Question

Describe Enterprise Information Architecture(EIA) and its relationship to Enterprise Architecture(EA).

Answer 1

The primary objective of an “architected” environment is to deliver higher quality, integrated systems and information at a significantly reduced cost, over time. Some of the ways this objective
is achieved by the “architected” environment are:

• By eliminating/minimizing data redundancy within the operational systems environment
• By eliminating/minimizing process redundancy within the operational systems environment
• By greatly reducing the complexity of extracting data from the operational environment into the data warehouse environment

The Enterprise Information Architecture (EIA) is the vehicle which provides the “roadmap” to the “architected” environment. The EIA is comprised of 3 “sub-architectures”, namely, the:

“Business Architecture” – which includes a:

• Corporate Data Model – A business-oriented (i.e., independent of technology and current systems), integrated view of the data that is important to the organization (aka,
  a “logical” data model).
• Function Model – A business-oriented (i.e., independent of technology and current systems) decomposition of the core business functions performed by the organization.
• Interaction Model – A matrix which depicts what data is used (Created, Read, Updated, Deleted (aka, CRUD)) by each of the processes within the Function Model. Processes
  with similar data needs are typically implemented within the same operational system.
• Current Systems Model – An inventory of the current systems environment. As one example, data and process redundancy within the current systems are brought to attention
  via matrices which “map” the current systems to entities within the Corporate Data Model and processes within the Function Model.

“Technical Architecture” – Depicts the current technical environment and the desired future technical environment which facilitates development of a migration plan. Also,
includes inventorying of the current technical environment (e.g., number of DBMSs supported in-house, etc.). Current systems can also be “mapped” to technical components.

“Organization Architecture” – Depicts the processes (from the Function Model) performed by each organizational unit within the organization. Also, depicts the
organizational structure, at a high-level.

Enterprise information architecture (EIA) is the part of the enterprise architecture process that describes — through a set of requirements, principles and models — the current state, future state and guidance necessary to flexibly share and exchange information assets to achieve effective enterprise change.