What is Enterprise Architecture, and why do we need it?

This lecture explains that "enterprise" can mean any human endeavour or undertaking.

An enterprise can therefore be:

• Equivalent to an entire organization
• Part of an organization
• A project
• A creative endeavour

In this lecture I'll describe the three key things that exist for any enterprise:

1. A group of People
2. With a Purpose
3. Supported by a Platform

No enterprise exists in isolation. Enterprises collaborate with other enterprises. And all enterprises operate within a particular environmental and social context.

This lecture explains what that means for Enterprise Architecture.

In this lecture I'll describe the components that can be found in almost every enterprise. 

In this lecture I explain how:

• The architecture of an enterprise is created from the set of components that are necessary to form an enterprise.
• All of these pieces are structured and arranged in ways that allow the enterprise to exist and its aims.
• The structure and arrangement of all these pieces is the architecture of the enterprise.

Finally in this section I explain how every enterprise has an enterprise architecture.

You might find a post I wrote on LinkedIn interesting: Enterprise Architecture Isn't Optional - there's a link in the resources. 

In this lecture you will learn why it is important to see Enterprise Architecture as four things:

1. The actual architecture of an enterprise
2. The process of architecting
3. A discipline
4. And a description of the enterprise architecture

In this lecture you will learn about the key ingredients of enterprise architectures.

Remember - every enterprise has an architecture!

You will learn about Paradigms, Patterns, and Principles; Components or Building Blocks; and Architecture Domains.

I will also briefly explain the concept of a metamodel.

In this lecture you will learn about the main benefit and value from architecting an enterprise. This lecture you will introduce the idea of architectural thinking, and demonstrate how this provides us with several different levels of architectural understanding.

You will also learn the important distinction between architectural thinking and systems thinking.

In the resources you will find a link to a post I wrote on LinkedIn about the Levels of Architectural Understanding - which also includes some interesting comments and discussion.

This lecture will provide you with a clear and simple outline of what enterprise architects do.

This lecture will explain how architects balance the need to manage an enterprise architecture with other forces that are beyond their direct control.

I will introduce and explain the concepts of Architectural States, Enterprise Patterns, Strategic Vectors, Roadmaps, and Emergence.

This lecture will provide you with a simple overview of the skills and experience that enterprise architects need.

In this lecture you will gain an overview of some of the key techniques used by enterprise architects.

This lecture will provide you an understanding of how enterprise architects describe an enterprise architecture. In particular it will explain how architects describe building blocks, patterns, constraints, enablers, and options.

In this lecture you will learn why architecture frameworks are so important in Enterprise Architecture. 

You will find out why there are several different architecture frameworks, and why this causes some confusion! 

Finally you will gain a good understanding of how architecture frameworks are used by leading architects and architecture teams.

There are two useful links in the resources:

• A link to the ISO 42010 web site, which gives a list and description of the most common enterprise architecture frameworks. ISO 42010 is the web site for the International Standards Organization standard for Architecture Description - which includes a formal definition of an architecture framework
• A link to a discussion of the difference between a framework and an ontology - both of which are vital techniques in enterprise architecture. This is a post that I wrote for LinkedIn.

So, architecting an enterprise is a process. It requires experienced and skilled enterprise architects, applying a professional discipline called “Enterprise Architecture”. And it produces descriptions of the architecture of an enterprise (in its current and future states) that guide changes to the architecture.

Resources:

In the downloadable resources you will find a PDF extract from my book, "Enterprise Architecture - the eight fundamental factors", which gives you a complete overview of the eight factors that are mentioned in this course.

There are several things that make Enterprise Architecture distinctive, but in this lecture I focus on the two most important characteristics that make it a unique and special discipline.

This lecture asks a key question: do we need Enterprise Architects? 

Now that you've completed this course - what do you think? Do you agree with me or not? Do you think that enterprise architecture is needed or not?

Here is a brief exercise that you can do. It will help you think about the ideas we have covered in this section, and help you put them into your own words.