Glossary

The vocabulary of enterprise architecture

A practical reference for the terms we use every day — for architects, but also for decision-makers who want to speak the same language.

Frameworks

# ADM (Architecture Development Method): Iterative, incremental method at the heart of TOGAF, with 8 phases (from architecture vision to change management). The backbone for producing a coherent target architecture.
# ArchiMate: A standard modeling language (The Open Group) for describing enterprise architectures. Covers three layers — Business, Application, Technology — with strategy and physical extensions.
# BPMN: Business Process Model and Notation. A graphical modeling language for describing business processes, readable by both business and technical stakeholders.
# COBIT: Governance and management framework for enterprise IT published by ISACA. Focused on IT-business alignment, risk management and compliance.
# ITIL: Information Technology Infrastructure Library. A best-practice framework for IT service management — incidents, problems, changes, releases.
# TOGAF: The Open Group Architecture Framework. The most widely adopted enterprise architecture framework. It provides a method (ADM), a meta-model (Content Framework) and a capability reference model.

# Application Architecture: Mapping of the IS applications, their interactions, exposed services and lifecycle. The central layer of enterprise architecture.
# Business Architecture: View of the organization describing business capabilities, processes, actors and value streams. The top layer of the ArchiMate model.
# Capability: An organization's ability to produce a business outcome. Independent of implementation. The fundamental building block of capability mapping.
# Data Architecture: Definition of data models, flows and governance rules across the organization. Covers master data, data warehousing, data lake and data mesh.
# Enterprise Architecture (EA): Discipline that structures an organization's components — strategy, processes, applications, data, infrastructure — to align them with its goals and steer its transformation.
# Legacy System: An older system, often critical but hard to evolve, built on outdated technologies or paradigms. A prime target for modernization programs.
# Reference Architecture: Pre-defined architecture model used as a guide for similar projects. Captures best practices and accelerates new designs.
# Target Architecture: Desired future state of the IS at a given horizon. Compared to the current architecture, it feeds the transformation roadmap.
# Technology Architecture: View of the infrastructure and technical platforms that support applications: servers, networks, cloud, containers, operating systems.

# Blast radius: The scope of components affected by the failure or modification of a single IS element. Measuring blast radius is essential before any critical change.
# Building block: Reusable architecture brick in TOGAF. Can be logical (Architecture Building Block) or physical (Solution Building Block).
# Dependency Map: Graphical representation of links between IS components (applications, services, data). The foundation of any impact analysis.
# Impact Analysis: Study of the consequences of a change (technical, business or organizational) across the IS, relying on the dependency map.

# Architecture Board: Body that arbitrates architecture decisions, validates deviations from the target, and ensures IS consistency across projects.
# Compliance: Adherence to regulatory obligations (GDPR, PCI-DSS, SOX, Morocco's law 09-08, etc.) and the organization's internal policies.
# Digital Transformation: Deep evolution of an organization to embed digital at the heart of its processes, culture and business model. Enterprise architecture is its technical backbone.
# IAM: Identity and Access Management. The set of processes and tools to manage digital identities and access rights to IS resources.
# IT Governance: The set of rules, bodies and processes steering IT-related decisions: architecture, investments, compliance, performance.
# RBAC: Role-Based Access Control. An access control model where permissions are granted to roles, which are then assigned to users.
# TCO (Total Cost of Ownership): Total cost of owning a solution over its lifetime: licenses, infrastructure, integration, operations, training, maintenance, exit. A central criterion when choosing an EA platform.

# API: Application Programming Interface. A technical contract allowing two systems to exchange data or functions, typically over HTTP/JSON.
# ESB: Enterprise Service Bus. A centralized integration platform orchestrating exchanges between heterogeneous systems. Often replaced today by API + event-driven architectures.
# Event-driven architecture: Architecture where components communicate via events (publish/subscribe), asynchronously. Improves decoupling and resilience.
# Microservices: Architecture style where an application is decomposed into independent, separately deployable services communicating via APIs. Favors agility at the cost of increased operational complexity.

# Cloud-native: Software design approach that leverages cloud capabilities (elasticity, managed services, containers). Implies microservices, CI/CD and observability.
# Hybrid Cloud: Combination of on-premise and public cloud resources with unified orchestration. Keeps sensitive data internal while leveraging the cloud for scalability.
# On-premise: Deployment in the organization's own infrastructure, as opposed to public cloud. Often preferred in regulated sectors for data control.

# Data lake: Centralized repository storing raw data (structured, semi-structured, unstructured) for later analysis. To be distinguished from a data warehouse, which is more structured.
# Data mesh: Decentralized data approach where each business domain owns its data as a product, exposed through APIs or contracts.
# Data warehouse: Analytical database optimized for decision-support queries. Structured data, modeled in star or snowflake schemas.

# AI-native: Application or platform designed from the ground up with AI embedded in every feature, as opposed to AI bolted on top.
# Augmented Architect: Architect whose productivity and decision quality are multiplied by AI: accelerated mapping, scenario generation, automated impact analysis.

We update this glossary regularly. Write to us.