Driving the Evolution to Actionable Architecture

White Paper Driving the Evolution to Actionable Architecture Jan Popkin Version 1 05 July 2005 This document contains proprietary information that belongs to Telelogic AB. Using any of the information contained herein or copying or imaging all or part of this document by any means is strictly forbidden without express written consent of Telelogic AB. Telelogic®, TAU®, System Architect® and DOORS® are registered trademarks, SYNERGY™ is a trademark of Telelogic AB – www.telelogic.com World Headquarters: Telelogic AB (publ.), PO Box 4128, SE-203 12 Malmö, Sweden, Phone: +46 40 650 00 00, Fax: +46 40 650 65 55 American Headquarters: Telelogic North America Inc., 9401 Jeronimo Road, Irvine, CA 92618, USA, Phone: +1 949 830 8022, Fax: +1 949 830 8023 Web: www.telelogic.com, E-mail: info@telelogic.com White Paper Driving the Evolution to Actionable Architecture Table of Contents Overview......................................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction.................................................................................................................................... 4 Enterprise Architecture................................................................................................................. 4 Actionable Architecture ................................................................................................................ 5 Role of Standards .......................................................................................................................... 6 Enterprise Architecture's Value in Decision Support................................................................ 7 Financial Controls ....................................................................................................................... 8 Portfolio Management ................................................................................................................. 8 Communication ........................................................................................................................... 9 Configuration/Process Transfer .................................................................................................. 9 Regulatory Compliance............................................................................................................. 10 IT Architecture ........................................................................................................................... 11 Actionable Architecture and Decision Support........................................................................ 12 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 14 About Telelogic............................................................................................................................ 15 2 of 15 World Headquarters: Telelogic AB (publ.), PO Box 4128, SE-203 12 Malmö, Sweden, Phone: +46 40 650 00 00, Fax: +46 40 650 65 55 American Headquarters: Telelogic North America Inc., 9401 Jeronimo Road, Irvine, CA 92618, USA, Phone: +1 949 830 8022, Fax: +1 949 830 8023 Web: www.telelogic.com, E-mail: info@telelogic.com White Paper Driving the Evolution to Actionable Architecture Overview During the past two to three years, the concept of enterprise architecture and its implications on the way we are organizing our business and operations have gained a major increase in awareness. Like never before, CIOs are faced with justifying to a business group, such as a board of directors, how technology supports business goals, both now and in the future. Mainstream Fortune 1000 businesses and federal agencies have adopted enterprise architecture as a way to incorporate their best practices and experiences into decisions about technology investments, compliance and emerging technologies, such as Web services, service-oriented architectures (SOAs) and business process management. This paper explores the basic ideas of enterprise architecture, the areas where it adds value to the decision making process in today's organizations and discusses the evolution towards actionable architectures. 3 of 15 World Headquarters: Telelogic AB (publ.), PO Box 4128, SE-203 12 Malmö, Sweden, Phone: +46 40 650 00 00, Fax: +46 40 650 65 55 American Headquarters: Telelogic North America Inc., 9401 Jeronimo Road, Irvine, CA 92618, USA, Phone: +1 949 830 8022, Fax: +1 949 830 8023 Web: www.telelogic.com, E-mail: info@telelogic.com White Paper Driving the Evolution to Actionable Architecture Introduction Today, the "build and deploy" world of IT is slowly disappearing as organizations seek to leverage technology as a strategic asset. IT departments must now understand how their IT projects are transitioning into broader enterprise initiatives that drive the organizational success. A properly implemented enterprise architecture program can have a direct impact on an agency’s agility in meeting regulatory challenges and adapting to changing environments. Enterprise architecture can help agencies incorporate their best practices and experiences into decisions about technology investments, compliance and emerging technologies, such as business process management (BPM) and service-oriented architectures (SOAs). This has fostered a dramatic growth in enterprise architecture programs, which is emerging as a key enabler for action. Architecture helps agencies understand the relationships of systems, data and people to its broader business goals. The next evolution, actionable architecture, takes enterprise information and makes it useable helping people understand its context within the enterprise and use this knowledge to improve organizational flexibility and responsiveness. Enterprise architecture acts as a central access point for the capture and dissemination of IT and business process information throughout all levels of an organization as a means to improve decision making. The term Actionable Architecture moves enterprise architecture from a static project to becoming a central platform for the capture and dissemination of IT and business process information. In essence, enterprise architecture becomes a strategic foundation for knowledgeable decision making and is based on traceable facts in a repository. Enterprise Architecture Enterprise architecture is a “road map” that show the relationships among the processes, data and IT infrastructure found in multi-vendor, multi- platform environments such as those found in defense environments. Architecture documents the current and future technology environment and the gap between the two. Architecture also moves beyond the engineering perspective, and examines requirements and application delivery. Architecture adds the perspective of analysis and distribution of business and technology information. Enterprise architecture is a means for developing a shared vocabulary, a first step toward integration and interoperability within and among organizations. It offers a flexible platform for sorting data appropriate to different users and audiences and facilitates the reuse of data across many 4 of 15 World Headquarters: Telelogic AB (publ.), PO Box 4128, SE-203 12 Malmö, Sweden, Phone: +46 40 650 00 00, Fax: +46 40 650 65 55 American Headquarters: Telelogic North America Inc., 9401 Jeronimo Road, Irvine, CA 92618, USA, Phone: +1 949 830 8022, Fax: +1 949 830 8023 Web: www.telelogic.com, E-mail: info@telelogic.com White Paper Driving the Evolution to Actionable Architecture systems. In the defense world, enterprise architecture assists in the development of integrated architectures, replacing the single-solution approaches of the past, or the silo approach.