Enterprise Architecture (EA)

A business driven plan that describes the current state, future vision, and transitional states of an operation. This is presented in terms of: strategy and performance; business; applications and services; technology; data; and security, all at the end of a two to five year planning horizon.

An EA includes the rules and standards and systems life cycle information to optimize and maintain the environment which the agency wishes to create and maintain through its IT portfolio. An EA should provide a strategy that enables the agency to support its current state and provides a roadmap for transition to its target environment. An EA defines principles and goals and sets a direction on such issues as the promotion of interoperability, open systems, public access, end-user satisfaction, and IT security. The agency should support an EA with a complete inventory of agency information resources including: stakeholders and customers, equipment, systems, services, and funds devoted to information resources management and IT, at an appropriate level of detail.