Enterprise Architecture Center

Enterprise Architecture Center

TUI University Online

IMT 501/Management Information Systems and

Business Strategy

Instructor: Dr. John Basinger

June 20 2011

Name: Mary Byrd

Abstract

Enterprise architecture establishes the Agency-wide roadmap to achieve an Agency’s mission through optimal performance of its core business processes within an efficient information technology (IT) environment. Simply put, enterprise architectures are “blueprints” for systematically and completely defining an organization’s current or desired environment. Enterprise architectures are essential for evolving information systems, developing new systems, and inserting emerging technologies that optimize their mission value.

Enterprise architecture carries many variations within each organization and in the vast array of literature. Enterprise architecture is also the link between strategy and implementation. It is a top down view of the structure of systems which includes the fundamental organization of a system, embodied by its components, their relationships to each other and the environment, and the principles guiding its design. Simply put, enterprise architecture can be defined as a means for describing business structures and processes that connect business structures.

Enterprise architecture integrates key business processes of an organization into a single software system. Data from various functional areas are maintained centrally where they can be accessed and used by other functions and cross-functional processes. This changes the workflow of an organization. Now, information can seamlessly flow throughout the organization, improving coordination, efficiency, and decision-making.

Enterprise encompasses four areas that are usually accepted as the components of the overall framework, which are business process, data, applications, and technology. The business process includes the strategy, governance, organization, and key business processes while the...