One way I explain the essence of EA value, when pressed to do so, is that it can provide for better-informed decisions faster. Of course, for this to occur, the effective scoping of an EA initiative is critical to clarify what decisions need to be made about what transformative journey. With those in mind, one can generate a list of questions that must be answered to enable such decision making. In EA, modeling is a critical analytical, collaborative, and communication enabler. In a recent paper from The Open Group, “A Practical Approach to Application Portfolio Consolidation using the TOGAF® Standard,” a list of relevant questions is provided, as well as a list of recommended architecture models to be used in working with the key stakeholders.
As is noted in the paper, “Modeling supports our understanding of the Baseline Architecture and how it needs to change to meet the Architecture Vision to achieve the Target Architecture.” Even this list of elementary questions will help address a challenge of application consolidation:
- What kinds of things do we have, or do we need?
- Where are these things located, or need to be located?
- How do these things interact with other things, or need to interact?
- How are these things structured/composed, or need to be structured/composed?
- On what do these things have dependencies?
- How are these things managed, or need to be managed?
- How are these things secured, or need to be secured?
- How do we transition these things to other things?
In the same paper, an excellent list of recommended viewpoints is provided:
| Application PortfolioIdentifies the applications in the landscape | Information Usage |
| Service Catalog | Application Cooperation Describes how applications support business activity |
| Service Usage | Application Structure Describes the composition of applications |
| Service Composition | Application Behavior Describes the interactions between applications |
| Service Realization | Application InformationDescribes the information produced/consumed by applications |
| Service Interaction | Application CostsItemizes the costs for running and maintaining applications |
| Component Interaction | Alternative Target Application ArchitecturesDescribes any alternative Target Application Architectures identified, the criteria used to determine the alternatives, along with trade-off analysis. |
| Component Catalog | Application Alternative |
| Component Usage | Trade-off Analysis |
| Component Lifecycle | Application LifecycleItemizes lifecycle state for applications |
| Component Cost | Technology Cooperation Describes how technologies support applications |
| Technology Portfolio Identifies the technologies in the landscape | |
| Component Composition | |
| Component Interaction | |
| Component Interaction |
In conclusion, providing wide-ranging decision support for business transformation and enablement is fundamental to EA and skills for scoping and then modeling is critical.
Authored by Dr. Steve Else, Chief Architect & Principal Instructor