Catalog
concept#Architecture#Governance#Integration#Platform

Enterprise Architecture

An organization-wide architectural practice aligning business strategy, processes and IT through principles, models and governance.

Enterprise architecture defines an organization’s high-level structure, principles, and standards to align business strategy with IT systems.
Established
High

Classification

  • High
  • Organizational
  • Architectural
  • Advanced

Technical context

CMDB and ITSM systemsModeling tools (Archi, Sparx Enterprise Architect)Cloud and platform services (AWS, Azure, GCP)

Principles & goals

Goal orientation: Architecture follows strategic business goals.Reusability: Design components and interfaces for reuse.Explicit governance: Rules and responsibilities must be documented.
Discovery
Enterprise, Domain

Use cases & scenarios

Compromises

  • Centralized decision bottlenecks delaying projects.
  • Unclear governance leads to inconsistencies in implementations.
  • Excessive standardization can stifle innovation.
  • Work iteratively and incrementally, closely align with delivery teams
  • Formulate clear, easily applicable architecture principles
  • Use automated compliance checks and architecture dashboards

I/O & resources

  • Business strategy, goals and KPIs
  • Inventory of existing systems, data flows and interfaces
  • Non-functional requirements and compliance constraints
  • Target architecture models and roadmaps
  • Governance policies and decision guidelines
  • Metrics and dashboards for architecture performance

Description

Enterprise architecture defines an organization’s high-level structure, principles, and standards to align business strategy with IT systems. It provides models, decision rules and roadmaps for capability development and integration. EA guides governance, technology choices and organizational change by making architectures explicit and traceable across initiatives.

✔

  • Better alignment of IT investments with business value.
  • Reduction of redundancies and technical debt.
  • Improved decision basis for technology and platform choices.

✖

  • Effort and time required to build and maintain the architecture.
  • Risk of bureaucratization without clear focus on benefits.
  • Difficulty reconciling short-term delivery needs with long-term architecture.

  • Architecture compliance

    Percentage of implementations complying with defined architecture principles.

  • Integration effort

    Average effort (person-days) to integrate new systems.

  • Total cost of ownership

    Total lifecycle cost for platforms and interfaces.

TOGAF-based EA implementation

Establishing an EA function with reference architectures, roadmaps and governance based on TOGAF principles.

Domain-oriented architecture at a large bank

Introduction of domain-specific architecture blueprints to decouple systems and accelerate delivery.

Platform modernization in a utility

Phased migration to a shared platform with governance, API standards and a migration roadmap.

1

Define EA governance and roles

2

Conduct current-state analysis and create reference models

3

Derive target architecture, roadmap and metrics

⚠️ Technical debt & bottlenecks

  • Legacy systems with high integration costs
  • Inconsistent interfaces and data models
  • Lack of automation for compliance checks
Siloed systemsGovernance decision processesDomain integration points
  • Using EA purely as documentation without decision authority
  • Compulsive standardization that blocks time-to-market
  • Ignoring local business needs in favor of central rules
  • Unclear success criteria and missing metrics
  • Overemphasis on tools instead of processes
  • Not involving stakeholders early enough
Enterprise architecture methods and frameworks (e.g. TOGAF)Domain knowledge and business process analysisTechnology and integration expertise
Business strategy and market requirementsNon-functional requirements (security, scalability, availability)Technology and cost constraints
  • • Budget and time constraints for transformation projects
  • • Regulatory requirements and compliance constraints
  • • Existing legacy systems and dependencies