The retail lending industry is no stranger to the challenges of fragmented systems, misaligned technology, and ever-changing regulatory requirements. Traditional software development and IT architecture approaches have often struggled to keep pace with business demands, resulting in inefficiencies and technical debt.
In this case study, we explore how a retail lending platform is transformed from a conventional, tool-centric model to an anatomy-driven architecture using the ICMG Enterprise Anatomy Framework.
The Challenge: Conventional Software Development and IT Architecture
In the traditional approach, the retail lending platform faced several persistent issues:
Fragmented and Siloed Efforts:
Teams independently developed components such as loan origination systems, credit scoring modules, and notification services without a unified vision.
Isolated diagrams like class models, data schemas, and event models failed to integrate into a cohesive architecture.
Tool-Centric Implementation:
The focus was on implementing microservices, CI/CD pipelines, and Agile sprints, often without aligning these efforts to broader business goals such as reducing loan processing times or increasing customer satisfaction.
Ad-Hoc Scalability:
New loan products or compliance requirements were added as afterthoughts, leading to bolted-on features that created inefficiencies and technical debt.
Lack of End-to-End Visibility:
The platform lacked comprehensive models showing how data, rules, and events interacted, leaving critical gaps in understanding and execution.
