What is Visual Enterprise Architecture?

Dragon1 on Enterprise Architecture

Open method Dragon1 defines Enterprise Architecture as follows: Enterprise Architecture is a coherent set of constructive, operative and decorative concepts (such as a governance, business, information or technology concept) of an enterprise (seen as a structure).

Important to note here is that Dragon1 is the only method to define architecture in this pure way centered around the term concept. This definition contains no limited list of optional parts of the enterprise such as processes and applications and no theoretical such models, principles or diagrams.

Dragon1 defines Visual Enterprise Architecture as giving insight in and making overviews of the architecture of an enterprise.

This means there is a strict difference in Dragon1 between what is architecture and what is a product or visualization of architecture. It is a best practice to seperate the notion of architecture from its visualizations.

Beneath follow definitions of other standards or methods on Enterprise Architecture. Visual Enterprise Architecture is not yet widely recognized as term.

TOGAF about Enterprise Architecture

At the present time, TOGAF embraces but does not strictly adhere to ANSI/IEEE Std 1471-2000 terminology. In TOGAF, "architecture" has two meanings depending upon its contextual usage:

A formal description of a system, or a detailed plan of the system at component level to guide its implementation The structure of components, their inter-relationships, and the principles and guidelines governing their design and evolution over time. In TOGAF we endeavor to strike a balance between promoting the concepts and terminology of ANSI/IEEE Std 1471-2000 - ensuring that our usage of terms defined by ANSI/IEEE Std 1471-2000 is consistent with the standard - and retaining other commonly accepted terminology that is familiar to the majority of the TOGAF readership.

IEEE1471 and Enterprise Architecture

The definition of an architecture used in ANSI/IEEE Std 1471-2000 is: "The fundamental organization of a system, embodied in its components, their relationships to each other and the environment, and the principles governing its design and evolution."

Wikipedia on Enterprise Architecture

The term enterprise architecture is used in many complimentary ways. It is used to describe both a unique business practice and the aspects of a business that are being described. The Enterprise Architecture Research Forum defines the practice of enterprise architecture as follows:

Enterprise Architecture is the continuous practice of describing the essential elements of a sociotechnical organization, their relationships to each other and to the environment, in order to understand complexity and manage change.[1] In simple terms, Enterprise Architecture is a self-improvement business function that examines the structure and behavior of the various parts of an 'enterprise' and focuses on opportunities to improve it.

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