Enterprise Architecture
Enterprise Architecture
An enterprise architecture (EA) is a conceptual tool that assists organizations with the
understanding of their own structure and the way they work. It provides a map of the
enterprise and is a route planner for business and technology change.
The individual models in an EA are arranged in a logical manner, and this provides an ever-
increasing level of detail about the enterprise, including:
The business perspective describes how a business works. It includes broad business
strategies along with plans for moving the organization from its current state to an
envisaged future state. It will typically include the following:
The application perspective defines the enterprise's application portfolio and is application-
centered. This view will typically include:
The information perspective describes what the organization needs to know to run its
business processes and operations. It includes:
The information perspective also describes how data is bound into the work flow, including
structured data stores such as databases, and unstructured data stores such as documents,
spreadsheets, and presentations that exist throughout the organization.
The technology perspective lays out the hardware and software supporting the organization.
It includes, but is not limited to: