The eLearning Series:
Systems Engineering for Software Intensive Systems

Enterprise Architecture Fundamentals

Required Textbook

An Introduction to Enterprise Architecture, 2nd Edition, by Scott A. Bernard, AuthorHouse, ISBN: 1-4208-8050-0

Course Objectives

This course provides students with an understanding of the basic concepts and practices of Enterprise Architecture (EA). Upon course completion students will:

• Understand the role of EA in integrated IT governance; specifically, how EA relates to IT-related strategic planning, capital planning, operations management, security and privacy, program management, standards, and workforce planning.
• Understand how EA uses strategic priorities and business requirements to drive IT solution development, and implementation.
• Understand how EA functions as both a management program and documentation methodology.
• Understand how the scope of the EA program and documentation method is visualized through a hierarchical framework that encompasses strategic initiatives, business processes, information flows, IT systems and services, and networks.
• Understand how EA can lower the risk of implementing successful IT solutions.
• Understand how EA addresses organizational culture and dynamics in supporting strategies for implementing and managing change.
• Understand the historical roots of EA practice and theory.
• Understand Department of Defense approaches to EA documentation.
• Understand how to use scenario planning to gain executive level participation in future architecture development.
• Experience in completing EA documentation in selected areas.
• Experience in establishing and populating an EA website and documentation repository.
• Participate in on-line threaded discussions of EA topics with fellow students that will bring out real-world experiences in dealing with EA issues, challenges, and opportunities.
• Work on a project to populate a web-based architecture documentation repository. The project reinforces the course concepts and shows the students how the strategic, business and technology levels of the architecture are connected through the documentation artifacts. Students will focus on learning the EA concepts and methods.

Prerequisites: None

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