Enterprise Architecture (EA)

Enterprise Architecture (EA)

Enterprise architecture is a comprehensive framework used to manage and align an organization's Information Technology (IT) assets, people, operations, and projects with its operational characteristics. In other words, the enterprise architecture defines how information and technology will support the business operations and provide benefit for the business. Enterprise Architecture has become a common practice for large IT organizations. For the first time there is a methodology to encompass all of the various IT aspects and processes into a single practice. However, realizing the full potential of Enterprise Architecture (EA) can be challenging. There are many aspects to EA, including architecture planning, governance, taxonomies and ontology, all of which impact its success. Without the right guidance, tools, frameworks and methodologies EA can quickly become unwieldy.
It illustrates the organization’s core mission, each component critical to performing that mission, and how each of these components is interrelated. These components include:
· Guiding principles
· Organization structure
· Business processes
· People or stakeholders
· Applications, data, and infrastructure
· Technologies upon which networks, applications and systems are built
Guiding principles, organization structure, business processes, and people don’t sound very technical. That’s because enterprise architecture is about more than technology. It is about the entire organization (or enterprise) and identifying all of the bits and pieces that make the organization work.
Enterprise Architecture’s Benefits
Well-documented, well-understood enterprise architecture enables the organization to respond quickly to changes in the environment in which the organization operates. It serves as a ready reference that enables the organization to assess the impact of the changes on each of the enterprise architecture components. It also ensures the components continue to operate smoothly through the changes.