Green ICT System Architecture Frameworks

Enterprise Architecture Overview

Enterprise Architecture (EA) as a function assists with the progress towards a Green ICT environment within an organization (Eas, 2009). Before expanding on this statement, it is important to understand what Enterprise Architecture is and its overall purpose as a function within an organization.

Enterprise Architecture is “a means of ensuring that the ICT strategy of an organization is aligned to its business objectives, goals and vision”. Therefore, Enterprise Architecture is an important strategic element of the organization. An EA:

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  Provides a mapping between strategic objectives and the ICT capabilities that an organization requires to deliver them.

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  Details the Operating Model of an organization which highlights the “core” capabilities required in the environment.

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  Provides a framework for detailing the architectural models - business, information, system and technology necessary to deliver the target state.

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  Provides a governance framework to drive decision making related to the progress towards the end state architecture. This includes decisions related to priorities, standards and technology alignment amongst others.

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  Provides a feedback mechanism constantly updating the current state as new initiatives are completed, new capabilities realized and environmental changes are made.

Figure 1, based on Ross et al. (2006) Foundation for Success, provides an overview of how these components interact to effect this evolution:

Figure 1.

Enterprise architecture interaction model (Curtis, 2009)

As is seen from Figure1, an EA program typically contains a number of streams: