Issue 1

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A Principles-Based Enterprise Architecture Framework

The increasing importance of Enterprise Architecture is driven by requirements for seamless inter-operation between business, rapidly changing market, and ever-changing information and systems technologies. Enterprise architecture defines the overall design structure of the business and the information and technical infrastructure that supports the business, based on defined principles and models that guide the planning and designing, building and operating the enterprise and its strategic choices. This article highlights the importance of a principles-based enterprise architecture framework as a design imperative for business service groups, information management teams, and application and technology solution groups; as as a foundation for achieving interoperability, integration, and alignment of an organization’s systems (business, information, technology) across an enterprise.

Department of Interior: A Practical Approach to Enterprise Architecture – Part 1

This article describes the evolution of the United States Department of the Interior (DOI) Enterprise Architecture (EA) from an under-developed state that primarily focused on the technology architecture to its current position as a model for other agencies. This was evidenced by the high rating of DOI’s EA (4.0 out of 5.0) among all federal EA programs in June 2005 from the Office of Management and Budget. This article presents the evolution of the Department’s EA over the past three years in terms of the development and application of a set of techniques that have facilitated business transformation at a sustainable rate while achieving broad organizational buy-in. This article will also include a detailed examination of various approaches to EA, a discussion of key fundamentals identified during the process and lessons learned.

The Profession of Enterprise Architect

This study presents a general review and comparison of the emerging profession of the enterprise architect and the established profession of the traditional architect. This study is intended to establish a context for further research and publication on enterprise architecture as a profession and the applicable lessons from traditional architecture. Additionally, the findings suggest that the profession of the enterprise architect may be an extension of the roles of a traditional architect and the likenesses of each profession are noted.

Interfaces for Enterprise Solutions

This article compares current and future interface concepts and the dramatic cost implications of interfaces. With the increased importance of exchanging information between enterprise solutions, a coordinated interface architecture should be considered. An interface architecture for the extended enterprise requires a shared communication language, one that standards greatly facilitate. While traditional interface approaches, such as point-to-point and hub and spoke, have been widely deployed in the past, they are costly to maintain and do not provide loose-coupling and fast return-on-investment. Web services and the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) are promising interface technologies that provide access to loosely-coupled services using commercial standards and existing infrastructure to support a service oriented architecture. Numerous cost drivers, such as the interface architecture and functional, technical, and organizational characteristics significantly impact the cost of an interface. An understanding of interface technology and cost drivers will ensure system architects are better equipped to design and deploy cost-effective interface architecture.

Simplify the Creation of Enterprise Architecture with Special Expert Teams

The classic development waterfall consists of two sequential stages. There is an ‘architectural synthesis’ stage that creates new architecture, new fundamental structure. This is followed by an ‘engineering design’ stage that develops and optimizes a system to satisfy requirements produced by the first stage. In addition, to having different goals, these two stages employ different tools, different processes, and demand different skills. Synthesis, the creation of new architecture, employs inductive reasoning, insight, and creative problem solving. Synthesis requires holistic solutions consistent with a single unified vision. As a result, the synthesis stage resists partitioning into subtasks. The synthesis of complex architectures stresses the capacity of individual architects and is best executed with Special Expert Teams (SETs). SETs are temporary task-directed teams of experts that benefit from special management tools. SETs have the capacity to conceptualize overarching concepts. This paper presents the concept of SETs for the creation of enterprise architecture.