Introduction
Enterprise Topology is a LEA initiation to see the unseen of the logical and invisible enterprise big picture. EA can not be called EA without knowing the whole of enterprise. However, most existing EA practice have focused on architecture design and overlooked the key word of enterprise.The term of Enterprise Topology follow suits of the geographic topology map. Through out the ages, maps had a profound impact on human activities, and today the demand for them is perhaps greater than ever. the geographic maps are important in engineering, resources management, urban and regional planning, management of environment, construction, conservation, geology, agriculture and many other field. Maps are especially important in engineering for planning project location, designing facilities and estimating contract quantities. The enterprise topology also have a similar profound impact on Enterprise Architecture. It is not only an effort to see the enterprise big picture but also overcome the challenge of "Stealth EA". Further more, it is a tool to articulate total participation and collaboration. The collaborative EA topology approach provide a ground to culture buy-in from stakeholder.
Enterprise topology requires collaborative effort. The large, logical enterprise is invisible by individual because each one of us only touch a part. To see the unseen of enterprise is best illustrated in the story of blind man and the elephant. For the invisible enterprise, Each individual is logically a blind person. EA professional describe EA based on the part they have touched and insisted on their righteousness as described in the story. It is a human nature to think the part they have touched as the whole. The story also point out that Collaboration and reconciliation is only way to see the unseen. Enterprise topology is more so because enterprise is logical, large and invisible. Each one of us only touched a part.
Enterprise topology is composed manually in a step by step approach similar to put together a large jigsaw puzzle. Many people appreciate the value to see the unseen but reluctant to invest the manual effort. They would like to see an enterprise topology with automated process. Unfortunately, the automation machine can only produce the part human can see but not on the part human can not see. In addition, the automate EA topology concept missed the concept of collaboration and reconciliation.
The Enterprise Topology has been developed by the author for several US government EA effort in the past many years. It has been very useful for both business and engineering community. Security team has found it useful on every case. This is an effort to establish a repeatable and trainable Enterprise Topology method to share the successful EA experience with the others. It lay out of enterprise topology specification and establish the enterprise topology method. Illustrate the topology with example and guide the topology with step by step direction.
In my opinion, Enterprise topology should be the lesson 101 in EA discipline similar to the geographic topology training for all civil engineers. The EA professional should establish the Enterprise Topology first Before jump into architecture design. The capability to see the unseen is a unique EA discipline which distinguish EA professional from general architects.
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Background
The Enterprise Topology approach is developed based on the author's experience in the cross training of Civil Engineering and Computer Science. The architects and engineers have communicate with stakeholders with architecture drawings for many centries. Enterprise Architecture, which is an holistic architecture practice, can also leverage on the well develpped method to communicate with stakeholders. Although the Enterprise Topology is a innovative effort, the concept to map the enterprise is not unprecedent. To avoid the effort in reinventing wheel, the author have discovered and learned from the Enterprise Topology method by :alex osterwalder business model canvas
Business Canvas
Model http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Model_Canvas and the online tool that support it, such as BMDesigner http://bmdesigner.com.
Business Canvas game
1. Enterprise map by Burton, Herbert O, Pennotti, Michael C.
Enterprise map: A system for implementing strategy and achieving operational excellence in Engineering Management Journal , Sep 2003
"Abstract: This article describes how senior leaders can use the tools and techniques of systems analysis to develop a top-level process architecture that identifies the key processes of a business and specifies the critical interconnections and interrelationships between them. We call this top-level architecture an enterprise map and we believe it represents an important addition to a senior management toolkit, complementing other popular, performance-enhancing tools like process maps (Eckes, 2001) and the balanced scorecard (Kaplan and Norton, 1992)."
There are many graphic representation effort in IT architecture practice, the Enterprise topology leverage on the concept and the effort from the following :
2. Bernard H. Boar's effort
The Enterprise Topology is developed under the influence of Mr. Bernard H. Boar. He is Director of Strategic Solutions for RCG Information Technology in Iselin, New Jersey. He is an internationally recognized expert on IT strategy, and the author of several successful books on the subject, including Practical Steps for Aligning Information Technology with Business Strategies and The Art of Information Technology Strategy, both of which are available from Wiley.
"This book is the answer to hundreds of CIOs who have asked me how IT can be used to disrupt their market and change the rules of competition. If you live in a hypercompetitive world, CIOs will find this book an invaluable resource." —Richard A. D’Aveni, author of Hypercompetition "I wish Bernie Boar had written this book 20 years ago. And I wish every IT manager and architect had read it and placed his hand on it and sworn by it 20 years ago. Then we wouldn’t be in the pickle we find ourselves in today!" —John A. Zachman Constructing Blueprints for Enterprise IT Architectures Recently deployed within a unit at AT&T, Enterprise IT Architecture Blueprinting (EAB) lets you blueprint your system designs with a degree of precision long taken for granted by engineers and architects. In fact, it’s the first standardized methodology of its kind. In this book, expert Bernard Boar introduces you to the principles behind EAB and all of its features by walking through the entire design process for developing conceptual, functional, logical, and physical blueprints complete with useful icons, diagrams, and page templates.
3. C4ISR products
DoDAF v1.0 listed the following products as the “minimum set of products required to satisfy the definition of an OV, SV and TV.” One note: while the DoDAF does not list the OV-1 artifact as a core product, its development is strongly encouraged. The sequence of the artifacts listed below gives a suggested order in which the artifacts could be developed. The actual sequence of view generation and their potential customization is a function of the application domain and the specific needs of the effort.
AV-1 Overview and Summary Information
AV-2 Integrated Dictionary
OV-1 High Level Operational Concept Graphic
OV-5 Operational Activity Model
OV-2 Operational Node Connectivity Description
OV-3 Operational Informational Exchange Matrix
SV-1 System Interface Description
TV-1 Technical Standards Profile
4. Unified Modeling Language
UML 2.0 has 13 types of diagrams, which can be categorized hierarchically as follows:
Structure diagrams emphasize what things must be in the system being modeled:
Activity diagram
State Machine diagram
Use case diagram
Interaction diagrams, a subset of behavior diagrams, emphasize the flow of control and data among the things in the system being modeled:
Communication diagram
Interaction overview diagram (added in UML 2.x)
Sequence diagram
Timing diagram (added in UML 2.x)
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