first needed to outline their challenges and discover options to achieve these advantages. 

For extra particulars on their technical method, learn How Innovation Norway Robotically Updates Their Integration Panorama In Ardoq.

Defining the Challenges

Problem 1:  Understanding the Impression of Change

Innovation Norway’s utility and integration panorama was an entire thriller to these exterior IT. The IT workforce had been utilizing a number of non-EA instruments to mannequin their structure with out a lot success. Not one of the instruments allowed them to effortlessly keep an up-to-date architectural panorama that might assist them perceive the affect of change.

When IT wanted to clarify the affect of change to management, one individual manually appeared via the code and drew the integrations by hand. This meant that staffing was a terrific constraint on the variety of integrations IT may successfully course of and doc. 

Because of the time and specialised abilities wanted to analysis and hand draw purposes, the integrations between their many purposes remained a ‘black field’ for everybody exterior of IT. Management couldn’t perceive the complexity of a venture, the affect of change, and what was driving its prices, making it tough for them to execute data-driven selections.

Problem 2: Speaking Technical Debt Discount Efforts 

As corporations develop, so does their technical debt. Innovation Norway wants a correct overview of the elements which might be including to their technical debt to allow them to simply clarify to management the effort and time it would take to deal with them. 

Particularly, Innovation Norway wants to speak to management the variety of integration elements that wanted updating to the most recent model of the .NET framework, a software program framework to construct purposes that run on Home windows. Plus, they wish to present correct timeframes for supply, estimated prices, and monetary penalties if not upgraded. This information would assist administration make strategic selections.

“With an excessive amount of technical debt, it is advanced and tough to seek out points.”

– Jon Loken, Enterprise Architect, Innovation Norway

Problem 3: Difficulty of Possession

Each time an worker modified positions within the firm, IT bumped into a difficulty of possession of the purposes. When an worker moved to a different workforce or was offboarded, the purposes nonetheless belonged to their e-mail tackle. Innovation Norway wanted an answer to stop time-consuming changes and staffing modifications. 

Fixing Issues, Saving Time

Armed with specific data of their challenges, Innovation Norway looked for a software to assist them implement an answer. They selected Ardoq as a result of it offers them full management over their purposes, allows impactful selections, and automates the invention and modeling of their integrations via the Ardoq REST API. 

Saving Time With the Automated Knowledge Assortment Resolution

Modeling a New Structure

Considered one of Innovation Norway’s first steps concerned getting an entire overview of its utility panorama by transferring their current portfolio from Excel to Ardoq.

Innovation Norway makes use of Utility Lifecycle Administration, Utility Integration Administration, and Utility Rationalization to:

• Achieve an summary of their purposes and the way they’re linked
• Perceive the affect of change via dependency mapping
• Have a centralized repository with a single supply of reality
• Enhance governance
• Drive resolution making about their portfolio
• Facilitate enterprise case and affect evaluation processes
• Scale back pointless renewals
• Set up possession of purposes to mannequin accountability
• Import Azure AD into Ardoq, guaranteeing the right names and e-mail addresses are synced

Staying As much as Date

Subsequent, they mixed their in-house improvement abilities with Ardoq’s REST API to:

• Robotically keep an up-to-date As-Is state. Utilizing their very own developed utility, ‘Doc Grasp,’ Innovation Norway fetches new elements operating in manufacturing from their Azure occasion and mechanically imports them into Ardoq utilizing the Ardoq REST API. This eradicated the time spent on manually modeling purposes. They name these mechanically imported purposes integration elements.
• Have a extra detailed structure. Innovation Norway has automated the import of Readme recordsdata and related Github repository URLs for every integration part to have further data available when exploring the structure. 

Moreover, they use Ardoq Surveys and are testing Broadcasts to canvass key stakeholders throughout the group and uncover much more new elements. Surveys are a quick and simple option to collect utility information, whereas Broadcasts allows structure groups to mechanically attain the correct individuals, on the proper time, with the correct message.  

Modeling Integrations to Unlock EA Insights 

When Innovation Norway began utilizing Ardoq, Jon offered the software to all groups. One of many builders identified that the mixing layer could possibly be added via the Ardoq REST API. 

Automating the modeling of their integrations permits Innovation Norway to construct a wealthy overview of its structure rapidly. They perceive how their purposes are linked and which of them could be affected by modifications. 

“Earlier, the mixing layer was a black field. Nobody knew what was inside it. We did not know who to ask if one thing broke down. Now after we present the integrations to management they might not perceive them, however they do perceive the complexity and the large quantity of labor wanted to alter the elements.”

– Jon Loken

After two workshops to determine the way to mechanically uncover the connections between their purposes and push them to Ardoq utilizing the REST API, they’d a pilot operating and commenced manufacturing simply two days later. With every part now up and operating, and so they have mechanically modeled 40% of their structure. 

Find out how Innovation Norway automated the modeling of their integration layer with Ardoq’s REST API on this in-depth article: How Innovation Norway Robotically Updates Their Integration Panorama In Ardoq.

Speaking and Visualizing Technical Debt

Innovation Norway plans to construct the overview of their integration elements’ technical debt and bridge the hole between enterprise and IT. They’ll classify integration elements into “Up to date”, “Must be up to date”, and “Should be up to date” classes. Subsequent, they’ll import this new data as fields into Ardoq with the Ardoq REST API.  

Utilizing Ardoq’s graph know-how, management can visualize the mixing elements that should be up to date, perceive the dimensions and value of their technical debt, and why it might take as a lot time to deal with it. IT groups at Innovation Norway can have the means to current insights to management and information resolution making simply.

“For example, say I’ve 50 integration elements, and I do know that 45 are up-to-date. I do know it’s roughly 3 months work to replace 5 elements (…) and if you happen to wait too lengthy, it prices extra.” 

– Jon Loken

The New Possession Protocol Resolution

Innovation Norway developed a brand new possession protocol assigning possession of purposes to product groups moderately than people. On this means, even when individuals within the product workforce go away the venture or the corporate, the possession and the accountability to develop and function an utility stays with the workforce guaranteeing consistency, sustainability, cleaner handovers, and higher documentation for future modifications. 

This modifications how they mannequin. Now, Innovation Norway fashions references in Ardoq for individuals and groups to point which purposes are assigned to totally different groups and people. Now they’re testing utilizing a Gremlin question in Ardoq to determine the correct individuals in a given workforce that ought to obtain a Broadcasts message. 

“Our groups are small, 7 to 11 individuals, and autonomous. They’ve the accountability to verify ‘their’ utility is developed, all of its operations are operating, and it’s maintained.” 

– Jon Loken

Having fun with the Outcomes 

The Worth of Automated Knowledge Assortment 

Utilizing Ardoq’s Relaxation API, Innovation Norway has mechanically captured 40% of its structure. Automated information assortment has enabled them to painlessly keep an at all times up-to-date structure panorama.

Automation helps Innovation Norway mannequin integrations via the Ardoq API and continues to assist them preserve map connections, saving further hours of labor. They’ve found 97 elements between APIs and Features which might be linked.

Innovation Norway has achieved an correct overview of their structure and the way it’s linked, empowering them to unravel their black field and technical debt points. Via transparency, they will now:

• Simply perceive the complexity of a venture and the affect of change
• Higher estimate prices and the time it might take to ship a venture, scale back their technical debt, or implement modifications
• Make data-driven selections
• Unlock sources so groups can give attention to extra impactful tasks
• IT groups can now successfully talk with enterprise leaders, information decision-making, and get approval for his or her proposed modifications

For extra particulars, examine how Innovation Norway used Ardoq REST API in our article: How Innovation Norway Robotically Updates Their Integration Panorama In Ardoq.

From Black Field to Transparency Between Groups and Tasks

Now EA is proving its worth to Innovation Norway. With in-depth data of their structure, they will present the connections in administration conferences and information decision-making utilizing auto-generated visualizations in Ardoq that showcase the affect of change.

Innovation Norway can now mechanically uncover and present the advanced net of connections behind purposes, so the ramifications of utility modifications are clearer to the broader group. Jon explains, “Now we have one supervisor who says, ‘I don’t perceive it, however now I can see how large it’s, perceive the complexity, and know why a venture takes so lengthy.’ Now leaders know why it takes time and prices cash.” The EA data has been utilized in high administration conferences to indicate prices and the significance of integration groups.

Now that the black field is clear, stakeholders can:

• Have entry to good present documentation
• See the complexity wanted to implement a change or initiative
• Regulate timelines realistically
• Perceive why common updates forestall future bills 
• Present new staff and consultants the entire structure at a number of clicks of a button
• Give stakeholders possession of their purposes and mannequin accountability

A Higher Administration of Technical Debt 

As soon as Innovation Norway will get their technical debt into Ardoq, management received’t longer have to surprise on the considerably mysterious approaches of their IT groups to scale back technical debt. Innovation Norway now makes strategic selections based mostly on EA data. Ardoq’s graph know-how makes the knowledge for selections simple to devour and accessible when wanted. 

With Ardoq, IT groups can immediately present management the elements that want updating and the next affect when making modifications to the structure. This information helps leaders make knowledgeable selections. As well as, they will rapidly estimate how a lot time and effort a activity will take. They will additionally see bills over time, displaying how a simple repair may turn into difficult and costly if a change is delayed for too lengthy. 

Worth of Possession Protocol

With Innovation Norway’s means of modeling, the elements will not be linked to 1 proprietor however to a product workforce. When a person goes on go away or modifications jobs, there is no such thing as a want to alter the structure. This method makes it simple to take care of.

Now that they’ve achieved a lot with automations, technical debt, and possession, they’re trying on the subsequent challenges to iterate in the direction of. They plan on including domains and grasp information from data architects, placing enterprise capabilities in place, and rising privateness with an summary of knowledge topic roles and processing actions.

Wish to see how your group can use automations and integrations? Guide a demo at the moment.