What is Enterprise Architecture?
An Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a set of concepts (with their principles) applied to an enterprise system. Enterprise Architecture is, therefore, a conceptual or architecture blueprint or another integral design that uses strategy as input.
The programs and projects that carry out the transformation use these data-driven decision making visualizations and views of the Enterprise Architectures (i.e. the Designs). EA, with that, directs and guides business change.
The Bridge between Strategy and Transformation
This page shares with you why the Dragon1 vision on Enterprise Architecture is Decision Making and how Visual Enterprise Architecture effectively used, increases the overall Enterprise Performance.
Enterprise Architecture is bridging the gap between Strategy and Transformation.
Positioning the Enterprise Architectures as the bridge between strategy and (digital) transformation of the business or organization is becoming more and more common. The strategy of an organization states what the owner/client and stakeholders want to achieve in their goals, objectives, priorities, and requirements.
Architecture Diagram at Conceptual Level
Enterprise Architecture is defined as a coherent set of concepts for an enterprise system or structure. So an EA diagram at the conceptual level should only show the concepts that are necessary to be implemented in the organization, because of the strategy and business model.
Mapping diagrams at a conceptual level.
Enterprise Blueprint at Logical Level
When it is clear what the important concepts are to be implemented in the organization (as part of the architecture), every concept can be detailed into elements at a logical level. One can create concept diagrams showing the impact of change and implementation costs. One can also, like below, show in a layered blueprint all the elements of all concepts together.
What Enterprise Architects often encounter is that the necessary input they need for EA, the strategy, is often fragmented, inconsistent, having no status, without ownership, outdated, unfindable, a big secret, and inaccessible.
Example Blueprint of a Digital Twin Organization: Strategy on the left, Architecture in the middle, Transformation on the right.
It is a real challenge for architects not to become the next strategy developer but only the catalyzer of the process of increasing coherence and consistency in strategy. If he or she does this process well, they will have at a certain moment in time a perfect starting point for designing the EA. After creating the EA (or other architectures) they are tasked with creating communicative and visual products that help tell the story and ensure that the enterprise architecture is used in digital transformation programs to manage risk, projects, strategy, data, and change for decision-making.
Currently one of the biggest problems they have is that their EA products aren't used because they are too hard to understand for project managers and project workers.
Holistic View of the Company
Dragon1 as Enterprise Architecture approach helps you to look in a holistic way to the company. Below is an example reference model:
Enterprise Architecture is Data-Driven Decision Making with a Holistic Company View.
EA Principles
Enterprise Architecture Principles describe how concepts (that are implemented in the organization) work and produce results (principles are enforced working mechanisms). Concepts are selected based on the goals, objectives, and requirements that stakeholders have. A principle is always true, so a principle, therefore, guides behavior and innovation. Principles are normally translated into standards and norms.
Principles are NOT general rules and guidelines.
Principles inform and support how an organization sets about fulfilling its mission.
Principles are established on all EA Domains.
Business Principles – provide a basis for data-driven decision making throughout the business:
Business Principles
- Principle 1 – Primacy of Principles
- Principle 2 – Compliance with Statutory Obligations
- Principle 3 – Maximise Benefit to the Enterprise
- Principle 4 – Information Management is Everybody's Business
- Principle 5 – Business Continuity
- Principle 6 – Common Use Applications
- Principle 7 – IT Responsibility
Data Principles
- Principle 8 – Data Security
- Principle 9 – Data is an Asset
- Principle 10 – Data is Shared
- Principle 11 – Data is Accessible
- Principle 12 – Data Trustee
- Principle 13 – Data will be Analyzable
Application Principles
- Principle 14 – Technology Independence
- Principle 15 – Ease of Use
- Principle 16 – Purchase rather than Develop
Technology Principles
- Principle 17 – Requirements-Based Change
- Principle 18 – Control Technical Diversity
Enterprise Performance: A single starting point of reference
The only legitimate reason to be busy with (spending time and money on) EA is to increase the performance of the enterprise, whether it is for the short term or long term. It is all and only about Enterprise Performance Management (EPM). Dragon1 Enterprise Architecture Method provides us with a simple but effective framework to outline the most important subjects on this matter:
In the Enterprise Performance Framework you see that the two most important parts of the strategy are the Objectives and Goals to realize and the directions to head to realize the goals.
The strategy, as a coherent whole, is the perfect input for enterprise architects to create and build enterprise architectures, like business architecture and IT architecture. The most important EA products are the AS-IS and TO-BE EA Blueprints (an integral conceptual enterprise design) and the EA Framework Diagram. And on top of that per project, solution, or change a Solution Architecture Blueprint. These products are used in digital transformation or business change projects.
Projects make use of roadmaps, solution architectures and EA to create perfect-fitting solutions as a result. Changing or transforming the enterprise into these integrated solutions enables the enterprise to plan and realize the business goals and objectives in the defined strategic direction.
A brief Enterprise Performance example: if the goal is to become the world leader in selling bakery products online via social media, your program of change and projects will need a solution architecture and roadmap on how to embed social media as selling the platform for the enterprise. NOTE: This sounds much simpler to do than it is!
Now, we will dive into the three parts of the Enterprise Performance Framework:
- Enterprise Strategy
- Enterprise Architecture
- Enterprise Transformation / Business Change
1. Enterprise Strategy - EA starts with Strategy as Input
Strategy can be defined as a set of coherent goals and objectives and the directions to head to realize these goals.
That said one can recognize various entity classes present in every enterprise that together make up the reference metamodel for Enterprise Strategy. Below you see the Reference Meta-Model for Strategy from the Dragon1 Method. Here you see entity classes that together make up a major part of your strategy.
It is your job to make sure that you create a Program of Requirements as input for enterprise architectures, solutions, or business architectures. Make sure that the enterprise strategy information is put in the program of requirements.
Dragon1 platform provides you with an EA Repository tool, Visual Designer tool, and Enterprise Architecture tool with which you can administer, model, and manage all the information from various strategic documents you get and glue them together using this model as reference.
You may have a different opinion about enterprise strategy. In that case, you easily alter the model to fit your vision of enterprise strategy.
When enterprise architects ask for a coherent and consistent strategy so it matches the Dragon1 model above, they often get a zip file with documents and need to create the coherent and consistent version themselves.
If architects do not get strategy handed over by the owner/clients and stakeholders as input, they might get on a drift. Means: that they start filling in the blanks and without the intention of doing so, they become strategy designers.
If architects have blanks or gaps in the enterprise strategy, you should better create visualizations for the stakeholders and show them gaps are requesting them to fill them in. And as long as the stakeholders are not ready, you work with assumptions. It is all right you do this, but make sure they know it.
2. Enterprise Architecture as Conceptual Blueprint for Agile Lean Enterprises
Dragon1 considers the total concept of your enterprise consisting of a coherent set of constructive, operative, and decorative governance, business, information, and technology concepts. In short, Dragon1 defines Enterprise Architecture as a conceptual blueprint for your company. Architecture equals Concept!
Below you see an example conceptual model, an EA overview. It is the quest of enterprise architects to find the right concepts for the strategy.
Below, you see another example of a mixed conceptual & logical reference model for an enterprise with common entity classes that are present in almost any enterprise. It is these entity classes that need to be recognized and modeled by architects.
Architects are defined as the designers of a total concept for a structure, enterprise (EA), or solutions (SA) and the supervisors of their realizations. So he or she needs a specialized design tool to do the job excellently.
Dragon1 software provides Visualization Data tools with which architects can design and analyze enterprise architectures and any data products they need, like landscapes, blueprints, roadmaps, visions, maps, enterprise architecture diagrams, and matrices.
As Solutions / Business / Project / Technical / IT and Security Architects, they design total concepts for an integrated solution for the enterprise, to improve its performance.
When designing an architecture (total concept), you need to use requirements from stakeholders. The strategy must always be used by architects as the most important set of requirements.
These total concepts are designed at four different levels of abstraction: conceptual, logical, physical, and implementational levels and in close collaboration with the owner/client and stakeholder. In the model above you see common logical-level entity classes.
On this page about EA Core Reference Model you can read all about the various levels of abstractions. You will read architects use concepts, principles, and patterns and create building blocks so that high-quality integral solutions can be built and implemented. What we will mention here is that the design of every architecture will result in tangible data products: blueprints, landscapes, visions, impressions, and diagrams. It is with these products, that architecture is communicated to the various stakeholders, like project workers who build the solutions and implement change.
3. Enterprise Transformation / Business Change: Solution Architectures & Roadmap based
At this point the strategy has served as input for EA. And solution requirements from stakeholders have served as input for solution architectures. And blueprints, landscapes, maps, diagrams, or matrices are created to communicate the architectural designs.
Now, it all comes down to realizing/building the solutions integrally and implementing them as change, transforming the enterprise for the better.
In the Enterprise Transformation reference model below, you see that integral design and integral change are key. So that finally, the projects must have deliverables as outcomes that can be placed in a business or IT plateaus.
A best practice to work on a project effectively with enterprise architectures and designs and keep them conforming to the integral ideas is to create roadmaps. A roadmap dictates what should be done when at best and when it is needed by something else.
The platform is your online Project Management Tool to map, monitor, and manage enterprise architecture, digital transformation solutions, and projects excellently.
You can create or even generate product breakdown structures and work breakdown structures from your solution architecture and provide your stakeholders with interactive click-through roadmaps so their hunger for progress information can be fulfilled any time they want.
We live in turbulent times: Heading towards Digital Businesses
New technologies like 3D printing, the Internet of Things, and smart machines are arising quickly and mixing up with recent technologies like big data, mobile devices, and the cloud.
The challenge for modern digital business architects is to try to deliver new business value, with sustainability as a starting point, for their organizations in an exciting new way. The more quickly you as an organization apply these new technologies the more you will be on the right side of the game-changing in various industries.
Making your Business Model explicit becomes more important
Digital Business is the new word, meaning your organization is digitizing and virtualizing on the internet, whether you want it or not. Your competitors will do so too!
If your business becomes more digital, it is very wise to explicit your business in models and data visualizations to get a better grip on it. Creating an enterprise architecture data visualization enables you to communicate about your new business model and accelerate data-driven
decision-making visualizations.
Enterprise Architectures created in the Visualization Data tool.
Digital Transformation Architects Innovate Ecosystems
The professionals for these new types of organizations are called Digital Transformation Architects. Digital Businesses have new opportunities for innovation, growth, and thus competitive advantages. The transformation architects are the ones to lead the digital transformation of your organization. And for that to happen successfully he must place EA between strategy and transformation.
Strategists and IT innovation teams are the Digital Architects with exciting times ahead. Let us all look forward to the new ventures that are bound to arise.
Also read the next resources
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