Enterprise architecture: urbanising the information system
Organising an information system like a city: four views, zones, districts and blocks, application mapping, urbanisation rules and the path from the current state to the target.
- 24 cards
- 5 topics
- Free
The outline, topic by topic
Each topic is weighted the way the exam weighs it.
- Concepts
- Questions
- Sort and link
- On the diagram
- Scenarios
A few cards from the deck
Urbanisation: what is it?
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An approach that organises the evolution of an information system by zones, districts and blocks, without halting the business or rebuilding everything.
The city is the metaphor: you do not raze it to modernise it, you renovate one district at a time, following an overall plan.
Why urbanise an information system rather than rebuild it from scratch?
- The business keeps running while the system evolves piece by piece
- Rebuilding is forbidden while the system is still being depreciated
- A rebuild cannot use any off-the-shelf package
- Urbanisation always costs less than a rebuild
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The business keeps running while the system evolves piece by piece
No rule forbids rebuilding and urbanisation is not always cheaper. Its point is continuity: you replace one district at a time without stopping the business.
The four urbanisation views run from most abstract to most concrete: business, …, …, technical.
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The four urbanisation views run from most abstract to most concrete: business, functional, application, technical.
You first describe what the business does, then the functions needed, then the software that provides them, and finally the infrastructure they run on.
View: what is it?
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A level at which the system is described, at a given degree of detail: business, functional, application or technical.
Each view rests on the previous one: processes call for functions, performed by applications, which run on an infrastructure.