So, Enterprise Architecture, what is it? - the question asked in the previous post - an Enterprise state, a document, a set of diagrams, a process, a program, a strategic planning exercise and Enterprise portfolio management, an Enterprise IT integration program, a Business Process Management (BPM) development, an organization alignment to strategy and business objectives, an organization design?
A summary of the definitions:
"a conceptual blueprint that defines the structure and operation... to determine how an organization can … achieve its current and future objectives."
"a blueprint for organizational change ... that describes (in both business and technology terms) how it operates today and… in the future,... a plan for transitioning".
"a set of interrelated "reference models" designed to facilitate cross-agency analysis."
"the components…, their interrelationships and guidelines governing their design and evolution"
In a few words, EA is all the above , a blueprint that defines the structure and operation of the Enterprise in terms of business, technology components, relationships and a plan of transitioning from today to a future state.
But, should we be asking this question now that we designed or are in the process of implementing an EA? It is a good idea, in fact, to revisit the definition and scope of EA since, at least, we will be able to talk the same language and avoid comparing apples with oranges. How do we define a definition though? What is the anatomy of a definition? Let us try a Zachman's approach to the definition of Enterprise Architecture by asking the well known "w" questions.
The EA is:
(What) The structure of an Enterprise and its blueprint describing
(How) how the Enterprise operates shown in processes executed
(Who) people
(What with) and the technology implementing them,
(Where) situated at various locations,
(Why) and process to blueprint, streamline, align, strategically plan and confer agility to the Enterprise,
(When) executed according to a transformation roadmap to achieve a target state.
Enterprise layers are typically assumed to be: Business, Information, Technology (in terms of IT, applications and infrastructure) and People and Organization. Then, a few artifacts describing each layer of an Enterprise Architecture:
Business Architecture: Products, Value Chain, stakeholders' use cases, business model, strategy, business processes, rules, orchestration, B2B choreography...
People/Organization architecture: governance, organization chart with roles and responsibilities, culture, values... views
Information architecture (conceptual, physical)
Many other Enterprise views: location, security…
The Enterprise transformation roadmap and its project portfolio
all mapped and linked by an EA framework.
Without a framework enforcing consistent conventions, entities, linkages and navigation, the artifacts cannot represent the Enterprise operating as a whole.
Amended definition:
The EA is the Enterprise state, structure and operation blueprint describing the current and future states of the Enterprise, in terms of Business, Information, Technology and People architectures, and the transformation roadmap, all linked together by an EA navigation framework.
In the end, the EA ultimately becomes the Enterprise Knowledge database since a lot of information relevant to the Enterprise could be linked to the EA artifacts
But EA is more than the sum of its parts; it is about the governance (mind) and the culture (soul) of the Enterprise (body).
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