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There are almost as many definitions of "enterprise architecture" as there are enterprise
architects. Recently, Gartner's EA research community came together to develop a
comprehensive definition of the term to identify, bound and scope the concept for
Gartner's research.
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ANALYSIS
In discussions with our clients, we frequently find that the term "enterprise architecture" means
significantly different things to different organizations (and even among different constituencies in
the same organization!). In general, bad things happen when two people use the same words to
represent entirely different concepts. Wars have been started for less. Gartner believes,
therefore, that a single common definition of "enterprise architecture" will contribute to our ability
to communicate important concepts not only across organizational boundaries, but also within
them.
Gartner's enterprise architecture (EA) research community recently came together to develop a
comprehensive, consistent definition for the term "enterprise architecture." For the definition to be
truly useful, we believe it must cover multiple dimensions of the subject:
Defining "Enterprise"
Our examination of the respective strengths and shortcomings of these and other definitions sets
the backdrop for our own efforts to define the term. Before examining the definition Gartner
developed, however, it is important to first consider our understanding of the word "enterprise."
By Gartner's definition, an enterprise is a collection of organizations that share a common set of
goals and objectives. In this context, an enterprise can be a business unit, an entire corporation,
a government agency or a collection of businesses joined together in a partnership.
Differences in the scope of the enterprise should not (and do not) affect the definition of
"enterprise architecture," which is standard and common. However, an important initial step in
developing an enterprise architecture is defining the scope of the enterprise (see "Chartering the
Enterprise Architecture Program").
• Enterprise architecture is the process of translating business vision and strategy into
effective enterprise change by creating, communicating and improving the key principles
and models that describe the enterprise's future state and enable its evolution.
The short definition tells us what EA is: a process that creates, communicates and improves
principles and models that guide the evolution of the enterprise. However, to address all the
critical aspects of the definition, an expanded definition is required:
• "... of translating business vision and strategy ..." — Vision and strategy are key. Strong
architectures are driven out of the business strategy of an organization. Without the
input of the business, an EA initiative will amount to little more than "architecting for the
sake of architecting."
• "... into effective enterprise change ..." — The reason we pursue an architecture initiative
is to support change. If no change is required, no EA is required.
• "... by creating, communicating and improving the key principles and models ..." — The
critical output of an enterprise architecture effort is process, information and technology
change. The principles that guide decisions, and models that illustrate the result of those
decisions, are key enablers of that change.
• "... that describe the enterprise's future state and enable its evolution." — The objectives
of the enterprise architecture are to design the future state to support the strategic
needs of the business and to define a course of action to get from where the business is
to where it is going. This means that the enterprise architecture will provide guidance to
the initiatives in the project portfolio, as well as suggest new initiatives to help close the
gap.
• "The scope of the enterprise architecture includes the people, processes, information
and technology of the enterprise, and their relationships to one another and to the
external environment." — The scope of enterprise architecture extends well beyond
technology and covers business processes, organization, information and technology —
all of which are interdependent. This does not mean that the architecture team controls
all those components, but it is responsible for integrating the future vision of those
components into a coherent whole.
• "Enterprise architects compose holistic solutions that address the business challenges
of the enterprise and support the governance needed to implement them." — Architects
are involved not only in the creation of the enterprise architecture, but also in the
governance and strategic planning processes that support the creation of new and
improved capabilities to support the business in the future.
Gartner's research community reached consensus on a definition that we could all support.
However, some members felt that we had missed the mark in terms of boiling down EA to a
simple definition. To meet this need, they proposed (and the community ratified) the simplest
definition of all:
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