What Is Enterprise Architecture? Definitions, Frameworks, Layers, and Glossary

What Is Enterprise Architecture?

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a well‑defined practice comparable to city planning that enables analysis, design, planning, and implementation of business and IT to successfully formulate and execute strategy, reducing redundancy, complexity, information silos, and business risk associated with IT investments.

EA practitioners, called enterprise architects, analyze business structures and processes and draw conclusions from collected information to achieve EA goals of effectiveness, efficiency, agility, and continuity of complex operations.

Main Enterprise Architecture Frameworks

Several EA frameworks exist in the IT industry. Zachman was the first to formalize a conceptual framework. Since then, frameworks such as TOGAF, NAF, DoDAF, MoDAF, etc., have been adopted by many organizations, each offering distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Enterprise Architecture Layers

Although each organization’s EA is unique, common elements exist. Since Stephen Spewak’s Enterprise Architecture Planning (EAP) in 1993, EA has often been divided into four domains.

The four widely accepted domains are:

Business Architecture Domain

Describes how the enterprise is organized and the functional capabilities needed to deliver the business vision. It answers "What" and "Who": what are the business vision, strategy, and goals, and who performs the defined business services.

Application Architecture Domain

Describes individual applications, their interactions, and their relationship to core business processes. It addresses the "HOW": how to implement the previously defined business services or functions.

Data Architecture Domain

Describes the logical and physical data assets of the organization and the structure of data‑management resources, enabling better business processes through data analysis.

Technology Architecture Domain

Describes the software and hardware required to realize business, data, and application services. Each domain has well‑known artifacts, diagrams, and practices.

Why Choose Enterprise Architecture?

EA covers people, business processes, information, technology, and their relationships within and outside the organization. By aligning these domains, EA guides the organization to identify, motivate, and implement changes that improve business‑technology coordination, consistency, interoperability, ROI, flexibility, and agility.

Business and technology coordination

Consistency across the enterprise environment

Interoperability and information sharing

Return on investment

Flexibility and agility

What Is an EA Framework?

An architecture framework provides common practices for creating, interpreting, analyzing, and using architecture descriptions (views and viewpoints) within a specific domain or stakeholder community. According to IEEE 1471, an EA framework is a structured model for describing enterprise architecture.

Using an EA framework simplifies the creation and maintenance of architectures at all layers (enterprise, functional business, cross‑domain technical, and solution) and helps organizations leverage the value of architecture.

EA frameworks typically provide best practices, standards, tools, processes, and templates, including:

Common terminology, models, and taxonomies

Processes, principles, policies, and tools

Reference architectures and models

Normative guidance (EA processes, content, roadmaps, governance)

Architecture deliverables and artifact catalogs

Enterprise architecture meta‑model

Enterprise Architecture Glossary

Address – view to solve a problem

Agile – iterative approach for planning and guiding projects

Application Architecture – describes the structure and interactions of applications that deliver key business functions and manage data assets

Application Portfolio Management – procedures for managing software assets and assessing financial benefits relative to maintenance and operation costs

Architecture – organization of a system based on components, relationships, and environment

Architecture Description (AD) – work products that represent the architecture of a system of interest, which may be documents, model sets, or model libraries

Architecture Principles – qualitative intent statements that an architecture should satisfy

Business Architecture – description of the structure and interaction of business strategy, organization, functions, processes, and information needs

Business Capability – expression of the abilities, materials, and expertise required for an organization to fulfill core functions

Business Capability Modeling – technique for representing an organization’s business‑anchored model independent of structure, process, people, or domain

Business Capability Roadmap – plan describing a series of actionable, scoped initiatives and their sequence and timeline to achieve business goals

Business Capability Taxonomy – ordered hierarchy of business capabilities meaningful to stakeholders

Business Goal – statement of the desired enterprise state or condition to be achieved or maintained

Business Information Model – model illustrating grouping and relationships of data elements that compose business documents

Business Model – fundamental principles describing how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value

Business Policy – formal record of management expectations and intent guiding decisions and ensuring consistency of processes, standards, roles, activities, and IT infrastructure

Business Process – event‑driven end‑to‑end path from a customer request to a result, often crossing departmental boundaries

Business Service – explicitly defined interface that supports a business function and is managed by the organization

Capability – ability possessed by an organization, individual, or system, typically requiring a combination of people, process, and technology

Change Management – automated support for development, rollout, and maintenance of system components

Cloud Migration – process of moving data, applications, or other business elements from on‑premises to the cloud or between cloud environments

Concern – any aspect of a system that attracts interest, such as purpose, functionality, structure, behavior, cost, supportability, security, or interoperability

Data Object – information about an important business item (e.g., account, employee, organization type) that can be linked to applications and interfaces

Digital Transformation – conversion of analog forms to digital forms, enabling digital implementation of processes

Enterprise Architecture (EA) – comprehensive, proactive process that leads an enterprise in responding to disruptive forces by providing strategic guidance to business and IT leaders

Enterprise Information Architecture – part of EA that describes current and future states and the flexible sharing of information assets

Enterprise Principles – foundational statements that guide organizational decisions and governance strategies

Environment – the social, business, and technical context in which a system exists

Framework – conventions, principles, and practices for establishing architecture within a specific domain or stakeholder community

Information Architecture – set of rules determining how information is collected, stored, processed, transmitted, presented, and used

Kanban – lean manufacturing technique for managing workflow to reduce cycle time

Key Performance Indicator (KPI) – high‑level metric reflecting process or feature performance, often used on executive scorecards

Lean – approach that delivers effective solutions while consuming minimal resources

Model – collection of views that constitute an architecture model, built according to conventions for a specific model type

Model Type – convention that defines a particular architecture model’s purpose and stakeholder concerns

Portfolio Management – selection, prioritization, and control of projects and programs based on strategic goals and delivery capacity

Product Lifecycle Management – philosophy, process, and procedures for managing a product from concept through retirement

Project – temporary effort to create a unique product, service, or result, typically progressing through initiation, planning, execution, and closure

Quality Assurance – maintaining expected quality levels throughout service or product delivery

Resource – economic or productive element required to complete an activity (e.g., land, labor, capital, energy, information, expertise, time)

Risk – potential impact on an organization that must be considered in business model evaluation

Scrum – project management framework emphasizing teamwork, accountability, and iterative progress toward clear goals

Service Level Agreement (SLA) – contract between two business units defining measurable service performance criteria

Service‑Oriented Architecture (SOA) – design paradigm and set of practices that help IT meet business needs, improving time‑to‑market, cost, consistency, and flexibility

Software‑as‑a‑Service (SaaS) – remotely owned, delivered, and managed software provided by one or more vendors on a subscription or usage‑based model

Solution Architecture – description of a specific solution’s architecture, combining perspectives from business, information, and technology

Stakeholder – individual, group, or organization with an interest in the outcomes of a system

Statement of Work (SOW) – document outlining expected outcomes, performance criteria, and evaluation methods for a task or contract

Supply Chain Management – process of creating and satisfying demand for goods and services through a network of trade partners

Technical Reference Model – taxonomy of standards and specifications supporting the construction, delivery, and exchange of business and application components

Technical Obsolescence – point at which a technology or product ceases to be used, produced, or compatible

Technical Risk – possibility of technology failure causing business disruption, such as security incidents or service outages

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) – comprehensive assessment of costs over time for IT assets, including hardware, software, support, training, downtime, and productivity loss

Value Proposition – core concept describing how a business creates value for customers or the market

Value Stream – sequence of business processes, often bounded by a transaction, that delivers end‑to‑end value (e.g., order‑to‑cash)

View – perspective within an AD that expresses the architecture of a system of interest for specific stakeholders

Viewpoint – set of conventions for constructing, interpreting, using, and analyzing a type of architecture view

Web‑Oriented Architecture (WOA) – sub‑style of SOA that emphasizes common interfaces, resource identification, representation, self‑describing messages, hypermedia, and application neutrality

Original source: Visual Paradigm