Enterprise Architecture describes the fundamental organization of the business, its components and
the relationship between those components. Good enterprise architecture allows people to
understand the business vision, the organization and processes that execute the vision, and the
systems that support it.
Enterprise architecture can be extremely complex and cover many dimensions. For a simplified
description of enterprise architecture, we are going to distinguish between three major layers, as
illustrated in Figure 1.
Strategy
Typically (or ideally) the business vision drives the business strategy. To monitor progress on the
extent to which the business vision is achieved, a performance measurement framework is created
that defines the goals that are to be achieved by business operation and the measurements that
indicate movement towards those goals.
Process
The achievement of those goals is realized by the business processes. The business processes will
define the work to be done on a day-to day basis. The performance measurements defined in the
performance measurement framework monitors progress.
Often business processes are defined in two categories. The first is called a value chain, within
which business processes are defined that directly add value to the customer by it execution. The
second category is that of supporting processes that defines processes that exist in order for the
value chain processes to
System
In order to automate and support key business processes, software and hardware systems are
often implemented. These systems contain the information and mechanisms necessary for
successful business process execution.
Alignment
The three layers will naturally be misaligned to some extent. In a dynamic organization there will
always be strategy components that are not implemented until well after formulation. The effect will
be that processes may not exist for some of the strategy components. In the same way as process
grows, it is possible that the systems to support it may not be present yet. In the bigger scheme of
things it follows that the process lags behind strategy and systems lag behind process.
Over time as strategic initiatives change, processes evolve and systems adapt, this misalignment
may cause the gaps between the layers to shrink and grow.
One way to manage these gaps is the establishment of an enterprise architecture framework that
links these layers together with architecture models. This is done by modelling the components of
enterprise architecture and creating the relationships between them.
A simplified mapping approach is defined in Figure 2.
Simple mappings like this allow for a number of scenarios to be considered:
- Should a goal change, there is visibility of which processes are affected and, through the
process-system relationship, which system and system functions are affected.
- When a new software system is considered or implemented, there is visibility on which
processes, activities and, via the process-goal relationship, which goals are impacted.
- Should the process change, there is immediate visibility of goals and systems impacted.
- If a goal is not supported by process the gap is visible.
- If a process is not supported by a system the gap is visible.
- If redundant processes and systems exist it is visible by the non-existence of goal and process
parents.
The primary benefit of such an enterprise framework mapping is the immediate visibility of impact
of change. It follows that such a mapping also highlights gaps that exist in the enterprise
architectures. Typically these gaps can be addressed by the launch of appropriate projects and
initiatives.
Strategically, the mapping allows an orderly planning for and implementation of change in the
enterprise. It greatly enhances the rate at which change can be adopted since all affected
dimensions are known up front.
There are several enterprise frameworks that may be used to create such mappings, of which the
most influential one is the Zachman framework (formulated by John Zachman). For more
information on the Zachman Framework, visit www.zifa.com.
Note. In some of the upcoming articles we will reference some of these frameworks and discuss
methods and techniques that may be used in mapping the enterprise architecture.
