Department of Information Systems

Subject: Enterprise IS/IT Architecture

Introduction to technical architecture

Arif Wibisono
wibisono@is.its.ac.id
Main references:

 Col Perks, Tony Beveridge, Guide to Enterprise IT Architecture, Springer,

2003
 Kalani Hausman, Susan L Cook, IT Architecture for Dummies, Wiley
Publishing, 2011

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Outline

 Background
 Definition of Architecture
 A Brief History of Technical Architectures
- The Iron Age
- The Renaissance
- The Industrial Revolution
- Galactic Enlightenment
 Enterprise Architectures
- Management Checklist
- Information Architecture
- Business Systems Architecture
- Technical Architecture
- Application Architecture
 Summary
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Learning Objective

 Introduce and define the concept of technical architecture

 Introduce some of the benefits of a technical architecture approach
 Compare and contrast technical architecture with other types of
architecture (information architecture, business systems architecture,
and application architecture)
 Position the technical architecture in relation to business strategic
planning
 Provide a brief history of how organizations have traditionally developed
technical architectures and the form they may take in the future

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Definition of Architecture

 Architecture: Webster Dictionary:

- formation or construction as or as if as the result of a conscious act;
- a unifying or coherent form or structure;
- the art or science of building

Building Architecture Diagram

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Definition of Architecture

 The key components of this definition revolve around a conscious or

coherent approach toward something with a defined structure reflecting
a certain beauty.
 The architecting of a building, for instance, is based on solid and
coherent reasoning.
 An architecture typically establishes a shared vision.
- However, simply setting the vision is not enough.
- It must be communicated to the builders, the clients, and interested
third parties alike.
- It must be maintained throughout the lifecycle of the construction
effort, and
- it must bridge the gap between the requirements of the client,

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Definition or Architecture

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Definition of Architecture

 Common definition:
- It is used to define a single ‘‘system.’’
- It describes the functional aspects of the system.
- It concentrates on describing the structure of the system.
- It describes both the intra-system and inter-system relationships.
- It sets in place guidelines, policies, and principles that govern the
system’s design, development, and evolution over time.

General Functional System

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Definition of Architecture

 At a high level, the enterprise IT architecture consists of a hierarchy of

architectural disciplines that can be loosely associated with full IT
delivery, as follows:
- The information architecture
- The business systems architecture
- The technical architecture
- The software or application architecture

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Definition of Architecture

 The information architecture

- Deals with the structure and use of information within the
organization,
- Deals with the alignment of information with the organization’s
strategic, tactical, and operational needs.
 The business systems architecture
- Structures the information needs into a delineation of necessary
business systems to meet those needs
 The technical architecture
- Defines the technical environment and infrastructure in which all
information systems exist.
 The software or application
- Defines the structure of individual systems based on defined
technology.

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Technical Architecture

 Key Definition: Technical Architecture.

- Defines the technical and governance platform on which an
organization builds its IT systems to support business benefit.
 Key benefit of effective technical architecture:
- A more effective IT operation
- Better return on existing investment and reduced risk for future
investment
- Faster, simpler, and cheaper procurement
- Flexibility for business growth and restructuring
- Faster time-to-market

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Brief history of technical architecture

 The concept of the technical architecture existed in the IT industry long

before it was even called the IT industry
 There are four phase of IT history:
- Iron age
- The Renaissance
- The Industrial Revolution
- Galactic Enlightenment (maybe)

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Brief history of technical architecture

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The Iron Age

 This period was characterized by large, proprietary, and above all

expensive mainframe technology
 Then architecture was related to the construction of the system itself
predominantly the hardware. It was defined at the time as ‘‘the
conceptual structure of the system as seen by the programmer’’ and
replace older, less stylized IBM terms such as ‘‘machine organization.’’
 This also marked the beginning of the separation of a purely software
architectural approach and the architecture of the remainder of the
infrastructure and environment.

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The Renaissance

 The Renaissance was driven by the birth of the minicomputer and the
UNIX operating system.
 As increasing numbers of vendors, the open and standard specifications
to aid the integration and interoperability of software products from
more than one source were increasing.
 For organizations, it became critical to understand which standards they
should be buying into. Even the supposedly simple act of choosing
networking protocols—basic infrastructure choices—was complicated
by a variety of competing technologies and vendors
 ‘‘The Internet’’ was conceived and was growing slowly.

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The Industrial Revolution

 The Industrial Revolution was heralded by still cheaper and better

performing systems and the arrival of the personal computer
 In architectural terms, this period can be summarized as architecture by
product. Organizations were able to make strategic product choices
based on alliances with a small number of vendors.
 The domination of Microsoft at the desktop (and then the server) aided
this architectural approach.
 Internet exploded
 Still exists

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Galactic Enlightenment

 Future dream of IT Architecture

 Architecturally, the integration of a wide variety of technologies in
desired service portfolios will become increasingly important. No longer
will systems consist of a few parts.
 Organizations will not only need to integrate complex internal
components into functioning systems, but they will also have to integrate
the systems of their suppliers and customers both nationally and
internationally.

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Enterprise Architecture

 Key Definition: Enterprise IT Architecture (EA).

 The collection of strategic and architectural disciplines that encompass :
- The Information
- Business System
- Technical Architectures.
 Synergy between the Enterprise IT Architecture and the concepts that
embodies information systems strategic planning (ISSP)
- Similarity : Both provide guidelines for systems to be implemented,
technologies to be considered, and information to be gained
- Difference : ISSP discuss financial and organizational issues while
EA does not

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Enterprise Architecture

CSF : Critical Success Factor

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Enterprise Architecture

 An organization that uses architectural techniques in this manner can

satisfy a number of key IT principles:
- The provisioning of business systems and IT can be managed to
support business objectives.
- Decisions about the priority and interdependence of business
systems, and the opportunities for using IT, are taken on the basis of
an agreed formulation of business objectives and information needs.
- The rapid and flexible provision of new and enhanced systems, and
information to support business initiatives, is done within a common
framework of understanding (i.e., the enterprise architecture).
- The practical evolution of an organization’s technology takes into
account the organization’s current systems and technological
situation and the medium- to long-term technology vision.
- The evolution and adoption of technology is driven by business
priorities.

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Information Architecture

 Information architecture (IA) views the activities performed by the

enterprise and the information required in performing them

Example of Information
Architecture: Website Map

Webpages are available only for

certain roles with certain rights.

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Information Architecture

 Some of the functions involved in developing the IA are as follows:

- Identify the organization’s information needs. Establish a set of
business facts and express them in terms of the organization’s
information needs.
- Define the information architecture. Architectural definition uses
techniques such as parallel decomposition, value chain analysis, and
event analysis.
- Analyze function dependencies. Verify and refine the function
decomposition by identifying the dependencies among functions.

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Information Architecture

Some of the functions involved in developing the IA are as follows:

- Define entities and relationships. Refine the data portion of the IA—in
essence this is a corporate data-modeling exercise.
- Information needs mapping. Complete the list of entity types by
comparing them with the list of information needs.
- Analyze entity type use. Record the expected effects of business
functions on entity types, and validate and refine the activity
hierarchy diagram and the entity relationship diagram.
- Map functions and entity types to organizational units. Relate data to
the organization, checking the activity hierarchy and identifying how
elements of the IA are used.

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Business System Architecture

 Business Systems: Defines the structure and content (information and

function) of all business systems in the organization  simpler
definition : Business Process Grouping

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Technical Architecture

 Technical architecture describes and maintains the integrity of :

- the hardware,
- software, and
- infrastructure environment
required to support the BSA and the IA—that is, in technical architecture
speak,.

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Application Architecture

 Application architecture deals specifically with the structure of

individual applications and systems.
 It can be consider the most detailed of the architectural processes and
has a functionally-specific focus.
 There is usually an overlap between the technical architecture and the
application architecture.
 The technical architecture drives standards, techniques, and policy-
based aspects of the application architecture.

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Management Checklist

 This simple checklist is a rapid health check of the current state of IT

within your organization.
 It is business, not technically, related, and is designed to zero in on the
issues that can be resolved by adopting an enterprise architecture
approach

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Management Checklist

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Management Checklist

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Management Checklist

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Management Checklist

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Management Checklist

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Management Checklist

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Thank You

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Definition of Architecture

 The information architecture

- Deals with the structure and use of information within the
organization,
- and the alignment of information with the organization’s strategic,
tactical, and operational needs.

Example of Information
Architecture: Website Map

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Definition of Architecture

 The business systems architecture

- Structures the information needs into a delineation of necessary
business systems to meet those needs

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