Enterprise Architecture
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Middle-Out Architecture: The Missing Link Between Enterprise Architecture and Systems Engineering
Suppose, for a moment, that we need to understand how a machine as complex as a modern aircraft is constructed. The Gap Between Organizational Models and Engineered Systems We might begin with an Aircraft Manufacturing Capability Map to define the organization’s aerospace competencies. This might be supported by Aerospace Supply Chain Value Streams describing the… Continue reading
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Extending the Architecture Blueprint: Modules, Components, and Architectural Decomposition
When we model systems through architecture blueprints, we’re working to create a comprehensive structural view of the enterprise technology estate. Earlier in this series, we established the baseline blueprint structure and then examined how architecture domains can be represented without compromising the integrity of the structural model. We also examined architecture patterns to provide additional… Continue reading
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Understanding Architecture Patterns in Enterprise Systems
Soon after joining a new company in a chief architect role, I was asked to review an architecture pattern. The company was beginning an effort to build a new digital product portfolio, and reuse was a central part of the strategy for the broader transformation. But it wasn’t framed as, “Do you think this is… Continue reading
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Enterprise Architecture Domains: How to Visualize Domains in an Architecture Blueprint
Before the internet, Google, and generative AI, there was the home encyclopedia. For many of us, it was the first place we learned to visualize complex systems. For some topics, we could flip through acetate sheets to see a machine or biological system deconstructed into its constituent parts. Seeing the Whole Through Layers Viewing an… Continue reading
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Constructing the Baseline Architecture Blueprint
Early in my time as chief architect at a large global organization, I was asked to approve the renewal of an expensive enterprise architecture modeling tool that was used by only three people. I was genuinely curious about what the tool could do and how it was being used. What I found, though, was classic… Continue reading
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Why Enterprise Architecture Requires a Baseline Blueprint
Architectural thinking often begins in abstraction, reaching for frameworks that promise immediate order. Frameworks introduce categories, relationships, and sequences, implying that the work has already acquired meaning simply by being named and organized within a formal structure. But rigorous analysis requires a defined boundary. And before something can be categorized or sequenced, it must first… Continue reading
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Enterprise Architecture in 2025: A Year in Review and What Comes Next
A reflective review of Enterprise Architecture in 2025, covering asset management, policy integration, architecture frameworks, and the ongoing work of translating strategy into technology execution. Continue reading
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How to Use TOGAF Without Becoming the Archetype of Its Adherents
I recently came across a post on LinkedIn about Enterprise Architecture. It started by listing all the major frameworks just to posit that a real practitioner must master all of them. This résumé disguised as scholarship never mentioned outcomes, results, or delivering value. It presumed the frameworks’ intrinsic value was what mattered, along with knowing… Continue reading
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The Latin of Enterprise Architecture: The Zachman Framework Is Historically Significant but Rarely Used
There’s a faint echo of Max Horkheimer in the Zachman Framework: that if we categorize reality with enough intellectual discipline, the world will finally make sense. The Zachman Framework asserts that the totality of an enterprise can be rigorously divided and expressed through distinct architectural classifications. It asks you to take an unwise intellectual leap,… Continue reading
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The Structure Behind the Practice: Enterprise Architecture Frameworks and Methods
In Defining Enterprise Architecture: A Practical Approach, we identified three essential responsibilities of Enterprise Architecture: Enterprise Architecture Requires Structure, Not Just Intent It’s a straightforward list—useful and accurate. But it’s also incomplete. That’s because doing these things requires more than just intent. It requires a structure and an approach. Enterprise Architecture as an Organizational Function… Continue reading