Architecture
The intentionally designed and emergent structures needed to make an enterprise operate.
Running an enterprise requires having structures in place that link together its constituent elements to provide people with the means to interact and co-create its products. Architecture describes these structures as a consciously designed or unconsciously emerging, sociotechnical system. This system encompasses everything the enterprise needs to operate and deliver, including people, organisational structures and their capabilities, products, processes and assets such as machines, buildings or software applications.
Applying the architecture facet helps to understand and co-design the complex interplay of these structural elements of the enterprise. 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 eco-system, and the quality of every person’s experience with the enterprise.
An enterprise’s Architecture can be described for different domains by focusing on one specialised type of element at a time and as the interplay of elements 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.
- Design the technical infrastructure best suited to support the required capabilities.
- Optimise the availability and use of software- and data assets.
- Visualise an enterprise’s actual and desired structures to inform decision making.
- Identify gaps and overlaps between an enterprise’s structural elements
Elements
- Capability
- Process
- Asset
- Product (Intersection with Experience)
- Organisation (Intersection with Identity)
Variants
- Organisational structure
- Technology Architecture
- Process architecture
- Product architecture
- Brand architecture