Component Interactions are common application architecture artifacts used today to describe the interaction or activity between objects, components or actors. The components work together, and this diagram is one of the best ways to describe the behaviour that the participants play in making the system or unit of work run.
A brief description of the main components of an Enterprise Architecture:
The following are components of an Enterprise Architecture. Each individual component is part of the Framework.
1. The business architecture component analyzes the company’s business drivers, opportunities, goals, objectives, and strategies. For instance, does the company plan to develop new product lines, infiltrate new markets, and reduce operating costs, or increase customer satisfaction and loyalty? What are the most critical business problems or opportunities? The business-architecture model also provides a high-level blueprint of all critical business events and processes, along with a description of their relationships and interdependencies.
2. The organizational architecture entails a comprehensive examination of current IT processes, services, organizational structures, roles and responsibilities, and core competencies. All these components are carefully analyzed to see how well they facilitate the creation of flexible application and technical architectures that can quickly adapt to support new business requirements. It may also be referred to as the operational architecture by some.
It addresses fundamental questions such as: How well are IT services managed? How well the IT organization does contributes to the overall enterprise’s success? Are IT services closely aligned with the business strategy? Is the current IT technology infrastructure a barrier to supporting or expanding business?
3. The application architecture lays down the core business applications required to enable business processes and successfully run the business. The application architecture model encompasses all legacy systems, software packages, and distributed systems, along with an appraisal of their strategic value and impact on the business.It also identifies the new applications that are required to satisfy up-and-coming business needs. An assessment of the health of current applications is equally important to include, Fournier says, both from a functional and technical standpoint. Finally, the application architecture must carefully analyze the interdependencies and interoperability needs that are required between business applications.
4. The information architecture examines the key information assets of the enterprise. What are the types, locations, and timing of information that are required to achieve the prime objectives laid out in the enterprise business plans and processes? What types of information need to be shared? In what state is operational and informational data? The creation of the information architecture model also encompasses building an inventory for all operational files, databases, data warehouses, and data marts that are required by current and planned business applications.
5. The technical architecture model scrutinizes the underlying technologies that are required to run the applications, such as computing platforms, networks, operating systems, database management systems, storage devices, and middleware. The technical architecture model can be broken down into specific sub-models, such as platforms, networks, security, and more. For example, some companies have developed a comprehensive security architecture blueprint to enable e-commerce in a secure fashion. Throughout the construction of the technical architecture model, potentially overlapping or incompatible technologies are identified, and those that do not make the grade become candidates for being phased out.