NIST Enterprise Architecture Model
NIST Enterprise Architecture Model (NIST EA Model) is a late 1980s reference model for Enterprise Architecture, which define the content of enterprise architectures[1] in terms of interrelationship between the business, information, and technology environments of an enterprise.[2]
Developed late 1980s by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and others, this reference model in the 1990s became widely promoted within the U.S. federal government as Enterprise Architecture management tool.[2], and is applied as foundation in multiple U.S. Federal Enterprise Architecture frameworks, for example in the Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework.[2]
Overview
The NIST Enterprise Architecture Model is a five-layered model allows for organizing, planning, and building an integrated set of information and information technology architectures. The five layers are defined separately but are interrelated and interwoven.[2] This interrelation between the architecture layers is defined in the model:[3]
- Business Architecture, which drives the information architecture
- Information architecture, which prescribes the information systems architecture
- Information systems architecture, which identifies the data architecture
- Data Architecture, which suggests specific data delivery systems, and
- Data Delivery Systems, (Software, Hardware, Communications) support the data architecture.
The hierarchy in the model is based on the notion that an organization operates a number of business functions, each function requires information from a number of source, and each of these sources may operation one or more operation systems, which in turn contain data organized and stored in any number of data systems.[4]
History
The origin from the NIST Enterprise Architecture Model was a NIST research project in 1989, published as the NIST Special Publication 500-167, Information Management Directions: The Integration Challenge.[3] This publication was the result of the fifth workshop in the Information Management Directions sponsored by the NIST in cooperation with the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the IEEE Computer Society, and the Federal Data Management Users Group (FEDMUG).
The NIST Framework was picked up by several U.S. federal agencies and used as the basis for their information strategy.[7] The reference model is applicated the following frameworks:
- Department of Energy (DOE) Information Architecture [5]
- FDIC Enterprise Architecture Framework is the Enterprise Architecture framework of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
- Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF) : The 1999 documentation of the Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework Version 1.1 explains how the NIST Framework is used as a foundation of the FEA Framework.[2]
- NWS Enterprise Architecture : Enterprise Architecture of the National Weather Service[8]
Foundations
In 1989 presentation of the NIST Enterprise Architecture Model Rigdon et al. (1989) [9] explained that discussions about architecture in that time mostly focus on technology concerns. Their aim was to "takes a broader view, and describes the need for an enterprise architecture that includes an emphasis on business and information requirements. These higher level issues impact data and technology architectures and decisions."[10]
In order to develop an enterprise architecture Rigdon et al. (1989, p 137) acknowledge, that:
- There are multiple ways to develop an architecture
- There are multiple ways to implement standards
- Development and implementation should be customized to the environment
- Yet, every architecture itself can be divided into different levels.
.jpg?lang=en)
The different levels of an enterprise architecture can be visualized as a pyramid with "the business unit at the top and the delivery system at the base. An enterprise is composed of one or more Business Units that are responsible for a specific business area. The five levels of architecture are Business Unit, Information, Information System, Data and Delivery System."[11]
The separate levels of an enterprise architecture are interrelated in a special way. The "depiction at one level assumes or dictates that architectures at the higher level.".[11] The illustration on the right gives an example of which elements can constitute an Enterprise Architecture.
See also
References
This article incorporates public domain material from the National Institute of Standards and Technology
- ^ Chief Information Officer Council (2001) A Practical Guide to Federal Enterprise Architecture Version 1.0 Preface. February 2001.
- ^ a b c d e The Chief Information Officers Council (1999). Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework Version 1.1. September 1999.
- ^ a b Elizabeth N. Fong and Alan H. Goldfine (1989) Information Management Directions: The Integration Challenge. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 500-167, September 1989.
- ^ John O'Looney (2002). Wiring Governments: Challenges and Possibilities for Public Managers. Greenwood Publishing Group. p.67.
- ^ a b Federal Aviation Administration (1998) Federal Information Architecture Initiatives. February 1998
- ^ OIG (2005). Implementation of E-Government Principles. May 2005
- ^ "Exclusive Interview with John Zachman" by Roger Sessions. In: Perspectives of the International Association of Software Architects. April 2006.
- ^ Bobby Jones (2003) NWS Enterprise Architecture. In: 20th International Conference on Interactive Information and Processing Systems. 2004.
- ^ W. Bradford Rigdon (1989) "Architectures and Standards". In: Information Management Directions: The Integration Challenge. E.N. Fong and A.H. Goldfine (eds.). NIST Sept 1989. p. 135-150
- ^ Rigdon (1989), p. 136
- ^ a b Rigdon (1989), p. 137
External links
