Enterprise architecture · Embedded in programmes
ProjectEA: enterprise architecture for transformation programmes
Senior architecture inside your ERP, cloud, data or AI programme, accountable to you rather than the systems integrator: the target architecture set, every design decision logged and challenged from your side of the table, and the systems you own on day two protected from the choices made for go live.
ProjectEA at a glance
Definition
What is enterprise architecture for transformation programmes?
Enterprise architecture for transformation programmes puts a senior architect inside a live programme, accountable to the organisation rather than the vendor: setting the target architecture, running a weekly design authority, logging and challenging every significant design decision, and protecting the systems the organisation will own long after go live. It exists because programmes optimise for their go live date, and somebody has to optimise for the decade that follows.
Intelance delivers this as ProjectEA: TOGAF certified senior architects embedded part time at fixed fees by programme tier, from £45,000 + VAT for a single programme and from £120,000 for ERP and platform scale. Part time is deliberate: the value is in the decisions rather than the day count.
Not sure what the programme is landing on? The EA QuickScan provides the evidence base in ten working days, from £18,000 + VAT.
Set the target
The architecture the programme must land on, decided on your side of the table.
Sit in the room
A design authority that runs weekly rather than a steering slide that arrives monthly.
Log every decision
Each significant choice challenged, priced and recorded while it can still be changed.
Protect day two
Decisions scored for the decade after go live as well as the date on the plan.
The failure modes
Six places programmes lose their architecture
Programmes rarely lose their architecture in one bad decision. They lose it quietly, in six places, while everyone watches the plan. Each one has a specific protection.
The vendor’s reference architecture
The systems integrator’s standard pattern, optimised for the systems integrator’s delivery rather than your estate.
ProtectedThe target architecture is yours, and the vendor’s pattern is tested against it.Integration by accretion
Point to point connections added one deadline at a time, until nobody can draw the picture.
ProtectedIntegration decisions made once, deliberately, on a pattern.Data model drift
The platform’s data model versus your reality, with the mismatch discovered at migration and priced at panic rates.
ProtectedThe mismatch found in design, when it is cheap to fix.Customisation creep
Each customisation reasonable alone, and together a platform nobody can upgrade.
ProtectedCustomisations gated, priced and justified, or refused.The dependencies nobody owns
Cross programme dependencies that everyone assumes someone else is watching, until one of them delivers otherwise.
ProtectedA dependency register with names against every line.Day two blindness
Decisions optimised for the go live date that quietly tax your systems for a decade afterwards.
ProtectedEvery significant decision scored for the decade after go live.How it embeds
From programme screen to day two handover
ProjectEA joins at any stage, including mid flight. The shape is the same wherever it starts: understand the programme, set the target, then hold the line until the handover.
Programme screen
The programme read as it stands: scope, vendor position, architecture decisions already made and the ones coming.
Architecture baseline
The target architecture set on your side of the table, with what exists today mapped honestly against it.
In the room
Your architect inside the programme: design authority run weekly, decisions challenged and logged as they happen.
Design gates
Gates the programme cannot talk its way through: customisations, integrations and data decisions priced and scored before they land.
Day two handover
The programme ends. The architecture does not. Decision log, dependency register and target architecture handed to the people who own the estate.
Already mid programme and drifting? Stage 1 works as a standalone read of where the architecture stands, and the findings are yours either way.
The alternatives
Your options side by side
Three ways programmes handle architecture. The difference shows up on day two, when the programme team has gone and the systems remain.
The systems integrator designs what the systems integrator will build
Optimised for the vendor’s delivery and the vendor’s margin
Decisions already made, presented for sign off
Free on paper, paid for on day two
A senior reviewer who sees the programme at steering
Yours, but a month behind the decisions
A slide, after the drift has happened
Cheap, then very expensive
Your architect inside the programme, in the design authority weekly
Accountable to you, with no stake in the build
Every decision logged, priced and scored as it happens
Fixed fee by tier, from £45,000 + VAT, agreed before we start
Scope
What this includes and what it does not
You get
A target architecture set on your side of the table, and defended.
A weekly design authority inside the programme, run by your architect.
A decision log with every significant choice challenged, priced and scored.
A dependency register with names against every line.
A day two handover to the people who own the estate after go live.
This is not
Delivery. We build nothing and take no implementation revenue, which is why the challenge is real.
A PMO. Plans, RAID logs and status reporting stay with the programme.
Independent assurance. When a board wants arm’s length verification, a separate team delivers it.
The operating model. Who owns architecture decisions after the programme is the EA Operating Model.
Before and after
Where ProjectEA sits in the sequence
ProjectEA stands alone, and it lands better on evidence. These are the services that usually come before it, after it, or alongside it.
EA QuickScan
Before the programme commits: every system scored and the roadmap priced, so ProjectEA starts from evidence. FeeFrom £18,000 + VAT · 10 working days 02EA Operating Model & Governance
After the programme: the decision rights and forums that keep the architecture owned once the room empties. FeeFrom £18,000 + VAT diagnostic 03Virtual EA Department
Where the estate needs owning month by month after go live, a named senior function runs it. FeeFrom £6,500 a month 04Delivery assurance
When the board wants arm’s length verification of programme health, an independent team delivers it. FeeReviews from £8,500 + VATWhy Intelance
The commitments we put in writing
Accountable to you alone
We build nothing, sell no platforms and take no implementation revenue from the programme, so the challenge in the design authority is real.
Every decision logged
Significant design choices are challenged, priced and scored as they happen, while they can still be changed, and the log is yours.
Part time by design and senior only
TOGAF certified senior architects, embedded for the decisions rather than the day count. No armies of juniors on your budget.
Fixed fee by programme tier
From £45,000 + VAT for a single programme, scoped to the programme and agreed in writing before we start.
Independent by design
When the board wants arm’s length assurance on a programme we architect, a different and independent team delivers it.
Who you will work with
Every engagement is led by a senior partner. Nothing is offshored and nothing is handed to a junior bench.
Case studies
All case studiesReady to talk?
Speak to a senior architect
Thirty minutes on the programme, where it stands and what the architecture needs. If it is already running and drifting, say so: ProjectEA joins mid flight, and the first output is an honest baseline of where the architecture stands.
FAQs
Questions about ProjectEA
How much does ProjectEA cost?
Fixed fees by programme tier: from £45,000 + VAT for a single programme, from £120,000 for ERP and platform scale, and custom fixed fees for portfolio scale. Every fee is scoped to the programme and agreed in writing before we start.
Can ProjectEA join a programme that is already running?
Yes, and it often does. The programme screen works mid flight: a clear read of where the architecture stands, which decisions are already locked, and which can still be influenced. The findings are yours whether or not the engagement continues.
How is this different from the systems integrator’s architects?
The vendor’s architects are good at their job, and their job is the vendor’s delivery. ProjectEA sits on your side of the table with no stake in the build, which changes what gets challenged and what reaches you before it is signed rather than after.
How much time does the architect spend embedded?
Part time by design, sized to the programme’s decision flow: typically the weekly design authority, the design reviews around it, and availability when decisions land between them. The value is in the decisions rather than the day count.
What is a design authority?
The forum where significant design decisions are made, challenged and recorded. ProjectEA runs it weekly inside the programme, with every decision logged, priced and scored for its impact on the estate after go live, so drift is caught in days rather than discovered at migration.
What happens when the programme ends?
The day two handover: the target architecture, decision log and dependency register passed to the people who own the estate, with the EA Operating Model or a Virtual EA Department as the usual homes for long term ownership. The programme ends. The architecture does not.
Does ProjectEA replace programme assurance?
No. ProjectEA works inside the programme on your behalf. Independent assurance verifies the programme from outside it. When a board wants arm’s length verification of a programme we architect, a different and independent team delivers it.
Who you will work with?
Senior TOGAF certified architects led by a senior partner, with established associates across cyber, data and AI governance where depth is needed. The person in your design authority is the person accountable for the advice. Nothing is offshored.