What is enterprise architecture?

Ask ten different people and get ten different answers. Every business has an architecture, whether it is aware of it or not. Every business consists of elements that make it tick. Business goals and objectives, various stakeholders, data, applications, servers, disaster recovery sites, and the list goes on and on. How does your business manage all of these elements? Furthermore, how does your business manage these elements in a way that leads to strategic advantage?

Enterprise architecture may mean different things to different people, but one thing we cannot disagree on is its importance. It is quite literally a means to not only surviving but thriving in a constantly changing world. Years ago, an ERP project could stretch from three to five years, which is far from today’s reality. Organizations are expected to be agile and adapt to the conditions of their environment at a moment’s notice. The number one question is “how?” This book serves as the answer to that question in an SAP context, though the principles in this book can be applied to any business.

The answer to the question “how?” starts by establishing where your business is now. Enterprise Architecture is about vividly describing where your business is today through modelling the processes, capabilities, resources, data, and technological assets that sustain your business in a way understood by multiple stakeholders. This is achieved through the multiperspective approach that Enterprise Architecture provides. This process is extended to capturing the vision of the future of the business, once again, through modelling the aforementioned elements. Enterprise Architecture also allows for the modelling of intermediary states between the current and future states of your business.

This book provides a practical look at how to go about using SAP Enterprise Architecture Designer to model and document your Enterprise Architecture. However, a holistic approach has been taken in the writing of this book through starting with the very basics of Enterprise Architecture. This means that this book is suitable for people that are new to Enterprise Architecture all the way to advanced readers who are looking to apply this knowledge in the real world.

Ultimately, Enterprise Architecture provides a solid base for planning, analysis, decision making, and strategy execution. It is similar to a puzzle in which you initially figure out what pieces are currently at your disposal and how they fit together; thereafter, you decide what pieces are missing to complete the puzzle you envision; then you set about creating those pieces. This is the essence of enterprise architecture and what separates it from merely developing systems; the enterprise is the system!

Elements such as the individual systems, processes, capabilities, and data within your business are pieces to a puzzle; Enterprise Architecture is how you piece that puzzle together.