IT Architecture from A to Z: Theoretical basis. First Edition

The first book of a series includes a discussion of the theoretical basis for building an IT company and considers the following:

•Chapter 1: Building the Enterprise Architecture deals with the issues of building Enterprise Architecture, IT strategies, and so on.

•Chapter 2: Project Management discusses the foundations, applied methodologies, accepted methods of the Project Management, and so on.

•Chapter 3: Risk Management considers methods of risk assessment, risk classification and risk response.

•Chapter 4: Quality Management describes the basic principles and methods of project management when using methods based on the principles of quality management and economical production.

•Chapter 5: Business Process Management and Business Models of various business areas considers the basis of building business processes, the type of business organization and linkages with information systems.

•Chapter 6: Information Systems and Data Integration addresses issues of data integration between different information systems, various architectural solutions, challenges and opportunities. It also deals with the levels of centralization of automated management systems are considered.

•Chapter 7: Information Security considers information security issues and arranging interaction of information security and IT.

•Chapter 8: IT Service Management considers the processes of building IT service management using ITIL.

•Chapter 9: IT Control and Audit addressed general issues of IT control and auditing.

•Chapter 10: IT financing considers financing models, principles of evaluating IT projects, methods and practices for valuation of IT services, etc.

•Chapter 11: Organization of IT Activities discussed general issues on the structure, organization, management of the IT department.

•Chapter 12: Components of IT Infrastructure considers high-level components of IT infrastructure.

•Chapter 13: Components of IT Support Systems considers the high-level components of engineering and support systems.

IT ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE

General Provisions

This chapter describes the general information on Enterprise

Architecture. A generic definition can be represented as depicted below:

“Relationships of IT methodologies”

Enterprise Architecture is a set of principles, methods and models used in the design and implementation of an organizational structure, business processes, information systems and technologies. It is a management practice aimed at maximizing the impact of the enterprise, investing in IT, developing systems in achieving the enterprise goals, converting the business vision and strategy into an effective change of the company through creating, discussing and improving key requirements and principles that describe the company’s future state and enable its development.

Since the Enterprise Architecture is a complex solution including the intersection of various methodologies and techniques, building an Enterprise Architecture should take into account, but not be limited to, the recommendations of the following standards:

•TOGAF – Enterprise Architecture

•ISO/IEC 20000 – Quality in IT Service Management

•ISO/IEC 27000 – Best Practice IT Security Standards

•CobiT v5 – Audit and Control Framework

•ITIL v3 – Best practices in IT Service Management

•MOF – Microsoft Operations Framework

•PMI – Project Management Institute

The architecture is designed to respond to such challenges and problems of the organization as:

• Business discontent of the IT service for objective or subjective reasons.

• Inability to assess the effectiveness of IT use in business.

• Mess in IT solutions and systems implemented in the organization.

• The complexity of making IT-related decisions.

• The complexity of IT budget coordination and the launch of IT projects.

• Growth of “Information” value and connectivity between business and IT.

• Lack of transparent and clear connections between business and IT.

• Whether solving the actual business problems using IT is possible?

• How to make IT give companies greater value?

• How to change IT with changes within business?

• IT systems are complex, unmanageable and expensive to maintain.

• IT systems restrain an organization from responding adequately to changes within business.

• Business-critical information is untimely and inadequate.

• Communication culture between business and IT is missing.

As a result, the business does not see any value in information technologies. CIO’s face difficulties in pushing new ideas if they talk about technology. They are not understood. Everything they can do is to support what already exists and do the objectives pitched by the business. The serious problems arise with the justification of IT budgets. In fact, the CIO acts more like a foreman who fills in the holes, rather than a top manager who is developing the company. Top managers quickly lose interest in IT projects, and therefore, they lose funding and fail. IT department are replaced with various system integrators to implement “fancy schmancy” solutions that will “save” the business. The ideas also arise to take all company’s IT assets and services and outsource them. It will be difficult for the IT department to fight with integrators and the result is predictable – the integrators have one key competence, i.e. technology, and that is their forte. The IT department is turning into a “swamp”, and the best employees leave taking away the unique knowledge and skills. The goals of an integrator or an outsourcing company are the same as your company’s – making a profit. But unlike the IT department, whose interests coincide with the interests of your company, the integrator’s interests may not coincide with yours, including unique ideas and visions. At best, it will be “like everyone else,” and the business will lose its identity (if it is inextricably linked to IT) or quoting one movie character: “… we will have everything new in an old fashioned manner…”. The end is sad.

The Main Aspects of Enterprise Architecture

To fight the above-mentioned problems and consequences, the Enterprise Architecture helps shape the following important criteria.

Structuring the Enterprise

When building an Enterprise Architecture, the first and most important aspect is an understanding of the enterprise’s organizational structure, principles of management, decision-making, etc. The organizational structure is a fixed and ordered set of objects and connections between them. Depending on the specialization and operations the organization may have:

•Vertical structure – in terms of subordination

•Horizontal structure – in terms of functions and operations.