Project Management and Enterprise Information Architecture Essay

Enterprise architecture provides a framework for the business to add new applications, infrastructure, and systems for managing the lifecycle and the value of the current and future environments. Enterprise architecture provides the alignment across business strategy, IT strategy, and IT implementation. Enterprise architecture links the enterprise business strategy to its IT investments by ensuring a tight integration between the Business, Application, Information, and Infrastructure architecture layers. Each of these areas describes integrated sets of blocks should be selected so that the enterprise can achieve its overall business objectives. They also need to be made available so that projects can use them in the design, development and deployment of IT-base business systems. Enterprise Strategy Layer For most institutions, strategic planning and the efficient execution of related IT projects are hampered by lack of enterprise-wide views of the current business and IT landscape and it is difficult to establish a flexible, adaptable, and business-driven IT strategy. Therefore, this layer predominately describes an enterprise strategy concerning product portfolio and appropriate customer segments, appropriate delivery and distribution channels in the given market environment, competitors and core competencies, and capabilities of the company. Business Layer Developing an Enterprise Architecture involves providing the process and integrated tools to capture the as-is state of the organization—the business and IT ecosystem—and the desired, to-be state. Enterprise Architecture facilitates the creation of enterprise blueprints that show how business processes are now and how they can be implemented, exploiting the full range of capability of underlying IT architectural building blocks. Application Layer The proliferation of applications, systems and the platforms and their interdependencies make the process of adding and enhancing IT capabilities a risky proposition for the business unless there is an Enterprise Architecture Strategy. The Applications Layer supports the business and describes the required business functions in the underlying IT application systems. Information layer Information is the fuel that drives business artifacts; their flow generates value to the user. To transform raw data into meaningful information that provides additional insight and value to the business is one of the key objectives of the Enterprise Architecture. Infrastructure layer  The infrastructure layer consists of the network, server and storage infrastructure supporting higher-level functions such as applications, databases or e-mail servers. Due to cost pressure, business stakeholders demand more flexibility and agility also from this layer leading to higher degrees of virtualization and systems consuming less energy, reducing electricity costs. To summarize, Enterprise Architecture gives the business and IT stakeholders the big-picture perspective across business processes, information systems and technologies. Applying Enterprise architecture improves the predictability and consistency of project outcomes across the portfolio. Consistently repeatable and thus predictable project success is of utmost importance to achieve an orderly change required for driving effective and lasting transformations such as SOA initiatives while managing associated, inherent risks. Conceptual Approach to EAI Reference Architecture Information architecture The information architecture helps develop the information-centric, echnically compatible systems by providing a consistent approach to information technology across a Line of Business (LOB) or a larger organization. The information architecture provides the foundational information-relevant concepts and frameworks for dealing in a consistent and integrated manner with the technology to guarantee the responsiveness and trusted information insight that the business requires from its Information Layer. The information Architecture identifies the information centric components of an organization’s IT environment and defines its relationship to the organization’s objectives. The information architecture also describes the principles and guidelines that enable consistent implementation of information technology solutions, how data and information are both governed and shared across the enterprise, and what needs to be done to gain business-relevant trusted information insight. Following are some examples of the core principles that guide an Information Architecture. * Access and exchange of information- Information services should provide unconstrained access to the right users at the right time. * Service re-use- Facilitate discovery, selection and re-use of services and whenever possible encourage the use of uniform interfaces. * Information governance- Adequate information technology should support the efficient execution of an Information Governance Strategy. Standards- A set of coherent standards for data and technology should be defined to promote simplifications across the Information Infrastructure. Enterprise Information Architecture The Enterprise Information Architecture is the framework that defines the information-centric principles, architecture models, standards, and processes that form the basis of making information technology decisions across the enterprise. The EIA translates the business requirements into informational strategies and defines what data components are needed by whom and when in the information supply chain. Furthermore, it addresses the need of the business to generate and maintain trusted information that is delivered by relevant data components. So why do we distinguish between an Information Architecture and an Enterprise Information Architecture? The enterprise in the definition adds the enterprise-wide business context to the definition of Information Architecture. The challenges faces by most organizations, from government to public enterprises, depend upon consistent decision making across multiple business units, departments, and individual projects. The EIA is a core component of the required framework for effective decision making by defining the guiding principles that dictate the organizations strategy to address business needs and the information centric technology infrastructure that supports them. The EIA defines the technical capabilities and processes the organization needs to manage data and information over its lifetime, optimize content-based operational and compliance processes, establish, govern and deliver trusted information, and optimize business performance. By aligning business needs with the technology and the information flows in the supply chain, EIA delivers flexibility agility and responsiveness to the business process and the organization as a whole. The primary goal of the EIA is to reduce complexity and thereby contribute to the elimination of all the factors that act as the inhibitors to change and address new business paradigms. Primary characteristics that can be used to distinguish a well-defined EIA implementation include the following: Gaining transparency- The information remains independent from application specifications, application implementations, and user interfaces. It provides a transparency layer between the information and application domains. * Considering enterprise business requirements- The architecture takes into account the overall information needs of the enterprise and specific LOBs or individual organizations. * Avoiding inconsistencies. It helps identify inconsistencies, conflicts, overlaps, and gaps in the data and information, and offers a concept, framework and methods to resolve this, and it is useful to select adequate solutions. Managing Service Level Agreements (SLA): It provides mechanisms for the definition and management of information-centric SLAs which can be monitored and enforced. * Enable decision making- The architecture enables more consistent and efficient IT decision making that is linked to business needs. It does this because it is both flexible and extensible. * Addressing reusability aspects. Enforcing and EIA means that information assets are shared and reused, avoiding data multiplication and thus reducing development, service, and support costs. * Addressing data scope.  The information Reference Model used by the enterprise describes the scope of the used data information supported by the EIA. * Defining a technology strategy. It establishes the framework upon which strategies adopted by the enterprise depend. In addition, it defines the set of principles that guide how an organization’s information systems and technology infrastructure are engineered. Reference Architecture The reference architecture provides a proven template for architecture for a particular domain or area of application that contains the supporting artifacts to enable their use. The Reference Architecture incorporates best practices resulting from work on a particular field and it also provides a common vocabulary to enable a common understanding while facilitating discussions around implementations. A reference architecture encapsulates at an abstract level the results and best practices derived from multiple deployments of solutions to a given business problem. They enable the logical sequence of tasks required to build a complete system. Reference Architectures provide a common format that facilitates the design and deployment of solutions repeatedly in a consistent manner. This, they are a valuable tool for IT Architects to help identify and assess gaps and reduce risks in the solution deployment cycle. Based on the requirements in a given area of an application, there are certain components shared between systems in the same area. The Reference Architecture identifies these components and indicates how they interconnect. The following are some key Reference Architecture characteristics. * Major foundational components or building blocks- They help to describe an end-to-end architecture solution. Common language- It simplifies communication when talking about systems of a given type. * Framework- The Reference Architecture is a framework for scope identification, roadmap definition, risk assessment, and gap assessment. * Foundation. It is a proven foundation for all solution designs in a domain (e. g. e-business solutions) The Reference Architecture leverages ideas from successful past implementations and lessons learned from troubled or failed projects and concentrates on simplifications, reuse, and usability, avoiding the complex details of the specific technology. It has the potential to evolve over time, meaning that after it has been constructed it requires maintenance with harvesting of best practices from projects as they are completed, including changes or additions to the Reference Architecture to handle situations that were not addressed. Within the wider solution architecture and deployment scope, there are significant advantages to using Reference Architectures. Following are few examples.