Introduction to Enterprise Architecture

Toolkit

Welcome

Welcome

Welcome to the Enterprise Architecture

Toolkit!

Within this toolkit, you will find lots of useful information

that will not only help you update your knowledge and

understanding of enterprise architecture and leading frameworks, but will also provide you with practical and

usable materials for your working environment.

How It WorksFollow the ‘Toolkit Roadmap’ to navigate your way

through the documents within the toolkit. This will direct

you through the relevant stages of Enterprise Architecture.

Service Catalog

Customer View

SLM

Business

ITILV3

Aim of the Toolkit To provide an introduction to Enterprise Architecture

To provide a detailed overview of Enterprise Architecture from the view of several leading EA frameworks, including: Zachman TOGAF Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) Gartner

To provide practical and user-friendly documents for you to use within your organization

Frameworks

No single framework completely covers all the theories and methodologies currently associated with enterprise architecture. By relying on four leading frameworks, our intent is to provide a more comprehensive picture of what enterprise architecture is and how to effectively adopt it into your organization.

Each of the frameworks will be serving a specific purpose:Principles of EA – ZachmanProcesses of EA – TOGAFPolicies of EA – FEAPractices of EA – Gartner

Frameworks - Zachman

The Zachman Framework was introduced in 1987 by A. Zachman and essentially opened the door to enterprise architecture. The framework provides a holistic approach to managing distributed systems. Most other frameworks descended from the Zachman Framework.

The Zachman Framework will be used in this Toolkit to define enterprise architecture and describe its basic principles for an organization adopting enterprise architecture; thus laying the foundation for subsequent discussions as other frameworks are introduced.

Frameworks - TOGAF

The idea of enterprise architecture was promising early on, and one major implementer was the United States Department of Defense who created an enterprise architecture called the Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management (TAFIM), which was introduced in 1994. The work was turned over to The Open Group and evolved into TOGAF.

The most visible aspect of TOGAF is the Architecture Development Method (ADM), which provides guidance for creating an architecture for an organization. For this reason, we will utilize TOGAF as a process to develop an enterprise architecture.

Frameworks - FEA

The benefits of TAFIM eventually led to the passing of the Information Technology Management Reform Act (also known as the Clinger-Cohan Act) by the U.S. Congress in 1996. This act mandated that all federal agencies take steps to improve the management of their investments and a CIO council was formed. In April 1998, the CIO Council began work in the Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF). In 2002, this was shortened to FEA when the responsibility moved to the Office of Management and Budget.

While FEA is specifically created for government organizations, it provides insight into policies which can benefit any organization.

Frameworks - Gartner

Most people know Gartner as company providing CIO-level consulting, but until 2005, their work in enterprise architectures paled to that of their competitor, the Meta Group. Rather than continuing a long battle in this field, Gartner decided to buy their competitor out.

The result was a refocusing of enterprise architecture as a process, not a framework. However, it was not a developing process, but a practical approach to express enterprise architecture in the daily culture of the organization. In this sense, we will look at various best practices of enterprise architecture as defined by Gartner.

Defining Enterprise Architecture

In its broadest sense, enterprise architecture is an architecture of architectures. Its purpose is to define how the different and diverse components of the organization work together to meet business objectives.

Most organizations have multiple interests and functions; each has the possibility of having its own architecture. Enterprise Architecture serves to show high level relationships between them.

Other Standards

Organizations may have already implemented any of the following complementary standards:ITILCMMICOBITPRINCE2PMBOKMSPMOFISO/IEC