Introduction of Enterprise Architecture

Explore The Enterprise Architecture Toolkit

Enterprise Architecture(EA) is a framework or "blueprint" for how the organization achieves the business objectives at hand and in the future. The Enterprise Architecture looks at the key business, information, application, and technology strategies and their impact on business functions. Each of these strategies is a separate architectural discipline and Enterprise Architecture is the glue that integrates each of these disciplines into a cohesive framework.

Business Architecture (BA) is the result of defining the business strategies, processes, and functional requirements. The business already performs Business Architecture when they redefine processes to support the key strategic initiatives of the enterprise. An Enterprise Architecture approach to Business Architecture provides the tools the business needs to ensure the quality and consistency of business design and reengineering efforts. One of the key benefits of Business Architecture from an IT perspective is that it allows the business to produce deliverables from these efforts that provide the information, context, and requirements that IT needs to support those initiatives.

Information Architecture (IA) is the result of modeling the information that is needed to support the business processes and functions of the enterprise. The Information Architecture spans organizational boundaries and ties the business processes identified in the Business Architecture together by identifying and defining information dependencies. Information Architecture is expressed in the form of data models, information flows, and an analysis of all inputs/outputs and decision-making criteria for each of the activities of the business.

Application Architecture (AA) provides a framework focused on developing and/or implementing applications to fulfill the business requirements and to achieve the quality necessary to meet the needs of the business. Quality can be measured in terms of reliability, scalability, availability, performance, security, etc. In addition to the structure and interrelationships of an individual application, Application Architecture also concentrates on optimizing and managing the integration of multiple applications. Application Architecture is expressed in terms of

principles and guidelines governing application design and evolution. These principles and guidelines address the entire lifecycle of an application from initial development, through sustaining evolution and maintenance, to replacement or retirement.

Technical Architecture (TA) provides the foundation that supports the applications, data, and business processes identified in the other three architectural layers. The Technical Architecture identifies and plans the computing services that form the technical infrastructure for the enterprise. These computing services provide the mechanism for achieving scalability, reliability, availability, flexibility, security, integrity, and performance. The computing services are components which applications/infrastructure developers can utilize in the development, customization, and/or integration of applications in support of the business.

Product Architecture (PA) is a subset of Technical Architecture. Product Architecture identifies standards and configurations for the enabling technologies and products within the Technical Architecture. Applications and infrastructure developers utilize these technologies and products for delivering services to the applications and/or business processes.