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The future of EA is in serious doubt if both the public and EA community are not sure about "What is EA?". Most EA professional have difficult time to explain "what is EA?" to the public, worse than that, the EA community do not has a consensus on what is EA either. On many EA gathering and on-line discussion, the EA community argue on "What is EA?" based on the parts they have touched in a "Blind man and the elephant" style.

EA was initiated to overcome the challenge of stovepipe system, It should not be this difficult to define "What is EA?" by considering that Solution architects are the "Guru" to create unique and optimized solutions for a set of specific requirements. In this capacity, solution architect also contributes to stovepipe systems. On the other hand, EA is the effort to minimize redundant efforts, they are the "Glue" to learning experience of the others, building common ground and facilitate collaborative culture.

Yet, the EA community have difficult time to define "What is EA?" due the confusing EA as the enterprise wide solution architecture. The first version of EA is evolved from solution architecture concept. In addition, most of the EA community come from solution architecture background too. The EA model, for example the popular NIST EA model, the EA Framework; For example: the Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework and the Open Group EA framework, are based on solution architecture concept. All of this approaches sounds like a enterprise wide solution architecture and practice like a solution architecture, therefore EA is also confused as the enterprise wide solution architecture. Many Enterprise architects are actually the solution architects in EA skin.

The consequence of taking EA as the enterprise wide solution has lead to today awkward EA bottleneck. EA, as a enterprise wide solution architecture, has very much denied EA as an emerging paradigm where solution architects automatic become an enterprise architects by taking on enterprise wide architecture task. Their discipline of designing an unique and optimize system help to create a bigger stove pipe system. Many organization have made significant investment with very marginal return because

1. It requires significant investment of time and resources.
2. It is very likely to create a bigger stovepipe .
3. Lack of buy-in from the stakeholders.
4. Enterprise is organic, the enterprise scale solution architecture become obsolete before the ink dry.

What is EA?

EA is an emerging paradigm rather than a large scale solution architecture. It requires the discipline not only to see the enterprise big picture but also know the parts and facilitate collaborative culture. Enterprise Architects are the "Glue" to:

. Enable every one to see the whole and know the parts.

. Minimize stove pipes, silo system and islands of information.

. Enable agility in adapting to change via learning experience of the other, looking for common ground, reuse and interoperability.

. Facilitate collaborative culture and building consensus.

. EA is able to close gaps between strategy and execution by enabling every one to see the big picture and know the parts; facilitate collaborative culture and building consensus and enable agility in adapting to change.


The Difference between EA and enterprise wide solution architecture

The following table distinguish EA from enterprise solution architecture.



Solution Architecture contribute to stovepipe system

Solution Architecture method provide optimized solution to satisfy unique set of requirements which also contribute to stovepipe solution.

EA was initiated to overcome stovepip system

EA was initiated to overcome stovepipe system. The only way to to overcome stovepipe system is to take a holistic architecture instead taking as an enterprise scale solution architecture. A enterprise wide solution architecture is not a efficient approach to overcome the challenge of stovepipe. It may create a biger stove pipe system.


Solution Architecture for simple system, EA for complex system

Base on the Cynefin framework[], Solution architecture for simple system, Enterprise Architecture of complex system. It describe that all human interactions are strongly influenced and frequently determined by our experiences, both through the direct influence of personal experience, and through collective experience, such as stories or music.

EA is in holistic paradigm. Solution Architecture is in scientific paradigm EA and Solution Architecture are in very different paradigm, EA is in holistic paradigm and solution architecture is in scientific paradigm.


Solution Architects are the "Guru" and Enterprise Architects are the "Glue".

Enterprise Architects are very distinctive from Solution architects. Solution Architects are the "Guru" to design optimize and unique solution which also contribute to stovepipe solution. Enterprise Architects are the "Glue" to overcome the challenge of stovepipe via the engineering reuse and interoperability rather than creating a bigger stove pipe.

In stead of draw a line in the sand between art and science, EA is the effort to cross the line and take advantage of both the art of holism and the science of orderly arrangement of the parts.


Enterprise Architecture(EA) = Holistic Architecture(HA)

Holistic Architecture = Holism + Architecture= Whole + Parts = Art + Science

EA is in holistic paradigm






EA was initiated to overcome the challenge of stovepipe system. In the begging of information age, the computer gurus compete to create unique and optimized application for specific purpose. This approach also contribute to the challenge of stovepipe and information islands.

Holistic architecture approach is the only way to overcome the challenge of stovepipe system.

It is futile to achieve this goal with the same solution architecture method which only create bigger stovepipe.



EA is organic, similar to a human, it consist not only the body (the organization) but also the mind (the management),collaboration(social) and survival skill as shown in the following figure






ENTERPRISE IS A COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEM

Enterprise is a complex system [ Snowdon, 2000] which function as a whole and its function cannot be fully understood solely in terms of it components parts. It is futile to address the organic enterprise in a mechanical architecture approach.

Enterprise is a living thing, it is a complex system which must be addressed holistically. The general principle of holism was concisely summarized by Aristotle in the Metaphysics: “The whole is different from the sum of its parts”. EA is a holistic architecture approach

. Complex systems operate under far from equilibrium conditions, there has to be a constant flow of energy to maintain the organization of the system

The term complex adaptive systems, or complexity science, is often used to describe the loosely organized academic field that has grown up around the study of such systems. Complexity science is not a single theory— it encompasses more than one theoretical framework and is highly interdisciplinary, seeking the answers to some fundamental questions about living, adaptable, changeable systems.

Examples of complex adaptive systems include the stock market, social insect and ant colonies, the biosphere and the ecosystem, the brain and the immune system, the cell and the developing embryo, manufacturing businesses and any human social group-based endeavour in a cultural and social system such as political parties or communities. There are close relationships between the field of CAS and artificial life. In both areas the principles of emergence and self-organization are very important.



The principle of Holistic Architecture


1. Enable every member in an organization to see the whole via the "Blind men and Elephant" collaborative approach.. Enterprise is large and invisible and most of people think the part they have touched is the whole.

2. Enable every member in an organization to know the parts via enterprise knowledge management via the "Stone Soup" collaborative approach. . EA is a special type of knowledge management which consist of explicit and tacit knowledge.

3. Enable collaborative governance for total participation on policy and decision making to close the gaps between strategy and execution.

4. Collaborative effort of see the whole, know the parts and governance serve as the vehicle to established the enterprise collaborative culture.

HA use multiple architecture theory
Solution Architecture is based on vertical architecture theory (Top down, bottom up)
The HA approach implement three architecture theories in the vertical (top down), Horizontal (Service Oriented) and circular (Coherence)

Adopt to change

Solution Architecture follows a big bang approach for fix set of requirements.
EA takes three tier approach in adopting to change
1. The initial EA is a master plan and notional architecture.
2. The continuous EA is a segment architecture to close the business performance gaps identified via the business capability heat map. It is the EA on demand rather a EA is a big ban.
3. EA is a daily effort to facilitate agile strategic planning, risk management, capital investment, project management and application development life cycle.


The future of HA is to minimize redundant effort and enable business agility in adopting to change.
Many EA experts have envision this direction. EA for the purpose of minimizing redundant effort and enable enterprise agility is not only for IT but only for business community. However, we have to address the question of “What is EA?” first before leading EA is many different directions.

The LEA web site is under major renovation by adopting the popular WordPress Software. Many thanks to the support of Nucleus and Wordpress software. This site evolves continuously in search for a valuable Enterprise Architecture approach. It have been a working progress rather than a finish product. Looking forward to your comments and encouragement.

The light Enterprise Architecture Introduction

THE UNIQUE VALUE OF EA

Lack of unique value has been the major concern for EA to become a emerging paradigm. For many people, EA is nothing new but an enterprise wide solution architecture and solution architects automatically become an enterprise architect by designing enterprise wide solution architecture. However, The value of EA is not an enterprise wide solution architecture, EA is a emerging paradimg with the unique dicipline to empower both the managers and staff members with the wisdom of seeing the whole, the power of enterprise knowledge and the art of collaboration.

Wisdom comes from seeing the whole where the whole is greater than the sum of it parts. However, in an organization, Most people can only touch the tree without seeing the forest. And it is also a human nature to think the parts they have touch is whole. The capability to see the whole is the foundation of enterprise architecture. EA is a discipline to visualize the whole of enterprise for every one to comprehend.

Knowledge is power, EA does not only enable every one to see the whole but also enable every one to know the parts via enterprise knowledge management. EA is an enterprise knowledge management effort to preserve the institutional knowledge which change continuously. Enterprise Architects are probably more valuable as an enterprise knowledge manager than designing a frozen blue print.

Collaboration is more art than science. it is in every organization strategic planning goal and it is also a difficult goal to achieve. LEA facilitate the enterprise collaborative culture via seeing the whole and enterprise knowledge management because Both the effort of See the whole and knowledge management are collaborative effort, It takes total participation to see the whole and managing the enterprise knowledge. As a result, the exercise of see the whole and managing enterprise knowledge also become a practical approach to facilitate the enterprise collaborative culture.

An integrate view of see the whole, enterprise knowledge managment and facilitate collaboration.

LEA take an integrated approach Instead of focus on each part of see the whole, enterprise knowledge managment and facilitate enterprise colloaboration. As shown in the following figure.



EA is a holistic architecture architecture, it must visualize the enterprsie to see the enterprise big picture. The enterprise defintion enable the enterprsie knowledge management to preserve the institutional knowledge. Facilitate Enterprise collabrative culture is more art than science it is very difficult to achieve in a direct method. However, this challenge can be indirective overcome via the collaborative effort of see the whole and enterprise knowledge knowledge management.

An organization may not see the value of a frozen enterprise blueprint in a notion of command and control. However, they can asily appreciate the EA value to see the whole of the enterprise, preserving enterprise knowledge and facilitate enterprise collaborative culture.

The following figure further descirbe the follow of see the whole, preserving enterprise knowledge, integrating the power of Left/Right Brain and. facilitate enterprise collaborative culture



The following links provide further information on know how to see the whole, know the parts and facilitate collaboration

SEE THE WHOLE, KNOW THE PARTS AND FACILITATE COLLABORATION

Enterprise Map



Old link

The Light Enterprise Architecture

E-mail: peaitce@Yahoo.com

LEA Introduction

EA is a Holistic Architecture approach

Enterprise Architects are the "Glue" not the "Guru"

Empower every one to see the whole, know the parts and facilitate collaborative culture
1.Enterprise Map
--Mapping Business
--Mapping Automation
--Mapping Interoprability
--Iterative effort
--Enterprise Map Templates

2.Enterprise Knowledge Management

3.Faciliate Enterprise Collaboration


THE BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE
Architect the enterprise from the aspect of business structure, business management, business service management

1.BUSINESS STRUCTURE
--Customer Architecture
--Organization Architecture
--Human Resource Architecture
--Financial Architecture
--Security Architecture
--IT Architecture

2.BUSINESS MANAGEMENT ARCHITECTURE
--Change Management
--Performance evaluation
--Strategic Planning
--Governance
--Risk Management
--Communication
--Compliance


3.BUSINESS SERVICES MANAGEMENT ARCHITECTURE

4.BUSINESS SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT ARCHITECTURE

BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION


THE 3X3 ADAPTIVE ARCHITECTURE FRAMEWORK

THE THREE ARCHITECTURE THEORY
1.VERTICAL ALIGNMENT ARCHITECTURE
2.HORIZONTAL ARCHITECTURE
--Reference Model
--Reference Architecture
--Standardization
--Service Oriented Architecture
--Cloud Computing

3.CIRCULAR COHERENCE ARCHITECTURE

THE THREE TIER ARCHITECTURE APPROACH
1.Master Plan
2.Segment Architecture
3.Daily EA

BRIDGING STRATEGY AND EXECUTION

Business Structure Architectture is the effort to architect the business structure. It is the body of an Enterprise.








--Customer Architecture
--Organization Architecture
--Human Resource Architecture
--Financial Architecture
--Security Architecture
--IT Architecture

Under the holistic paradigm, among every culture of Greek, China and India, people have observed the same patterns reproduced in all levels of the cosmos, from the largest scale (macrocosm or universe-level) all the way down to the smallest scale (microcosm or sub-sub-atomic or even metaphysical-level)

Macrocosm and microcosm is an ancient Greek Neo-Platonic schema of seeing the same patterns reproduced in all levels of the cosmos, from the largest scale (macrocosm or universe-level) all the way down to the smallest scale (microcosm or sub-sub-atomic or even metaphysical-level). The Greeks were philosophically concerned with a rational explanation of everything and saw the repetition of the golden ratio throughout the world and all levels of reality as a step towards this unifying theory. In short, it is the recognition that the same traits appear in entities of many different sizes, from one man to the entire human population.

Macrocosm/microcosm is a Greek compound of μακρο- "Macro-" and μικρο- "Micro-", which are Greek respectively for "large" and "small", and the word κόσμος kósmos which means "order" as well as "world" or "ordered world."

Today, the concept of microcosm has been dominated by sociology to mean a small group of individuals whose behavior is typical of a larger social body encompassing it. A microcosm can be seen as a special kind of epitome. Conversely, a macrocosm is a social body made of smaller compounds.

Source

"Tao" is the Chinese version of Macrocosm and Microsom.
In China, Tao is the common pattern of universe [Tao-tei Ching]and model the "Tao" with the Wu-Xing model based on the common elements of Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth. Because it is the most intuitive approach to observe the common pattern of universe based on the law of nature. Chinese use the pattern as a holistic thinking tool to analyze the complex system social science, politic, business, music, martial art and medical.



Indra's net is the Buddhist version of the Macrocosm and Microcosm

Indra's net (also called Indra's jewels or Indra's pearls) is a metaphor used to illustrate the concepts that every individual reflect the whole universe The metaphor of Indra's net was developed by the Mahayana Buddhist school in the 3rd century scriptures of the Avatamsaka Sutra, and later by the Chinese Huayan school between the 6th and 8th century.[2]. The following picture illustrate that every morning dew drops reflecting the universe.




source

Leibniz Doctrine

The notion of Earth's magnetic field probably could not have been discovered on the basis of mechanical automatism of the West alone. German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz become very interested in Chinese language, philosophy and the book of Change. Leibniz was the resource of of many of the ideas that developed into field theory a century after his death. Leibniz's doctrine that every individual reflects the whole universe has a strong resemblance to the metaphor of Macrocosm and microcosm and Indra's net. The image obviously fits with the microcosm/macrocosm as well as with Leibniz's doctrines that every individual reflect the whole universe.

Modern physic use Quantum theory as the common pattern of the universe

By the late Twenties quantum theorists had solved in elaborate detail the most pressing physics problem of that era--how light interacts with atoms, Each new predicative success made quantum physicists bolder. With this apparently invincible theory in hand, quantum theorists searched for new worlds to conquer, Exposed for almost 80 years to potential falsification on a thousand different fronts, quantum theory has passed every test that three generations of Nobel-hungry scientists can devise. On all levels accessible to experiment, quantum theory generates flawless predictions for every single one of matter's quirky operations.



Enterprise Architecture in Macrocosm and Microcosm philosophy

As a holistic architecture approach, EA also adopted the Macrocosm and Microcosm philosophy. John Zachman has observed the similar pattern of engineering analysis based on the attributes of What, How, Who, Where, When and Why and created the common Enterprise Architecture framework as shown in the following figure. LEA have used the Zachman framework, the generic pattern of enterprise, as a thinking tools to architect all level of enterprise from business, risk management, human resources, Budget & Financing, governance, service management.



Source

--Change Management
--Performance evaluation
--Strategic Planning
--Governance
--Risk Management
--Communication
--Compliance







Business management is the effort to manage the enterprise structure.

It is part of the Business Architecture




LEA architect the business management architecture in a holistic approach using the Zackman framework as a thinking to create the Corporate business management framework.




The purpose

The purpose of a holistic business framework is to clarify the confusion of many parts of corporate management components. The EA community have address the parts of change management, strategic planning, governance, risk management, compliance and collaborative culture without see the whole. As a result, there is a lot of confusion and redundant effort.

From the framework, Change management become more meaningful to break down to business change, capital investment change, human resources change and IT management change. Also, that IT governance is part of the corporate governance and SOA governance is part of IT governance.

It also clarify that business management consist of the attributes of change management, strategic planning, Governance, Risk Management, Compliance and Culture Management. From this framework, strategic planning is not part of governance.

THE COLUMNS OF THE FRAMEWORK

--Change Management
--Strategic Planning
--Governance
--Risk management
--Compliance
--Culture

Change Management

Enterprise change constantly, The challenges can be daunting, most corporate change management failed becauses of poor planning, unreasonable or fuzzy expectations, misaligned business processes and lack of buy-in from stakeholders. As a result, change management has become a critical component in corporate management. Without the requisite expertise and staff resources to address change management in a serious way, the prospects for success are not good. However, change management is not enough. The challenges are bigger than what can be resolved during the implementation of a single project.

Strategic Planning

Governance, Risk Management and Compliance

The framework adopt the integrated Governanc, Risk management and compliance framework. Traditionally, Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) activities have evolved independently both from the Risk and Control functions and the business units. This has led to band-aid approaches to issues related to risk and compliance. Organizations typically have sound policies but have struggled with their implementation and effectiveness. Senior executives are now being challenged to comprehensively address these two key issues. Oversight functions must be able to gauge the effectiveness of governance policies and procedures as driven by both internal and external directives. Business functions must track and enforce compliance specifically to their line of business. A complete GRC strategy is required. To meet these complex and unique demands, organizations are now seeking strategies that meet and future-proof their risk and compliance initiatives, while reducing their costs. An effective GRC strategy helps organizations adapt to change, manage risk, and effectively comply with the risks and regulations that affect their business today, while ensuring they can meet new challenges tomorrow. Success in GRC comes from successfully managing risk and achieving compliance in an ever-changing environment while reducing costs and improving corporate performance every day.



Governance

describes the overall management approach through which senior executives direct and control the entire organization, using a combination of management information and hierarchical management control structures. Governance activities ensure that critical management information reaching the executive team is sufficiently complete, accurate and timely to enable appropriate management decision making, and provide the control mechanisms to ensure that strategies, directions and instructions from management are carried out systematically and effectively.[4]

Organizations that are successful with large-scale change initiatives have several things in common; primary among them is a defined governance structure encompassing the entire change cycle. Successful structures begin with the decision process and continue through final execution of the change initiative. "

Risk Management

is the set of processes through which management identifies, analyzes, and, where necessary, responds appropriately to risks that might adversely affect realization of the organization's business objectives. The response to risks typically depends on their perceived gravity, and involves controlling, avoiding, accepting or transferring them to a third party. Whereas organizations routinely manage a wide range of risks (e.g. technological risks, commercial/financial risks, information security risks etc.), external legal and regulatory compliance risks are arguably the key issue in GRC.


Compliance

means conforming with stated requirements. At an organizational level, it is achieved through management processes which identify the applicable requirements (defined for example in laws, regulations, contracts, strategies and policies), assess the state of compliance, assess the risks and potential costs of non-compliance against the projected expenses to achieve compliance, and hence prioritize, fund and initiate any corrective actions deemed necessary.

Culture


THE ROWS OF THE FRAMEWORK

--Business
--Capital investment
--Human Resources
--Budget & Finance
--IT management


DRILL DOWN

From the Corporate Business Management framework, the same attributes can be used to drill down for example: the IT business management framework

EA is for daily use to support agile solution architecture development.


THE AGILE SOLUTION ARCHITECTURE


3.0 The daily EA enable agile application development


EA enable agile application development. EA enable agile solution architecture Agile solution architecture also consist of three architecture direction of aligning to business need, reuse available and achieve coherent delivery. Although there are many agile application development methods described in the Agile Manifesto published in 2001, these methods is based on stovepipe approach. EA is a holistic approach to enables agile solution architecture where the solution architecture can leverage on EA efforts to specify system requirements and reuse the enterprise resources for agile solution development.

EA enables agile solution architecture by keeping application development simple from the requirement analysis, design and implementation. The modernization plan The business architecture provide a foundation to specify the system requirements and streamline the business process to take advantage of technology evolution. The Service oriented architecture enable the enterprise agility.







3.1 Requirement management

3.1.1 Business architecture in EA is considered as the holistic requirement management.
3.1.2 System requirement can be derived from the business architecture.
3.1.3 Enterprise identify the system requirement pattern from business architecture

3.2 Application development

3.2.1 EA establish the common foundation and building blocks to enable
3.2.2 Application development agility.
3.2.3 Application development simplicity.
3.2.4 Application development cost efficiency.


3.3 Service Oriented Architecture

3.3.1 Service Oriented Architecture do not replace EA.
3.3.2 The challenge of SOA is to provide the right services based business need.
3.3.3 EA describe the holistic enterprise business function and enable the selection of the right SOA.
3.3.4 EA describe the holistic business workload and enable the placement of right services.


3.4 System assurance

3.4.1 IV & V leverage on EA system catalog to target systems for validation and verification.
3.4.2 IV & V leverage on EA workload analysis in stress test.
3.4.3 IV & V leverage on EA to see the whole for integration test.


3.5 Security management

3.5.1 Security management depends on EA to determine what to secure.
3.5.2 Security management depends on EA to determine the priority of security level.



Analyze commonality in alignment architecture at the

layer of service, data and technology





The fundamental of agile solution architecture relies on enterprise architecture which does not only define how business take advantage of automation technology but also enables agile application development to deliver the right application to the right people on the right place at the right time. EA is the effort to model and analyze the enterprise structure, internal and external connectivity holistically in the the layer of business, application, data and infrastructure. This effort enables agile solution architecture in the area of

. System requirement,
. Function analysis.
. Agile application design via reference architecture.
. Keep it simple.
. Agile application implementation.

As shown in the following framework.