Strategic Enterprise Architecture
This functional area focuses on the Office of the Chief Technology Officer and business and technology executives who are concerned with the overall architecture and standards for the enterprise. The capabilities that must be developed to support this functional area ensure that appropriate information and documentation exists to describe the current and future-state environments. Also, it is necessary to verify that business and technology people can implement strategies and plans and make recommendations simplifying the existing business technology environment. Five capabilities comprise the Strategic Enterprise Architecture functional area:
- The Business Architecture capability is used to describe the business strategies, operating models, capabilities, and processes in terms actionable for business technology.
- The Technology Architecture capability defines the applications and technical infrastructure required to meet enterprise goals and objectives. This includes the creation of application models, data models, as well as associated technical infrastructure models for the enterprise.
- The Enterprise Architecture (EA) Standards capability is necessary to define standard business technology applications, tools, and vendors. This capability centers on the delivery of EA guiding principles, plus assessing and defining other governance requirements. Also included are standards for IT vendors and reusable assets, including design patterns and services.
- The Application Portfolio Management capability is employed to establish and manage portfolios of applications, consistent with IT strategy, and to achieve target architectures and maintain standards.
- The Asset Rationalization capability applies enterprise architecture and standards to simplify the infrastructure. This reduces complexity and cost by controlling the number of applications and systems.