ea-interview-techniques-skill

name	ea-interview-techniques-skill
description	Use when conducting stakeholder interviews, eliciting architecture requirements, gathering business drivers, running discovery workshops, or capturing inputs for any TOGAF ADM phase artifact.
license	MIT
metadata	{"author":"Costa Pissaris","version":"1.0.0","created":"2026-03-10T00:00:00.000Z","last_reviewed":"2026-03-10T00:00:00.000Z","review_interval_days":90}

EA Interview Techniques

Structured interviews are the primary mechanism for eliciting architecture inputs from stakeholders. Each ADM phase has distinct questions aligned to its artifacts. This skill provides phase-by-phase question sets, facilitation guidance, output routing, and a document ingestion mode.

Interview Principles

• Ask one question at a time — avoid overwhelming stakeholders
• Probe responses with "Can you give an example?" or "What would success look like?"
• Capture verbatim responses before summarising
• Validate captured outputs with the stakeholder before proceeding
• Map all responses to the relevant artifact field

Phase-by-Phase Question Sets

Preliminary Phase

Goal: Establish architecture principles and governance model

1. What are the top 3 strategic goals of the organisation for the next 3 years?
2. What constraints (regulatory, financial, technical) must the architecture comply with?
3. Who are the key decision-makers for IT investment?
4. Is there an existing architecture governance body? How does it operate?
5. What does good architecture practice look like in your organisation?

Outputs captured: Architecture Principles draft, Governance Model inputs

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Phase A — Architecture Vision

Goal: Define scope, concerns, and high-level target

1. What business problem or opportunity is driving this architecture engagement?
2. What does success look like at the end of this engagement?
3. Who are the key stakeholders and what are their primary concerns?
4. What is in scope and out of scope for this architecture?
5. Are there any known constraints or assumptions?
6. What existing architecture assets or documents should we consider?
7. What is the desired timeline for completion?

Outputs captured: Statement of Architecture Work inputs, Stakeholder Map entries, Architecture Vision narrative

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Phase B — Business Architecture

Goal: Define business capabilities, processes, and gaps

1. What are the primary business functions this organisation performs?
2. Can you describe the key end-to-end business processes?
3. Where do you see pain points or inefficiencies today?
4. What capabilities do you wish the business had but currently lacks?
5. How is the organisation structured (divisions, teams, geography)?
6. What business outcomes are most important to improve?
7. What does the future state of the business look like in 3–5 years?

Outputs captured: Business Capability Map, Process Flow inputs, Gap Analysis (business)

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Phase C — Information Systems

Goal: Understand data entities and application portfolio

1. What are the key data domains your organisation manages (customers, products, financials, etc.)?
2. What applications currently support each business function?
3. Which applications are considered strategic and which are candidates for replacement?
4. Where does data duplication or inconsistency occur?
5. What are the critical integration points between systems?
6. Are there regulatory requirements for data residency, retention, or privacy?

Outputs captured: Application Portfolio Catalog, Data Entity Catalog, App/Function Matrix

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Phase D — Technology Architecture

Goal: Understand current and desired technology platform

1. What is the current technology stack (infrastructure, cloud, on-premise)?
2. What technology standards or approved products does the organisation mandate?
3. What technology capabilities are missing or insufficient?
4. What is the organisation's cloud strategy?
5. What are the key technology constraints (budget, skills, vendor lock-in)?
6. What does the technology landscape look like in 3 years?

Outputs captured: Technology Portfolio Catalog, Technology Standards, Gap Analysis (technology)

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Phase E — Opportunities and Solutions

Goal: Identify implementation projects and work packages

1. Which capability gaps identified in earlier phases are highest priority to address?
2. What projects are already in flight that the architecture must align with?
3. What work packages or initiatives would close the key gaps?
4. Are there opportunities to reuse existing assets or platforms?
5. What transition states are acceptable between the baseline and target architecture?

Outputs captured: Work Package Catalog, Project Context Diagram, Transition Architecture(s)

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Phase F — Migration Planning

Goal: Gather inputs for the detailed implementation and migration plan

1. What is the total investment budget available for the transformation programme?
2. Are there sequencing dependencies between the work packages identified in Phase E?
3. What is the realistic timeline for each major workstream?
4. What organisational change or training will be required alongside technical delivery?
5. How will the migration plan be tracked and reported?

Outputs captured: Implementation and Migration Plan inputs, Architecture Roadmap priorities

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Phase G — Implementation Governance

Goal: Gather inputs for architecture compliance and contract oversight

1. Which implementation projects are currently in flight that require architecture oversight?
2. How are architecture contracts established with delivery teams?
3. What process exists to assess whether a project is compliant with the approved architecture?
4. Who has authority to approve deviations from the agreed architecture?
5. How are change requests from implementation projects currently handled?

Outputs captured: Architecture Contract inputs, Compliance Assessment inputs, Implementation Governance Model

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Phase H — Architecture Change Management

Goal: Capture change drivers and assess architecture evolution needs

1. What business or technology changes are driving a need to revisit the current architecture?
2. How significant is the proposed change — is it a refinement or a fundamental shift?
3. What parts of the current architecture are affected?
4. What is the urgency and timeline for addressing this change?
5. Should this change trigger a new ADM cycle, or can it be addressed as a controlled update?

Outputs captured: Architecture Change Request inputs, Change Impact Assessment inputs

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Facilitation Patterns

One-on-One Stakeholder Interview

• Duration: 45–60 minutes
• Format: Conversational, one question at a time
• Capture: Record responses in context; generate Requirements Register entries at the end
• Validate: Summarise and confirm with stakeholder before closing

Workshop (Group)

• Duration: 2–4 hours
• Format: Present questions on screen, capture group responses collaboratively
• Use: Capability mapping workshops, gap analysis reviews, roadmap prioritisation
• Technique: Dot-voting for prioritisation, affinity grouping for capabilities

Document Review

• Trigger: Stakeholder provides a document instead of answering questions directly
• Action: Use Document Ingestion Mode (see below) to extract content, then generate gap questions
• Follow-up: Run interview covering only questions not answered by the document

Output Routing Table

After each interview, route captured information to the appropriate artifact:

Interview Response	Target Artifact
Business goals / drivers	Architecture Vision, Principles
Stakeholder names / roles / concerns	Stakeholder Map
Business capabilities mentioned	Business Capability Map
Process descriptions	Process Flow Diagram
Application names / owners	Application Portfolio Catalog
Pain points / gaps	Gap Analysis
Future state desires	Target Architecture
Regulatory / policy constraints	Requirements Register
Timeline preferences	Architecture Roadmap

Document Ingestion Mode

Trigger: User says "use this document", "load this file", "I have a strategy doc", or provides a file path.

Workflow:

1. Read the document at the provided file path
2. Extract and categorise content into these buckets:
   • Business drivers / strategic goals
   • Stakeholders (names, roles, concerns)
   • Business capabilities or functions
   • Applications or systems mentioned
   • Technology components or platforms
   • Constraints (regulatory, financial, technical)
   • Gaps or pain points
   • Timelines or deadlines
3. Map extracted content to artifact fields using the Output Routing Table above
4. Pre-populate interview answers: for each phase question answered by the document, mark as "answered from document" and show the extracted value
5. Generate gap questions: flag phase questions NOT answered by the document
6. Show a summary with two sections:
   • Pre-populated from document — list of extracted values with → artifact mapping
   • Gap questions (need interview) — list of remaining questions
7. Store extraction results in project.json documents array
8. Copy document to documents/ folder in project

Supported formats: .md, .txt, .pdf (read as text), .docx (read as text)

During subsequent interviews: Skip pre-populated questions, show the extracted value, ask the user to confirm or override.

project.json documents entry structure:

{
  "file": "documents/<filename>",
  "uploadedDate": "YYYY-MM-DD",
  "description": "string",
  "extractedContent": {
    "businessDrivers": [],
    "stakeholders": [],
    "capabilities": [],
    "constraints": [],
    "technologyMentioned": [],
    "gaps": []
  },
  "mappedTo": [
    { "artifact": "Architecture Vision", "fields": ["problem statement"] }
  ],
  "gapQuestions": []
}