Enterprise Architecture
IT Enterprise Architecture
Introduction
Having a complete and well documented Information Technology Enterprise Architecture allows for an organization to make effective decisions about which IT projects to pursue and the technology or products to use in the implementation.
What Is Enterprise Architecture? The first phase of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is called Project Identification and Selection. It is in this initial phase that potential projects are identified and ranked. Then particular projects are chosen for further investigation, such as a more in-depth cost benefit analysis, or for implementation (Hoffer 136). So, what criteria is used to determine which IT projects are going to be pursued or discarded? If a project is to be pursued further, what technology will be used to implement and what base infrastructure is needed? These are the answers that an Enterprise Architecture can answer. Known by a variety of other names such as Information Architecture, Application Architecture, Business System Architecture, Enterprise Wide Technical Architecture, the basic process is the same – to develop a high level plan of how IT will meet future business problems. To briefly define each of the above mentioned “subsets” of IT Planning:
Information Architecture – very similar to Enterprise Architecture, but focuses more on the application and data aspects of an IT system. Often includes the Application Architecture (mentioned below) and the corporate data model (Willcocks 342-3).
Application Architecture – highlights the data flows between applications in a integrated information system (Willcocks 342-3).
Business System Architecture – a mix of the strategic plans for both IT and business resources. It is normally in pictorial form and used for high-level planning (Willcocks 342-3).
Enterprise Wide Technical Architecture – Another name for Enterprise Architecture, that better stresses that technical
Introduction
Having a complete and well documented Information Technology Enterprise Architecture allows for an organization to make effective decisions about which IT projects to pursue and the technology or products to use in the implementation.
What Is Enterprise Architecture? The first phase of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is called Project Identification and Selection. It is in this initial phase that potential projects are identified and ranked. Then particular projects are chosen for further investigation, such as a more in-depth cost benefit analysis, or for implementation (Hoffer 136). So, what criteria is used to determine which IT projects are going to be pursued or discarded? If a project is to be pursued further, what technology will be used to implement and what base infrastructure is needed? These are the answers that an Enterprise Architecture can answer. Known by a variety of other names such as Information Architecture, Application Architecture, Business System Architecture, Enterprise Wide Technical Architecture, the basic process is the same – to develop a high level plan of how IT will meet future business problems. To briefly define each of the above mentioned “subsets” of IT Planning:
Information Architecture – very similar to Enterprise Architecture, but focuses more on the application and data aspects of an IT system. Often includes the Application Architecture (mentioned below) and the corporate data model (Willcocks 342-3).
Application Architecture – highlights the data flows between applications in a integrated information system (Willcocks 342-3).
Business System Architecture – a mix of the strategic plans for both IT and business resources. It is normally in pictorial form and used for high-level planning (Willcocks 342-3).
Enterprise Wide Technical Architecture – Another name for Enterprise Architecture, that better stresses that technical