Creating a Matrix from Domains

An e-business architect needs to focus on several key domains during the architectural decision-making process. These domains can be broadly categorized into four main areas:

1. Business Architecture:
   1. Business models and capabilities: Understanding the core business model, value propositions, and key capabilities that the e-business architecture will support.
   2. Business processes: Analyzing and optimizing the business processes that will be implemented through the e-business architecture. This includes identifying key touchpoints, customer journeys, and automation opportunities.
   3. Organization and roles: Defining the roles and responsibilities within the organization for various aspects of e-business operations.
2. Information Architecture:
   • Data strategy: Defining the overall strategy for managing and leveraging data within the e-business architecture.
   • Information model: Designing the information model that represents the organization's data entities, relationships, and attributes.
   • Data management: Selecting appropriate technologies and processes for data integration, storage, security, and governance.
3. Application Architecture:
   • Application portfolio: Analyzing and optimizing the existing application portfolio for integration with the e-business architecture.
   • Application platforms: Selecting the appropriate application platforms and frameworks for developing and deploying e-business applications.
   • Application integration: Designing and implementing solutions for integrating e-business applications with other applications and systems.
4. Technology Architecture:
   • Technology infrastructure: Defining the overall technology infrastructure that will support the e-business architecture, including hardware, software, and network components.
   • Security and privacy: Implementing appropriate security and privacy measures to protect sensitive data and transactions.
   • Scalability and performance: Ensuring that the e-business architecture can scale to meet future growth and performance requirements.

In addition to these four core domains, e-business architects should also consider:

1. Customer experience: Optimizing the customer experience across all touchpoints throughout the e-business journey.
2. Analytics and reporting: Implementing solutions for collecting, analyzing, and reporting on key metrics related to e-business performance.
3. Compliance and regulations: Ensuring compliance with relevant industry regulations and legal requirements.

The specific focus of each domain will vary depending on the specific organization and its unique e-business needs. However, by considering all of these domains, e-business architects can make informed and strategic decisions that will lead to a successful e-business implementation.

Domains are the specific focus areas of architectural decision making:

1. Business (processes, organizational structure, and geographic distribution)
2. e-architecture feedback
3. Application (the major systems implementing business functionality)
4. Information (the information we are interested in such as who owns it and where does it live)
5. Technical (my hardware, network, and operating system standards, and how I manage them)

These domains can be viewed from each perspective on the IT scale, yielding a set of building blocks.

Building blocks These building blocks are linked together. A solution architecture can be constructed by defining a path through the intersections of domain and perspective, a solution architecture which provides a common understanding and a means to trace the satisfaction and suitability of decisions made along the way. Unfolding the cube results in a matrix of architectural artifacts and these artifacts are the visible trail left to document the process of e-engineering new business solutions. For an example, take a look at the attached deliverable matrix spreadsheet.

How the building blocks and the artifacts are selected to provide e-Business solutions is the real challenge for seotrance, countless possibilities and new variants appear daily. More about these building blocks will be discussed in the module entitled the building blocks of architecture.The ability to provide solutions among a wide range of complex choices is the competitive edge of this architectural framework.