Enterprise Architecture addresses both business and technical concerns. There are many well-known frameworks including Zackman, TOGAF, DoDAF, and numerous others.

One of the keys to a successful enterprise architecture effort is the inclusion of all relevant stakeholders. In order to include the various stakeholders one has to develop visualizations and mechanisms for communicating with each respective group. IT might desire to see the architecture portrayed in formal notations such as BPMN, UML or Use-Case diagrams. Business users on the other hand would rather view information via Visio or PowerPoint like diagrams with the ability to explore and drill down to lower levels of detail.

Enterprise Architecture is frequently compared to a set of blueprints where the architect uses different layers or different notations for the respective aspects of the structure being modeled. The blueprints also contain detailed specifications and requirements for the various components. Guidelines and models for difficult tasks are also commonly specified.

How can Envision^® VIP help your EA activities?

Envision^® VIP allows us to create these various layers and alternative views. The Envision repository also allows us to identify, categorize, manage, and track all the individual components using standardized definitions of all processes, procedures, and data. These common components can then be leveraged throughout the organization.

Frequently, the architect builds detailed models for various stakeholders to assure that their views correspond to the architect's vision. Envision allows us to create an unlimited number of new views and perspectives of our business.

Having a framework, helps all stakeholders and employees understand how the business is built and helps provide "the Big Picture" of the business.

Envision^® VIP Results

Strategic plans can be dynamically linked to affected organizations, standards, processes, and procedures. Business goals can be graphically and texturally linked wherever appropriate. Metrics and reports can be defined for various stakeholder interests.

Envision^® VIP supports all major EA Frameworks and is easily adaptable to new, combined, or "branded" variations of existing frameworks.

We have been actively working with John Zachman in the development of his Zachman2 Framework. We have worked with various DOD and services in their modeling and framework activities. We have worked with The Open Group TOGAF on both TOGAF 8 and TOGAF 9. We have built numerous customized variations and "branded" variations of these frameworks for use in a number of large organizations both in North American and Western Europe.

Envision VIP allows us to easily and rapidly adapt to new architectural modeling requests. Our visual modeling tools, analytical tools, documentation tools, and web publishing capabilities easily adapted to customer and stakeholder preferences.

Envision^® VIP allows us to assign security and restrict selected views and even selected attributes to only authorized users. Thus, personal information or sensitive information such as risks can be maintained by the system but only presented to those authorized to see them.

Configuration management and change control features allow owners of various components to track and be dynamically notified of all changes. These capabilities are particularly useful for auditing and governmental compliance activities. Customized auditing & governmental compliance reports can be provided by Envision.