Enterprise architecture
Enterprise architecture (EA) is a business function concerned with the structures and behaviours of a business, especially business roles and processes that create and use business
The
Introduction
As a discipline, EA "proactively and holistically lead[s] enterprise responses to disruptive forces by identifying and analyzing the execution of change" towards organizational goals. EA gives business and IT leaders recommendations for policy adjustments and provides best strategies to support and enable business development and change within the information systems the business depends on. EA provides a guide for
Important players within EA include enterprise architects and solutions architects. Enterprise architects are at the top level of the architect hierarchy, meaning they have more responsibilities than solutions architects. While solutions architects focus on their own relevant solutions, enterprise architects focus on solutions for and the impact on the whole organization. Enterprise architects oversee many solution architects and business functions. As practitioners of EA, enterprise architects support an organization's strategic vision by acting to align people, process, and technology decisions with actionable goals and objectives that result in quantifiable improvements toward achieving that vision. The practice of EA "analyzes areas of common activity within or between organizations, where information and other resources are exchanged to guide future states from an integrated viewpoint of strategy, business, and technology."[7]
Definitions
The term enterprise can be defined as an
The term architecture refers to fundamental concepts or properties of a system in its environment; and embodied in its elements, relationships, and in the principles of its design and evolution.[10] A methodology for developing and using architecture to guide the transformation of a business from a baseline state to a target state, sometimes through several transition states, is usually known as an enterprise architecture framework. A framework provides a structured collection of processes, techniques, artifact descriptions, reference models, and guidance for the production and use of an enterprise-specific architecture description.[citation needed]
Paramount to changing the EA is the identification of a
According to the standard
The first use of the term "enterprise architecture" is often incorrectly attributed to
The main difference between these two definitions is that Zachman's concept was the creation of individual information systems optimized for business, while NIST's described the management of all information systems within a business unit. The definitions in both publications, however, agreed that due to the "increasing size and complexity of the [i]mplementations of [i]nformation systems... logical construct[s] (or architecture) for defining and controlling the interfaces and... [i]ntegration of all the components of a system" is necessary. Zachman in particular urged for a "strategic planning methodology."[12]
Overview
Schools of thought
Within the field of enterprise architecture, there are three overarching schools: Enterprise IT Design, Enterprise Integrating, and Enterprise Ecosystem Adaption. Which school one subscribes to will impact how they see the EA's purpose and scope, as well as the means of achieving it, the skills needed to conduct it, and the locus of responsibility for conducting it.[14]
Under Enterprise IT Design, the main purpose of EA is to guide the process of planning and designing an enterprise's IT/IS capabilities to meet the desired organizational objectives, often by greater alignment between IT/IS and business concerns. Architecture proposals and decisions are limited to the IT/IS aspects of the enterprise and other aspects service only as inputs. The Enterprise Integrating school believes that the purpose of EA is to create a greater coherency between the various concerns of an enterprise (HR, IT, Operations, etc.), including the link between strategy formulation and execution. Architecture proposals and decisions here encompass all aspects of the enterprise. The Enterprise Ecosystem Adaption school states that the purpose of EA is to foster and maintain the learning capabilities of enterprises so they may be sustainable. Consequently, a great deal of emphasis is put on improving the capabilities of the enterprise to improve itself, to innovate, and to coevolve with its environment. Typically, proposals and decisions encompass both the enterprise and its environment.
Benefits, challenges, and criticisms
The benefits of EA are achieved through its direct and indirect contributions to organizational goals.
Other benefits include contribution to
A key concern about EA has been the difficulty in arriving at metrics of success because of the broad-brush and often opaque nature of EA projects.[28] Additionally, there have been a number of reports, including those written by Ivar Jacobson,[29] Gartner,[30] Erasmus University Rotterdam and IDS Scheer,[31] Dion Hinchcliffe,[32] and Stanley Gaver,[33] that argue that the frequent failure of EA initiatives makes the concept not worth the effort and that the methodology will fade out quickly.
Relationship to other disciplines
According to the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations (FEAPO), EA interacts with a wide array of other disciplines commonly found in business settings such as
In various venues,
See also
- Origins of enterprise architecture
- Enterprise architecture artifacts
- Enterprise architecture framework
- Architectural pattern (computer science)
- Architecture of Integrated Information Systems
- Architecture of Interoperable Information Systems
- Architecture domain
- John Zachman, promoter of enterprise architecture
- Enterprise Architecture Service Life Cycle - SOMF
External links
- United States Department of Defense definition of EA (archive)
- Media related to Enterprise architecture at Wikimedia Commons
- Quotations related to Enterprise architecture at Wikiquote
- The dictionary definition of enterprise architecture at Wiktionary
References
- ^ a b "Common Perspectives on Enterprise Architecture" (PDF). Architecture and Governance Magazine. 9 (4): 1. November 2013. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
- ^ "EA-Success". The White House. 2010. Archived from the original on April 30, 2010.
- ^ Austin, Robert D.; Ritchie, Warren; Garrett, Greggory (October 5, 2005). "Volkswagen of America: Managing IT Priorities". Harvard Business Review.
- ^ "FEA Practice Guidance Federal Enterprise Architecture Program Management Office OMB" (PDF). The White House. November 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 16, 2010.
- ^ "Enterprise Architecture (EA)". Gartner. Retrieved July 29, 2013.
- ^ Jarvis, Bob (2003). Enterprise Architecture: Understanding the Bigger Picture – A Best Practice Guide for Decision Makers in IT. Manchester, England, United Kingdom: The UK National Computing Centre. p. 9.
- ^ "Planning an EA – Purpose". Enterprise Architecture Book of Knowledge. Mitre Corporation. Archived from the original on October 1, 2013. Retrieved October 3, 2014.
- ^ "Business Analysis Body of Knowledge". International Institute of Business Analysis. Archived from the original on June 24, 2017.
- ^ Giachett, R.E. (2010). Design of Enterprise Systems, Theory, Architecture, and Methods. Boca Raton, Florida, USA: CRC Press.
- ^ a b "ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010:2011: Systems and software engineering — Architecture description". International Organization for Standardization. November 24, 2011. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
- S2CID 230545944.
- ^ S2CID 12191060.
- ^ S2CID 23939840.
- S2CID 206469705.
- ^ Vasilis Boucharas; Marlies van Steenbergen; Slinger Jansen; Sjaak Brinkkemper. The Contribution of Enterprise Architecture to the Achievement of Organizational Goals: Establishing the Enterprise Architecture Benefits Framework, Technical Report (PDF) (Report). Utrecht, The Netherlands: Department of Information and Computing Sciences at Utrecht University. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 4, 2022. Retrieved November 29, 2014.
- ^ Bert Arnold; Martin Op 't Land; Jan Dietz (2005). "Effects of an architectural approach to the implementation of shared service centers". In Fethi Rabhi; Daniel Veit; Christof Weinhardt (eds.). Financecom05: Second international workshop on Enterprise, applications and services in the finance industry. Regensburg, Germany: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
- ^ a b c Schekkerman, Jaap. Trends in enterprise architecture 2005: How are organizations progressing? (Report). Institute For Enterprise Architecture Developments. p. 33.
- ^ a b c d Bucher, T.; Fischer, R.; Kurpjuweit, S.; Winter, Robert (2006). Enterprise architecture analysis and application: An exploratory study (Report). Hong Kong, China: EDOC Workshop TEAR.
- ^ a b Nilsson, Andreas (2008). Management of technochange in an interorganizational E-government project (Report). Proceedings of the 41st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. p. 209.
- ^ a b c Varnus, J.; Panaich, N. (July 20, 2009). TOGAF 9 enterprise architecture survey results (PDF) (Report). 23rd Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Conference. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 20, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f Ross, J.W.; Weill, P. (2005). Understanding the benefits of enterprise architecture (Report). Vol. V. CISR Research Briefings.
- S2CID 28199240.
- ISBN 978-3-642-01858-9.
- ^ a b Kappelman, Leon; McGinnis, Tom; Pettite, Alex; Sidorova, Anna (2008). Enterprise Architecture: Charting the Territory for Academic Research (Report). AMCIS 2008 Proceedings.
- .
- ^ Obitz, T.; Babu, M.K. (2009). Enterprise architecture expands its role in strategic business transformation: Infosys enterprise architecture survey 2008/2009 (Report). Infosys.
- S2CID 226351029.
- ^ Günther, Wendy Arianne (August 2014). Measuring Enterprise Architecture Effectiveness: A Focus on Key Performance Indicators (PDF) (Master's thesis). Universiteit Leiden. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
- ^ Jacobson, Ivar (October 18, 2007). "EA Failed Big Way!". Archived from the original on April 1, 2016.
- ^ "Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit: Architecting the Agile Organization, 26 – 27 September 2007". Gartner. 2007. Archived from the original on August 6, 2007.
- ^ Roeleven, S.; Broer, J. (2010). Why Two Thirds of Enterprise Architecture Projects Fail (Report). ARIS. Archived from the original on November 13, 2013.
- ^ Hinchcliffe, Dion (September 3, 2009). "Fixing Enterprise Architecture: Balancing the Forces of Change in the Modern Organization". ebiz. Archived from the original on September 6, 2009.
- ^ Gaver, Stanley (2010). Why Doesn't the FEA Work? (PDF) (Report). Technology Matters, Inc. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 11, 2016.
- ^ Richardson, Clay (April 12, 2013). "Design Thinking Reshapes EA For Dynamic Business". Forrester. Archived from the original on April 19, 2013.
- ^ McKendrick, Joe (May 19, 2010). "Gartner urges more 'design thinking' to break enterprise architecture out of its silo". ZDNet. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
- ^ Owens, Leslie (February 2, 2010). "Who Owns Information Architecture? All Of Us". Forrester. Archived from the original on February 5, 2010.
- ISBN 978-0-7506-5858-4.
- ^ "Service Oriented Architecture : SOA and Enterprise Architecture". The Open Group. Archived from the original on January 10, 2015. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
- ^ Kistasamy, Christopher; van der Merwe, Alta; de la Harpe, Andre (2012). The Role of Service Oriented Architecture as an enabler for Enterprise Architecture (Report). Seattle, Washington, USA: AMCIS 2012 Proceedings.
- ^ Rosa, Manuel; de Oliveira Sampaio, André (December 2013). "SOA Governance Through Enterprise Architecture". Oracle. Archived from the original on December 19, 2013.
- ^ Byrne, Tony (March 19, 2012). "Digital workplace and enterprise architecture -- two sides to same coin". Real Story Group. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
- ^ Evernden, Roger (November 13, 2012). "Dealing with Too Much Data from an Architectural Perspective". Cutter. Retrieved March 4, 2023.