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Enterprise Architecture: Lecture 1. Lecture Notes
Enterprise Architecture: Lecture 1. Lecture Notes
Contents
1
Enterprise Architecture
This is the first module, in which we are going to cover the basics and key definition of
Enterprise Architecture field of study.
In order to get the feeling about the importance of Enterprise Architecture as a
discipline, let us consider how complex the modern managerial tasks are. Let us consider a
reorganizational project of a manufacturing enterprise. Imagine you have to implement a
number of changes in the structure of business. Normally, the starting point would be a
technological process. You have to change the baseline of company processes. This will be
followed by reengineering of business processes, which means changing how the processes
are run, sometimes changing the owner and key resources. Business processes
reengineering is normally linked to redesign of organizational structure of the company, the
departments functionality and information flows. The processes performance can be also
digitized with implementation of information systems. We might have to implement new
software or change the existing. Software changes might also lead to switching database
management systems or even infrastructure changes in terms of hardware. This “chain”
leads to two main questions: what else and how to control complexity?
By complexity we mean fundamental organization of a system and organizational
components (including departments, people, software, hardware and other). Internal and
external relationships. Basic principles of the organizations to guide the design. All these
points summarize the complexity of any organizational projects, which might be linked to
information technology or not.
And here we come to the question why to use Enterprise Architecture. There must be
a structure and a process in place to provide a blueprint – translation from a business idea
of change to the technical steps and components. Enterprise Architecture (EA) is playing
this role by looking at the problem from multiple angles of enterprise perspectives,
interfacing and connecting the dots for multiple stakeholders in the game.
If we consider Enterprise Architecture as a tool for business analysis and development,
we shall recognize that it provides a holistic view of the enterprise. This means that EA as a
tool will help to avoid local optimization within individual domains. Though there are even
more internal and external factors, which require complex approach.
The key internal factor to use Enterprise Architecture is the need of Business and IT
alignment. Those, who are experienced in software projects, would probably admit that
sometimes software is implemented just to be implemented. This is crucial for successful
digitalization. IT have to solve business tasks. IT strategy has to fit Business strategy. Top-
management has to support this idea on strategic level and execution level. Organizational
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Enterprise Architecture
Moving on to external factors, it can be admitted that these factors are not obvious.
Sometimes regulatory framework requires clear possessing of company development goals
and strategy in order to be competitive. Companies would struggle without a specific tool in
the described environment.
2. The standards history
Now when we understand Why Enterprise Architecture can be needed let us move
back and try to understand how it evolved. All this came from information systems
implementation and the question of its planning. Complex software cannot be implemented
straight forward. This is quite obvious. The idea of deliberate information systems planning
is far from new. Early planning approaches proposed various considerations on how to
design corporate information systems based on an organizational strategy, data flows
between departments, suppliers and orders, critical success factors, management
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Enterprise Architecture
information requirements. One of the first concepts, called Business Systems Planning
(BSP) methodology, was initiated by IBM in the 1960s. At first, it was for IBM internal use
only; later it was made available to customers. Its focus on data and especially on processes
was an entirely new way business to view the firm and to build; this process approach has
since been strategic methodology [2]. The first edition of BSP, which you can see in the
figure 2, resembled many important aspects of modern EA approaches. We start from
business processes definition (skipping steps 1-3 which are initiation). We analyze current
information technology and work with stakeholders. We move further to recommendations
development. And quite soon you will see that modern approaches have the same basics.
Further BSP evolved into the early Enterprise Architecture approaches, which were
proposed by Spewak and Hill. They actually paid more attention to technical aspects of EA,
but already started describing current and future states and preparing implementation plan.
Later on the modern approaches appeared and one of the most widespread is TOGAF. The
standard focuses on baseline and target architecture, covering different domains and being
iterative in nature. This means that its ultimate goal is to plan and manage corporate
development in business and technology domains.
TOGAF was initiated in the early 1990s as methodology for the development of
technical architecture, and has been developed by The Open Group into an extensive
enterprise architecture framework. In 1995, the first version of TOGAF (TOGAF 1.0) was
presented. This version was mainly based on the Technical Architecture Framework for
Information Management (TAFIM), developed since the late 1980s by the US Department
of Defense [3]. The steps of EA evolution are presented on table1.
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Enterprise Architecture
Methodology Describe current and desir Describe current and Describe baseline and
ed states, prepare an future states, prepare an target states, prepare a
action plan, and implement implementation plan, and transition plan, implement
it implement it the plan, and repeat the
process
TOGAF, which we use today has actually appeared in 2011, while the very first mention
of Enterprise Architecture notation was in 1987 by John Zachman. So, before we move on
lets us summarize: 1960s - BSP emergence; 1980-1990s - the first EA works appear; 2010s
- the modern EA.
In the 1980s John Zachman had been involved at IBM in the development of business
system planning (BSP), a method for analyzing, defining and designing an information
architecture of organizations. In 1982 Zachman had already concluded that these analyses
could reach far beyond automating systems design and managing data into the realms of
strategic business planning and management science in general. It may be employed in the
(in that time considered more esoteric) areas of enterprise architecture, data-driven systems
design, data classification criteria, and more [4].
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Enterprise Architecture
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Enterprise Architecture
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Enterprise Architecture
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Enterprise Architecture
The most important element of TOGAF is ADM and the design structure (figure 4).
TOGAF is originally designed to manage company development, it helps to model the
enterprise in dynamics. And this aspect is one of the most important characteristic of any
tool in today’s rapidly changing world [6].
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Enterprise Architecture
References
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