1. What is architecture and governance
1.1 Origin of the Architecture
At the beginning, I would like to talk about the architecture that we understand, what architecture is, and what is the relationship between architecture and our work and life.
The origin of English Architecture comes from Latin, which first originated in the field of architecture, which is an important symbol of civilized society, and is also the earliest field of human society to form perfect theories and experiences. In the long-term production and life, people are willing to summarize their experience, hoping to condense the concrete scene into a simple structure and logic, and add the scene to facilitate understanding and dissemination, so the architecture is an explicit result of the summary of the work done, and the methodology is formed in the later stage to guide people to continue to use and optimize in the new production and labor.
The construction industry doesn't really have much to do with the technology industry we are engaged in now, but the application of architecture to the IT field has to be emphasized. According to my observations, although most practitioners in our industry have some understanding of architecture, many people still have some misunderstandings about architecture. Since we are engaged in the IT industry, software accounts for the majority, so we are more exposed to software, and the basic work content of software is to write code and implement functions. For a novice programmer, writing software is like building a house, give me a brick and I'll build it, and finish the work until the top of the base, and the architecture seems to have nothing to do with me. But with the passage of time, programmers found that sometimes the wall that was built had to be repaired, and sometimes it had to be rebuilt, so why there was a problem, most likely it was that there was a problem with the coordination between the wall and the perimeter, thus introducing the idea of architecture. For some architects, although they have been deeply involved in their own field for many years, they are limited to only considering the problem from the technical level, and have little knowledge of business architecture, data architecture, and security architecture, so they can only be limited to architecture work in a certain field. We need to know what we're doing, what others are doing, and what we're doing together. Mastering architecture or architecture design is a competency that architects and developers need to have.
We explore the origins of architecture in order to explain why architecture is needed and what IT architecture is like today. The reason is that the overall development process of the Internet industry is a relatively special existence, so its enterprise architecture and IT architecture are different from traditional enterprises. After years of development, traditional enterprise IT has formed its own system, including many classic enterprise architecture systems and development methods, all of which come from traditional industries and enterprises, and most of the core IT is built around ERP, finance, and supply chain systems. With the outbreak of the domestic demographic dividend and the rapid development of C-end business, enterprises do not have many opportunities to seriously examine their own architecture in the development process, and the traditional IT architecture cannot keep up with the business development speed of the Internet and cannot be used for reference. Most Internet companies are cloud-native, and the changes brought by cloud computing, big data, and AI to enterprise IT must not have been expected by traditional enterprises. In the process of embracing new technologies and new fields, traditional enterprises are aware of and begin to change, and at the same time consider the management problems brought about by the new technology system. So have Internet companies thought about their own corporate structure, have they recognized the hidden risks and irrationalities in the IT architecture, and how to manage them?
1.2 Architecture and Governance
First there is architecture, then there is governance. Governance comes from management, and in many scenarios, governance is a part of management, but because it has special processes and methods, it is extracted as a task or activity, and governance is actually an enhancement or improvement of management work, and is based on certain goals and to achieve certain results. There is also a saying that governance is a combination of processes, practices, rules, and relationships. The differences between governance and management are as follows:
Governance is usually initiated by the top or executive management, and management is carried out by the middle. It is not appropriate for the middle level to initiate governance;
Governance can be phased or long-term, but it usually has a certain cycle, and management is long-term and continuous;
The value of governance is to find a balance between benefits, risks and input resources, and to maintain this balance will not be broken, and management is the management activities in their respective fields;
Figure 1 Three elements of governance value
Architecture governance is actually to manage the architecture at the same time, based on specific goals, invest resources to improve the process and results of architecture management, and maintain the results of governance through certain activities. Since the industry we are in belongs to the big industry of IT, there are many architecture areas related to ourselves or our customers, according to the TOGAF system enterprise architecture planning and management, there are business architecture, application architecture, technology architecture, security architecture, organizational architecture, etc., we attribute the IT-related parts of the above architecture to IT architecture, or it can also refer to application architecture, technology architecture, data architecture, Security architecture, etc., of course, there are also some other areas of governance including IT architecture governance, such as risk governance, cost governance, business continuity governance, etc.
Defining architecture governance online is the exercise of economic, political and administrative power to manage the development and implementation of architecture, IT architecture governance is between enterprise architecture governance and IT architecture management, and is a part of enterprise architecture management. The IT system itself contains rich governance content, among which IT architecture governance is also the most important IT governance work at present, the purpose of which is to ensure that the IT strategy is aligned with the enterprise strategy and business strategy, and can solve the architectural problems in IT construction and operation.
Figure 2 IT architecture governance diagram
Combined with the latest practice results of enterprise digitalization, the significance of IT architecture governance can be summarized into the following five aspects, and the significance is determined, and the results and benefits are naturally determined, and resources and budgets can be applied to complete the governance work.
Significance of Architecture Governance:
1. To provide services to the business sector of the enterprise - economic;
2. Avoiding or transferring corporate risks - politics;
3. Complete the audit requirements of listed companies - administrative;
4. Enhance customer experience - service;
5. Continuously optimize cost-management;
2. The main standard system of IT architecture governance
In terms of IT governance, there are several international standards covering the governance system and work content of IT, one is the COBIT system that focuses on enterprise-level IT management and IT risk management inherited from the internal control COSO, the other is the ITIL system that focuses on IT service and process governance, and the ISO/IEC17799 system that focuses on IT security. At the same time, due to the increasing proportion of software in enterprise IT and digital capabilities, CMMI also includes some governance content. In addition to the organization, assets, and processes, the COBIT system also introduces IT audits, and the ITIL system mainly focuses on the governance of IT operation processes, and in these standards, IT architecture governance is one of the core tasks of IT governance.
2.1 COBIT, Information Systems and Technology Control Objectives
As an internationally recognized IT management and control framework, COBIT has been used by important organizations and enterprises in more than 100 countries around the world to guide these organizations to effectively use information resources and effectively manage information-related risks. As the core model of current IT governance, COBIT consists of 34 IT process controls, which are grouped into four control domains: IT Planning and Organization, Acquisition and Implementation, Delivery and Support, and Information System Operational Performance Monitoring. Governance efforts are included in the Assessment, Direction, and Monitoring (EDM) domain, and down to the Oversight Management domain, including planning, building, running, and monitoring in the management domain.
EDM01 ensures that the governance framework is set up and maintained
EDM02 ensures that benefits are realized
EDM03 ensures risk optimization
EDM04 ensures resource optimization
EDM05 ensures stakeholder engagement
Figure 3 Relationship between governance and management
COBIT has become an internationally recognized standard for IT management and control.
2.2 ITIL, Information Technology Infrastructure Library
ITIL provides an objective, rigorous and quantifiable standard and specification for the IT service management practice of the enterprise, and the IT department and end users of the enterprise can define the different IT service levels required by themselves according to their own capabilities and needs, and refer to ITIL to plan and formulate their IT infrastructure and service management, so as to ensure that IT service management can provide better support for the business operation of the enterprise. For enterprises, the biggest significance of implementing ITIL is to closely integrate IT with business, that is, to maintain a close connection between IT architecture and business architecture, so as to maximize the return on IT investment of enterprises.
The ITIL framework contains a series of documents and guidelines covering all aspects of IT service management. Among them, the core part is called the service life cycle, which includes five stages: service strategy, service design, service transition, service operation and continuous service improvement. Each phase has specific goals and best practices to support the organization in achieving excellence in IT service management. In addition to the service lifecycle, ITIL includes other important components such as service strategy, process and organization, technology, and architecture. Together, these components form a complete system of the ITIL framework, which provides organizations with a comprehensive and systematic guide to IT service management, and the governance part of ITIL is mainly to ensure that all activities are in line with the value chain, and the IT architecture should continue to support the existence of the value chain.
Both the COBIT framework system and the ITIL system are based on the traditional IT architecture system, and have accumulated a lot of experience, practices and methodologies from the traditional IT field from the perspective of IT assets and workflows. In recent years, with the continuous development of IT towards flexibility, intensive sharing, and service-oriented, the above two systems have also absorbed cloud infrastructure, agile R&D, cloud native, technology middle platform, AI and other capabilities, but it seems that there is still a lot of distance from large Internet enterprises with advanced technology capabilities at home and abroad.
At present, many enterprises have begun to use cloud computing, big data, DevOps and other technologies and systems, due to the rapid development of technology in these fields, the technical requirements are relatively high, and the traditional enterprise architecture has changed, so enterprise architecture management is facing many changes and challenges, IT architecture seems to have changed a lot overnight, enterprises need to start to deal with changes in architecture and governance.
2.3 IT4IT参考架构
The reason why we have added IT4IT in this article is that we want to connect the IT architecture governance of enterprises with the IT value chain. The IT4IT Reference Architecture is a standard of The Open Group that explains how to comprehensively manage the IT business and enable a borderless flow of information across the entire IT value chain. It provides prescriptive guidance for designing, procuring, and managing services across the entire IT value chain activity. The IT4IT reference architecture is a blueprint for improving operational efficiency, enabling companies to deliver maximum value at a predictable minimum cost.
Figure 4 The relationship between enterprise IT value stream and architecture governance
As organizations build value chains around efficiency and agility, there is no shortage of architecture and related governance. In particular, strategy to portfolio, as well as discovery to correction, all involve the correctness of the architecture and the guarantee of continuous governance to the architecture work, so IT architecture governance has always been an important part of the support for enterprises to continue to create value, and it is also the full embodiment of IT capabilities to business value.
3. IT architecture governance methods
Referring to the industry's advanced IT governance framework, we need to apply the relevant system to the specific scenarios of IT architecture governance. Since enterprise IT needs to serve the enterprise strategy, IT architecture governance needs to be aligned with the enterprise architecture and governance activities. IT architecture governance needs to focus on the enterprise's own IT systems and capabilities, and the governance system needs to sort out the structure and interdependencies according to the human-machine material method related to enterprise IT, as well as the relevant stakeholders and influencing factors. The IT architecture should be connected to the previous and the next, which can not only connect with strategic inputs, but also guide the implementation of projects and actions.
Figure 5 Governance and influencing factors of IT organizations
By combining the theory of modern enterprise architecture, especially the new changes brought to the industry by the development of IT technology in emerging industries such as the Internet, we tailor the COBIT system, and combine the practice of ITIL in service management and the exploration of IT4IT in the value chain to form an IT architecture governance system and governance structure that are relatively in line with the digital scenario of enterprises.
Figure 6 Diagram of IT architecture governance components improved according to the COBIT system
Among them, we merge the original people, skills and organizations, and summarize them with the other original components into the five architecture governance related to IT architecture, namely architecture governance organization and people, architecture governance principles and standards, architecture governance activities, architecture governance culture and ethics, and architecture governance tools. Architecture governance components are distinct from each other and can be executed separately and independently, while also supporting a holistic and collaborative approach. At the same time, the architecture governance component system is not static, and will be continuously optimized with the improvement of architecture maturity, technology maturity, and management maturity. Governance components can also be prioritized, with governance implementation prioritized for components that have dependencies on each other, taking into account the complexity of maturity and impact. The end result of architecture governance is beneficial to the organization and can be shared for use by other organizations or for subsequent efforts.
1. Structuring the organization and personnel of governance
The stakeholders of architecture governance determine the organization of architecture governance and can also determine the ultimate value of governance. Every enterprise has a core department, they control the core structure of the organization, they must be able to support the business development of the enterprise, and be able to apply for sufficient budget to build and maintain the architecture system, so that the enterprise can operate stably and continue to create value. IT architecture governance is a branch part of the architecture organization, which is mainly a virtual organization.
Figure 7 IT architecture and governance organizational structure
Responsibilities of the IT Architecture Control Team:
Ø Clarify the principles of architecture and evaluation criteria
Ø Develop an architecture design process and clarify architecture design standards and guidelines
Ø Formulate the architecture design plan and implementation plan, and organize the architecture manager, technical experts and other personnel to review
Ø Establish the quality control process of architecture analysis and the quality control list of architecture analysis, and prepare the overall plan of architecture
Ø Establish an architecture analysis change management process, and incorporate the architecture analysis results into the enterprise-level architecture asset library for management
IT Architecture Governance Organization Responsibilities:
1) Formulate the charter and coordination mechanism of the structural governance organization.
The governance of IT architecture is based on consensus management rather than performance management, and through the excellent team model, the active role of experts and relevant parties at all levels in the architecture governance organization is brought into play, the decision-making mechanism of governance work is formed, and the conclusion is formed through consensus to promote the continuous improvement of the architecture.
2) Formulate the principles for the operation of the committee.
Meetings: Through regular meetings, temporary meetings on major issues, etc., the meeting is guided by interaction in the meeting
Delegation: Enforce authorization in a meaningful way, focusing on substance rather than form
Escalation: Escalation procedures are defined and applied, such as the disputed parts of architecture governance
3) The part related to the architecture of IT performance, and the part of IT architecture is added to the performance appraisal, including architecture design, architecture management, and architecture governance.
Ø New employee regularization assessment
Ø Technical system promotion channel
Ø Technological influence building
4) Assist the IT architecture management and control team to iterate the IT architecture maturity model.
5) Determine architecture governance metrics such as health, integrity, deviation.
6) Evaluation of special activities for structural governance.
2. Principles and standards of architecture governance
Architecture Governance Principles:
1) Architecture governance should be combined with the industry's technical route and advanced practices, in line with the enterprise development plan and actual situation, such as the principle of consistency, the principle of unity, high cohesion and low coupling, the principle of SMART, and the application fields such as the application system unified into the SOA architecture, the middle office architecture of the technology platform, the microservice governance architecture, etc.
2) IT and business convergence, customer-centric, value-creation-oriented, non-value-creating (business value or IT value) governance activities are prioritized and value is measurable.
3) Encourage innovation and change, have the courage to try new technologies and new systems, and change the original backward and unreasonable structure through innovation.
4) IT architecture governance should maintain both continuity and stability to avoid fluctuations in the enterprise IT environment.
5) Standardization of IT architecture.
6) Architecture governance can reduce risks and ensure security compliance.
7) Focus on the non-functional goals of the architecture, such as flexibility, stability, and scalability.
8) Architecture sharing, architecture iteration principle.
Architecture Governance Criteria:
The IT Architecture Maturity Model is a model system formulated based on advanced practices and standards in the industry, and the governance organization needs to tailor the maturity model according to the actual situation of the enterprise and continuously iterate the Architecture Maturity Model. Enterprises can regularly benchmark the construction and operation of enterprise IT according to the maturity model, and invite one or more third-party organizations and enterprise IT departments to jointly implement the benchmarking.
Figure 8 Example of an architecture maturity score
The architecture maturity rating can guide the enterprise IT architecture to determine the governance objectives and governance results, and is a mature standard system that is widely used.
| field | subfields | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Level 4 | Level 5 |
| Cloud platform architecture | Basic resources are servitized | All kinds of basic resources are not servitized, and are in the form of traditional computing, storage, network and other resources | Some traditional basic resources are provided in a standard service-oriented manner | IaaS has a high degree of servitization, covers most application system requirements, and has relevant specifications and standards | All basic resources of each platform have been servitized, and IaaS capabilities are uniformly deployed as applications. | Carry out IaaS service-based unified orchestration of basic resources across platforms, and comprehensively consider the application characteristics for IaaS service adaptation; |
| Automated feeding | Based on the traditional online deployment process, resources are provisioned and deployed manually | Some resources have been quickly and standardized | Through the cloud management platform and service catalog, the basic resources can be quickly and standardized | The basic resources and components are separately formed into a service catalog | Unified orchestration across clouds and platforms, and automatic deployment and configuration of basic resources in the form of pipelines | |
| Auto scaling | With the traditional technology architecture, the basic resources do not have the ability to automatically and elastically expand capacity | Manually scale-out, deploy, and go online | Use the cloud platform to achieve basic resource auto scaling | Most basic resources have automatic auto scaling capabilities | The automatic auto scaling configuration of different modes and policies is highly integrated with the monitoring system | |
| High Availability | The basic service is not designed for high availability | The cloud platform is deployed with a high-availability architecture, and its availability is guaranteed | The cloud platform provides high availability capabilities | The cloud platform architecture itself is designed for high reliability | Highly available deployment capabilities across hybrid multiclouds |
Table 1 Examples of IT architecture maturity models
3. Structural governance activities - processes, monitoring, auditing, and special work
Process-related: A process describes a well-organized set of practices and activities to achieve a certain goal, and produces a set of outputs that support the achievement of the overall IT-related goal. Process improvement is not rigid in form, and the core is to be efficient and fast under the premise of reasonable compliance.
Ø IT architecture governance needs to manage and maintain the activities related to IT architecture, as well as the processes formed by multiple activities and the interaction between processes, including the whole life cycle of IT architecture, architecture addition, deletion, modification and abandonment, architecture change, architecture iteration, etc
Ø In production and research activities, optimize the management nodes related to IT architecture, planning, review, review, etc
Ø Process improvement, such as pre-architecture governance, etc
Ø Synergy with other governance activities, such as risk governance, cost governance, data governance, etc
(Note: Since data governance is a professional field, in which data architecture governance is its core part, this article does not specifically explain data architecture governance, and will be reflected in related data governance articles in the future)
Monitoring: Monitoring is divided into two parts, one is to monitor the operation of the architecture for which the existing architecture management organization is responsible, and the other is to track and record the architecture governance work. Monitoring is usually performed by members of the Standing Committee of the Architecture Governance Committee on a rotational basis and outputs monitoring reports, with the assistance of the PMO.
Ø Monitor the performance of the IT architecture organization and its practices, products and services. The purpose of this is to ensure that enterprise IT architecture performance is in line with policies and organizational governance to assess, guide and monitor all activities of the organization.
Ø Evaluate the IT organizational structure and the relationship between the IT organization and other parties. When the needs of stakeholders and the external environment change, the organization needs to be evaluated regularly.
Ø Monitor the resource input, activity process, and expected output of the special governance activities of the architecture.
Ø Cooperate with the audit and internal control departments to output the corresponding conclusions and certificates.
Ø Planning and construction of monitoring tool platform.
Ø Statistical analysis of architecture governance indicators.
Audit-related: The main responsibilities of the IT department are described according to the internal control needs of listed companies and the compliance management of the SOX Act
Activities should include: (1) in-depth understanding of the company's internal control programs and financial reporting processes, (2) identification of IT systems corresponding to internal control activities or financial reporting processes, (3) analysis and identification of risks posed by these IT systems and monitoring of them to ensure the long-term effectiveness of the controls, (4) documentation, IT, and testing of controls, (5) timely and necessary upgrades and changes to IT controls to match changes in the company's internal control or financial reporting processes, and (6) participation in the company's SOX compliance management program throughout the process.
IT architecture governance needs to establish a working relationship with IT internal audit work, whether it is carried out in conjunction with internal audit requirements
IT architecture adjustment, or IT architecture changes brought about by architecture governance and the risks involved, need to be synchronized to the internal audit department in a timely manner, and compliance and risk reduction are always the basic goals of architecture governance.
Special work: Although IT architecture governance is considered to be a long-term and continuous work, it is usually initiated by some key tasks, and special work is also the main activity and main output of IT architecture governance. The special work shall be organized and implemented by the designated personnel of the Architecture Governance Committee, and a special governance work report shall be formed and submitted to the Architecture Governance Committee for deliberation.
Ø Special project for improving architecture design capabilities
Ø Special project for improving the quality of architecture
Ø Architecture governance in agile R&D scenarios
Ø Special project for integrated architecture governance
Ø IT vendor architecture capability improvement project
4. Structuring the culture, ethics and behavior of governance
Cultural construction: In any governance work, cultural construction can achieve twice the result with half the effort. It is an important part of architecture governance to enable engineers to understand the architecture from a cognitive perspective, pay attention to the architecture in real time, and actively optimize the architecture. Management methods are not all optimal methods, and the structure management organization of the enterprise needs to complete the construction of architecture governance culture and actively use cultural means.
Ø Architecture quality culture, architects and R&D personnel are the first responsible persons for architecture quality, and quality problems are everyone's problems
Ø Collaborative culture in the field of architecture, to create an excellent architecture technical team
Ø Architect culture, architect hall, everyone is an architect, architect committee
Ø Architecture propaganda position, architecture lecture hall, architecture public account, technology theory, technology promotional video, architecture technology community, architecture circle
Ø Support the dissemination of technical articles through proprietary traffic and enhance the influence of architects in the industry
Ethics and behavior: The ethics and behavior of architects can have a significant impact on the design of hardware and software, especially the hardware and software we design, which increasingly have an impact on the lives of organizations and individuals. Architecture governance should also not neglect to guide the ethics and behavior of architects, and if necessary, it needs to be constrained and considered in practice.
Architects are often grown up as developers, so they tend to focus on the functionality of the product, often ignoring the architecture of the system and the surrounding relationships. You need to be able to look at the big picture from a higher level.
Many architects want to prove their worth and showcase their technical talent, and in doing so, advance their technical standing and impact. In fact, the architect is more responsible for managing the technical architecture, and is the ultimate responsible person for the architecture, so he needs to be down-to-earth to understand the details of the system, and to walk on thin ice and be cautious in his words and deeds.
Some architects hope that the software and hardware products they design can be completed overnight, but in fact, what architects need to do is to build the foundation of the system or product, make it easy to modify and expand, listen to user feedback, and continuously improve their capabilities through improvement.
There are also architects who have the desire to solve problems, and when they encounter a problem, they immediately fall into the activity of solving it. It is preferable to look at the problem itself to see if it can be changed, or simply bypassed, as many times technical difficulties can be avoided through business optimization.
5. Tools for architecture governance
IT architecture governance involves two types of tools, one is the tools we need to govern, such as infrastructure, technology platforms, applications, various IT services and other platforms or systems, and the other is the tools that help us achieve governance, such as project management tools, monitoring tools, storage tools, etc.
Examples of tools that need to be governed:
Infrastructure refers to the application of IT software and hardware technologies in an enterprise to support the basic components and technologies of the entire application system and network operation. It mainly includes computer rooms, servers, storage devices, network equipment, cloud computing, virtualization, distributed computing frameworks and algorithms. These infrastructures provide strong support and assurance for the development, deployment, and operation and maintenance of software.
A technology platform refers to a component platform that provides general technical capabilities for application construction on top of infrastructure, including databases, middleware, AI, big data, microservices, etc., as well as general technical services such as low-code, RPA, OCR, IOT, etc.
IT services refer to the provision of a full range of services such as infrastructure, software development, hardware management, operation and maintenance for its users in the field of information technology through a service-oriented manner.
IT architecture governance is not limited to the above-mentioned systems and platforms, nor is it limited to the related business processes, architecture governance is long-term and continuous, but it must take into account the stability of the system.
Tools to support governance:
Project management: software that helps IT architecture governance work projects to be successfully completed according to the predetermined cost, schedule, and quality, and analyzes and manages personnel, schedule, cost, and risk.
Task Kanban: During the initiation phase of the architecture governance plan, arrange all the guidance obtained from different governance activities on the design Kanban, resolve conflicts between all elements of the Kanban as much as possible, and reach a final conclusion. The final design will be based on specific decisions based on all elements on the design "Kanban". By following these steps, organizations will achieve implementation results specific to their IT architecture governance needs.
Knowledge management: Coordinate internal architecture planning and architecture design knowledge sharing through the intranet platform, and obtain all kinds of IT architecture information through the architecture repository.
Monitoring platform: In order to fully understand the effect of IT architecture governance, it is necessary to monitor the architecture systems or platforms at all levels involved in governance, including the execution tracking of work tasks, system events and logs, indicators, parallel data, public opinion, business feedback, etc. The construction of the monitoring platform is based on data and factual events, and gradually forms a statistical analysis system, combined with domain models and expert experience, to form an auxiliary decision-making ability that conforms to the actual IT scenario of the enterprise, and affects the management of the IT architecture of the enterprise.
Architecture repository: In order to efficiently develop and design IT architecture, it is necessary to establish a scientific framework architecture repository framework to contain and organize all components to support the collaboration between various architecture domains of the organization, and finally realize the unified maintenance of architecture models and the unified management of dependencies between models.
Figure 9 IT architecture repository
The comprehensive and systematic establishment of the architecture repository can improve the IT architecture governance mechanism, play the role of the architecture more effectively, realize the centralized management of IT architecture assets, increase the standardization and normalization of architecture modeling, and continue to promote the continuous optimization and improvement of IT architecture.
Fourth, JD's IT architecture governance practice
In recent years, as the domestic demographic dividend has slowly faded, the growth rate of the Internet industry has also begun to decline, and the original support for the Internet has begun
The system of rapid growth has also changed. In particular, large enterprises like JD.com and Ali have to start thinking about how to tap new market opportunities in the absence of market dividends, how to develop healthily and sustainably in huge enterprises, and how to change in the face of changes. Internet companies are also learning from traditional industries, improving their enterprise management and governance capabilities, and initially forming their own IT architecture governance and control capabilities through tool platforms.
4.1 IT Architecture Governance Practice: Technology and Business Integration Practice
In the process of development, JD.com has encountered two major problems, one is how to support the rapid growth of multi-format massive business through the iteration of technical capabilities, and the other is how to avoid the waste of resources and manpower caused by repeated wheels. Through foresight planning and down-to-earth practice, JD.com has solved the above problems to a certain extent.
1. Infrastructure
In the field of infrastructure, JD.com has adopted a method of development and governance. In order to support its business expansion and support a large number of business forms, JD.com has adopted a technical architecture system that combines agility and stability very early, especially in the fields of cloud computing and cloud native, and has accumulated rich technical practices.
JD.com has experienced the traditional steady-state architecture period, and most of the application systems at that stage are monolithic architectures, and they are chimney-like independent development, and the data between systems cannot be connected. Later, with the development of the business, the physical server can no longer quickly support the business, and the cost remains high, and the monolithic application has also produced many drawbacks, and many factors have given rise to the demand for cloud-based infrastructure, so virtualization and cloud-based service capabilities have emerged to support system expansion. Later, with the outbreak of the mobile Internet, the exponential growth of services in multiple scenarios, the demand for resources also increased, and the technical foundation once again had problems. JD.com adopts cloud-native-based container technology and completes the reconstruction of application architecture through microservices. The platform quickly allocates and recycles resources, and at the same time, improves resource utilization and reduces maintenance costs through intelligent scheduling peak shaving and valley filling. The unified microservice technology system realizes the unified standard and framework between components, greatly improves the efficiency of development and integration, and continuously reduces the cost of communication.
Figure 10 JD infrastructure architecture
2. Application technology
At the application architecture level, JD adopts the integrated architecture of business technology, extracts business capabilities, and forms a business capability center, which helps the business side and the production and research side to quickly build business capabilities through replication, reference and reuse, which greatly improves the business response speed, maintains business agility, and reduces costs.
Positioning of the business technology integration platform:
Ø Help enterprises efficiently build business shared service centers or application technology platforms to reduce the complexity of architecture management.
Ø Help the continuous optimization of the core architecture of the enterprise, continue to precipitate the reusable and scalable business architecture capabilities and technical architecture capabilities, accelerate enterprise innovation, eliminate data silos, and help enterprises achieve digital leapfrog development.
Ø Introduce the architecture development management mechanism, and all architecture development is extended on the main platform, so as to always maintain the transparency of the architecture system and the optimal architecture capability.
Through the DDD field-driven thinking, we sort out and identify the needs of each vertical business, precipitate the business matrix and shared service capabilities on the integrated platform, and release the capabilities in the form of expansion points, and finally form enterprise business assets, and create value through continuous accumulation of business assets for reuse. At the same time, the business architecture and technical architecture system comply with the precipitated architecture of the platform, and put forward improvement requirements to the platform according to its own requirements, and the platform completes the corresponding capability upgrade according to the requirements and best practices.
Solve the problems of architecture development, architecture management, and architecture precipitation through a set of platforms, so that the enterprise IT architecture can keep pace with the times.
Figure 11 Example of an integrated architecture for business and technology
4.2 IT Architecture Committee
JD.com attaches great importance to the quality and efficiency improvement brought by technology to the supply chain, so it also focuses on the management and governance of IT architecture, which constitutes an important part of the technology system. JD.com has established an architecture management organization, the purpose of which is to effectively improve technical capabilities, optimize technical architecture, and maintain system stability.
The purpose of the IT Architecture Committee is to promote organizational collaboration and project implementation in technological innovation, influence building, stability construction, and strategic implementation support (cost reduction, innovation, and stability) to help business development. Establish IT technology architecture specifications and processes, unify cognition, identify potential risks, solve technical debts, improve technical capabilities, continuously improve technical capabilities, and promote the evolution of technology to business.
IT Architecture Governance Efforts:
Stability construction: Horizontally connect various product lines and functional departments to promote the stability of products and infrastructure.
1) Fault review: For all major faults or typical faults, the Rack Committee shall conduct an in-depth review. In order to avoid the problem of insufficient analysis of the risks and hidden dangers of products/services due to overfamiliarity with the production line.
2) Architecture review: In order to improve the stability of products and services, the technical architecture of important services is reviewed and explored
Design flaws, insufficient functions and hidden risks, balancing stability and cost.
3) Stability project promotion: Based on the self-examination and backtracking of various fault events, identify the problems of each product department for optimization
through the overall implementation of the Rack Committee.
In the field of cost reduction and efficiency increase: horizontally pull through various production lines and functional departments to promote cost reduction and efficiency improvement.
1) Cost governance: Inventory of various environments of the product line to control cost growth.
2) Process improvement: improve the workflow efficiency between production, research and operation, reduce unnecessary control nodes, and improve communication and collaboration efficiency.
Technological Innovation Areas: Support the company's innovation and technology development activities, and encourage the technical team to come up with new ideas and solutions. The committee provides resources, guidance, and support to promote technological innovation and drive the company's technological competitiveness.
1) Key projects: Evaluate the technical risk points in the process of project promotion and solve the technical problems in the process of project implementation.
2) Feasibility demonstration: If it is necessary to give breakthroughs and innovative technologies in technology, the overall demonstration of the Rack Committee can give professional suggestions.
Technology Influence Area: Participate in technical communication and promotion activities inside and outside the company, including participating in industry conferences, publishing technical blogs, organizing technical lectures, etc. Helping companies establish technology leadership and strengthen brand image and reputation.
1) Technology sharing: Regularly carry out technical discussion and sharing activities to enhance JD's technological influence;
2) Link to various technology summits: expand the influence of JD technology through the summit, and exercise the comprehensive precipitation and voice ability of technical students. At the same time, it links external cutting-edge technology ideas with external customers to help JD's business development.
5. Summary
IT architecture governance is not achieved overnight, and requires the attention of the company's top management, the cooperation of middle-level departments, and the hands-on action at the executive level. IT architecture is a sacred term for architects, representing the awe of our architect group for their own careers, respect for customers, yearning for technology, our cultivation, our character, and our goals. Hopefully, this article will help our technical community solve some of the confusion that lingers in our hearts, and open a window for light to enter our hearts and guide us forward.
Thank you to your colleagues and friends who helped with this article.
Author: Jingdong Technology Wang Bing
Source: JD Cloud Developer Community