An enterprise’s architecture is fundamentally a description of the components and structures that are used to deliver its purpose. More specifically it is the classification of its processes, people, tools, raw materials, metrics/data, and products/outcomes so that they can be consistently used in designs and solutions utilised by the enterprise. The aim is to improve efficacy and efficiency, to optimise how the enterprise works and makes decisions. The benefit will be better management and assurance of success.
An effective classification framework needs to be able to describe the components in a way that facilitates common understanding throughout the enterprise and allows it to optimise their use by making them standardised, consistent, reusable, and composable.
There are mature classification frameworks that have been effectively applied for decades across a broad range of industry sectors, however, it is not necessary to invest heavily in their methodologies when defining your architecture. A superficial examination of the Zachman framework and TOGAF content framework (part of The Open Group Architecture Framework) illustrates how just the principles of their approaches can be used when defining an enterprise architecture.
Enterprise architecture is itself commonly comprised of specialised layers that are aligned together:
- Functional architecture - a description of the capabilities of the enterprise (functions such as sales, product development, etc. and their main processes)
- Information architecture - a description of the way data is structured for use in, and production by, processes: usually this refers to analysis and reporting
- Data architecture - a description of the entities that are important to the enterprise, and the relationships between them
- Technology architecture - a description of the tools and solutions that are used to support the functional architecture
- Infrastructure architecture - a description of the way the tools are connected and deployed
Each layer will apply the classification framework according to a set of principles and standards that are formulated to ensure the usefulness of the resulting inventory of architectural components. The level of detail, or granularity, of the descriptions will be suited to the priorities and expected benefits to be derived from the analysis exercise at this stage.