Architecture:

“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”

What is enterprise architecture?

An enterprise architecture (EA) is a conceptual blueprint that defines the
structure and operation of organizations. The intent of enterprise architecture is
to determine how an organization can effectively achieve its current and future
objectives. Enterprise architecture involves the practice of analyzing, planning,
designing and eventual implementing of analysis on an enterprises

EA offers:
•An insight into the current utilization of IT in business operations,
•A vision for the future utilization of IT in business operations, and
•A roadmap for the evolution of the IT landscape from the current state
to a future state, along with the transient states in between.
Major Enterprise Architecture Frameworks
There is no shortage of EA frameworks in the IT industry, Zachman was
the first to formalize the concept and publish a framework. Since then,
many other EA frameworks have been published and are used by many
organizations. They attempt to address the basic challenge of assessing,
aligning, and organizing business objectives with technical
requirements and strategies such as the Zachman Framework, The

Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF), NAF, DoDAF, MoDAF

and etc. Each framework possesses different strengths and weaknesses.
The Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture – which
covers six architectural points as well as six primary stakeholders that
aid in defining and standardizing IT architecture components.
Unified Architecture Framework (UAF) – which is a complex but
flexible enterprise architecture framework suitable for military and
government software development as well as use in commercial
businesses. It’s implemented as a UML profile.
Agile enterprise architecture – which focuses an organization
around a flexible, extended collection of structures and processes that
can grow. It can become an important part to agile software delivery.
Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF) – which is a
reference model that was introduced in 1996 for IT effectiveness. It was
designed for the U.S. government, but can be used in private companies
as well.
Layers of Enterprise Architecture
Enterprise architecture is unique to every organization, however, there
are some common elements. Since Stephen Spewak’s Enterprise
Architecture Planning (EAP) in 1993, and perhaps before then, it has
been normal to divide enterprises architecture into four architecture
domains.
The four commonly accepted domains of enterprise architecture are :

Business architecture domain – describes how the enterprise is

organizationally structured and what functional capabilities are
to deliver the business vision. Business architecture addresses the
questions WHAT and WHO: WHAT is the organization’s business vision,
strategy, and objectives that guide creation of business services or
capabilities? WHO is executing defined business services or
capabilities?

Application architecture domain – describes the individual

applications, their interactions, and their relationships to the core
business processes of the organization. Application architecture
addresses the question HOW: HOW are previously defined business
services or capabilities implemented.

Data architecture domain – describes the structure of an

organization’s logical and physical data assets and data management
resources. Knowledge about your customers from data analytics lets
you improve and continuously evolve business processes.
Technology architecture domain – describes the software and
hardware needed to implement the business, data, and application
services. Each of these domains have well-known artifacts, diagrams,
and practices.

For many years, it has been common to regard the architecture

domains as layers, with the idea that each layer contains components
that execute processes and offer services to the layer above. Many EA
frameworks combine data and application domains into a single
information system layer, sitting below the business and above the
technology (the platform IT infrastructure).

Why Enterprise Architecture?

The scope of enterprise architecture includes: the people, business
processes, information and technology of the enterprise, and their
relationships to one another and to the external environment.
Enterprise architecture applies architecture principles and practices to
guide organizations through the alignment of these architecture
domains: business, information, process, and technology. These involve
utilize the various aspects of an enterprise to identify, motivate, and
achieve these changes by performing: Business and technology
alignment
1. Consistency in a federated landscape
2. Interoperability and information sharing
3. Return on investment
4. Flexibility
Benefits of enterprise architecture:
Possible advantages of having an enterprise architecture include:

 Improved decision-making;
 Improved adaptability to changing demands or market conditions;
 Elimination of inefficient and redundant processes;
 Optimization of the use of organizational assets;
 Minimization of employee turnover;
 Support organization changes for redesigns and reorganization;
 Makes it easier to evaluate architecture against long-term goals;
 Can give views of IT architectures to those outside of IT;
 Can help with the unification of processes in IT;