Chapter 2. The Scope of Total Architecture

When you look at business processes today, you are faced with two inescapable facts: First, the business process participants include both systems and people, and second, the business process design is so inextricably intertwined with the IT systems design that you cannot design them independently.

Taken together, these two facts argue for a comprehensive approach to architecture and design, one that encompasses both people and systems, and includes the processes that define their interactions and the information (and other artifacts) involved in the processes. We call this comprehensive approach total architecture (Figure 2-1).

Figure 2-1. Total Architecture Scope

Unfortunately, many project teams and enterprise architecture groups do not have anyone charged with the responsibility for this total architecture scope. Instead, they have many specialists: the business analysts responsible for process design; the managers and supervisors responsible for organizing the people involved in the process; the database administrators and data quality specialists responsible for the information involved in the process; and the application, service, infrastructure, and network architects responsible for various aspects of these systems. However, none of these are responsible for determining whether all these pieces fit together to successfully address the business purpose.

The consequence of not having anyone responsible for the total architecture is that often the pieces do not fit together particularly well, at least at first (Figure 2-2). The result is that rework is required to refine these so that they fit together properly by the time the project is completed. As we shall see in Chapter 5, without adequate consideration of architecture the resulting rework can double the duration of complex projects. With appropriate consideration of architecture the duration of these projects can be reduced by as much as 25%.

Figure 2-2. Without the Total Architecture Perspective

The first challenge presented by total architecture is simply keeping the big picture in perspective—understanding individual business processes and how those processes require people and systems to interact. We also need to understand how business processes interact with one another as each produces or consumes artifacts from other processes. Much of this interaction involves an exchange of information, so you need to know where information resides, and how and when the business processes require its movement.

Ideally, there is an individual—an architect—charged with the responsibility of keeping this all in focus and ensuring that the local decisions made concerning people (organizations), systems, information, and business processes are consistent across the board. Being effective in this role also requires some level of authority to adjust local decisions to ensure that they are consistent with the big picture.

The world, of course, is often less than ideal. In many circumstances there is no individual charged with maintaining the total architecture perspective. However, this does not render the perspective unimportant. Even if your personal responsibility is narrower in scope, the more you keep the total architecture in perspective the more you will be assured that your pieces, at least, will fit smoothly into the big picture.

Maintaining the total architecture perspective will also enable you to recognize when other pieces are not fitting well and raise the issue. Of course, since you don’t have the overall authority to mandate change, you will have to “sell” the idea that the change is required. Take up the challenge, for this is a useful skill to have as an architect. You have to convince others that your architectural ideas will solve their problems anyway, so you might as well build your skills as you grow into that role.

Of course, simply saying that you need to consider all of the total architecture aspects doesn’t tell you how do go about doing it. Let’s take a look at how they all fit together to form an architecture.