Stage 7 of the national EA methodology: approving requirements, tracking their status, and assessing how changes affect the development cycle and ongoing digital projects, alongside the EA governance procedures.
In brief
Placement in NORA: Section II - Stage 7 procedure: Managing Temporary Exemptions for Non-Compliance with Defined Standards.
A continuous stage that runs in parallel with every stage of the EA development cycle.
Three steps: approving the EA requirements, tracking their status, and assessing the impact of changes on them.
EA governance procedures are applied to digital initiatives and projects to check that delivery matches the requirements.
When the gap is minor, the procedure for managing temporary exemptions for non-compliance with defined standards is used.
Steps of Stage 7
01
Approving EA requirements
The Chief Enterprise Architect logs each requirement reaching the team after validating it, capturing the requirement code, text, source, domain, the EA domains it affects, related requirements, current state, and implementation priority.
02
Tracking requirement status
The EA team follows each requirement from start to closure and updates its state after every stage of the development cycle, on cancellation, when the stakeholder asks for a change, or while the initiative addressing it is being delivered.
03
Assessing the impact of changes
The team assesses the impact of any change, whether it falls inside the development cycle (no scope change, scope adjustment, or cycle suspension) or surfaces during digital project delivery through the EA governance procedures.
04
Applying governance to projects
When project outputs match the requirement, only the status is updated. When the gap is minor, the temporary exemptions procedure is run. When outputs do not match, the team studies the reason and either rejects the change or updates the requirement on the basis of a valid justification.
Outcomes of applying the procedures to digital projects
Verification result
Action taken
Project outputs match the requirements
No corrective action is needed; the requirement status is simply updated.
Minor gap between project outputs and the requirements
The procedure for managing temporary exemptions for non-compliance with defined standards is run, provided the non-compliance does not have a significant effect on any EA domain. The requirement and its status are then updated with a note that an exception or exemption is in place.
Project outputs do not match the requirements
The EA team studies the reasons for the gap and either rejects the change (no valid justification), or updates the requirement and its status on the basis of a valid justification - for example, when a specific technology cannot be used because of national laws or standards.
Change impact during the development cycle
Three options depending on the size of the impact: no scope change, a scope adjustment with cycle rescheduling, or suspending the cycle and rerunning the "Defining the Scope of the Development Cycle" stage.
Wrap-up
Key takeaway
In studying and approving requirements, the Chief Enterprise Architect weighs the assumptions and constraints of each one, the principles attached to the affected domains, and the related policies, standards, and guidelines. Requirements management is tied directly to the entity EA governance procedures, and depends on regular contact with project managers to keep an accurate picture of how each requirement is being delivered.
