EA is mainly about defining a target architecture, and planning how to establish it. In order to get there, there are a number of phases you need to go through. You also need to execute these iteratively, because you need to adapt to internal or external changes, and you want your models to always give a realistic view of the organization’s processes, information, services, applications and technology.

Each phase uses the wheel of architecture perspectives, described to the left, to guide the scenario-based analysis.

Defining what characterizes “good” architecture. F.ex. with respect to data quality, level of process automation, separation of concerns, standardization etc. The criteria are based on business and IT goals.

Describing today’s architecture, f.ex. which processes constitutes the business, which information flows currently through the processes, how is data mastered across the application landscape, how are typical integration scenarios solved etc. The as-is architecture is then evaluated against the quality criteria.

The business strategy, the IT strategy, the quality criteria and an the evaluation of the as-is architecture, all give input to a vision of which architecture may bring the enterprise closer to its goals. The definition of architecture principles for business, information, application, integration, service, security and technology architecture set the direction for the next phases.

The target enterprise architecture iteratively focus on the best candidates for improvement, within business processes, how applications are used across the business, how information is shared and how the processes, information and services are supported by technology. Different scenarios, combining the various architecture perspectives, are evaluated, and the phase ends up in a consolidated target architecture.