Lecture 1: intro EA

Question 1

What four architectural models does EA consist of?

Answer 1

• Business architecture - the business mission, strategy, line of businesses, organization structure, business process models, business functions, etc.
• Information architecture (also known as data architecture) - defines what information needs to be made available to accomplish the mission, to whom, and how.
• Application architecture (also known as functional architecture) - focuses on the application portfolio required to support the business mission and information needs of the organization. At the next level of detail, it addresses the common business components and business services that can be leveraged by multiple applications.
• Technology architecture - defines the technology services needed to support the application portfolio of the business. It also documents the software, hardware, and network product standards

Question 2

What are the five core components of EA?

Answer 2

• As-is: the current state assessment of the organisation
• To-be: the desired future state
• Migration plan: a viable route from as-is to to-be
• Principles: the guidelines for users of the architecture (buy not build)
• Decisions log: started during the development of the EA but a key part of the living architecture

Question 3

What are the four most common used EA methodologies?

Answer 3

• Zachman framework: not really a framework but a taxonomy, because archtectural artifacts are being organised (what, who etc). Zachman does not give a step-by-step process for creating new EA.
• TOGAF: most important is the ADM (architecture development method) which is a recipe (process) for develing architecture (from general to specific)
• FEA: a methodology for creating EA. Developed by the US government and is fairly new.
• Gartner: EA best practive

Question 4

What is design debt?

Answer 4

The gap between the current enterprise architecture complexity and the desired amount of complexity

Question 5

What phases does TOGAF consist of?

Answer 5

• preliminary phase
• A: architecture vision
• B: business architecture
• C: information systems architecture
• D: Technology architecture
• E: Opportunities and solutions
• F: Migration planning
• G: Implementation planning
• H: architecture Change management

Question 6

What are the 4 key alignments in the strategic alignment model according to hevner et al?

Answer 6

• strategic alignment (B strategy on IT strategy)
• organizational design activities (B strat. on operations)
• information system design activities(IT strat on IT infra.)
• infrastructure alignment (B operations on IT infra.)

Question 7

The design of a business model encompasses what three things on the architecture of a firm?

Answer 7

• The internal characteristcs
• The external relations with business partners
• The way IT and information assets are used

Question 8

What are the two types of architecture?

Answer 8

Architecture as a model (a set of things)

Architecture as modeling (making things clear)

Question 9

Four questions of ea modeling coherence

Answer 9

• what do we model?
• how do we model?
• why do we model?
• who is we?

Question 10

What are the segments and layers of the UMCG model?

Answer 10

4 segments:

• processes: patient focused, priority for IT that supports patientcare, IT is supportive and has no own goal.
• information: (one) authentic source, clear definitions of concepts, clear hierarchy for replicating data.
• applications: 1=reuse, 2=buy, 3=build, multi-vendor policy, must fit IT architecture standards
• infrastructure: hospital network is the backbone, the storage network is the central storage for all data, use of standardized hardware, OS, database systems

3 layers:

1. agreements/principles
2. models
3. Standards and guidelines

Question 11

What are the four definitions of EA (PWC)?

Answer 11

EA:

As a discipline: for systematically understanding, planning, aligning and enabling relationships among strategy. business capabilities, information and technology

As a set of deliverables: documents direction and standards on how the organization should be designed and transformed to achieve a desired outcome.

As a depiction: integrated models at appropriate levels of abstaction that represents the current and future functioning of the organization

As a management practice: coherent set of guidelines and principles that provide direction and practical help with design and development of EA in order to achieve its vision and strategy