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IFEAD is an independent research and information
exchange organization working on the future state of Enterprise
Architecture.
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Enterprise
Enterprise Architecture Methods, Tools, Frameworks, Approach
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Enterprise
Architecture Definition
'Enterprise
Architecture is about understanding all of the different
elements
that go to make up the enterprise and how those elements
interrelate'.
A
good definition of "enterprise"
in this context is any collection of organizations
that has a common set of goals/principles and/or single
bottom line. In that sense, an enterprise can be a
whole corporation, a division of a corporation, a
government organization, a single department, or a
network of geographically distant organizations linked
together by common objectives.
A
good definition of "elements"
in this context is all the elements that enclose the
areas of People, Processes, Business and Technology.
In that sense, examples of elements are: strategies,
business drivers, principles, stakeholders, units,
locations, budgets, domains, functions, activities,
processes, services, products, information, communications,
applications, systems, infrastructure, etc
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Another
View at Extended Enterprise Architecture Viewpoints
This
article is trying to explain the important role of
Extended Enterprise Architecture Viewpoints in the
context of today's social-economic circumstances.
It
describes and shows another view at Extended Enterprise
Architecture Viewpoints and how to deal with the (extended)
enterprise stakeholders concerns. Based on the ideas
described in IEEE 1471-2000 about views and viewpoints,
a transformation of these concepts into the Enterprise
architecture domain delivers another view at viewpoints
and views.
Looking
from the outside world to an Enterprise, several groups
of (extended) enterprise stakeholders are influencing
the goals, objectives and behavior of the Enterprise.
Even so these groups of Enterprise stakeholders have
different concerns and therefore different sets of
viewpoints when we analyze these extended enterprise
stakeholders.
Clustering
their concerns in four generic categories is showing
the drivers of the Enterprise and delivers the understanding
of what motivates your (extended) enterprise stakeholders.
Download
this article 370KB PDF
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How
Differentiate Enterprise Architects from Engineers
Architecture
in the world of Enterprise Architects is addressing
3 major areas in a holistic way: The area of construction,
the area of function and the area of style. Style
is reflecting the culture, values, norms and principles
of an organization. Most of the time, the term architecture
is dealing with construction and function, without
any attention of the style aspect, while the style
aspect reflects the cultural behavior, values, norms
and principles of that organization in such a way
that it reflects the corporate values of that organization.
So my statement is that Architecture differentiate
from Engineering and Design by the fact of explicitly
incorporating and reflecting the style characteristics
in the results of the work of an Architect. So don't
call every designer or engineer, architect, because
it are different roles with different capabilities.
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The
Extended Enterprise
Within
the decade, we will see highly intelligent enterprises
come to dominate their space. As noted, they will
capitalize on the technology to withstand shocks and
to maximize fit with the environment. They will utilize
their adaptiveness to shape and execute real-time
strategic options. Make no mistake - these will not
be simply “learning organizations” - but instead action-based
entities that attack open space, defend instinctively,
and anticipate possibilities. For organizations who
do not upgrade their capabilities to competitively
adaptive levels, difficulties will multiply rapidly.
Costs will appear out of control vis-ŕ-vis
the best-evolving players and historical knowledge
of customers will quickly decay in value. In defense, the smarter of these players will
elect to outsource large pieces of their core businesses
to superior firms and then recombine the pieces imaginatively
to suit specific opportunities - thus creating a modular
or plug-and-play capability that is both strong and
flexible and that extends their original boundaries.
Enterprise
Architecture provides a mechanism that enables communication
about the essential elements and functioning of the
enterprise.
It
yields centralized, stable, and consistent information
about the enterprise environment. In a financial organisation,
for example, an EA program would help executives pinpoint
the organisations more lucrative markets, understand
how well the organisations current resources are meeting
customer needs in those locations, and determine what
kind of systems might be needed to improve services.
The
precise, high-quality information an EA program provides
also make it much easier for the organization to respond
to the forces of change and make better decisions.
And finally, because an EA program enables organizations
to reduce duplication and inconsistencies in information,
they can dramatically improve ROI for future IT implementations
common enterprise architecture information and building
a repository to store it.
Enterprise
Architecture Program View
This
EA program view addresses at a holistic way the elements
of strategy, frameworks, the overall EA process, methods
& techniques, standards and tools.
Measurement
techniques in terms of risk, costs and benefits have
to be added to all elements of the enterprise architecture
program to validate their contribution to the overall
result.
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'Extended
Enterprise Architecture'
SM the Holistic Perspective
The
Extended Enterprise Architecture (E2A) in the world
of organizations and Technology is addressing 3 major
elements at a holistic way: The element of construction,
the element of function and the element of style.
Style is reflecting the culture, values, norms and
principles of an organization. Most of the time, the
term enterprise architecture is dealing with construction
and function, without any attention of the style aspect,
while the style aspect reflects the cultural behavior,
values, norms and principles of that organization
in such a way that it reflects the corporate values
of that organization. At the same time, the Enterprise
Architecture addresses the aspects of Business, Information,
Information-Systems and Technology Infrastructure
in a holistic way covering the organization and its
environment at zoning plan and city plan level.
Integrating the business as well as information aspects at a holistic
way, guarantees a natural alignment of Business and
Technology.
So, my statement is that you can't speak about Enterprise Architecture,
when the Business and Information aspects are not
incorporated in the approach at a holistic way, aligning
the needs of the Business with the possibilities of
the Technology.
 There
are a lot of organization today speaking and writing
about Enterprise Architecture, however most of the
time they only address the Technological aspects of
the Enterprise. Enterprise Architects who are able
to address all the aspects of the Enterprise at a
holistic way, will get the trust of the top management
for supporting change of the organization by reducing
and managing the complexity and creating an atlas
for change in all aspect areas.
So
Enterprise Architects are not Techies with a blind
focus on technology, but very experienced people with
a broad Business and Technology vision, able to create
Enterprise value by translating business opportunities
and technology possibilities at a holistic way into
a continously change cycle guided by the Extended
Enterprise Architecture.
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Planning
for the Extended Enterprise
In
a world populated by value creating and value exchanging
entities, often the decision will come down to owning
one of three fundamental value propositions.
You will either be able to own the customer, own the
content that the customer seeks to acquire, or own
the infrastructure that allows the content to be produced
or the value to be exchanged. Each has a different
business model. Each exploits a unique core competence.
Each employs a different means of generating economic
returns. However, in the connected economy, attempting
to own all of them simultaneously will increasingly
become a game of diminishing returns. When the network
allows competitors to fill the gaps in their offerings
at no additional cost, owning all of these competencies
only increases risk without necessarily increasing
returns.
As
the factors that make up the economic environment
change under the influence of the Internet, we can
begin to anticipate how and where they will alter
the cohesion and boundaries of the entities that make
up the connected economy. We can estimate which industries
and business models will likely become threatened
and which will likely survive. In the process, we
can redefine the way in which our organizations will
participate and continue to create value for customers
and shareholders alike. In the technology we choose
the possibilities that fits best to this collaborative
environment.
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Enterprise
Architecture Validation SM
Recent
Surveys of CEO's, CIO's and other executives provide
some evidence of the growing importance of Enterprise
Architecture over the last few years. In one of the
most recent studies of the Institute For Enterprise
Architecture Developments (IFEAD), Enterprise Architecture
was ranked near the top of the list of most important
issues considered by top management, CEO's and CIO's.
The
precise, high-quality information an EA program provides
also make it much easier for the organization to respond
to the forces of change and make better decisions.
And finally, because an EA program enables organizations
to reduce duplication and inconsistencies in information,
they can dramatically improve ROI for future Business
& IT implementations.
Download
the full version of the 'Enterprise Architecture Validation'
article (1.420 Kb PDF) 
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The
Enterprise Architecture Implementation Guide
version 2.1
Based
on our best practices and earlier published
implementation experiences and guides in the
EA domain, IFEAD has refined and updated the
Enterprise Architecture Implementation Guide
v2.1. A 120 pages EA implementation guide addressing
all the elements organizations has to think
about when implementing EA. This guide is not
available as a for free publication but is part
of IFEAD's EA implementation strategy and is
used by our researchers and partners, supporting
organisations with the implementation of EA
preventing them for the pitfalls and mistakes
that unexperienced organisations often will
make.
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NEW
2006
Enterprise
Architecture Deliverables Guide
Version 2.6
The
Enterprise Architecture Deliverables Guide is
giving an overview of the most common used EA
deliverables and models and is used in combination
with the EA Implementation Guide to implement
the EA function in organizations.
This
guide is not available as a for free publication
but is part of IFEAD's EA implementation strategy
and is used by our researchers and partners,
supporting organisations with the implementation
of EA preventing them for the pitfalls and mistakes
that unexperienced organisations often will
make. Verdonck, Klooster & Associates is
one of the partners of IFEAD that delivers EA
implementation services based on our books &
guides. |
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Enterprise
Architecture Process Cycle
The
Enterprise Architecture Process Cycle is describing
the stakeholders Win-Win processes and the role of
the Enterprise Architect in an ever challanging environment,
based on the use of an Enterprise Architecture Framework.
This article is written in 2001 and has to be updated,
however several requests from readers forced us to
publish the original article again.
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2006
Enterprise
Architecture Assessment Guide
Version
2.2
Today
the area of (enterprise) architecture in the virtual
digital world will become more and more full-grown.
So the focus is changing to the quality of the work
of enterprise architects. How can we review the results
of the work of (enterprise) architects and how can
we review their process. Can we define quality criteria
to validate the products and results from other architects?
This
document describes the main line of a methodology
/ approach in use by several organisation to assess
the activities and results of enterprise architects.
The
effect of knowing that the results will be reviewed
is that enterprise architects are taking more
time and effort to implement and manage their
enterprise architecture processes effectively
as well as the take more attention to the quality
of their results and decision-making.
Enterprise
Architecture Score Card
SM
Version
2.2
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Extended Enterprise
Architecture Framework / E2AF &
Extended Enterprise Architecture Maturity Model / E2AMM are Service Marks
(SM) registered by IFEAD |
