the many definitions of Enterprise Architecture

http://aelena.com/blog/2013/04/16/the-many-definitions-of-enterprise-architecture/

Not that there is a scarcity of definitions of Enteprise Architecture ( EA ). You can consider it to be a big depiction (snapshot) as represented by many artifacts, documents, process documentation (although I think this definition comes a bit short). You might say it is a definition (some sort of body of standards that define how processes are designed, built, data is shared – and managed – and projects undertaken according to the bigger picture strategy).

It can be a discipline too (it actually is, insofar as it also is a capacity), affecting also how processes are designed and built, but at a bigger level, from the point of view of the whole enterprise. Its capacity to built and automate processes and services efficiently, aligned to strategy and keeping the eyes on the business and the bottom line.

It seems very hard to convene on a single definition of the term, but probably the most complete and relevant is the one that puts EA in alignment and close to strategy. EA should be a tool that embodies the organization’s capacity for effectively and timely translating a well-defined corporate strategy into a target operating model, while, of course supporting the construction and implementation of that new operating model and its successive evolutions.

So, in relating Enterprise Architecture to Strategic Planning, we can see how they actually are inseparable allies. EA helps enterprises shape their future structure and processes in the face of the fast-changing environments in which they operate. More and more EA should also become relevant the importance of data as an asset (big data too) as the main enabler of decision making. EA should be a tool to help you refine and improve your strategic thinking.

Image from here.

Note that of course, in the absence of sensible strategies, EA itself is not magical solution. Also bear in mind that EA is an ongoing effort (see the five C’s of EA).

It’s interesting to see other definitions of EA

• MIT Center for Information Systems Research, 2004
  • “The enterprise architecture is the organizing logic for a firm’s core business processes and IT capabilities captured in a set of principles, policies, and technical choices to achieve the business standardization and integration requirements of the firm’s operating model.”
• The Open Group
  • “Enterprise architecture is the capture of all behavior that goes on in an organization: the data that is processed, who does what, where everything is, and why everything is done. In a sentence, the who, what, why, when, where, and how of the business at every level from high-level corporate goals to the code of low-level programs that implement business processes used to achieve those goals.”
• Gartner
  • The grand design or overall concept employed in creating a system, as in the architecture of a city or a customer information system; also “an abstraction or design of a system, its structure, components and how they interrelate”
  • A family of guidelines (concepts, policies, principles, rules, patterns, interfaces and standards) to use when building a new IT capability.
• Wikipedia
  • “Enterprise architecture (EA) is the process of translating business vision and strategy into effective enterprise change by creating, communicating and improving the key requirements, principles and models that describe the enterprise’s future state and enable its evolution”

And yet, more definitions I found here.

This can lead to a lot of debating that can degerate on zealot flaming over which is the right  defintion. I think this blog entry on EA fundamentalism has quite a point and is an interesting read.

What EA is not, and many people still seem to confuse the things, is enterprise application. The term is probably meant to apply to “big” applications used all over the enterprise (or in significant part of it, or territory), and the confusion might span from the shared “enterprise” word, but EA is not mere IT, it’s not applications.