The Meaning of the Discipline of Enterprise Architecture (”DEA”)
The concept of architecture can be looked at as a means to integrate solutions to a diverse range of complex needs and as a means to manage that complexity and making more intelligent management decisions in the short and long run. The benefits of taking a holistic, strategic architectural approach as opposed to applying point to point solutions with tactical goals are obvious. The time is here to be able to apply this “DEA” consistently and professionally to intrinsically avoid stove piping in building new business systems.
Synopsis: Benefits of Applying the Discipline of Enterprise Architecture
The Discipline of Enterprise Architecture judiciously applied to a program, a project or and organization or a cmples change or transition/transformation offers several key benefits to the organization. Such always sought after benefits plus common sense and some Federal Regulations and Legislation drive the development of programs in the Public and Private Sectors. The six most important benefits include:
- Linking and bridging the mission of the business to drive prudent deployment of Information Technology
- Improves interoperability and integration, allows alignment of segmented and federated architectures
- Enables agility of an organization
- Reduces costs
- Improves security and reducing risks
More detail for each of these benefits follow. The “DEA” also means managing complex enterprise business and operational information as a framework for objective, capabilities-based acquisition and change decisions.
The “DEA” provides for an integrated, web-enabled, extensible, intelligent, collaborative enterprise from which all stakeholders can re-utilize architectural information to develop, analyze, test/assess, exercise, and plan for current and future mission capabilities,
1. Linking and Bridging the Mission of the Business to Drive Prudent Deployment of Information Technology
Applying and modeling using one or more comprehensive frameworks of the “DEA” usually identifies how an organizations’s business processes directly enable IT assets and and how those processes execute and organization’s mission. Business processes and an Organization’s mission are usually reflected in the Business Architecture (BA). IT assets are reflected in the Information Architecture which is directly dependent on the BA but in an interrelated an integrated fashion of the overall holistic Enterprise Architecture.
One of the key functions of architecture as a product of the architect is to provide a framework within which complexity can be managed successfully. If an individual project is not isolated, but rather is intended to fit harmoniously within a much wider , highly complex set of other interrelated projects, then an architecture is needed to act as a roadmap within which all of these projects can interact with one another in a seamless whole.
2. Improves Communication within the Organization and IT Interoperability and Allows Alignment of Segmented and Federated Architectures to be successfully aligned
Federation is a state that is achieved by “aligning” the architectures of all federation participants by mapping the individual architecture models to a common reference language or model ontology. This common language is called a Reference Architecture, and it includes all the core functions required to represent the critical business processes of the Federation.
Segmentation is similar but deals primarily with the individual elements of an organization describing core mission areas and common or shared business services and enterprise services. Segment Architecture details results-oriented architecture (baseline and target) and a transition strategy for a portion or segment of the enterprise.
By using the “DEA” one also defines requirements, models specifications for how an Organization’s business entitites communicate and subsequently how systems will “talk to each other”, the job of integrating multiple systems becomes easier. This leads to other benefits such as:
- Making accurate information available whenever and wherever needed
- Reducing the time required to implement systems
- Knowing where and how something is not considered
- Decreasing the cost of implementing systems (primarily lower labor costs – you don't have to redefine interface standards with each implementation)
- increasing the likelihood of systems interoperating correctly the first time.
3. Enables Agility of an Organization
All Organizations or part of organizations need to quickly respond to some sort of change in the environment due to either internal needs or outside pressures or market demands. It will have a ready reference that tells it what impact that change will have on each of the components within the Organization’s modeled architecture, and how to ensure the components continue to operate smoothly through change management. Using the “DEA” also enables faster and more complete and integrated design of new systems and extensions to existing systems by rigorously pre-defining requirements through EA models. As an organization then migrates to a service orientation, all options are modeled and visible which will allow increasingly reliable and tested delivery of compositions of reused services and modules allowing faster adaptation to new business requirements.
4. Reduces costs
The operating costs of any business are likely to be where most of the total cost of ownership is to be found. One can assume that reasonable predictions about cost savings to be gained by implementing an architecture using the “DEA”, and one can present a strong business case. One must try to build as complete a picture as you can of what type of costs exist and how large they are. Thus being able to demonstrate in hard figure how the total cost of ownership can be reduced is a powerful argument in support of using to “DEA” as a way forward in a organization.
By applying “DEA” an Organization becomes self-aware of itself and changes to an internal learning organization. Economies of scale in purchasing, reduced training requirements, fewer support staff and simpler upgrades are all examples of cost reductions offered through the disipline of enterprise architecture. It reduces support costs by establishing a modeled and therefore less complex environment (due to technical homogeneity and awareness of all facts to all people) which is easier to support and results in faster recovery from mistakes and misalignments.
5. Improves Security and Reduces Risk
Security is all about protecting business goals and assets. It means providing a set of business controls that are matched to business needs, which in turn are derived from an assessment and analysis of business risks. Through the integration of security standards into the EA discipline with which all Organizations’ systems comply, the risk of intrusion, loss (tangible and intangible), and system downtime are all reduced hence better perfomance of all business functions and more cost savings. The objective in risk assessment is to prioritize risks so as to focus on those that most require mitigation.
Risk is a complex concept and therefore a prime condidtate to apply “DEA” up front. For any given courseof actionthere is a risk associated with doing that thing and a risk associated with not doing it. Security can be seen as enabling business by reducing risks to acceptable levels, not zero, and thus allowing business to make use of new technologies for greater commercial advantage. Using the “DEA” it can be said that tha landscape of the security needs can be plotted and understood to make timely and intelligent decisions for the good of the whole organization.
ABOUT THE FEAC INSTITUTE
FEAC™ Institute provides quality, practical, and professional Enterprise Architecture education, training and certification to the Commercial/Private, Civilian Government, and Department of Defense sectors through hands-on projects using all major frameworks and methodologies while remaining tool vendor neutral. They also offer the shorter TOGAF™ 9 Courses . FEAC’s 1000 Graduates (CEAs) and Instructors are in great demand as speakers and have presented at conferences and industry events around the world. FEAC™ was founded in 2002 and its customers include Global 1000 firms, Government Organizations and Emerging Businesses.
