02 — Capability · BC-170
Enterprise Architecture
Describe how the enterprise works today, decide how it should work tomorrow, and steer change toward that target across business, information, application and technology layers.
- EA
- Architecture Practice
- Business and Technology Architecture
In scope
- Current-state and target-state architecture across all four layers
- Reference models, standards and the principles that govern design choices
- Architecture review of change initiatives and the exceptions they need
- The architecture repository and its link to the configuration data that proves it
Out of scope
- Day-to-day solution design inside a delivery team (see BC-720)
- IT investment prioritization and funding (see BC-180)
- Running the CMDB itself (see BC-740)
Realized by · 2
- ServiceNow · Strategic Portfolio Managementstrong via BC-170.30
- ServiceNow · Application Portfolio Managementstrong via BC-170.30
Used in · 1
- Demand-to-Change · 03 Design & Review via BC-170.40
Build it · 17
- pattern Strangler Fig via BC-170.30.10
- pattern Bounded Context via BC-170.30.30
- pattern Architecture Decision Records via BC-170.40.30
- pattern Fitness Functions via BC-170.40.10
- book Fundamentals of Software Architecture via BC-170.30
- book Software Architecture: The Hard Parts via BC-170.30
- book Building Evolutionary Architectures via BC-170.40
- book Software Architecture in Practice via BC-170.30
- book Documenting Software Architectures via BC-170.30
- book Domain-Driven Design via BC-170.20
- book Learning Domain-Driven Design via BC-170.20
- book Thinking in Systems via BC-170.10
- book Staff Engineer via BC-170.10
- book Enterprise Architecture as Strategy via BC-170.10
- book The Software Architect Elevator via BC-170.10
- book Architecture Modernization via BC-170.20
- book Just Enough Software Architecture via BC-170.40
Decomposes into · 4
- BC-170.10Architecture Strategy & PrinciplesSet the principles, target state and roadmaps that every design decision can be tested against, so change compounds toward one direction instead of many.
- BC-170.20Business ArchitectureModel what the business does and how value flows through it — capabilities, value streams and the organizations that own them — so investments can be placed against the business, not the org chart.
- BC-170.30Application & Technology ArchitectureKnow every application and platform the enterprise runs, what each is for, what it costs and where it is headed, so the estate shrinks where it should and grows only where it must.
- BC-170.40Architecture GovernanceReview change before it is built, grant exceptions on purpose rather than by accident, and keep the architecture repository true to what is actually running.