"The enterprise IT
architecture is the
organizing logic for data,
applications, and
infrastructure, captured in
a set of policies and
technical choices to achieve
the firm's desired business
goals, technical
standardization and
integration."
Center for Information
Systems Research (CISR), MIT
Sloan School of Management |
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Enterprises today must take
a long-term view of their IT
systems. They must 'Build to
Change', instead of 'Build
to Last'. Interoperability
has assumed more importance
over integration in creating
more loosely coupled and
orchestrated architectures.
An enterprise typically has
IT applications of various
vintages. There could be
some ongoing development
projects based on the latest
technologies or packages and
there could be existing
bespoke legacy applications
under maintenance and
enhancement. The IT
landscape of even a
mid-sized enterprise is
quite complex. Some
frequently arising
challenges are:
- Lack of a coherent
technology strategy and
the accompanying
confusion regarding
technology choice
- Lack of governance —
no “central office” to
oversee technology
strategy
- Lack of formal
processes to support
technology selection
- Need to better
accommodate strategic
planning; alternatively
expressed as a need for
a bridge between
business planning and
technology planning
- Lack of a place for
conflict resolution on
technical and
architecture issues
- Need for
architectural principles
to guide technology
decision-making
- Need for a forum to
address functional
duplication, data
duplication, integration
and reuse issues
- Lack of
communication and
dissemination of
information: vision,
strategies, ideas, best
practices or technology
solutions being
researched or already
implemented
- Lack of technical
expertise for project
implementation
Enterprise Architecture
addresses the above through
an integrated framework.
Enterprise Architecture
leads to an implementation
that reflects the intent of
all owners and
key-stakeholders.
Enterprise Modeling is the
act of building an
Enterprise Architecture.
Tools, like System Architect
from Telelogic, combine
Business modeling, Object
modeling, Process modeling,
and Data Modeling
capabilities into a single
product with a single
repository. The repository
can be queried to yield
wealth of information about
all models in an
interconnected manner and
powerful 'what-if' analysis
can be performed to
understand implications of
retiring, rewriting or
buying IT artifacts.
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