The expectations around architecture are typically high. Either that or there is so much scepticism and an atmosphere highlighting the belief that this will once again go nowhere. It is extremely important that realistic expectations relating to the architecture are set with management and employees. This needs to be an on-going process.

Expectation management consists of constant communication.

Two steps are necessary for effective communication:

• Stakeholder inventory and their concerns;
• Definition of a communication matrix.    

The importance of taking the inventory and defining a matrix cannot be emphasized enough. Communication is of utmost importance for the acceptance of an architecture.

However, paying insufficient attention to communication is a common pitfall. Good communication takes time and time is usually a scarce commodity.

Another pitfall is that communication is enthusiastically picked up at the beginning of a project but tends to fall by the wayside with time. There are company wide presentations where expectations are created, consciously or otherwise. Subsequently all becomes quiet as the demands of the project take priority. Defining and applying the communication matrix ahead of time will help protect us from these pitfalls.

A draft stakeholder inventory and communication matrix can be downloaded here.