Individual Architecture
Applying Enterprise Architecture Principles and Practices to Our Daily Lives
Enterprise architecture has been widely used by governments as well as private businesses across many industries. With our personal and social lives becoming more and more digital, the principles of enterprise architecture may hold the key to improving our everyday lives. Can we create an individual architecture?
According to the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations, “enterprise architecture is a well-defined practice for conducting enterprise analysis, design, planning, and implementation, using a holistic approach at all times, for the successful development and execution of strategy.” Its early conceptual framework emerged in the 1980s, and between 1987 and 2003, enterprise architecture frameworks evolved to encompass all major layers within an enterprise, including business, data, applications and technology. Today, it’s in widespread use by both government and private businesses.
From an enterprise perspective, continuous improvement is crucial to survival and competitiveness. Enterprises face diverse challenges arising from rapid changes in business conditions and data growth, not to mention the increasing complexity of specific applications and the technology landscape as a whole. Enterprise architecture offers increasingly critical tools to manage these challenges as well as those to come. The growing market for connected devices and wearable tech promises a world of tremendous opportunities for business, and enterprise architecture promises to be a major strategic tool to harness that potential.
While businesses undergo rapid transformation in response to massive technological change, individual consumers are equally affected and must also adapt. People are increasingly overwhelmed with tremendous amounts of data, a plethora of applications and growing device diversity. Problems that were once limited to businesses are now arising at the individual level. This presents great opportunities for service providers to deliver solutions to customers, resulting in much richer experiences than they’ve grown accustomed to.
So how can businesses remodel large-scale enterprise architecture principles to craft solutions for individuals? Let’s consider the concept of a personal architecture.
