An integrated view on business- and IT-architecture

The paper outlines the domains of enterprise architecture and fundamental design techniques. The consolidation of architecture description to three basic views is proposed. The component view describes the elements of architecture and their relationships. The communication view shows how the elements interact with one another. The distribution view describes how the elements are distributed in terms of location or organizational assignment. Key element of architecture design is to account for interdependencies among the building blocks of architecture. Blueprints are introduced as a means in planning the deployment of architecture on a large scale. They give a comprehensive view on the building blocks and how the interact. Blueprints show the effects of architecture design between business-, application-, and infrastructure architecture, thus providing an integrated view on architecture. The techniques introduced for architecture design are illustrated by using a selection of real life examples from an architecture design project.