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View: EA Principles

Business
3Application
2Information
0Technology
0

Business Principles

The following Business Principles guide and govern changes to the business architecture.

Business Continuity

Enterprise operations are maintained in spite of system interruptions

Principle Adherence
Total Assessments Weak Strong
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Rationale:
  • As system operations become more pervasive, we become more dependent on them; therefore, we must consider the reliability of such systems throughout their design and use. Business premises throughout the enterprise must be provided with the capability to continue their business functions regardless of external events. Hardware failure, natural disasters, and data corruption should not be allowed to disrupt or stop enterprise activities. The enterprise business functions must be capable of operating on alternative information delivery mechanisms.
Implications for the Business:
  • Dependency on shared system applications mandates that the risks of business interruption must be established in advance and managed. Management includes but is not limited to periodic reviews, testing for vulnerability and exposure, or designing mission-critical services to assure business function continuity through redundant or alternative capabilities.
Implications for Applications:
  • Applications must be assessed for criticality and impact on the enterprise mission, in order to determine what level of continuity is required and what corresponding recovery plan is necessary.
  • Recoverability, redundancy, and maintainability should be addressed at the time of design.Applications must be assessed for criticality and impact on the enterprise mission, in order to determine what level of continuity is required and what corresponding recovery plan is necessary.

Common Use Applications

Development of applications used across the enterprise is preferred over the development of similar or duplicative applications which are only provided to a particular organization.

Principle Adherence
Total Assessments Weak Strong
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Rationale:
  • Duplicative capability is expensive and proliferates conflicting data.
Implications for the Business:
  • Organizations which depend on a capability which does not serve the entire enterprise must change over to the replacement enterprise-wide capability. This will require establishment of and adherence to a policy requiring this.
Implications for Information:
  • Data and information used to support enterprise decision-making will be standardized to a much greater extent than previously. This is because the smaller, organizational capabilities which produced different data (which was not shared among other organizations) will be replaced by enterprise-wide capabilities. The impetus for adding to the set of enterprise-wide capabilities may well come from an organization making a convincing case for the value of the data/information previously produced by its organizational capability, but the resulting capability will become part of the enterprise-wide system, and the data it produces will be shared across the enterprise.

Compliance with Law

Enterprise information management processes comply with all relevant laws, policies, and regulations.

Principle Adherence
Total Assessments Weak Strong
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Rationale:
  • Enterprise policy is to abide by laws, policies, and regulations. This will not preclude business process improvements that lead to changes in policies and regulations.
Implications for the Business:
  • Education and access to the rules. Efficiency, need, and common sense are not the only drivers. Changes in the law and changes in regulations may drive changes in our processes or applications.
  • The enterprise must be mindful to comply with laws, regulations, and external policies regarding the collection, retention, and management of data.

Application Principles

The following Application Principles guide and govern changes to the application architecture.

Adaptability and flexibility

IT systems are conceived to generate change, and they reflect alterations in laws, social needs, or other types of changes.

Adaptability and flexibility reduce the complexity and promote integration, which improves the company's business activities.

Excessive customization increases costs and reduces the ability to adapt.

Principle Adherence
Total Assessments Weak Strong
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Rationale:
  • Promotes a simpler and faster system integration process, with less revision processes
Implications for the Business:
  • A minimum number of suppliers, products, and configurations must be maintained to allow maximum flexibility when implementing changes.
Implications for Information:
  • Initial costs might be higher, but the integration process will be less expensive.
  • Adaptability and flexibility performance metrics must be established.

Convergence with the enterprise architecture

The convergence with the enterprise architecture is promoted in the right time, and in line with the companys investment strategy.

The convergence with the enterprise architecture takes place as new applications are built, new technologies are implemented, and older systems are updated or decommissioned. Exceptions to the enterprise architecture might be supported for specific cases if there is a consensus that the benefits of using a solution from a specific technology exceed those arising from the adoption of the enterprise architecture.

Principle Adherence
Total Assessments Weak Strong
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Rationale:
  • Over time, it preserves the investment while promoting the benefits of the enterprise architecture.
Implications for the Business:
  • Delayed convergence could reduce the benefits of the enterprise architecture.
  • Convergence requires a realistic and tangible approach to migration to the enterprise architecture.
Implications for Information:
  • Convergence does not allow waiting indefinitely. It requires a business case for exceptions, an exception process, and an exit strategy. It must establish temporary or permanent exceptions, as well as exit strategies for temporary exceptions.

Information Principles

The following Information Principles guide and govern changes to the information and data architecture.

Technology Principles

The following Technology Principles guide and govern changes to the technology architecture.