The fourth and final stage of the Implementation Wheel is Control. This stage consists of one step, Measure progress. Evidently, the purpose of this step is to provide insight into the progress of the Enterprise Architecture implementation.
In an organization where the Enterprise Architecture is mature, the focus is on making progress measurable in terms of achieving business goals and objectives. It is very different in an organization where the Enterprise Architecture is not (yet) mature. In an organization that has recently begun to work with architecture, progress in implementing the Enterprise Architecture is measured. This involves measuring progress on two issues. One is the creation of architecture deliverables, and the other is the achievement of the intended goal of implementing an Enterprise Architecture.
Measurement techniques
It is important to determine what steps are required to achieve the creation of the desired architecture deliverables or the achievement of the goals so that a percentage of progress can be assigned. A short step-by-step plan can be used to achieve the desired understanding of progress. Therefore, this plan should be applied to each individual topic for which progress is to be measured.
There are a number of ways to measure progress. A basic and a more refined method exist, which both use percentages to track progress. These methods can be visualized by using pie charts. Aside from pie charts, it is also possible to use spider charts to provide insight in the progress that is being made.
Dashboards
Dashboards are an excellent tool for displaying the overall progress of a particular topic. Especially at management level, dashboards are in demand. A dashboard omits most substantive information and simply shows the progress of an issue or program using easy-to-read and interpret graphs (such as pie charts) or gauges.
Architecture deliverables
The key focus area of step one of the fourth stage is about objectives. The progress reports to be created should focus on providing insight in the progress made regarding the objectives defined earlier.