Enterprise Architecture Components

Strategic business analysis results in an enterprise strategy, an overview of the organization and its information requirements that is a structured framework for development of integrated applications. There are four major components of an Enterprise Architecture strategy:

• The Business Direction Model
• The Information Model
• The Functional Hierarchy
• The Application Architecture

The Business Direction Model

The Business Direction Model outlines the goals and objectives of the organization, then further defines critical success factors (CSF's) and key performance indicators (KPI's). Goals are broadly expressed statements that support the mission of the organization. Objectives quantify the goal. Critical success factors are those things that must be in place to achieve the objective and, in turn, to realize the goal. Key performance indicators are the specific measurements of success. An example from the health care industry follows:

Mission: Deliver quality health care at a reasonable cost at a profit.
Goal: Become more cost-effective in acute care facilities.
Objective: Decrease inpatient length of stay (LOS) by 1 day within 6 mos.
CSF: Implement Care Maps for 50% of patient types
KPI: Length of stay

The KPI's are significant because they are quantifiable, can be tracked against a plan, and can provide managers with powerful tools for monitoring the state of the organization. These indicators, however, are rarely required for the day-to-day business functions, and the necessary detail is not generally captured unless mandated by higher levels of management or forced by an application.

To meet executives' needs for management data, it is essential to design applications that show (and perhaps capture) performance indicators. Adaptable models must be built so that current and future management information can be gathered as a natural by-product of normal business procedures without disruption to operational personnel. In this way, the requirement to collect data to monitor the organization's performance can be met without compromising end-user functionality or satisfaction.

The Information Model

The Information Model is a diagram composed of high-level entities and the relationships between them, along with descriptions and examples. It is a model of the information within an organization, and illustrates how that information is linked.

The things of importance (entities) within the business, the properties of those things (attributes), and how they are related (relationships) are depicted on a diagram. In the strategy study, entities are defined at a high level and do not go into specific detail (e.g., address is defined, not street number, street name, city, zip code, etc.).

Later, as more information is gathered during analysis, this model will be amended and further detail added to produce the Business Data Model, which will provide the definition of the structure of all the data that is used or generated. The initial Information Model includes the majority of the entities and relationships that will be in the final, detailed model, with the relationship arcs and all major attributes.

The Information Model is a very powerful communication tool for creating complex models using simple conventions that can be easily explained. This technique is independent of the mechanisms used to hold that information, such as paper forms or computers. As long as the business does not change, the model will remain accurate. Data Model and Entity Relationship Model are synonyms for Information Model, and are often used interchangeably. When the scope of the modeling is across the entire business, the model is called an Enterprise Data Model.