In simple terms, an enterprise is nothing but human endeavor. The objective of an enterprise is where people are collaborating for a particular purpose supported by a platform. Let me explain with an example of an online e-commerce company. Employees of that company are people who work together to produce the firm's profits using their various platforms, such as infrastructure, software, equipment, building, and so on.
Enterprise has the structure/arrangements of all these pieces/components to build the complete organization. This is the exact place where enterprise architecture plays its key role. Every enterprise has an enterprise architect.
EA is a process of architecting that applies the discipline to produce the prescribed output components. This process needs experience, skill, discipline, and descriptions. Consider the following image, where EA anticipates the system in two key states:
Every enterprise needs an enterprise architect, this is not optional. Let me give a simple example. When you need a car for business activities, you have two choices, either drive yourself or rent a driver. Still, you will need the driving capability to operate the car. EA is pretty similar to this.
As depicted in the preceding diagram, EA anticipates the system in two key states, which are as follows:
- How it currently is
- How it will be in the future
Basically, they work on options/alternatives to move from the current to a future state of an enterprise system. In this process, Enterprise Architecture does the following:
- Creates the frameworks to manage the architecture
- Details the descriptions of the architecture
- Road maps to lay the best way to change/improve the architecture
- Defines constraints/opportunities
- Anticipates the costs and benefits
- Evaluates the risks and values
In this process of architecting, the system applies the discipline to produce the prescribed output components.