Information Technology Reference
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tion technology. Two basic assumptions are that
a strategy exists and the result is a functioning
enterprise. A centralized strategy may not be
defined for large organizations (e.g., enterprise
of enterprises), though it should be, which makes
developing models difficult. Enterprise architects
often start building information technology from
the bottom up, because they cannot see the rel-
evance of strategy and modeling.
Costs and beneFits
There are also five major classes of costs and
benefits for enterprise architecture: (a) financial
improvement, (b) constituent services, (c) reduced
redundancy, (d) economic development, and (e)
fostering democracy (Meskell, 2003). Financial
improvements mean reducing the costs of or-
ganizations and enhancing revenue collection.
Constituent services mean improved service
to customers, suppliers, and key stakeholders.
Reduced redundancy means consolidating, reduc-
ing, or eliminating un-needed legacy computer
systems. Economic development means to grow
local, state, and federal economies. Finally, foster-
ing democracy may mean offering a consistent
level of customer service to all stakeholders,
regardless of political affiliation.
metriCs and models
The value of enterprise architecture may be mea-
sured using seven metrics: (a) costs, (b) benefits,
(c) benefit to cost ratio, (d) return on investment,
(e) net present value, (f) breakeven point, and (g)
real options (Kodukula, 2006; Rico, 2004, 2005,
2006). Costs are the accumulation of expenses,
such as labor, training, tools, verification, valida-
tion, and compliance or maturity assessment. Ben-
efits are the monetization of increased efficiency,
reduced operational costs and personnel numbers,
increased customer satisfaction, and consolidated
legacy computer systems. Costs and benefits are
the basic inputs to benefit to cost ratio, return on
investment, net present value, breakeven point,
and real options.
return on investment
examples
Using enterprise architecture for aligning the
strategy with the information technology of lo-
cal, state, and federal agencies, and corporations
has measurable return on investment (Meskell,
Table 1. John A. Zachman framework for enterprise architecture
Interrogatives
What?
How?
Where?
Who?
When?
Why?
Product
(Form)
Data
(Entity/Relation)
Function
(Process/IO)
Network
(Node/Line)
Organization
(Agent/Work)
Schedule
(Event/Cycle)
Strategy
(End/Means)
scope
(Contextual)
Business
Priorities
Business
Processes
Business
Locations
Business
Organizations
Business
Cycles
Business
Goals
Business model
(Conceptual)
Semantic
Model
Process
Model
Logistics
Model
Workflow
Model
Schedule
Model
Business
Plan
Logical
Data
Model
Distributed
System
Architecture
Human
Interface
Architecture
Business
Rule
Model
system model
(Logical)
Application
Architecture
Processing
Structure
Physical
Data
Model
technology model
(Physical)
System
Design
Technology
Architecture
Presentation
Architecture
Control
Structure
Rule
Design
components
(Out-of-Context)
Data
Definition
Computer
Program
Network
Architecture
Security
Architecture
Timing
Definition
Rule
Specification
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