Effectiveness of Implementing Enterprise Architecture
Enterprise Architecture (EA) as the fundamental organization of the enterprise embodied by its components, their relationships to each other and the environment (i.e. the AS-IS EA; current description of the enterprise), and the principles guiding its design and evolution (leading to the TO-BE architecture; the desired future state of the enterprise). However, EA as a management discipline (van den Berg and Van Steenbergen, 2004) comprises more than delivering architectural products(i.e. the EA, and corresponding EA governance policy and EA roadmap).
Van der Raadt and Van Vliet (van der Raadt and van Vliet, 2008) therefore speak of an EA function, which they define as “ the organizational functions, roles and bodies involved with creating, maintaining, ratifying, enforcing, and observing Enterprise Architecture decision –making – established in EA products – interacting through formal (governance) and informal (collaboration) processes at enterprise, domain, project, and operational levels ” (van der Raadt and van Vliet, 2008).
EA thus involves people who operate according to specific processes to create, maintain and implement EA products (e.g. the EA document, EA governance policy and EA implementation roadmap (Amour and Kaisler, 2001, van der Raadt and van Vliet, 2008)), with the purpose of delivering the intended results (Boster et al., 2000, van den Berg and Van Steenbergen, 2004).
Enterprise Architecture as a Management Discipline
EA promises to fulfill the growing need to manage increasing complexity and deal with continuous change by providing a holistic view on the enterprise. EA is often viewed as a management practice that aims at improving the performance of enterprises (de Vries and van Rensburg, 2008).
A large variety of EA definitions exists (Bharosa, 2006) , showing both differences and similarities. An overview of EA definitions is provided in Appendix A.Consensus on the definition of EA is still lacking (Schekkerman, 2004). However, EA encompasses more than most definitions are able to clarify; EA is more than just a documentation method, although it is often perceived as such(Bernard, 2005).
Therefore this chapter describes the typical aspects of EA as a management discipline. Van der Raadt and van Vliet (van der Raadt and van Vliet, 2008) provide a detailed description of what they call the EA function and define it as:
“The organizational functions, roles and bodies involved with creating, maintaining, ratifying, enforcing, and observing EnterpriseArchitecture decision-making – established in EA products – interacting through formal (governance) and informal (collaboration) processes at enterprise, domain, project, and operational levels” (van der Raadt and van Vliet, 2008).
References :
http://eapad.dk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/bernard2006.pdf
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-88030-1_4
