From Enterprise Design with EDGY
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Enterprise Design Facets

Architecture

The structures needed to make an enterprise operate and connect to the ecosystem.

Description

Running an enterprise requires having structures in place that link together its constituent elements to provide people with the means to create and deliver its products and to connect with the ecosystem. Architecture describes these structures as socio-technical systems that are partially deterministically designed and partially unconsciously emerging. Deterministic architecture elements (like the components of a machine) can be intentionally designed and co-created, emergent aspects (like the behaviour of an organisational unit) can be observed and influenced to a certain degree only.

Architecture encompasses everything the enterprise needs to operate and deliver, including people in organisations, their capabilities, processes and assets such as machines, buildings or software applications, as well as the resulting products and the connections to the ecosystem.

Applying the architecture facet helps to understand and co-design the complex interplay of these structural elements of the enterprise as it operationalises its identity, experience and ambition. The quality of an architecture largely determines the quality of the enterprise's products, the efficiency of its operations, the adaptivity to changes in the ecosystem, and the quality of people's experience when interacting with the enterprise.

An enterprise's architecture can be described for different architecture disciplines (such as mechanical engineering, software architecture or organisational design) and as the interplay of elements of several such disciplines by designing relationships.

Examples

An enterprise...

  • is structured as a holding with several independent branded companies, separate operations and autonomous assets.
  • is a company that operates to connect companies across a market's supply chain with efficient processes.
  • operates a platform for customers to use its services automatically and on demand.
  • is a network of independent cells that regroup and deliver together in customer projects.

Use

  • Identify and design the capabilities and processes an enterprise needs to create its products.
  • Engineer and relate the machines, buildings, software, etc. needed for product creation.
  • Design the organisational- and technical structures required for your capabilities in a seamless approach.
  • Optimise the availability and use of software- and data assets.
  • Visualise an enterprise's actual and desired structures to inform decision making.

Elements

Variants

  • Organisational structure
  • Technology architecture
  • Product architecture
  • Brand architecture