Enterprise architecture

EA definition

An EA is a collation of strategic assets describing business and the technologies essential to enable the business functions. This includes business goals, business processes, applications, information, organizational structures and roles. An enterprise architecture summarizes the assets required to implement technology solutions to cater to future business goals. The EA predominately consist of four domains: application, data, business, and infrastructure. The following diagram depicts these domains:

Figure 1: EA definition

EA value proposition

EA is a strategic asset leveraged to shape the organization and is key to aligning the current IT investments and efficient planning of future investments. EA is a strategic tool for classifying opportunities to improve key metrics such as IT costs, operational efficiencies, and customer experience. EA helps to achieve business-IT alignment, reduce time-to-market, and manage change and risk. Elevator pitch expounds...