Enterprise Architecture Management
Encyclopedia
Enterprise Architecture Management (or EAM) in the field of Enterprise Architecture
describes and structures complex IT systems in terms of their business, application, information and technical layers, and to reform programs through the planning process as strategic business demands, and as standards and guidelines for the development of local solutions and service offers.
function also involves reviewing and consolidating detailed architecture decisions and migration plans to identify efficiencies, advance standardization
and align business and IT priorities.
As IT architectural layers, business support processes and organizational structures become more sophisticated and prone to constant change, EAM will only result in haphazard business and IT alignment if the primary focus is on delivering sets of technically based models. This approach is only helpful insofar as it depicts the enterprise architecture as a snapshot in time, but it offers no reiterative process support to develop architecture solutions and test against different scenarios, benchmarks
and standards as dictated by the ever converging business and IT strategy.
Moreover, a model-centric approach is prohibitively time intensive to keep updated and leaves too much room for error as changes to the architecture occur unchecked and isolated in the heads of small groups of architecture specialists. Instead, the EAM effort has to bring the highly distributed knowledge of all experts to the table and allow every participant to provide such knowledge and input in the terms that best fit the experience and expectations of the contributing stakeholders.
perspective as opposed to a modeling
perspective. A new generation of EA Planning tools are emerging that support not only the modeling of the architecture, but also the creation of roll-out and implementation plans for continuous IT improvement over time.
An important aspect of this approach is support of collaboration amongst a wide group of stakeholders from both business and IT including CxO, IT strategists, planning teams, technology implementers and business analysts who contribute to the EA management and planning process. In this way EAM supports sustainable business strategy realization.
Enterprise architecture
An enterprise architecture is a rigorous description of the structure of an enterprise, which comprises enterprise components , the externally visible properties of those components, and the relationships between them...
describes and structures complex IT systems in terms of their business, application, information and technical layers, and to reform programs through the planning process as strategic business demands, and as standards and guidelines for the development of local solutions and service offers.
Overview
The fundamental pre-requisites for effective EAM are a current, consistent baseline of information about the as-is landscape and an integrated planning process from demand to budget to reach the to-be landscape. The enterprise architectureEnterprise architecture
An enterprise architecture is a rigorous description of the structure of an enterprise, which comprises enterprise components , the externally visible properties of those components, and the relationships between them...
function also involves reviewing and consolidating detailed architecture decisions and migration plans to identify efficiencies, advance standardization
Standardization
Standardization is the process of developing and implementing technical standards.The goals of standardization can be to help with independence of single suppliers , compatibility, interoperability, safety, repeatability, or quality....
and align business and IT priorities.
As IT architectural layers, business support processes and organizational structures become more sophisticated and prone to constant change, EAM will only result in haphazard business and IT alignment if the primary focus is on delivering sets of technically based models. This approach is only helpful insofar as it depicts the enterprise architecture as a snapshot in time, but it offers no reiterative process support to develop architecture solutions and test against different scenarios, benchmarks
Benchmarking
Benchmarking is the process of comparing one's business processes and performance metrics to industry bests and/or best practices from other industries. Dimensions typically measured are quality, time and cost...
and standards as dictated by the ever converging business and IT strategy.
Moreover, a model-centric approach is prohibitively time intensive to keep updated and leaves too much room for error as changes to the architecture occur unchecked and isolated in the heads of small groups of architecture specialists. Instead, the EAM effort has to bring the highly distributed knowledge of all experts to the table and allow every participant to provide such knowledge and input in the terms that best fit the experience and expectations of the contributing stakeholders.
Application
Successful Enterprise Architecture programs are approached from a managementManagement
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...
perspective as opposed to a modeling
Business model
A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value...
perspective. A new generation of EA Planning tools are emerging that support not only the modeling of the architecture, but also the creation of roll-out and implementation plans for continuous IT improvement over time.
An important aspect of this approach is support of collaboration amongst a wide group of stakeholders from both business and IT including CxO, IT strategists, planning teams, technology implementers and business analysts who contribute to the EA management and planning process. In this way EAM supports sustainable business strategy realization.
See also
- Enterprise ArchitectureEnterprise architectureAn enterprise architecture is a rigorous description of the structure of an enterprise, which comprises enterprise components , the externally visible properties of those components, and the relationships between them...
- Application ArchitectureApplication ArchitectureApplications architecture is one of several architecture domains that form the pillars of an enterprise architecture or solution architecture. Note that the term "application architecture" is commonly used for the internal structure of an application, for its software modularisation.Applications...
- Service-Oriented ArchitectureService-oriented architectureIn software engineering, a Service-Oriented Architecture is a set of principles and methodologies for designing and developing software in the form of interoperable services. These services are well-defined business functionalities that are built as software components that can be reused for...
- Information Technology GovernanceInformation technology governanceInformation Technology Governance, IT Governance is a subset discipline of Corporate Governance focused on information technology systems and their performance and risk management...
- Project Portfolio ManagementProject Portfolio ManagementProject portfolio management is a term used by project managers and project management organizations, , to describe methods for analyzing and collectively managing a group of current or proposed projects based on numerous key characteristics...
- Risk ManagementRisk managementRisk management is the identification, assessment, and prioritization of risks followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor, and control the probability and/or impact of unfortunate events or to maximize the realization of opportunities...
External links
- Forrester Report: "Tooling EA Roadmaps", January 2008 by Henry Peyret, January 10th, 2008
- EAM Software: planningIT www.planningit.com, ADOit www.boc-group.com
- OpenSource EAM Software: iteraplan
- Institute For Enterprise Architecture Developments
- The Forrester Wave: Enterprise Architecture Tools, Q2 2007 by Henry Peyret, April 25th, 2007
- Datamonitor: Getting Business Value from Effective IT Planning