Enterprise Modelling and Architecture

Assignment

Pasan De Silva

Enterprise Modelling and Architecture - Assignment

1.0
In a large enterprise managing 'data' is becoming ever so important. This is due to the large amounts of data collected every day in various DBMSs from various sources and the need to access the right data at the right time. Designing 'data models' for systems is a science and also an art where a keen sense of design elegance and data architecture are fused to come up with the right database schema for an application. 1.1. Describe using an example how a dataset is 'normalised' into a 3NF (3rd normal form) 1.2. It is known that a schema with a 3NF model is geared more for transaction processing than reporting. Discuss why this is the case and discuss how a model like Star Schemas are more geared for reporting and Analytics. Use an example to elaborate your answer (i.e. In a payroll system / CRM system, etc) 1.3. Discuss the current buzz around BigData and it's a characteristics. Explain why the world of BigData is seen as a key addition to the data sets used for Analytics.

2.0
In large software development projects there are key methodologies used during the concept to product cycle. Traditionally we use Waterfall methodology for SW development and sometimes prototyping is also used. Due to aggressive timelines and ever changing requirements, AGILE methods for SW development are now becoming very common and preferred in large organisations. 2.1. Discuss the characteristics of AGILE. Describe how the elements in an AGILE environment (people, tools, project management, documentation, etc) should behave or be designed to make AGILE development a success. 2.2. Describe what SCRUM means in an AGILE environment. In your own view, with examples discuss where SCRUM would work and where there will be challenges in using SCRUM.

3.0
For an EA (Enterprise Architect) understanding a business domain and its linkages to IT is very important. This is because every IT initiative or project should be linked to clear business KPIs for funding to be approved and sponsored by business. This is a complex and a tedious task given the complexities of large organisations operating in multiple businesses and multiple geographies. Some frameworks are used by EAs to simplify the thought process and understand the enterprise both from a business perspective and from an IT lens. Describe the ZACHMAN framework and how it works. In your own view discuss the use of this framework for an EA and critically discuss any of its shortcomings or challenges in using Ina practical situation. Compare and contrast ZACHMAN and TOGAF frameworks and their merits and demerits. Research on some tools available for architecting an enterprise. Discuss how the tools can be used by an EA in analysing an enterprise in its holistic sense.

3.1. 3.2. 3.3. 3.4.

Enterprise Modelling and Architecture - Assignment

1.0
The level of competition businesses are facing gets tougher day by day. The quality of information a business has access to, is a very sharp competitive advantage in today's business landscape. Ability to visualize the strategically valuable information out of raw data prior to the competition can grow a business to unbelievable heights. Having the right information at the right time is the key to business success at all times. Today's businesses are investing in increasing amounts to have the most efficient data models and data structures.

1.1
Data normalization is the process of organizing data to minimize redundancy, ensure accuracy and to ease new entry. In order to achieve one level of normal form, each previous level must be met. The below data set is not normalized. There are multiple items in colour field, there are duplicate records and no primary key is found.
Item T-shirt polo T-shirt trousers colours red, blue red, yellow red, blue blue, black price 12.00 12.00 12.00 25.00 tax 0.60 0.60 0.60 1.25

First Normal Form There are no repeating or duplicate fields. Each cell contains only a single value. each record is unique

This data set is now converted to 1 st normal form. Item and colours fields are the composite primary keys
Item T-shirt T-shirt polo polo trousers trousers colours red blue red yellow blue black price 12.00 12.00 12.00 12.00 25.00 25.00 tax 0.60 0.60 0.60 0.60 1.25 1.25

Second Normal Form All non-key fields depend on all components of the primary key.

Enterprise Modelling and Architecture - Assignment

Table is not in the second normal form because price and tax depend only on item not on colour.
Item T-shirt T-shirt polo polo trousers trousers colours red blue red yellow blue black Item T-shirt polo trousers price 12.00 12.00 25.00 tax 0.60 0.60 1.25

Above tables are now in second normal form. Third Normal Form No non-key field depends upon another. All non-key fields should depend on the primary key.
colors red blue red yellow blue black

Item T-shirt T-shirt polo polo trousers trousers

1.2
Third normal form modelling is a classical relational-database modelling technique that minimizes data redundancy through normalization. When compared to a star schema, a 3NF schema typically has a larger number of tables due to this normalization process. 3NF data sets are considered as transactional data bases. There are a lot of tables and a lot of complexity in the way they are joined. This model is considered as an excellent modelling for transactional system because; the level of redundancy in the tables is reduced to a minimum, It makes updates very efficient where users do not have to change a lot of other tables to change particular information. So this model is very suitable for transactional systems such as a payroll system. But querying this kind of a table is very difficult. Querying is one of the primary concerns in reporting and analytics. Understanding the complete picture of this kind of a data base can take a lot of time for a new user. It can be increasingly difficult to the users that aren't experts in its design. It is also not efficient from a query perspective in terms of joints. If a user wants to take a lot of detailed information out of a 3NF data set the user will have to join a lot of tables together in each one of their queries. This can be very inefficient from a performance perspective. Data base engine consume a lot of resources in this kind
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Enterprise Modelling and Architecture - Assignment

of a query and also queries are very difficult comparatively. This is the primary requirement of an analytics system such as a CRM. So, a 3NF data set is not the most optimized data structure for an analytics and reporting system.

A star schema is characterized by one or more very large fact tables that contain the primary information in the data warehouse, and a number of much smaller dimension tables (or lookup tables), each of which contains information about the entries for a particular attribute in the fact table.

In contrast to a 3NF, a star schema design may not be the most favourable design from a storage perspective with the level of duplications involved. But it can minimize the number of joints for the users in querying. The data are represented in a lesser scattered manner, distributed across very few tables. A star design uses only one joint most of the times.

Enterprise Modelling and Architecture - Assignment

But, in a star schema one-off inserts and updates can result in data anomalies which normalized schemas are designed to avoid. making it less suitable for a transactional processing system.

1.3

For organizations of all sizes, data management has shifted from an important competency to a critical differentiator that can determine market winners and losers. BigData Big data is a buzzword, or catch-phrase, used to describe a massive volume of both structured and unstructured data that is so large that it's difficult to process using traditional database and software techniques. Big Data relates to data creation, storage, retrieval and analysis that is remarkable in terms of volume, velocity, and variety As experts explain, big data may be as important to business and society as the Internet has become because more data may lead to more accurate analyses. More accurate analyses may lead to more confident decision making. And better decisions can mean greater operational efficiencies, cost reductions and reduced risk. Big data typically refers to the following types of data: Traditional enterprise data includes customer information from CRM systems, transactional ERP data, web store transactions, and general ledger data. Machine-generated /sensor data includes Call Detail Records (CDR), weblogs, smart meters, manufacturing sensors, equipment logs (often referred to as digital exhaust), trading systems data. Social data includes customer feedback streams, micro-blogging sites like Twitter, social media platforms like Facebook.

Characteristics of BigData There are four key characteristics that define big data: (according to the white paper "BigData for enterprises" from oracle) 1. Volume. Machine-generated data is produced in much larger quantities than non-traditional data. For instance, a single jet engine can generate 10TB of data in 30 minutes. With more than 25,000 airline flights per day, the daily volume of just this single data source runs into the Petabytes. Smart meters and heavy industrial equipment like oil refineries and drilling rigs generate similar data volumes, compounding the problem. 2. Velocity. Social media data streams, while not as massive as machinegenerated data, produce a large influx of opinions and relationships valuable to customer relationship management. Even at 140 characters per
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Enterprise Modelling and Architecture - Assignment

tweet, the high velocity (or frequency) of Twitter data ensures large volumes (over 8 TB per day). 3. Variety. Traditional data formats tend to be relatively well defined by a data schema and change slowly. In contrast, non-traditional data formats exhibit a dizzying rate of change. As new services are added, new sensors deployed, or new marketing campaigns executed, new data types are needed to capture the resultant information. 4. Value. The economic value of different data varies significantly. Typically there is good information hidden amongst a larger body of non-traditional data; the challenge is identifying what is valuable and then transforming and extracting that data for analysis. Why BigData is a key addition to analytics. When big data is analysed in combination with traditional enterprise data, enterprises can develop a more thorough and insightful understanding of their business, which can lead to enhanced productivity, a stronger competitive position and greater innovation all of which can have a significant impact on the bottom line. For an example manufacturing companies deploy sensors in their products to return a stream of telemetry. In the automotive industry, systems deliver communications, security and navigation services. Perhaps more importantly, this telemetry also reveals usage patterns, failure rates and other opportunities for product improvement that can reduce development and assembly costs. Retailers usually know who buys their products. Use of social media and web log files from their ecommerce sites can help them understand who didn t buy and why they chose not to, information not available to them today. This can enable much more effective micro customer segmentation and targeted marketing campaigns, as well as improve supply chain efficiencies through more accurate demand planning. Likewise, BigData can facilitate analysing small pieces of unstructured data scattered all over the web, that comes from variety of sources, in a uniform manner to provide meaningful information for an enterprise. This information can provide any organization a competitive advantage. Strategic use of this information can help companies achieve wonderful bottom lines.

2.0
Agile software development is a group of software development methods based on iterative and incremental development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams. It promotes adaptive planning, evolutionary development and delivery.

Enterprise Modelling and Architecture - Assignment

2.1
2.1.1 Characteristics of Agile Modularity Modularity is a key element of any good process. Modularity allows a process to be broken into components called activities. A software development process prescribes a set of activities capable of transforming the vision of the software system in to reality. Iterative Agile software processes acknowledge that we get things wrong before we get them right. Therefore, they focus on short cycles. Within each cycle, a certain set of activities is completed. These cycles will be started and completed in a matter of weeks. However, a single cycle (called iteration) will probably not be enough to get the element 100% correct. Therefore, the short cycle is repeated many times to refine the deliverables. Adaptive During an iteration, new risks may be exposed which require some activities that weren't planned. The agile process adapts the process to attack these new found risks. If the goal cannot be achieved using the activities planned during the iteration, new activities can be added to allow the goal to be reached. Similarly, activities may be discarded if the risks turn out to be ungrounded. Incremental An agile process does not try to build the entire system at once. Instead, it partitions the nontrivial system into increments which may be developed in parallel, at different times, and at different rates. Each increment is unit tested independently. When an increment is completed and tested, it is integrated into the system. People Oriented Agile processes favour people over process and technology. They evolve through adaptation in an organic manner. Developers that are empowered raise their productivity, quality, and performance. After all, they are the best individuals in the organization to know how to make these changes. 2.1.2 How the elements in an AGILE environment (people, tools, project management, documentation, etc.) should behave or be designed to make AGILE development a success. People One major principal of Agile is people and interactions over processes and tools. For an Agile development to be successful, the projects should be built around motivated individuals. They are self-organizing and take the initiative. face to face conversation is promoted as the most effective way of communication. In an ideal Agile environment people voluntarily initiates and takes responsibility than a leader assigning responsibility. This type of participation develops a sense of ownership in the task at hand resulting better dedication and better performance.
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Enterprise Modelling and Architecture - Assignment

Tools Product Backlog - This is a high-level list which includes descriptions and features each item have a business value. These items are prioritised according to their value and are owned by product owner. Sprint backlog - This is a list of items to be completed within a sprint. This is broken down into tasks. Leaders do not assign tasks to individuals instead team members sign up for items voluntarily this promotes self-organisation and developer buy-in. Burn down - This chart is publicly displayed showing the remaining work in a sprint backlog. This chart is updated daily indicating the current progress. Many companies use universal tools, such as spreadsheets to build and maintain artefacts such as the sprint backlog. There are also open-source and proprietary packages dedicated to agile methodologies. Project Management In a successful Agile environment we find cross - functional teams who are selforganizing. The leadership is more democratic and people oriented than a normal top-down bureaucratic culture. People are empowered to take responsibility. As a result an Agile organisation is much dependant on its people. Project management in an agile environment should ensure people are always motivated. and they engage in constructive value creation to make sure timely delivery. PM should also encourage knowledge sharing culture within the organisation to benefit from the collective wisdom. Documentation Documentation is an important part of agile software development projects, but unlike traditionalists who often see documentation as a risk reduction strategy, agilists typically see documentation as a strategy which increases overall project risk and therefore strive to be as efficient as possible when it comes to documentation. Agilists write documentation when that's the best way to achieve the relevant goals, but there often proves to be better ways to achieve those goals than writing static documentation.

2.2
Scrum is a frame work for agile methodology that can be applied to nearly any project; Scrum was originally used for product development however, the Scrum methodology is most commonly used in software development. The Scrum process is suited for projects with rapidly changing or highly emergent requirements. Scrum works well with 5 to 10 people who can be completely committed to achieving the sprint goals. When the group is larger in size, or have partial commitments, the scrum methodology is identified to be ineffective. The other most important situation scrum doesn't work is when you are unable to define your goals, or break them down into small, quantifiable chunks.
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Enterprise Modelling and Architecture - Assignment

Scrum is more suited for projects that have frequently changing requirement sets. If a project has a fixed requirement set and a fixed delivery date, Traditional waterfall methods are seen as more appropriate than using scrum. Senior management commitment and buy in if not provided sufficiently can lead to fail scrum methodologies. If an organization is highly bureaucratic and has a very high level of resistance to change, implementing scrum can be very challenging.

3.0
In designing systems for enterprises understanding and properly communicating the business gain in every perspective is vital for an Enterprise architect in order to get the suggested solution approved for funding.

3.1
The Zachman Framework is an enterprise architecture framework which provides a formal and highly structured way of viewing and defining an enterprise. It consists of a two dimensional classification matrix based on the intersection of six communication questions (What, Where, When, Why, Who and How) with five levels of reification, successively transforming the most abstract ideas into more concrete ideas.

The Zachman Framework is a schema for organizing architectural artifacts (in other words, design documents, specifications, and models) that takes into account both whom the artifact targets (for example, business owner and builder) and what particular issue (for example, data and functionality) is being addressed.

Enterprise Modelling and Architecture - Assignment

The Zachman Framework is not a methodology in that it does not imply any specific method or process for collecting, managing, or using the information that it describes.

3.2
In designing a solution an architect should essentially address full range of every stakeholder's perspective. In order to aid him in formulating the clear business and IT relationship Zachman framework can be quite useful. It is simple and easy to understand and free of complex technical jargon. Its comprehensive ness addresses an enterprise in its entirety. It helps an Enterprise architect to think complex concepts while isolating one view at a time. Challenges in using this framework includes absence of a methodology to specify modelling approach. Zachman framework expresses what information must be created for each cell of the framework. However it doesn't indicate how this information must be created. Since Zachman framework is just a framework not a methodology this cannot be seen as a weak point. However an architect who uses Zachman framework has to overcome this problem.

3.3
TOGAF is one of the frameworks for enterprise architecture which provides a comprehensive approach to the design, planning, implementation and governance of enterprise information architecture. It has four architecture domains and they are: Business this defines the business strategy , governance, organization and key business processes of the organization; Application provides the blueprint and interactions for the application systems to be deployed to the core business processes of the organization; Data describes the structure of the logical and physical data assets and associated data management; Technology describes the hardware, software and network infrascture needed to support the deployment of core applications.

It also includes a set of foundation architecture to enable the architecture team to envision the current and future state of the architecture. This includes: a method of defining an information system in terms of a set of building blocks; information on how these building blocks fit together; a set of tools; a common vocabulary; includes a list of recommended standards; List of compliant products that can be used to implement the building blocks. The Zachman Framework unlike TOGAF is very generic and applies only to enterprises.

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Enterprise Modelling and Architecture - Assignment

The Zachman Framework simply is logical structure for classifying and organizing artifacts developed in enterprise architecture. TOGAF is a process for managing architecture change, while Zachman is taxonomy for capturing the current state of an enterprise.

3.4
Enterprise Architectures are an emerging approach for capturing complex knowledge about organizations and technology. Enterprise architects use different tools to analyze and optimize the portfolio of business strategies, organizational structures, business processes / tasks and activities, information flows, applications, and technology infrastructure. Below are some of the most popular tools. Abacus A powerful tool for modelling, understanding, and analysing complex enterprises across people, process and technology. Analyses the trade-offs between multiple architectures and helps enterprises achieve the optimal roadmap prior to investment. BiZZdesign Architect These integrated solutions consist of proven and easy to use tools, best practice models and methods, training and business consultancy. The BiZZdesign service lines are: enterprise architecture management business requirements management business process design and improvement business process management structured implementation and governance Troux The Troux suite delivers powerful analytic, collaboration, modeling, and information management capabilities through a simple role-based web user interface and modeling tools. It is designed to fit neatly into existing enterprise infrastructures and processes. Sophisticated information exchange capabilities enable it to plug directly into most common PPM, CMDB, Asset Management and ERP systems. This also enables tight integration with IT management processes such as COBIT and ITIL. The suite is also highly configurable and enables high levels role based and security configuration as well as the ability to tune the product to the maturity of the organization. Corporate Modeler Corporate Modeler enables business and IT people to capture, analyze, simulate and optimize 'end-to-end' business processes and supporting systems to reach strategic goals. this tool ensures a common understanding of the 'as-is' and 'tobe' situations amongst your team, your managers and your business partners. It also enables you to experiment with 'what-if?' scenarios to formulate the best business and IT decisions.
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Enterprise Modelling and Architecture - Assignment

By linking organizational, process and technology modeling together through a central repository, Corporate Modeler provides a holistic view of the enterprise.

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