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Enterprise architecture (EA) is a capability that considers organizations from a “big picture view”. The capability evolved from both the business/ IT alignment literature [PB89, HV93] and IT engineering/ architecture [Zac87, ISO11, The11, The16a, GD14, GD15, RWR06, RBM19].

It appears that each architecture approach uses its own definition of architecture. Most of these approaches at least relate to the definition that is presented in the ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010 standard about Systems and software engineering – Architecture description which states that the architecture of a system³ is about two things (1) the fundamental organization of that system and (2) the principles guiding the design and evolution of that system [ISO11]. A more elaborate discussion is presented in chapter 12.

The “big picture view of the enterprise” relates to the first aspect, and gives a clear overview of the relationship between key elements in the organization. Typically, this is about the “golden triangle”: business process, data, and systems. Architecture modeling languages (e.g. ArchiMate) are capable of visualizing this big picture view. One discussion that crops up frequently is: “where does ‘architecture’ stop and where do more detailed analyses (of processes, systems, and data) begin?” There is no simple answer to this question: the word “fundamental” from the definition of architecture is a subjective term. What might be fundamental for one stakeholder may be a (potentially irrelevant) detail for another. Figure 4.2 illustrates how architecture (models) are linked to more detailed designs.

Figure 4.2 From architecture to a more “detailed design”

From the perspective of enterprise architecture, data (architecture) is but one of the aspects that is to be considered. To put it differently, data architecture is considered to be a part of enterprise architecture. Switching perspectives, one could argue that data architecture (chapter 12) is but one aspect of data management.

In my view, both perspectives are equally true and valuable. Here, too, it is safe to conclude that, in practice, both capabilities are important and tightly linked. As a side note, I would argue that the relationship between enterprise architecture and business process management, as well as the relationship between enterprise architecture and IT management are very similar to the relationship between enterprise architecture and data management (see figure 4.1).