Architecture · Enterprise Architecture
Enterprise Architecture
Aligning technology capability with business capability through documented current state, target state and a sequenced roadmap.
AdvancedUpdated 2026-09-01
Overview
Enterprise architecture works across business, information, application and technology domains. Its practical outputs are a capability map, an application portfolio with lifecycle status, standards, and a roadmap that connects investment to outcomes.
It succeeds when it makes decisions faster, clear standards, reusable patterns and a known target state, and fails when it produces documentation nobody consults.
Layer model
Business
Capabilities and processesValue streamsOrganisational constraints
Information
Data domains and ownershipMaster dataClassification and flows
Application
Portfolio and lifecycle statusIntegration mapRedundancy and consolidation candidates
Technology
Infrastructure and cloud platformsNetwork and identity foundationsStandards and reference patterns
Design considerations
- Keep artefacts few and current; three maintained diagrams beat thirty stale ones.
- Publish reference patterns so teams can comply by default rather than by review.
- Tie the roadmap to lifecycle dates and risk, which gives it funding leverage.