copyright © 2013 curt hill enterprise architecture what is it?

Copyright © 2013 Curt Hill

Enterprise Architecture

What is it?

Architecture• We have already seen the

definition of architecture• Usually has to do with buildings• It has been applied to almost

anything that is designed• Engineering was originally the

design and maintenance of engines

• Now we have civil, mechanical, chemical, nuclear, aviation engineers, among others


Short Definitions• Mine:

– Organizational engineering and analysis

• SIM Enterprise Architecture Working Group:– The holistic set of descriptions about the

enterprise over time

• We will look at several others and analyze what they are saying– Scott Bernard– IBM– Federal Government


Scott Bernard’s Enterprise• Enterprise:

– An area of common activity and goals within an organization or between several organizations, where information and other resources are exchanged

• His definition of enterprise allows many things that do not come to mind, but should– Government– Consortia of companies or non-profits


Enterprise Architecture• Also from Scott Bernard

– The analysis and documentation of an enterprise in its current and future states from an integrated strategy, business and technology perspective

• Notes– His emphasis of documentation is

oriented toward the practictioner– Also captures the different

perspectives that are important– The notion of change is important


IBMs Definition

• An Enterprise Architecture is a tool that links the business mission and strategy of an organization to its IT strategy. It is documented using multiple architectural models that meet the current and future needs of diverse user populations, and it must adapt to changing business requirements and technology.


IBM Commentary

• This also captures the notion of:– Change– Documentation– Perspectives

• It is not just about business and not just about technology, but about how technology and business are fused together

• Remember multiple architectural models


Wikipedia• Enterprise architecture is the

process of translating business vision and strategy into effective enterprise change by creating, communicating and improving the key requirements, principles and models that describe the enterprise's future state and enable its evolution.

• How is this similar and different?Copyright © 2013 Curt Hill

General Accounting Office

• A blueprint for organizational transformation and IT modernization, which consists of snapshots of the enterprise’s current, or “as-is,” operational and technological environment and its target, or “to-be,” environment, and contains a capital investment road map for transitioning from the current to the target environment.


GAO Again

• They went on to say:• EAs provide a clear and

comprehensive picture of an entity, whether an organization (e.g. department, agency or bureau) or a functional or mission area that cuts across more than one organization


Clinger Cohen

• Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1996

• An integrated framework for evolving or maintaining existing information technology and acquiring new information technology to achieve the agency’s strategic goals and information resource management goals.


OMB• The explicit description and documentation

of the current and desired relationships among business and management processes and information technology. It describes the "current architecture" and "target architecture" to include the rules and standards and systems life cycle information to optimize and maintain the environment which the agency wishes to create and maintain by managing its IT portfolio. The EA must also provide a strategy that will enable the agency to support its current state and also act as the roadmap for transition to its target environment.


Progress

• One of the points of EA is that we are seldom where we want to be– In regards to organizational structure

• Inherently we have two models that need to be constructed– The current or as-is model of the

enterprise– The desired or to-be model of the

enterprise

• Both of these are moving targetsCopyright © 2013 Curt Hill

Why EA?• Share resources and development across

many departments• Share user populations, data access and

analytics• Uniform delivery of same information to all

users• Synchronize multi-function and cross-

department IT investments• Develop long-term IT investments that

embrace extensibility and maintainability• Anticipate project growth as applications

increase


What Problems does EA solve?

• Organizations were spending large amounts of money building IT systems

• Organizations were finding it difficult to keep IT systems aligned with business need

• Organizations were finding that their IT components duplicated one another but were not compatible


Put another way

• A video


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDI2oF1bASk

EA History I• P. Duane Walker seems to be the

first to work on this– 1960s– Business Systems Planning– John A. Zachman was one of his

students

• Zachman’s A Framework for Information Systems Architecture was published in IBM Systems Journal in 1987 – The field is now born


EA History II

• DOD introduces Technical Framework for Information Management (TAFIM) in 1994– Heavily influenced by Zachman

• Clinger Cohen in ’96 mandates federal agencies to improve IT effectiveness– This is TAFIM made into statute– Council of CIOs is formed to oversee

effortCopyright © 2013 Curt Hill

EA History III

• First product of CIO Council is the Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF)– 1999 release

• Under OMB this evolved into Federal Architecture Framework– 2002

• By 2004 only 20 of 96 agencies had established an EA foundation– From a very critical GAO report


EA History IV

• TAFIM is discontinued in ’96– “Given” to the The Open Group

• Evolves into The Open Group Architectural Framework (TOGAF)– Version 1.2 released in 1999

• One last player: Gartner group– Large CIO consulting organization– They buy the Meta Group with an EA

product in about 2005


Methodologies/Frameworks

• Commercially the top 4 were just mentioned– Zachman– FEA– TOGAF– Gartner

• The book promotes EA3 Cube• Some of these we will look at in

more detail in future presentations


Architecture• The Empire State Building is not

architecture, but instead the result of architecture– It is an implementation or instantiation

of the architect’s vision

• In this sense engineering and architecture are essentially the same

• What the engineer and architect both do is provide descriptions that may be used to implement the vision


Zachman’s Test

• If you can look at an object and remember enough of the details to reproduce it, then you do not need architecture or engineering

• As things become more complicated then representations are needed for those who implement– Drawings, blueprints, specifications,

descriptions of materials and the like


Target Audience

• Enterprise architecture is for large organizations

• Small organizations have inherently better communication

• They tend to have an easier time to making decisions considering all the needs of all the employees and all the clients– They usually are better at reacting

quicklyCopyright © 2013 Curt Hill

Evolution• Corporate structures tend to evolve• A single person company needs no

structure• As more employees are added the

structure grows, first informally and later informally

• Restructuring is an attempt to give a more usable design to what has evolved

• EA is the attempt to design the engineer the entire enterprise


John Zachman• Describes his search for understanding:

I began by trying to discover what Information Systems Architecture was and actually discovered that it was not Information Systems Architecture that I was looking for at all… it was Architecture in general and Enterprise Architecture in particular. The end object IS NOT to build and run information systems. The end object is to engineer and manufacture the Enterprise.


Corporate Diagram


Goals

Sales

H R

R & D

Marketin

g

LogisticsEngineeringIT

Commentary• The goals of the organization are

on the rim– This is the face that the enterprise

projects

• The spokes are those activities that support the goals:– Manufacturing, marketing, HR, …

• IT mostly supports the spokes, so should be part of the hub

• EA organizes things to bring alignment


Finally• IT may no longer be considered a

separate piece of an organization• The organizational goal must be to

include procedures and IT in a reasonable way

• Business value and agility will best be realized by a holistic approach to systems architecture that explicitly looked at every important issue from every important perspective


copyright © 2013 curt hill enterprise architecture what is it?

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