EA³ Checklist

Strategy

  • For what purpose does the enterprise exist? (usually expressed in the mission statement)
  • What does the enterprise want to do and be known for? (often given in the vision statement).
  • What are the primary goals (strategic goals) of the enterprise?
  • What then are the strategic initiatives (ongoing programs or new projects) that will enable the enterprise to achieve those goals?
  • What are the measures of success (outcome measures) in each initiative area?

Business

  • What is the business plan (operating plan)?
  • How does this relate to the strategic plan’s goals and metrics?
  • What are the business units? (usually depicted in the organization chart)
  • What are the mission and support services within and between the business units?
  • How do we measure the effectiveness and efficiency of the line of business processes? (input/output measures) and their contribution to strategic goals (outcome measures)
  • Do any of these business services or manufacturing processes need to be reengineered/improved before they are made to be part of the future architecture?
  • What are the workforce, standards, and security issues in this sub-architecture domain?

Data

  • What are the flows of information that will be required within and between service areas in order to make them successful?
  • How can these flows of information be harmonized, standardized, and protected to promote sharing that is efficient, accurate, and secure?
  • How will the data underlying the information flows be formatted, generated, shared, and stored?
  • What are the workforce, standards, and security issues in this domain?

Applications

  • Which systems and applications will be needed to generate, share, and store the data, information, and knowledge that the business services need?
  • How can multiple types of IT systems, services, applications, databases, and web sites be made to work together where needed?
  • How can configuration management help to create a cost-effective and operationally efficient common operating environment (COE) for systems and applications?
  • What are the workforce, standards, and security issues in this sub-architecture view?
  • What are the workforce, standards, and security issues in this domain?

Infrastructure

  • What types of voice, data, mobile, and video networks will be required to host the IT systems/applications and to transport associate, data, images, and conversations?
  • What type of physical infrastructure is needed to support the networks? (e.g. buildings, server rooms, points of presence, and other equipment)
  • Will highly scalable cloud computing environments be needed and if so will the organization be a provider or consumer?
  • How can these networks be integrated to create a cost-effective and operationally efficient hosting environment?
  • Will these networks extend beyond the enterprise?
  • What are the physical space and utility support requirements for the networks?
  • Will cloud-based concepts be used (virtualization, scaling, metering)?
  • What are the workforce, standards, and security issues in this sub-architecture domain?

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