The diagram below provides a general management view of the Enterprise Architecture Framework that illustrates the relationships between the organisation units that are the Enterprise Architecture stakeholders, the corresponding Enterprise Architecture deliverables at different levels of concern and the corresponding Processes.
Each level of concern (the rows in the diagram) is associated with different processes, including industry standards processes such as TOGAF ADM and ITIL.
The Enterprise Architecture Development Process is an iterative process by which the enterprise architecture models and deliverables are changed to incorporate new business trends, new technology trends and new capabilities and innovations.
Based on COBIT, TOGAF ADM, DYA and EA Planning (Spewak), the Enterprise Architecture Development Process defines a process for developing the Enterprise Architecture Framework and its contents (blueprints).
The Enterprise Architecture development process ensures that the different architecture viewpoints are integrated to meet the business and IT needs of the organisation.
- IT Management Processes
- Information and Data Management Processes
- Development Processes
- Service management Processes
- EA Management Process
The Enterprise Architecture management process is used to Manage the overall Enterprise Architecture work.
| Goals of the EA Management Process |
|---|
| Achieve a clear overview of the current (as-is) State and target (to-be) State Enterprise Architectures |
| Analyse every aspect of the Business Service, Business Architecture, Information Architecture, Application Architecture and Technology Architecture viewpoints effected by an architecture requirement |
| Instantly identify pain points (Topics and Gaps) and initiate plans to rectify gaps, redundancies and overlaps in the enterprise portfolio with Architecture Recommendations |
| Plan the target enterprise architecture by analysing the current business and IT strategies and vision, designing an appropriate Reference Architecture and creating the Architecture Roadmap |
| Define Enterprise Architecture Principles, Standards and Guidelines and review the Target State Enterprise Architecture by verifying Solutions developed by projects for consistency and compliance to standards |
| Analyse the gaps between the current (as-is) state and target (to-be) state enterprise architectures, and propose new projects needed in order to realise the Architecture Building Blocks with development of bespoke applications or acquisition of COTS applications. |
| Ensure that the Business Services, offered to customers, are realised by Business Processes, and Applications Services provided by the underlying Application Components |
EA Governance Process
A governance process is required to identify, manage, audit and disseminate all the information related to the management and use of the Enterprise Architecture.
The governance processes will ensure that all architecture principles, policies, decisions, recommendations, deliverables, contracts, agreements are used correctly at the appropriate time by the business area projects.
Enterprise Architecture governance is the practice and orientation by which enterprise architectures are managed and controlled.
Enterprise Architecture Compliance Process
Compliance assessments against the enterprise architecture assessment criteria, standards, qualities, service level agreements, architecture requirements will be performed as required.
Formal architecture compliance assessment will be performed as part of the project assessments at the end of a stage/phase.
The status of the EA Compliance Assessment will drive acceptance or rejection or require future reworking or changes. Informal architecture compliance assessments may be performed by a Solution Architect at any time.
An architecture compliance assessment can be performed formally by an Enterprise Architect or informally by a Solution Architect on a project.
The architecture compliance assessment is performed using an Architecture Compliance Checklist.
Project Engagement Process
This process defined the relationship between Enterprise Architecture and the delivery projects.
The Enterprise Architecture provides direction and focus for business change over the coming 3 to 5-year period.
The Enterprise Architecture models provide a repository of information from which context the individual Delivery Projects will be driven.
Once Deliver Projects have been completed and closed, the resulting Solution Architecture will be linked back to the current Enterprise Architecture.
Other Processes
- Best Practices
- Methodology
- COBIT
- TOGAF ADM
- Spewak's Enterprise Architecture Planning process
- DYA Process
- IBM's CBM SOMA SCA process
- Wikipedia on Enterprise Architecture Process
Eclipse Process Framework
The Eclipse Process Framework (EPF) is used for producing a customizable process. It was originally provided by IBM for use with RUP.
See EPF downloads for other processes
Eclipse Process Framework
IEA Process (under development)
EPF Wiki
TOGAF EPF
Open UP
Agile EA
SCRUM
DSDM
