Underpinning  the information strategy and providing the foundations for information management plan is the development of an Enterprise Architecture.

Enterprise Architecture is the practice of applying a comprehensive and rigorous process in describing  the current and/or future structure and behavior of an organization's information systems so that they align with the organization's core goals and strategic direction.

An Enterprise Architecture framework clearly identifies what processes a business performs and details how those processes are executed. The end product is a set of artifacts that describe in varying degrees of detail exactly what and how a business operates and what resources are required.

The Enterprise Architecture provides the blueprint for the organization's information infrastructure.

.

Wave draws upon a number of techniques and frameworks including the Zachman Framework to develop an Enterprise Architecture. Wave uses Enterprise Architect from Sparx Systems to document the framework.

The Wave Approach means that the Enterprise Architecture is developed incrementally and targeted at the areas that represent the greatest value and which can produce early business benefits.

This approach means that the organization can make informed decisions about where to invest resources, where to realign organizational goals and processes and what policies and procedures will support core missions or business functions.

A strong enterprise architecture process helps to answer basic questions like:

• Is the current architecture supporting and adding value to the organization?

• How might an architecture be modified so that it adds more value to the organization?

• Based on what we know about what the organization wants to accomplish in the future, will the current architecture support or hinder that?

Solution Spotlight : Enterprise Architect at CCI

Catholic Church Insurance had developed blueprints for its systems using a number of tools and processes. It identified that it needed to take a more disciplined architecture approach but be pragamatic in its implementation. Also it needed to take a phased approach.

It engaged Wave to implement a solution that would provide a view of all systems and their interactions with a view to fully documenting each system on a progressive basis and to focus on developing the architecture for a new system.

Wave used Enterprise Architect, and tailoring it to CCI's specific requirements.

News

Sparx Systems announces support for TOGAF8.

Read more