Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise Architecture is the organizing of logic for business processes to reflect the integration requirements of an enterprise's operating model.

It is important to identify the processes, data, technologies and interfaces that are core to the definition of the operating model. Different enterprises will have different operating models and hence the focus on each of those mentioned areas would be different. For example a wholesaler in the oil industry will focus on processes and data more than a retailer in the finance industry whose focus would be on client data and interfaces.

Some artifacts that could be used as starting points to define an enterprise architecture could be functional architectural diagrams, which would highlight the main functional processes. Another artifact is an external interface diagram. A list of shared data and key technologies linking the various applications also serves as a good defining artifact.