The purpose of Education Enterprise Architecture is to“develop an efficient and cost-effective set of structures for collecting, retaining and sharing information to accomplish its mission and goals”. (EEA, p.5) The initial steps which deal with the assessment of the current state of the EA support this. There has to be a well thought out plan before anything happens, but even prior to this there needs to be an assessment of the current and future states of an agency.
“Business Architecture is the foundation of EEA and drives all the other architectures to ensure that EEA focuses on the agency’s goals and strategies.” (EEA Guidebook, p.11) An agency must lay the foundation and look closely at where it currently stands in contrast to where it wants to go, base on its mission and goals. With Module 5 I was able to see the various steps needed, that support and are put in place to achieve a successful BA implementation. Furthermore, it is important to note that the agency needs to use Business Architecture to guide them in the “what, who, how, when and why of the agency’s business”. (EEA Guidebook, p.11) These are questions that help to spell out what the agency needs to do in order to make sure they are working efficiently towards their mission/vision.
An agency needs to see exactly where they are before they can focus on where they want to go. This assignment helped me to understand the importance of this. For example, a 1:1 iPad rollout is a great idea, but that requires more than just that, the idea. If this idea wants to be implement well, so that it’s successful, it must consider the agency’s current state, how this idea will align with the agency’s vision, and try to assess any potential issues that may arise, which essentially answers the “what, who, how, when, and why”. Then they have to look carefully and find the “gaps” that the agency might currently have between where it is and where it wants to go. Which in turn forms the “starting point for the implementation plan” (EEA. p.15) the agency will use to support its plan to reach that future state.
Implementing a well thought out BA, which begins by looking carefully at the current state and future state of an agency, and identifying the gaps, will lead to a strong and efficient EEA.
(2014). Education Enterprise Architecture Guidebook - U.S. ... Retrieved February 22, 2015, from https://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/implementation-support-unit/tech-assist/education-architecture-guidebook.pdf.