Key takeaways
- Connect technical choices to business needs.
- Assess the consequences of change across all four domains.
- Cross-domain views complement the domains rather than replacing them.
Four perspectives on one change
Business Architecture describes business capabilities, organization, processes, stakeholders, and the relationships supporting objectives. Data Architecture addresses data types and sources, their logical or physical structures, and their management. Application Architecture describes applications, their interactions, and their contribution to business capabilities. Technology Architecture describes the technical services and components needed for those applications to operate.
These domains are interdependent. An online booking service needs business rules and responsibilities, reliable information, application functions, and suitable infrastructure. Purchasing a platform alone does not define the complete architecture of the service.
Concerns spanning domains
Security, risk, agility, and digital transformation cut across domains. They are examined through views suited to stakeholder concerns. A security view may connect identities, authorization processes, applications, and technical components; that does not necessarily establish a fifth official architecture domain.
- Business: what the enterprise does and how it is organized.
- Data and Application: information managed and functions using that information.
- Technology: technical means that enable those functions to operate.
TERMS TO KNOW
The terms, in context.
- Architecture domain
- Area of study organizing part of an architecture.
- Cross-domain view
- View connecting several domains to address a concern.