Abstract
This book suggest the Enterprise Topology approach to see the true enterprise big picture. Most of the work captured in this book are innovative. It describe the Enterprise Topology by explaining why the Enterprise topology, what is the Enterprise topology, set the strategy and establish a repeatable methodology.The purpose is to establish a repeatable Enterprise Topology methodology as the fundamental practice of EA
Enterprise topology is a fundamental element of Enterprise Architecture similar to geographical survey in traditional architecture and engineering. The capability to see the true Enterprise big picture is a unique EA discipline. Hopefully, the EA professionals will recognize the Enterprise Topology as the fundamental of EA discipline and become the bread and butter in EA practice.
EA community see the whole base on what they know
Enterprise Architecture is a holistic architecture approach to overcome the challenge of stovepipe systems. Holistic is the key to EA. Although we all know the story of blind men and the elephant, the EA community have not yet from the story because EA professional have no doubt on what they know is the whole. it is a human nature to think the part they have touched as the whole, the "Mr. know all" EA professionals are particular so. The EA community have not yet establish a method to see the true big picture because they think they know the enterprise big picture. The fact is that their view of the enterprise big picture is only based on what they know and they do not know what they do not know. Without a methodology to see the true holistic big picture, EA initiative subject to the risk of modeling the business on a pseudo whole. Impact analysis on a partial business model can be missleading for decision making.
Enterprise Topology is the methodological approach to see the true Enterprise big picture.
Enterprise topology is a methodological approach to see the true enterprise big picture. The only way to see the true enterprise big picture is through collaboration and reconciliation with total participation. The story of the blind men and elephant which point out the human nature of believing the part they have touched as the whole and suggest to see the true big picture with collaboration and reconciliation is a good lesson to learn.
Enterprise topology enable a human centric EA approach
Enterprise Topology is designed to close the gap between Enterprise Architecture and human interaction in a human centric approach. Architecture is human centric it is a creativity effort which is a human gift. However, for the purpose of getting buy-in from enterprise leaders by positioning EA as decision making tool, EA has become very computer oriented to conduct impact analysis and away from human touch. The reputation of “Stealth EA” said it all.
Enterprise Topology approach pave the way for architecture buy-in
The Enterprise Topology approach does not only render the true enterprise big picture but also resolve the challenge of buy-in from the stakeholders which has been the biggest hurdle of EA practice. The collaboration and reconciliation approach establish partnership and pay the way for architecture buy-in. Enterprise topology take the stakeholder buy-in into account at the onset of EA effort rather wait to the end.
Enterprise topology is pertinent for both business and technology community
Enterprise topology is not only for technical community but also pertinent to business community. Enterprise topology, which establish the true holistic enterprise big picture, represents an important addition to a senior management toolkit. A critical decision facing every business leader is how to organize in order to execute strategy.
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What is see the big picture?
See the picture is capability to see the invisible by rendering the invisible into human comprehension. The story of blind man and the elephant [] is a classical effort to see the big picture. It is similar to the popular game of Jigsaw puzzle [].It is a human limitation to comprehend the very large or very small object, and it is very more difficult to comprehend the invisible logical object such as an enterprise.The capability to see the big picture is not born, it is the result of training. CEA recognize the discipline of see the big picture and suggest to see the whole using the tool of model, framework, repeatable pattern, concept of operation and the enterprise map [Wu, 2006].
2.2 EA to “See the Whole”
Seeing the whole is not a collateral duty, It is EA’s responsibility to provide the enterprise big picture. The business owners have to manage their daily business crisis, they are not in the position to see the enterprise big picture. Even if they want to, they do not have the time and resources because it is not a trivial effort to see the whole. In some cases, individual business owners have initiate redundant effort to see the whole. Each project has invested time and resources to see the part of big picture for their need to make better decision. Most of the independent effort stays within the project and never share with the other.
EA is the engineering of sharing and reuse which is dedicated and unded with resources to see the whole and provide the enterprise big picture for the stakeholders. Seeing the whole is the effort to provide the enterprise big picture to the planners, application developers engineers, the portfolio managers, the security engineers, the infrastructure engineers.
2.3 “Seeing the whole” distinguish EA from other paradigms
EA is an emerging paradigm. Although, many other established paradigms would like to impose their own image on EA to consider EA as the enterprise wide application systems design, or the enterprise wide business process reengineering effort. Many EA experts consider that EA is a multiple discipline. They have practically denied that EA is a emerging paradigm . What distinguish EA from the other paradigm is the discipline of seeing the whole. An enterprise architect may not know as much in application development than the application developers or as mush in business reengineering than the industry engineers. But they are specially trained to see the big picture.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary define the “ Big Picture” as : “The entire perspective on a situation or issue ”. The big picture is comprehend with mind rather then eyes. Although the TV manufactures like to use big picture in their products, the effort of “see the big picture” is to visualize the subject which human eyes can not comprehend . It can be an physical subject which is too large for human eyes to comprehend or it can be an abstractive subject which does not physically exist.
“Comprehend the big picture with mind” is too profound for common soul, most of people only touch one part of the enterprise and does not have the opportunity to see the whole. The invisible big picture must be visualized for every one to comprehend. The effort of “see the big picture” is to visualize the invisible subject for every one to comprehend rather keep it stealth to some profound individual. The stakeholders must be able to visualize the big picture of the enterprise the way that we can see the earth as a big blue marble as shown on the following picture from Apollo 17 .
An enterprise big picture does not only consist of the logical big picture but also the physical big picture. Unlike the business process centric application development paradigm, EA is the engineering of reuse and sharing between organization in different geographical locations. A example is the concept of operation from the legacy US Customs Services. The following figure from the Practical Guide for Federal Enterprise Architecture by CIO council captures the operational environment of the U.S. Customs Service for performance of its Trade Compliance mission. The figure shows the import of goods and merchandise into the U.S. via sea, air, and ground modes of transportation. It also shows the inspection of those goods and the rejection of invalid or illegal shipments. The graphic portrays the movement of those goods to the eventual consumers. The graphic depicts the collection of duties, fees, and taxes and the flow of those monies into the U.S. Treasury. Customs also captures and collects a large volume of statistical information at its 300-plus ports of entry. The Trade Compliance CONOPS Graphic shows the flow of that information to the Customs Data Center and to over 100 other government agencies
EA is the discipline to bring the big picture into visualization so that every one can see. The big picture looks simple but yet requires substantial wisdom and effort to see the whole. Thinking about how long does it take for human to see the big blue marble and how much effort it is to discover that the earth is a globe and it orbits around the sun. During the civilization, people envision the earth is flat , and latter they discover it is a globe and then they found out it orbit around the sun. They have not actually seen the big picture of earth as a blue marble until this picture. Now they are working to see the big picture of universe. In addition to physical big picture, there are also abstractive big picture to see the entire perspective of a situation or an issue. It requires explicit modeling technique to visualize the abstract big picture
See the big picture is not invetory the As-is
I have just realized the confusion in the EA community between "see the big picture " and "documenting as-is" . Many EA architects get more important thing to do and have no time for the tedious work of documenting the "As-is". Some EA experts told me that "document as-is" is a no-brainer clerical work for junior staff because it is existing. The assumption that " Every existing thing can be seen" does not seems to be a valid one, there are many existing things that you can not see. You can not see ithe existing subject t when it is too big or when is too small. Enterprise definition is to big to see. Thinks about the story of the blind men and the elephant.
"To know the enterprise" is not the same as documenting "As-is". Please note that the FEA framework of "as-is " "target " is a EA design transition framework, it should not be confused with the EA model .EA is described by the EA model which include the business layer, data layer, application layer and technology layer rather than the transition framework you are referring to. I have distinguished the models and framework in the framework and model section in my book proposal. It is easy to fall through the crack between the EA model and the EA framework without distinguish the EA model and different kind of frameworks.
See the big picture to know the business architecture is to describe the business architecture layer and should not confused with documenting "as-is" effort. See the whole is a wisdom that every one talks about but only a few people are capable to do so. Documenting the "As-is" is an inventory effort which is not much different from the inventory effort in a supper market. in many EA project, documenting "As-is" is a clerical effort for junior staff as it is to inventory in a super market. To see the big picture and know the enterprise definition is a test of wisdom which distinguish EA profession from the other discipline.
Further discussion to the term of "As-is". The "As-is" is not really the "As-is" , it is a baseline which is a snap shot of normal state at one point of time. The true "As-is" is a function of time, it change continuously with real time. An important responsibility of EA is to monitor the enterprise vital sign in real time. Let us save this one to discussion in the other time.
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