SAP Enterprise Architecture Framework featured by LeanIX EAM

[Rene_de_Daniel]

With the completion of the acquisition of LeanIX we want to give with this blog a first insights on how LeanIX EAM will feature the SAP Enterprise Architecture Framework.

Independent and prior to SAP announcement of the intention to acquire LeanIX back in September 2023, a small working group was formed to pilot the modelling of key artifacts of the SAP Enterprise Architecture Methodology in combination with our best practices and approaches.

This work was motived by:

• Keeping the promise to deliver what we have planned on our SAP Enterprise Architecture Framework roadmap.
• The need we saw in the market to further professionalize the way we run enterprise architecture engagements within and beyond SAP (incl. partners and customers)
• The enormous potential to accelerate transformation programs by leveraging the SAP Reference Architecture in a sophisticated modelling environment.
• Our passion to spread the thought around the value enterprise architecture can bring to your organization.

In the next paragraphs we would like to provide you a first insight on how LeanIX EAM will feature various artifacts and more important the approach on how we foresee the tool to be used accelerate and further professionalize enterprise architecture engagement.

Important note: Please see this as a first lab preview and further adjustment will certainly be applied.

SAP Reference Business and Solution Architecture in LeanIX EAM

While the SAP Reference Architecture is one of the corner stones of the SAP Enterprise Architecture Framework, we have imported the content into LeanIX EAM. Furthermore, we have built a set of reports to feature our methodology while leveraging the LeanIX EAM meta model V4 in combination with a set of tag groups.

The following screen shot demonstrates how the reference Business Capabilities look like in Signavio Process Explorer and LeanIX EAM:

While the generic E2E Business Processes look as following

Business Capability driven approach

As a first use case we want to demonstrate how the Business Capability driven approach will look like. The following steps will be performed to derive a target architecture and roadmap:

• Scoping of Business Capabilities on Level 1-3 based on the SAP Business Reference Architecture
• Identification of required Solution Capabilities and Solution Components based on the previous Business Capability scoping
• Identification of Deployment Types
• Lifecycle Planning of Solution Components
• Creation of an Application Architecture Roadmap

The following demonstration is based on our IEA10 training case study in which a fictive company is moving away from product sales to service sales (pay per use model) while resolving known issues (pain points) with customer experience. This context (identified within the Architecture Vision phase) is relevant for the heat mapping but will not be further detailed out. Focus of this blog is on the approach and the modelling in LeanIX.

Following artifacts will be covered as part of the use case:

Starting point is the scoping of the Business Capabilities from level 1-3 (Business Domain, Business Area, Business Capability), leveraging the SAP Business Reference Architecture:

Once the Business Domains (L1) are scoped the relevant Business Areas (L2) can be selected/scoped:

In a third step the relevant Business Capabilities (L3) are selected/scoped:

With the identified Business Capabilities (L3) scope, we can now select the relevant Solution Capabilities (based on the SAP Reference Solution Architecture):

In a next step, we select/scope the identified Solution Component (Application):

The selected Applications can be reviewed in a consolidated view. In addition, we want to understand if an application will run on public cloud vs. private cloud vs. on premise. This information is retrieved by the deployment type of the SAP Solution Reference Architecture:

With the information about the deployment type, we can derive the Software Distribution Diagram:

Another interesting view is the visualization of our applications in combination with the Solution Capabilities the applications are supporting:

In preparation of our roadmap, we can also define the life cycle information of the applications in scope (plan, phase in, active etc.):

Finally, we want to see our Application Roadmap. In this case we classified by scope type and application and added the deployment type in addition to the lifecycle information:

We hope that you have enjoyed this first lab preview!

Moving forward, you will also have the chance to experience the SAP Enterprise Architecture Framework featured by LeanIX EAM as part of new learning offerings, demo workspaces and content we are planning to deliver in Q1/2024. Therefore, please stay tuned (we will share more details via the SAP Enterprise Community) or proactively reach out to us.

I would also like to express at this stage my appreciation towards @Stefan_Fassmann co-author of this article and partner in crime