Enterprise Architecture

 

Explore The Enterprise Architecture Toolkit

Enterprise Architecture is simply a logical structure for classifying and organizing the descriptive representations of an Enterprise that are significant to the management of the Enterprise as well as to the development of the Enterprise’s systems. 

It is derived from analogous structures that are found in the older disciplines of Architecture/Construction and Engineering/Manufacturing that classify and organize the design artifacts created over the process of designing and producing complex physical products (e.g. buildings or airplanes.) 

Architecture itself is an ancient field of study. In the time of Babylon (1750 B.C) they used already the famous Code of Hammurabi (the king of Babylon).

Hammurabi's famous code was a body of law that was drawn up over four thousand years ago and included such forward-thinking ideas like the right to a fair trial. It also included this important rule for architects: "If a builder constructed a house, but did not make his work strong, with the result that the house which he built collapsed and so has caused the death of the owner of the house, that builder shall be put to death. In the time of Hammurabi, enterprise architectures would have been pretty darn good.

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.