Enterprise Architecture Report

This report examines the relationship between Enterprise Architecture (EA) and the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC). It begins by defining EA as a method for interpreting a company's vision, strategy, and business to ensure future sustainability. The report then details the four key areas of EA: business, technology, information, and application. The core of the report focuses on the SDLC, breaking down each phase—initiation, requirement analysis, design, development, integration and testing, implementation, and maintenance—and explaining how EA provides support and guidance at each stage. The report emphasizes the importance of considering EA throughout the entire SDLC to ensure successful system development and integration with the existing organizational structure. Finally, the report concludes by highlighting the crucial role of EA in ensuring the long-term success of any system implemented within an organization. References to relevant literature on EA and SDLC are provided.

Enterprise Architecture
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Enterprise Architecture
Introduction
Enterprise Architecture is the method that is applied to interpret the vision, business, and
strategy of the company in the form that makes it sustainable for the future. The companies
use enterprise architecture methods to combine all the resources, processes, people, data, and
technology together.
The enterprise architecture is conceptual blueprint. It describes the structure and the operation
of the organization. The enterprise architecture helps in understanding or assessing the
methods that are expected to be taken by the organization for the attainment of its goals and
objectives.
There are four areas related to the enterprise architecture, namely, business, technology,
information, and application. The business perspective is concerned with the process and
standard that is followed for the everyday operation in the business. The information
perspective concerned with the data gathering and maintenance within the organization.
The paper is concerned with understanding the system development cycle and the enterprise
architecture.
System Development Life Cycle
The enterprise architecture provides appropriate support to the system development life cycle.
There are various steps associated with the system development life cycle that must be
considered prior to moving ahead in the development of particular system. The enterprise
architecture ensures that the steps followed through in the system development provides right
environment for the development. There are various stage of the system development cycle

that are closely associated with enterprise architecture. The sections give below discusses the
various aspects of the system development life cycle and the enterprise architecture.
Initiation Phase
This phase is concerned with initiating the development process. The necessities are
identified at this stage. The associations help in distinction of the needs and the developing
diverse system. As for example, if an organization is willing to increase the customer services
facility or system in the association, the identification of need is an important aspect.
Moreover, the enterprise architecture present in the organization helps in the distinguishing
the needs. It is important that the organization understands the aspects that needs
modification.
Requirement Analysis Phase
This phase is concerned with analysing the requirement of the system within the organization.
The enterprise architecture helps in the concept development and identification of the
requirements.
Design Phase
The design phase is related to the development of the aspects that will be developed in the
later stage. In this stage, the internal and external components are identified. The individual
supervising the work ensures that the structure of the system gets effectively recognized and
the design suits the requirements of the organization. The enterprise architecture assists the
designer in understanding that where actually the system fits in the organization and the
aspects that need to be designed further to fit the existing organization.
The design phase is considered as the most important aspect of the system development life
cycle. The reason behind is that the fulfilment of the requirement of the organization entirely

depends on the inclusion or exclusion of any required aspect in the system during this phase.
Moreover, the dependency of the next phase is very much on this and, therefore, it is
important that the developer makes no known or unknown mistakes in working in this phase.
It is important the individuals engaged in the designing of the system thoroughly understands
the system and have complete understanding of the enterprise architecture. The reason is that
this is only when the designers will be successfully be able to integrate the developed system
with the current organizational structure in the later stage.
Development Phase
The development phase is concerned with the actual development of the system. The
development stage is where the designs developed in the previous stage takes the shape of a
running system. The enterprise architecture also assists in the development stage as it helps
the developers in keeping their perspectives together. It ensures that they understand what
they are building and how it is going to support the existing organization.
Integration and Testing Phase
The integration and testing phase is where it is tested that the system that was developed
whether followed the requirements of the client and whether it is ready to be implemented.
The enterprise architecture helps the testing team to understand the organizational aspects
effectively and test whether the system will fit in the enterprise and act as support
mechanism.
The enterprise architecture also ensures that the system being tested integrates successfully
with the current organizational structure. The successful testing of the system gives way to
the next phase, that is, implementation phase.
Implementation Phase

The implementation phase is where the successfully developed and tested system is
implemented within the organization. The understanding of the enterprise architecture
ensures that the system being implemented works well for the days to come. At this stage it is
the responsibility of the engineers to ensure that the change demanded are as per enterprise
architecture.
Maintenance Phase
This is concerned with the maintenance of the system that has been developed on the periodic
basis and the enterprise architecture assists in defining the right schedule for the maintenance
of the system.
Conclusion
Overall it can be stated that the enterprise architecture effectively assists in the development
of the system development lifecycle. It should be noted that however, that the consideration
of enterprise architecture should be at all the stages of SDLC to ensure successful initiation,
designing, development, implementation, and maintenance.

References
BIBLIOGRAPHY A. L. (2008, August 12). Gartner Clarifies the Definition of the Term
'Enterprise Architecture.' Retrieved from PSU:
https://online.ist.psu.edu/sites/forinstructors/files/gartnerclarifies.pdf
Ambler, S. (2004). A practical guide to enterprise architecture. Prentice Hall Professional.
Graves, T. (2009). Enterprise Architecture. IT Governance Publishing.
ITS. (n.d.). System Development Life Cycle. Retrieved from ITS: http://its.ucsc.edu/ea/sdlc/
Ribertson, D. (2006). Enterprise architecture as strategy: creating a foundation for business
execution. Harvard Business Press.