Organic Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise is organic rather than static. The challenge of Enterprise is the capability to adapt change. HACEA is designed to adapt the constant changing world. Exiting EA approach design the Enterprise Blueprint as if it is a static building. Under the constant changing world, the Enterprise blueprints become obsolete before the ink dry. The concept of Holistic, Agile and Coherent is inspired by the ancient Chinese wisdom of "Tao" which has been the Chinese philosophy to adapt change.

Holistic is about the whole, It is the organic and functional relation between parts and the whole.

Agility is about encapsulate difficulty into simplicity and enables the capability to adapt change in time of need by keeping solution simple.

Coherentis to adapt change in a holistic and harmonious manner. It is marked by an orderly, logical, and aesthetically consistent relation of parts. It is defined as specify the right service, implement and deliver it to the right people, on the right place at the right time.

HACEA make reference to western philosophy of ontology and eastern philosophy of coherence. It becomes the bridge of business and engineering to integrate the power of left/right brain.

What is the added value of HACEA? HACEA is designed to adapt the constant changing world. It recognizes that Enterprise is organic rather than static as designing the blueprint for a building. Most existing EA approach have evolved from system engineering to satisfy a static set of requirements by designing the Enterprise blue print. It does not serve well in the constant changing world of Enterprise, the Enterprise blueprint become obsolete before the ink dry. HACEA model turn the page to an adaptive Enterprise Architecture approach.

HACEA integrate the western ontology concept and eastern holistic concept. Traditional EA approach is based on the the western ontology concept. The concept of Tao differs from Western ontology, however; it is an active and holistic conception of the world, rather than one that focuses on a hierarchy of being. Every one have a different take on "What is EA?" based on what their need. HACEA is the effort to see the truth (the Tao) of Enterprise from holistic, agile and coherent rather than debating what EA is from different views. From the truth of Enterprise Architecture, every one can have their view in harmony. Business leader view HACEA as for Business strategic planning, the IT manager view HACEA for IT strategic planning. The IT subject matter experts view HACEA for agile and simple solution, the security manager utilizes it to secure the Enterprise.

Extend architecture excellence to business management . HACEA serve as the bridge between the Business and IT community. The integration of ontology and holistic concept also integrate the power of left brain and right brain by extending the excellence of ontology architecture to business management practice. According the left-brain and right-brain theory by Roger W. Sperry, who was awarded the Noble Prize in 1981. He discovered that the human brain has two very different ways of thinking. One (the right brain) is visual and processes information in an intuitive and simultaneous way, looking first at the whole picture then the details. The other (the left brain) is verbal and processes information in an analytical and sequential way, looking first at the pieces then putting them together to get the whole.

It requires a culture change from static EA to adaptive EA It is a human nature to resist change even though the world change constantly. It will be easier to understand HACEA if readers willing to open their mind particular for the EA community which evolved application development environment. Taking a different position to recognize the constant changing world, it is easy to understand that target architecture is notional, agility architecture is the effort to adapt change in time of need and segment architecture is initiated to close business performance gap due to the constant change.


The author develops the Holistic, Agile and Coherent Enterprise Architecture method for many years since 1998. It is gradual learning process with hands on experiences based on practical need. It is a result of significant research and inner struggle to put all the parts in an orderly arrangement. The author's cross discipline of Civil Engineering and Computer science is the foundation for the development of an explicit HACEA to overcome the challenge of buy-in from stakeholders. As an Asian American, the author has the advantage to leverage both on the ancient Chinese wisdom and the practicality of western culture.

The HACEA methodology is developed by explaining the purpose and who need it, define what is HACEA, set the strategy to manage change and construct the HACEA model and framework accordingly. The HACEA is introduced via the following sections:

. Why HACEA?
. Who need HACEA?
. What is HACEA?
. Overcome the challenge of Buy-in.
. Preserving institutional knowledge.
. The HACEA strategy
. The HACEA model and framework.
. The HACEA methodology
. EA for business management and strategic planning

. The HACEA Tools.
. The HACEA Discipline

Thanks to Akshaya Bhatia's introduction on CEA in the Toolbox for IT. It is truly a great recognition and encouragement:

Coherent Enterprise Architecture (CEA) is a pragmatic, innovative, light weight and fast track enterprise architecture model developed and documented by an eminent enterprise architect John Wu.

The CEA immaculately blends cohesive system modeling endeavors encapsulating study of business architecture and analysis of system architecture using appropriate system segmentation by way of an agile approach aiming at development of a business enterprise based on technology alignment with the business.

Although the CEA model borrows some concepts from other well known EA models such as Zachman Framework, TOGAF ( The Open Group Architecture Framework), PRISM (Partnership for Research in Information Systems Management) Architecture Framework, Gartner approach to EA, FEA (Federal Enterprise Architecture)-US etc. , it is, per-se, a pragmatic, innovative and unique approach in many ways owing to it’s emphasis on agility along with mapping technology solutions for maintaining a flexible and strategic thrust on business alignment in sight of continuously evolving business enterprise.

Just like most of the popular EA models in vogue, the CEA model also caters in extenuating the complexity involved in system design process so as to make an appropriate use of technology in implementation of business processes such that business goals of the enterprise are fulfilled, albeit with a relatively less emphasis on building from scratch and more emphasis on building upon the existing framework by application of agile approach and characteristically looking for a cross cutting approach based on loose coupling.

Key idea is to follow a structured approach by identifying commonality (patterns) amongst the attribute values of the sub-systems , deciphering the bottlenecks or business performance gaps among the business segments and plugging in the gaps by visualizing through business plus data plus application architectures.

Furthermore, the CEA encourages reuse and consolidation of application system architecture for enterprise application integration with service oriented loose coupling and appropriate built-in security, iteratively through the various layers of architectures (business,data,application) and thereby obliterating existence of the stove pipes systems.

Pragmatically speaking, if applied appropriately, the CEA model can bring in application of technology as an investment and value addition to a business.

Akshaya Bhatia has generously accepted my invitation as one of the Coherent EA advisors. They are my mentors to guide and encourage me in the development of Coherent EA.

Akshaya Bhatia is globally well known EA specialist, Business Analyst and business management consultant. He has nearly 22 years of comprehensive IT experience with expertise in Project Management, IT and Business Strategy, Enterprise Architecture, MIS, System Design and Development, Internet, Web and Telecom technologies, Network Security, Web services, SOA (Service Oriented Architecture), EDA (Event Driven Architecture), CEP (Complex Event Processing), SEO (Search Engine Optimization), ERP, distributed data processing, database strategy, plan and implementation, Master Data management, CRM, and Change Management.

He has thoroughly researched on various approaches to Enterprise Architecture and practically involved in implementing the optimized IT system in total alignment with the Business. He has thoroughly studied and experimented with the well known EA models such as Zachman Framework, TOGAF ( The Open Group Architecture Framework), PRISM (Partnership for Research in Information Systems Management) Architecture Framework, Capgemini Integrated Architecture Framework, AGATE (Atelier de Gestion de l'ArchiTEcture des systèmes d'information et de communication), DODAF (Department of Defense Architecture) Framework-US, FEA (Federal Enterprise Architecture)-US, Microsoft EA etc. He has reviewed and contributed to the course material used in training used in several Institutions for EA, MIS and Web and networking technologies.

He has participated in design, development and implementation of variety of information system packages such as Inventory control, Accounts Receivable system, Payroll, Marketing Survey Analysis, Order Processing and Project monitoring systems in variety of industries such as Hardware manufacturer/distributor, Software developer/testing, customer support, Manufacturing, Real Estate, Finance, Event Marketing, Hospitality and Services.


He has thorough acumen in implementation as well as management of the financial, marketing, HR systems and also has comprehensive knowledge of theoretical, practical and operational aspects of each sub-system.


He has authored many a books on MIS that are prescribed in well known universities and management institutes for the post graduate management degree courses. He have provided assistance to numerous research scholars doing path breaking research in the field of engineering, mathematics, computer sciences and management.

The website is hereby renamed to Coherent Enterprise Architecture (CEA) to realize that Enterprise Architecture is the coherent Effort of business architecture, system architecture and agility architecture rather than the toggling war on EA is about Business or Alignment or Agility. In addition, I have just discovered Lightweight Enterprise Architecture by Fenix Theuerkorn. I would like rename my work to show my respect.

The new URL of Coherent Enterprise Architecture is :

http://www.coherentEA.com

US OMB has lead EA in a segment architecture approach rather than the traditional big ban effort. It is a divide and conquers approach;

The challenge is how to keep the segment architecture logically together to avoid segmented stovepipes architecture. Segment architecture is an further detail EA effort to elaborate the enterprise target architecture whcih is a highlevel master plan.

The other challenge is how to define a segment? Segments are defined to closes business performance gaps rather than engineering convenience. It is an incremental enterprise architecture effort to address business need rather than the architect’s ideology. Many EA experts have suggested to define segment based on architecture category in a bird of the same feather approach.

Please review The segment architecture article for more detail.

John Chi-Zong Wu has been an Enterprise Architecture advocate since 1998. He has actively participated and witnessed the EA evolution occurred in the Washington DC area and around the world. To navigate in the jungle of EA definition and looks for the truth of EA, he has kept his EA thoughts in the web site of Holistic, Agile and Coherent Enterprise Architecture (HACEA).

John has initiated the e-cio organization. He suggest, in the notion of " eat your own dog food", the office of Chief Information Officer (OCIO) must demonstrate their transition from stove pipe solution to EA culture. It is difficult to convince and get buy-in from the stakeholders when the OCIO has yet making the transition.

John is also a contributing author of the Cutter Consortium and has actively contribute EA thought to the ITtoolbox blog . John has been active to support of the Association of Enterprise Architects DC chapter which provide regularly present EA seminars in Washington DC area.

John has earned a M.S. in Civil engineering form Howard University in 1979 and M.S. in Computer Science from Florida Institute of Technology in 1984. He was a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Florida since 1981. The inter discipline of engineering and computer science enable him to develop the Light Enterprise Architecture approach

He has built his strength in Enterprise Architect via hands on experiences in broad areas of application development, system engineering, database administration, and system administration and computer support management.

EA is a coherent effort of business modeling, IT solution alignment and the ability to privide value in time and manageing ambiguity as shown in the following concept.

Architecture by definition is the Orderly arrangement of parts. Enterprise Architecture adopt architecture as the mean to the end of overcome the challenge of stovepipe system and island of information. The EA industry has applied business architecture to design the enterprise business and system architecture to align technology with business However, enterprise is not static as a building or an application system. The nature of ambiguity and continuous change has been the major challenge of Enterprise. EA must also enable the agility to manage ambiguity and continuous change in addition to system architecture and business architecture.

The capability of agility does not just happen; it is the result of architecture and engineering effort. The architecture of agility is the effort to analyze the structure of agility. It is a cross-cutting solution to looks for commonality via the engineering reuse and consolidation. EA is the coherent effort of the business architecture, system architecture and agility architecture as shown in the following.





A presentation is developed to elaborate what is a coherent.

EA is the relation between Technology and Business to align IT with business need. Mathematically speaking, it is more topology than geometry.

A topology (from Greek topos meaning place) is a description of any kind of locality in terms of its layout. It is:

A mathematical branch that deal with position. Topology is contrary to common geometry, which puts emphasis on how points, lines and planes are composed in order to create ideal solid forms. Topology does not deal with single object and it visual attributes, but pays attention to how an object may be connected to or situated in relation to another object. []

EA is the study of the relation between technologies and businesses rather than developing a large scale application system.

Under the understanding of EA as the topology rather than a geometry, the study of topology relies the set theory. The Light EA suggests to study the intersections set rather than the union set. It is an effort to establish the common foundation and building blocks to enable the agility and simplicity on taking advantage of technology evolution.

Topography (Greek topos, "place", and graphia, "writing") is the study to render topology in schematic presentation. EA topography is the effort to render a comprehensive EA topology between business, application, data and technology. For more information please read:

EA Maps

Light Enterprise Architecture (LEA) suggests that EA is the relation between technology and business which align technology solutions to enterprise business need. Enterprise Architecture is not all about technology, it is not all about business either.

EA is not only all about technology. In the early stage of information age, many automation efforts are technology driven because the way that technology has change how business doing business. However, gradually, the community realizes that the evolution of information age got carried away in the technology driven approach to departure from what business need. Under this concern, EA was initiated to align technology and business and resolve the challenge of stovepipe systems. Even so, the technical world still interprets EA as the enterprise scalable system which is technology oriented.

EA is not all about business either. In the last few years, the EA community have swing the definition of EA to the other extreme to suggest the EA is all about business by interpret EA as "Architecting the enterprise" and it is all about business. The notion of EA is all about business has totally missed the point of what EA was initiated. It interprets EA by the word of "Enterprise Architecture" rather than by the origin of EA in the information age. It is unfortunate that it only scratch the surface of the words rather go to the depth of the root. EA is not in cosmetic business. Under this on going movement, EA has become the new name for old paradigm of business transformation which can be accounted from the old days bloody revolution, industry engineering, information engineering, enterprise engineer , business process reengineering and continuous improvement.

Enterprise Architecture is an emerging paradigm rather than enterprise large scale system architecture or the new episode of business improvement and transformation effort. EA aligns technology with business need, see the enterprise big picture to know the enterprise environment, learn experience of the others and establish common foundation and building blocks to enable agile and simple business transformation. Enterprise Architects is an emerging discipline o map technology with business need, the enterprise architect have to know the technology side and the business side enough to establish the relationship.

Thanks to Akshaya bhatia comment on LEA.

Having read about the LEA concept, albeit in pieces, the concept seems to be interesting. Lot of thoughts and efforts must have been gone into suggesting an approach that advocates the agility in the enterprise architecture. Thrust on business alignment and mapping technology solutions with the business processes, which most other models of EAs also suggest, is apt. May be a bit of refinement and openness in integrating the enterprise solutions in some form ,albeit in the background, into the EA domain will make it more interesting and comprehensible. Also, one to one comparison with other EA models will strengthen and not weaken the innovative idea of having a light weight EA model. Just some thoughts.

Wishing all the best to John Wu for working on innovative ideas on EA, which at onset look adventurous but may emerge pragmatic with a bit of more refinement and openness.

regards,