Enterprise architecture

The structure of the enterprise

'Enterprise architecture' can be a misleading term. Since its inception in the early 1990s, it has developed in three successive waves:

• first wave: EA = IT technical architecture (TA) - reduce complexity and cost of IT systems
  • increased convergence consolidates purchasing, lowers training costs, etc

• second wave: EA = Enterprise-Wide IT Architecture (EWITA) - support collaboration among different parts of the enterprise:
  • shared access to information across business and with partners / customers
  • elimination of duplication across different functions or business units
  • address concerns that cut across business units, such as IT-system integration

• third wave: EA = EWITA + Business Architecture (EITA+EBA) - increase enterprise agility and alignment with business strategy
  • enable changes in business strategy with quick-response changes in enabling processes and technology solutions
  • inform strategy more effectively with strategic paths to identify and integrate technology-enabled opportunities (and threats)

Although these earlier waves of development brought real benefits to business, one of the less successful characteristics was uncertainty over aims, leading to a lack of trust between business and IT. It's only through the new insights of whole-of-organisation integration that the 'disconnect' between business and IT can be bridged:

• fourth wave: EA = whole-of-enterprise architecture (WEA) - increase integration across value-webs, infrastructures, multi-role / multi-partner enterprises
  • emphasis on overall effectiveness rather than single-point 'efficiency'
  • increase overall agility, adaptability, responsiveness, resilience, management of opportunity / risk
  • increase synergies between processes and partners
  • increase overall engagement in innovation, productivity, quality

Using frameworks such as SEMPER, SCORE and the tetradian model, Tetradian is a thought-leader in this next wave of enterprise-architecture development.

For more information, see the presentation Whole-of-enterprise architecture: Extending enterprise-architecture beyond IT (large: 1150kb).

NEW: Real Enterprise-Architecture: Beyond IT to the whole enterprise (large: 1867kb) - First release of Tom Graves' enterprise-architecture book

NEW: Another addition to our set of enterprise-architecture tools: How to create a Functional Business Model (164kb) - descriptive notes and Visio 2003 stencil and template

You'll find more information on enterprise-architecture in the Downloads section.

Service-oriented architecture

For more information, see the presentation Architecture as system: Enterprise-architecture, service-architecture and the Viable System Model (455kb) - Using system-theory to extend and simplify whole-of-organisation service-oriented architectures.