Enterprise IT Transformation – New Style of IT (Base)

Challenge

The MOD’s enterprise IT services were under review. A Discovery Phase was initiated to confirm requirements, evaluate strategic options, and support the Combined Operational Effectiveness and Investment Appraisal (COEIA)—a key part of the Strategic and Economic cases in the Outline Business Case (OBC).

Defence Digital required detailed architectural support to structure the options and provide robust evidence for future decision-making.

Solution

ASU brought deep expertise in architecture tooling and methodology, using Bizzdesign and ArchiMate to characterise and compare transformation options. Key actions included:

• Service Taxonomy Creation – Built a taxonomy derived from NATO C3, DaaP Service Architecture (DSA), and Common Technology Architecture (CTA) to ensure standardised comparison of IT options.
• Document Analysis – Reviewed secret-tier IT service documentation to model current services and generate option-specific architectures.
• Requirement Mapping – Mapped stakeholder requirements to services and evaluated each option against these criteria.
• Quantitative Analysis – Conducted data-driven assessments to measure how well each option met ‘Future S’ needs, creating visual artefacts to support investment decisions.

Deliverables

• Red-Amber-Green (RAG) visualisations comparing option performance.
• Service-to-requirements mapping and capability overlap views.
• Graphs and reports supporting COEIA and OBC documentation.
• Mentorship and upskilling of internal architects in ArchiMate, repository management, and Bizzdesign analysis.

Outcome

The MOD received all artefacts required to progress its COEIA and OBC, supported by defensible, data-rich analysis. ASU’s contribution enabled:

• Confident elimination of weak options.
• Clear stakeholder alignment on architecture direction.
• Internal capability uplift, with MOD architects now confident in using ArchiMate and Bizzdesign for advanced analysis.

The MOD can now move forward with strategic IT transformation underpinned by structured, scalable, and well-evidenced architecture work.