Governance and Management of Information Technology - Enterprise Information Systems Design, Implementation and Management: Organizational Applications - page 41

a collaboration force' between aspects of busi-
ness planning such as goals, visions, strategies
and governance principles; aspects of business
operations such as business terms, organization
structures, process and data; aspects of automa-
tion such as information systems and databases;
and of automation such as information systems
and databases; and the enabling technological
infrastructure of the business such as computers,
operating systems and networks ” (p.13).

daily operation; (ii) the definition which expresses
the desired model across the organization.
Throughout these levels, there is an accumula-
tion of knowledge across the Organization, empha-
sizing the importance of creating and maintaining
a knowledge base. This foundation allows it to
positively influence the process of learning and
growth within an organization.

enterprise Architecture

performance Levels There are many concepts used to define the

term Enterprise Architecture (EA). According to
Dragstra (2005) EA is the fundamental setting of
an enterprise; of its architectural descriptions; of
its relations with each part; and the environment
and the principles that guide its evolution and
development.
To IFEAD (Institute for Enterprise Architecture
Developments) apud Dragsta (2005), enterprise
architecture is the comprehension of all the dif-
ferent elements used to build an organization and
how these elements (people, processes, business
and technology) correlate.
According to RRB (Railroad Retirement
Board, Bureau of Information Services) apud
Dragsta 2005, enterprise architecture is the scheme
of business processes, information systems and
technology used to perform the processes ef-
ficiently.
Enterprise architecture is a coherent whole of
principles, methods and models that are used in
the design and implementation of an enterprise
structure, business process, information system
and technical infrastructure (Dragstra apud IEEE
1471-2000).
In other words, Enterprise Architecture aims
at communicating the essential elements that ex-
plain the operation of an organization, allowing
its managers to have a clear idea of the issues that
must be dealt with reaching the desired goals.
Thus, the entire organization is represented, ex-
pressing and aligning goals, visions, strategies,
principles of governance, operational processes,

Organizations are like systems (Harmon, 2007;
Bio, 1996; Rummler & Brache, 1994) that interact
with other external systems and its subsystems like
department sections, cells, components and so on.
Many times these subsystems are not limited to
knowledge or to a single subject (Kasper, 2000).
According to Rummler & Brache (1994), there
are three levels to understanding the dynamics
of an organization as a system: organization;
processes; and implementation.
At the organization level, the strategies, gov-
ernance, structure, enterprise architecture and the
use of resources are considered and evaluated, in
addition to the tools that help in understanding
the vision of customers, suppliers and human
resources in order to improve the organization's
business model.
At the process level, the business model is rep-
resented by the flow of processes and procedures.
At the implementation level there are people,
technical architectures and technologies that en-
able the procedures to be implemented. . Regarding
people, we refer to the profile of professionals that
contribute to achieving the goals of the business
and through this we can build the foundations for
hiring policies, for defining responsibilities, for
rewards and for training.
Note that the approach of Rummler & Brache
(1994) has two distinct concerns: i) the definition of
a current model that represents the Organization's