Enterprise application architecture is becoming more and more commonplace in our modern software design. It is a critical component of any enterprise software solution, and it’s the process of planning, designing, and implementing the complete solution across all platforms and end-user devices.
As though the enterprise apps are not enough, sometimes businesses integrate two or more apps to gather data from multiple sources and meet the changing needs of their customers.
It seems that this app integration approach is beneficial to the business, but for that, you need a highly robust and reliable enterprise application architecture. Such an architecture won’t only save a lot of your money in the long-term but will also help you provide enhanced quality of services to your customers.
So, in this post, we will discuss how you can build an EA architecture.
Top 7 Enterprise Application Architecture Best Practices
EA Charter
The EA charter should be created by the business and approved by the development team. This document should contain an overall description of the application, its scope, and requirements. It should also describe how the application will be built and maintained and its lifecycle (development, testing, and deployment).
Both teams can use the EA charter to communicate their roles in the project and define their responsibilities. For example, it can be used to define who is responsible for what items, such as database schema design or technical specifications.
All stakeholders must understand these responsibilities, so they know exactly what each person is responsible for during a development project. This makes it easier for everyone involved to act on their tasks without unnecessary delays or conflicts arising.
Iteration Approach
The iterative approach is a more practical method of building enterprise application architectures, where you start small and build out your architecture in small, incremental steps. This approach is particularly useful for enterprises with limited resources and can’t afford to build a full-scale architecture from scratch.
Instead of starting with a full-scale architecture, design and implement a series of smaller “proof-of-concept” applications that prove the feasibility of your ideas. Once these applications are ready, you can scale them into an enterprise-level solution.
Communication plan
The communication plan is an essential step in the architecture process, and it should be created before any other step, and it should be reviewed with each team member. The purpose of this plan is to establish the channels for communication between different groups of people within your organization.
The communication plan defines who will communicate with whom, how often, and how they will do so (e.g., phone calls or email). You can use a spreadsheet or a Word document, or even a Google Docs spreadsheet to create your communication plan.
This plan must be relayed to every professional involved in the project so that they can know how they can get their message across efficiently and clearly.
Agile Adoption
The Agile adoption process is a critical step for any enterprise application, and the implementation of agile methodology can be daunting for organizations that have not done it before. However, there are many benefits to adopting a more agile development approach, which includes delivering software faster and at less cost.
EA Governance
EA governance is the process involved in managing and maintaining an EA. This includes identifying and defining an EA’s goals, objectives, and key performance indicators (KPIs). It also involves establishing a governance framework that supports the EA’s development, management, and maintenance.
The governance framework should enable the organization to achieve its objectives through effective communication between stakeholders, regulators, and other external parties. And that’s not all. It must also facilitate compliance with relevant regulations, policies, code of conduct, and other applicable laws.
Measuring Value delivered by EA
The key to EA is understanding the value it delivers. You need to measure the impact of EA, and you also need to know how to make that impact better.
There are two main approaches to measuring EA:
The first is to measure what you’ve done, which is easy enough. If you’ve built a website, you can measure traffic from search engines (Google Analytics) and find out how much revenue it generates. If you’ve developed an application, then you can measure revenue by tracking sales or any other revenue-generating activity.
The second approach is more difficult: measuring how well your application works for users and clients. You will need to understand what their problems are, what their goals are, and why they should use your solution over another one that might be easier or cheaper to build but may not solve their problems as well as yours does.
Track EA Maturity
It’s important to track EA maturity. When your organization has been using an EA for a long time, it might be hard to remember what makes for a good EA or what aspects are still missing. If you are not sure where to start, ask the following questions:
- What makes an EA successful?
- Do you have the right tools to manage your EA?
- How do we measure the effectiveness of our EAs?
- What are the risks associated with adopting an EA?
Enterprise Application Architecture – Summary
Enterprise Architecture is an efficient way to manage and run your business smoothly. It is important that you follow all the best practices we discussed in this blog to effectively maintain, monitor, and control the enterprise application architecture. If you get to imply your EA program well, then there is no doubt that you shall reap many benefits from it.
