Question

Discuss the CSVLOD model and its relevance to this Damien mask Business context?

Answer 1

The CSVLOD model is a novel conceptualization of enterprise architecture from scratch that:
• Emerged from research, not from marketing
• Supported by evidence from real organizations
• Reflects genuine industry EA best practices
• Accurately describes empirical realities of EA
• Fills the critical gap in the EA discipline.

CSVLOD Taxonomy for Artifacts:

Business-Focused

Considerations: Global conceptual rules and fundamental considerations important for business and relevant for IT.

Visions: High-level conceptual descriptions of an organization from the business perspective.

Outlines: High-level descriptions of separate IT initiatives understandable to business leaders.

IT-Focused

Standards: Global technical rules, standards, patterns and best practices relevant for IT systems.

Landscapes: High-level technical descriptions of the organizational IT landscape.

Designs: Detailed technical and functional descriptions of separate IT projects actionable for project teams.

Usage of EA Artifacts: 

Business-Focused

Considerations: Developed collaboratively by senior business leaders and architects and then used to influence all architectural decisions.

Visions: Developed collaboratively by senior business leaders and architects and then used to guide IT investments, identify, prioritize and launch new IT initiatives.

Outlines: Developed collaboratively by architects and business leaders and then used to evaluate, approve and fund specific IT initiatives.

IT-Focused

Standards: Developed collaboratively by architects and technical subject-matter experts and used to shape architectures of all IT initiatives.

Landscapes: Developed and maintained by architects and used to rationalize the IT landscape, manage the lifecycle of IT assets and plan new IT initiatives.

Designs: Developed collaboratively by architects, project teams and business representatives and then used by project teams to implement IT projects.


Lifecycles of EA Artifacts

Business-Focused

Considerations: Developed once and then updated according to the ongoing changes in the business environment.

Visions: Developed once and then updated according to the ongoing changes in strategic business priorities.

Outlines: Developed at the early stages of IT initiatives to support decisionmaking and then archived.

IT-Focused

Standards: Developed on an asnecessary basis and updated according to the ongoing technology progress.

Landscapes: Developed on an asnecessary basis and updated according to the ongoing evolution of the IT landscape.

Designs: Developed at the later stages of IT initiatives to support implementation and then archived.


Benefits of the CSVLOD Model

The CSVLOD model of enterprise architecture has two major advantages over existing models:

• The CSVLOD model is realistic, evidence-based and reflects actual EA artifacts and related best practices.

• The CSVLOD model is highly explanatory and describes many critical properties of EA artifacts including their contents, formats, stakeholders, usage, lifecycles, purposes and benefits.

• The CSVLOD model helps understand how EA works.

Conclusions

Popular conceptualizations of enterprise architecture as four architecture layers, current states, future states and roadmaps are inadequate for understanding enterprise architecture.
The CSVLOD model is the first research-based model of enterprise architecture which provides a more accurate, realistic and explanatory view than any other existing models.