Hi All
I'm currently trying to land a job in our architecture department. Done a paper for them already in my own time. I want one more done before the job comes up. But they've tasked me with a problem well out of my field of expertise. I have done BA training so I do understand the language. Service being e.g. sharepoint (collaboration and versioning software). They want a short 3-5 page doc that covers an enterprise service environment. I'm to consider three areas: Business Application Hardware They haven't given me more detail than that but I'm assuming it's for validation and provisioning at a high level. I've got a few ideas but not 3-5 pages worth. The organisation is very interested in SOA at the moment and outsourcing. With all the work on ITIL, SOA, MOF etc. there must be something like this out there. The closest thing I've found so far is a link here at Modern Analyst (yay team ;-) : http://www.jot.fm/issues/issue_2008_07/column4.pdf which is moving in the right direction but not granular enough. We have subscriptions to many on-line IT libraries - can somebody please point me to some links, books etc.
Did you take a look at the Zachman framework?
It provides a number of dimensions which you might choose to consider as you define an enterprise architecture (click image for better resolution):
- Adrian
while we are on the topic - take a look at Roger Session's website at Simple Architectures
and Nick Malick's enterprise architecture blog at Inside Architecture
And if you liked the zachman framework (www.zifa.com) you might also like an alternative - TOGAF
Thanks Gentlemen - those two architecture blogs were very interesting - especially the entry about defining IT complexity - that is going to be a 'keeper'.
I was aware of the two architecture frameworks but I'm not operating on that level. Frankly in my organisation my work will be re-written to reflect whatever issue of the week has SMT focus. I just need a bun to start the bunfight with ;-)
I've always found Zachman too abstract and DIY but thank you for reminding me about TOGAF - I've got the framework and will at least check my work doesn't conflict with the principles. To give you some clarification on what I'm trying to achieve in the absence of a clear problem statement I was seeing it as more of a design and provisioning checklist for a new service e.g.
Business Architecture Business Criticality Rating Business Service(s) e.g. accounts reconiliation Service Owner: Mr Blah Service Unit: Financial Operations Technical Architecture Identity Service (i.e. authentication) DR requirements Virtualisation Potential (yes/no - constraints) Application Architecture Tier (i.e. local or enterprise application) Compents/Operating Environment
Etc. it's the etc I need ;-) And since our latest buzzwords are ITIL and SOA - I'll write up some explanatory material and slot it into those frameworks and that will be enough for the draft. I'll then try and get some good operators involved higher up the chain and try and insure it gets some sensible validation and delivers some value.
I wonder if some things like these could be useful
1. a business and technical functinal decompoition
2. A context diagram (Hi Tony!) of multiple layers
3. A business model review (try wikipedia on that one) on the local business unit
4. A more detailed stakeholder/customer to service matrix
5. take a look at the top line performance indicators
I expect this might be a bit too high level for what you want - although the context diagram with notes might be a useful cureall (Hi Tony.)
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