Enterprise Architecture (EA) answers the question: What do we have (as-is) and what we are going to have?

During the business analysis, we have to manage at least two versions of the Enterprise Architecture: current state (as-is) and target (desirable) state (to-be). The gap between these states becomes the main focus for the business analysis and solution design.

The level of the details for the EA depends on the project scope. In an ideal condition, a business has to have a clear EA picture. In the real world, most IT and business managers can not clearly state the major parts of their current EA.

We have to care about EA structure parts that relate to our scope:

• Strategy
• People
• Organization structures
• Business Process and workflows
• Time
• Place and Logistic
• Information
• Systems
• Data and Documents

All these elements form Enterprise as a system with specific system effects and capabilities. Effects often become a source for the business motivation to made changes.

There are several EA and approaches to structure the EA model: Zachman Framework, TOGAF.

To track EA, we have to manage the next elements:

• EA Model – aggregates set of EA elements into specific EA version
• EA Element – main item which describes the EA components
• EA Change – change action that connect one element of the one EA Model with another version EA and corresponding EA Element
• Business Capability – valuable effect made by EA elements together, system effect

BABOK provides definitions in BABOK Guide Appendix A Glossary:

• Enterprise Architecture– a description of the business processes, information technology, people, operations, information, and projects of an enterprise and the relationships between them.
• Organizational Capability – a function inside the enterprise, made up of components such as processes, technologies, and information and used by organizations to achieve their goals.