No matter what size your organisation is an enterprise architecture has relevance.  Just as you would not consider building a house without the services of an architect to draw up elegant and practical plans, select the best materials and then orchestrate the construction, so you should not develop your business infrastructure without considering the purpose, processes, organisation, information and technologies that will make it support your business goals.

We have observed many of the following symptoms in organisations that suggest that there has been a somewhat less than coherent approach to enterprise architecture:

• The business processes, boundaries, roles and responsibilities are not well understood.
• Organisational structures are historical and hierarchical and do not respond well to current operational needs.
• The business strategy is not fully supported by the current IT and communications.
• There is no IT or information strategy within the organisation.
• The internal communications for data and voice are documented through a few, frequently out of date diagrams.
• IT is not entirely sure where all the servers, PC's and peripherals are and what they do.  Systems and application management are IT responsibilities and are not driven by and accountable to the business functions.
• Telecom and IT user directories are inaccurate and out of date.
• There is little corporate understanding of where the organisation's key data is held, beyond a few central servers.
• There are no enterprise wide policies or procedures for information management.
• System procurement is led by IT rather than being driven by business needs.
• Change is difficult.
  
  

Of course, it is rare to find an organisation with all these issues, but we have seen one or more of these symptoms, to varying degrees of criticality, in many enterprises and even in smaller companies.  Even at the most simplistic level, having an enterprise architecture can alleviate many of these issues.  They have evolved from internal, IT orientated efficiency plans to blueprints for business effectiveness that extend beyond their historic, technical focus to incorporate broader perspectives of the business situation and the effective use of information.  Enterprise architectures must respond to dynamic business processes, increasing internal and external process integration, fast changing technologies, higher levels of cross-functional human interaction and the need for compliance with standards and practices.   Frameworks for enterprise architecture must portray these elements understandably, for everyone, so that the benefits are fully realised.

At i-logue we have experience in both the public and private sectors in the design and implementation of enterprise architectures.  Our approach is always pragmatic and responds to the current situation, development aspirations and human dynamics of the organisation.  Please also take some time to look at the Resources section where we have provided external links to websites with valuable additional information on this subject.