What is enterprise architecture EA?

It provides a step-by-step repeatable process for designing, implementing, and managing enterprise architecture. If no one clearly explains why these changes are happening, teams might push back or ignore the new guidelines altogether. Having an EA strategy creates the foundation that makes better decisions possible.

Business architecture domain – describes how the enterprise is organizationally structured and what functional capabilities are necessary to deliver the business vision. Often compared with town-planning or urban design, enterprise architecture (EA) is a well-defined practice for conducting enterprise analysis, design, planning, and implementation for the successful development and execution of strategy. Define your digital core vision by focusing on digital https://leeds-welcome.com/the-future-is-now-top-trends-in-website-development-and-design-for-2023.html platforms, data, AI and digital foundations. Redefine and translate your vision into future-ready capabilities, aligning strategic investments with business goals.

Since the 1970s people working in IS/IT have looked for ways to engage business people – to enable business roles and processes – and to influence investment in business information systems and technologies – with a view to the wide and long term benefits of the enterprise. An enterprise architecture framework (EAF) defines how to create and use an enterprise architecture. A viewpoint includes Model Kinds, viewpoint languages and notations, modeling methods and analytic techniques to frame a specific set of Concerns. Value Stream – A sequence of business processes the boundaries of which are typically defined by business transactions. Solution architectures combine guidance from different enterprise architecture viewpoints (business, information and technical), as well as from the enterprise solution architecture. The provider delivers software based on one set of common code and data definitions that is consumed in a one-to-many model by all contracted customers at any time on a pay-for-use basis or as a subscription-based on use metrics.

Create an enterprise architecture strategy

Most modern EA frameworks (e.g. TOGAF, ASSIMPLER, EAF) include most of the above. Many EA frameworks combine data and application domains into a single (digitized) information system layer, sitting below the business (usually a human activity system) and above the technology (the platform IT infrastructure). TOGAF started out taking a strategic and enterprise-wide, but technology-oriented, view.

MODAF (retired, replaced by NAF)

You identify the IT components across infrastructure (IaaS) and platforms (PaaS) that will run your applications and data workloads. Enterprise architecture refers to the process of organization and standardizing the IT infrastructure to transition to a desired future state. This guidance can include best practices that ensure IT investments in enterprise architecture contribute to efficiency and scalability, using continuously innovating technologies. They are charged with developing and maintaining an enterprise architecture management approach or framework that guides an organization on the technology needed to support its goals. Other IT professionals view enterprise architecture based on quality attributes. High-level programmers use enterprise architecture to refer to the hardware and software components in a design.

Of companies report enterprise architecture as a top contributor to tech debt, due to poorly planned architectural decisions. Popular frameworks include TOGAF, Zachman Framework, Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF), and the European Space Agency Architectural Framework (ESAAF). These frameworks offer structured methods to implement Enterprise Architecture across all four layers.

• The 2022 edition uses the term architecture description framework (ADF) and defines it as conventions, principles and practices for the description of architectures established within a specific domain of application or community of stakeholders.
• A view model is a framework that defines the set of views or approaches used in systems analysis, systems design, or the construction of an enterprise architecture.
• An enterprise architecture framework is a set of models, viewpoints, and rules for designing and managing an organization’s systems as a whole.
• Many of the recent Enterprise Architecture frameworks have some kind of set of views defined, but these sets are not always called view models.

As a discipline, it has grown from a mechanical design and engineering focus to being applied to many different vertical-industry product development challenges. Models provide a means for sharing details between views and for the use of multiple notations within a view. Each model is constructed in accordance with the conventions established by its Model Kind, typically defined as part of its governing viewpoint. Lean – A focused approach to the provision of effective solutions involving the consumption of a minimum of resources. Enterprise Architecture – A discipline for proactively and holistically leading enterprise responses to disruptive forces by identifying and analyzing the execution of change toward desired business vision and outcomes.

• Unlike other EA frameworks like TOGAF or Gartner, FEA is specifically designed for U.S. federal agencies.
• It is best for companies that need a clear, structured way to document EA components rather than a step-by-step implementation process.
• 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 National Computing Centre’s EA best practice guidance states that an EA typically “takes the form of a comprehensive set of cohesive models that describe the structure and functions of an enterprise. The individual models in an EA are arranged in a logical manner that provides an ever-increasing level of detail about the enterprise.”

Capabilities are typically expressed in general and high-level terms and typically require a combination of organization, people, processes, and technology to achieve. Business Capability Taxonomy – A business capability taxonomy is an ordered hierarchy of business capabilities, structured in a manner that makes sense to the stakeholders, and used to create associations between capabilities and business units. An Architecture Framework establishes a common practice for creating, interpreting, analyzing and using architecture descriptions (Views and Viewpoints) within a particular domain of application or stakeholder community. Many EA frameworks combine https://www.daegu2011.org/category/technology/ data and application domains into a single information system layer, sitting below the business and above the technology (the platform IT infrastructure).

If the plan only focuses on long-term changes, people lose patience because they don’t see results fast enough. The best choice depends on how complex the IT landscape is, what the business is trying to achieve, and how structured the architecture needs to be. It defines the principles and standards that guide the selection, deployment, and integration of these systems. Most companies use a mix of business applications like CRMs, ERPs, and other cloud-based platforms to run daily operations. Unlike TOGAF, Zachman is not a process but a classification system that takes a structured, grid-based (2-dimensional matrix) approach to EA.

The rise of managed infrastructure, no-code/low-code development tools, and AI-powered features has lowered the barrier to entry, accelerating this evolution. First released in 2003 and now at version 2.02, it structures architecture into viewpoints so decision-makers can focus on one concern while keeping a coherent whole. Rather than start from a blank page every time, architects use a framework that already defines the viewpoints to capture, the models to produce, and often a method to follow. Many enterprise architecture teams consist of Individuals with Skills aligned with the Enterprise Architecture Domains and sub-domain disciplines. The technical services are typically supported by software products.