We Learn TOGAF and pass certification. This is the starting point. Enterprise Architecture projects come in all shapes and sizes. Sponsor (CxO) may have idea of Enterprise Architecture artifacts or may not, but they are very clear of what they wish to achieve from EA project. Let us say Business intends to reduce transaction cost by 50% in next 3 years time. So How shall we go about doing it?
As it happens in all problems, First we should understand where we are , then should check where to go and then find out steps of going from current position to the new one.Since the organizations are large in size, keeping partners updated on the impending change is a key aspect. And this we achieve by drawing logical diagrams and sharing with the Organization community. EA Tools support this by creating diagrams from Artifacts and their interrelations and sharing on intranet for collaboration. In order to remember the process I have named it as BIDI process. B for Base data gathering, I for /identification of artifacts, D for diagram representation and finally I for iav. Below are the four steps.
Go to Bottom of the problem [Base data]:
As it happens in all problems, First we should understand where we are , then should check where to go and then find out steps of going from current position to the new one.Since the organizations are large in size, keeping partners updated on the impending change is a key aspect. And this we achieve by drawing logical diagrams and sharing with the Organization community. EA Tools support this by creating diagrams from Artifacts and their interrelations and sharing on intranet for collaboration. In order to remember the process I have named it as BIDI process. B for Base data gathering, I for /identification of artifacts, D for diagram representation and finally I for iav. Below are the four steps.
Go to Bottom of the problem [Base data]:
- How we do the current work,
- Are we doing it in best possible manner?
- How differently we are doing our work from best practices?
Identify Artifacts:
Business achieves its purpose by interacting with its entities. E.g. Actor, Product, Role, Business Service, Applications, Platform services etc. Each of these entities have their own attributes. Key act of an EA is to pick these Entities from Base data. And then explain it back to user community.
Diagramatic Representation:
After hard work achieved in Artifacts identification, it is all easy going forward. The EA tool provides standard templates for each architecture domain. The EA will draw diagrams and connect relations across architecture domains (layers). Layered view is the most easily understood diagrammatic representation and helps customer get a feel of work done.
Impact Analysis Visualization [IAV]:
IAV is a process of getting to see the Entities across architecture domain from different perspective. We can take a Business Service , keep it in the center of diagram and see how it is directly on indirectly connected with other entities in the Organization. This will visualize the impact of a change on any one element.
