COB 304 - Exam 1
Mainframe
computers that supports many simultaneous users
Software Defined Architecture
configuration that can allocate or remove resources automatically based on traffic or other indicators of utilization - self manage many features provided
BPM: Fork Node
used to split behavior into a set of parallel or noncurrent flows of activities
BPM: Final Activity Node
used to stop all control flows and object flows in an activity (or action)
Virtualization
useful way of designing architecture because it enables resources to be shared and allocated as needed by ser and makes maintenance easier because it enables resources are centralized
BPM: Object Node
reps an object connected to a set of object flows
Management Accounting/ Controlling Process (CO)
(track-internal) focus on internal reporting to manage costs and revenues - material costs, labor costs, overhead costs
Lifecycle Data Management Process
(design) supports design and development of products from initial product ideas stage to discontinuation - set of tools to manage product design and improvement throughout lifecycle of a product - enables optimaization of product devlopment
Human Capital Management Process (HCM)
(people) focus on the people within the org and included functions like recruiting, hiring, training, and benefits management - related to all apsects of managing people in organization - trigger is need for people with requisite skills to completes process tasks
Material Planning Process
(plan) use of historical data and sales forecasts to plans which materials will be procured and produced and in what quantities - purpose: match supply of materials with demand - lead time: time between placing the order and receiving shipment -stock-out: insufficient supply, and can undermine productivity and profits
Project Management Process
(project) used to plan and execute large projects like construction of new factories
Asset Management and Customer Service Process
(service) used to maintain internal assets such as machinery and to deliver after-sales customer service such as repairs - preventive maintenance performed periodically - corrective maintenance performed as needed - triggered by maintenance request
Inventory and Warehouse Management Process (IWM)
(store) used to store and track materials - storage and movement of material
Financial Accounting Process (FI)
(track-external) track financial impacts of process steps with goal of meeting legal reporting requirements - profits and losses
Components of Enterprise Architetcure
- Business Layer: common business orgs, strategies, functions, and models that describe how business is done and important cross functional business processes used in the business - Application Layer: the applications that support business processes, specifying relationships between processes and applications - Information Layer: enterprise info assets used by business processes and enterprise applications; layer specifies physical storage and access for data such as operational and analytical data - Technology Layer: hardware and software infrastructure, including IT standards, structures, and the plans for IT, which creates technical foundation for org
Disadvantages of Enterprise Systems
- Enormous work - Require process redesign (the work) - Requires software customization - May require cultural change - Risky and Expensive
Levels Infastructure
- Global: focused on the enterprise and refers to the infrastructure for entire organization - Interorganizational: foundation for communicating with customers, suppler, and other stakeholders across organizational boundaries Individual: components needs for an individual application
Framework for Infrastructure And Architecture Analysis
- Hardware: physical components that handle computation, storage, or transmission of data (personal computers, servers, mainframes, hard drives, RAM, modems, telephone lines) - Software: programs that run on hardware to enable work (operating systems, databases, accounting packages, word processors, sales force automation, and enterprise resource planning systems); system software: (Microsoft windows, apple osx, linux); application software: (word processors, spreadsheets and digital photo editors) - Network: software and hardware components for local or long distance networking; can be private or public (Local: switches, hubs, routers) (Long Distance: cable, fiber, for communication and data sharing) - Data: electronic representation of numbers and text; main concern is formatting and how often it must be transferred from one piece of hardware to another, or translated
Enterprise Systems (ES)
- Systems that support end-to-end processes and are essential to the efficient and effective execution and management of business process - significant impact on operational efficiency (and profitability) - companies invest large sums of capital and effort to plan, implement, and continuously improve ES - have significantly increased profitability, productivity, and competitiveness of corporations by removing the barriers to sharing info between functional areas and managing processes holistically
Advantages Of Enterprise Systems
- Use industry best practices - Modules communicate (accounting/HR/inventory) - Centralize operations and decisions - Eliminate duplicate data
Successful Cross Functional Processes
- company must rely on each functional group to executive its individual steps in the process in coordinated
Enterprise Architecture (EA)
- comprehensive framework to creates a blueprint for all IS and interrelationships in a firm and helps to create value - basis for EA is business strategy - specifies how info tech support business processes, align with business needs, and produce business outcome
From Architecture to Infrastructure
- adding yet more detail to the architectural plan that emerged in the previous phase - the detail comprises actual hardware, data, networking, and software - details extend yo platforms to consider, applications to build location of data and access procedures, location of firewalls, link specifications, interconnection design - architecture is translated into functional specifications, storage specifications, interface specifications, network specifications - decisions are made about how to implement these specifications
Gartner
- an active process for creating an enterprise architecture bring together business owners, technology implementers, and info specialists - uses ongoing process of creating, maintaining, and revisiting the EA to keep current and vital to org
Best Practices When Modeling Business Processes
- be realistic - be agile even though not identifying every feature - all modeling is collaborative/ social activity - don't use CASE tool - should be done in iterative manner - stay focusses on specific process - models are abstraction of reality
Cloud Computing
- describe an architecture based on services provided over the internet - infrastructure as a service (IaaS): cloud is a large cluster of virtual servers or storage devices - software as a service (Saas): - platform as a service (PaaS):
The SIlo Effect
- diff functional areas came to perform steps in the process in isolation without fully understanding which steps happen before and which steps happen next - lose sight of the bigger picture - perform tasks without any regard of the consequences for the other components in the process
Data Center
- eliminates difficulties that come with managing a distributed infrastructure - sizable enterprises have large data centers with servers or large mainframes
Goals
- establishing SMART goals - can be stated as "increases from previous performance" or at set levels of accomplishment - derive one or more business requirements from each goal
IT Infastructure
- everything that supports the flow and processing of info in org - hardware, software, data, and network components - consists of components that best suits the plan and therefore best enables the overarching business strategy - components must be assembled according to the blueprint to create a structure in which the business is built on - examples: Linux file server, IE browser, Oracle employee database, SAP ERP manufacturing software with real time reporting, Microsoft office (word, access, excel), exchange email server
Architectural Principles
- fundamental beliefs about how the architecture should function - must be consistent with both value of enterprise and tech used in infrastructure - should define desirable behaviors
Architectural Requirements
- includes consideration of such things as data and process demands as well as security objectives - IT architects takes the architectural requirements and designs the IT architecture - how the business requirements are delivered - examples: 24/7 internet access for employees, using UPC, bar code readers, use of word processing database and email - guided the infrastructure or software and hardware that is used
Web Based/ Cloud Architecture
- locate significant hardware, software, and possibly even data elements on the internet - offer greater flexibiity when used as a source for capacity on demand
From Strategy to Architecture
- manager must start out with business strategy and then use the strategy to develop more specific goals - detailed business requirements are derived from each goal - manager must work with IT architect to translate these business requirements into more detailed view of the systems requirements, standards, and processes that shape an IT architecture
Activity Diagrams
- model behavior in business process independent of objects - can be used to model everything from high level business workflow to details of individual use case
FEA (Federal Enterprise Architecture)
- models taxonomy, and processes originally created to build an enterprise architecture for the govt - 5 reference models: business, service, components, technical, data
Decentralized Architecture
- most common configuration - hardware, software, networking, and data arranged in way that distributes the processing and functionality between multiple small computers, servers, and devices -rely heavily on on a network to connect them together - has numerous servers often located in different physical locations - more modular: allowing other servers to be added with relative ease and provide increased flexibilty
Managers Role in IT Architecture and Infrastructure
- must understand what to expect to be able to make full and realistic use of architecture and infrastructure1 and to make sure plans do not block important business considerations - manager must be effectively communicate business vision to IT architects and implementers, and if necessary modify business plans if IT cannot realistically or financially create to support those plans
Functional Structure
- org structure is divided into functions or departments - each is responsible for a set of closely related activities - modern org: purchasing, operations, warehouse, sales and marketing, research and development, finance and accounting, human resources, and information systems
Strategy
- overarching direction or responsibility of the business unit or organization - each unit will have one or more strategies - strategy is derived from mission statement - first step toward measuring success - establishes the direction for measurable goals
Elements of Activity Diagram
- portrays activities and relationships among the activities in a process - Actions and Activities: (performed for some specific business reason, can rep manual or computerized behavior) - Object Nodes: (modifications or transformations of activity) -Control Flows and Object Flows: (control- models paths of execution, solid arrow)(object- flow of objects through business process, dashed line) - Control Nodes: (initial, final activity, final flow, decision, merge, fork, join)
Service-oriented architecture (SOA)
- power resides in the service offered and accessed by the applications used by the org - ex: online employment form that when completed generate a file with data for use in another service
TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework)
- process for creating an enterprise architecture - 4 architectures: business, application, data, technical
Horizontal Silos
- procurement and fulfillment processes consist of activities that occur in different, seemingly unrelated functions or departments - cross functional processes: no single group or function is responsible for their execution; a shared responsibility among many functional areas
IT Architecture
- provides blueprint for translating business strategy into a plan for IS
5 Core Components of Virtual Server
- servers, storage, backup, network, and disaster recovery
Guidelines for Creating Activity Diagrams
- set context or scope of activity being modeled - identify activities, control flows, and object flows that occur between the activities - identify any decisions that are part of the process being modeled - attempt to identify any prospects for parallelism in the process - draw activity diagram
Business Processes
- set of tasks or activities that produce desired outcome - every process is triggered by some event, such as receiving a customer orders or recognizing need to increase inventory - columns represent different parts or functional areas within org (sales, warehouse, manufacturing, and accounting) - effective communication and collaboration and coordination is essential to executing processes smoothly
Mission Statement
- statement of purpose for the company, org, person - a reason to exist - should: guide actions of org, spell out overall direction, provide path and guide decision making, provides framework or context within which the companies strategies are formulated
Zachman
- taxonomy for the artifacts of an enterprise architecture -6 descriptive foci for architecture (data, function, network, people, time, motivation) and 6 key player perspectives (planner, owner, designer, builder, subcontractor, and enterprise)
Capacity on Demand
- the availability of additional processing capability for a fee - help manage peak processing periods when additional capacity is needed
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
- tools which enable firms to scale tech services (and expenses) up and down instantaneously according to its needs - applications added or subtracted as needed to help manage costs while increasing flexibility and capacity throughout transformation
Platform
- underlying system of infrastructure - combinations of hardware and software that form basic system that hosts applications and services used by businesses and other ecosystems - specialized system for specific business applications like sales force automation- have third party developers to create applications that offer additional features or services to complements standard features - firms collections of cloud based modular tools - uses open standards for easy plugging in of components, enabling and mashing up variety of resources at once
Business Requirements
- what must be delivered to provide value - systems, software, and process are how business requirements are delivered - written from the business perspective - supported by architecture requirements
Enterprise Architecture is about three things:
1. The Current State: the existing architecture of a business 2. Project Start Architecture: startup applications, what the apps do for the business and necessary hardware 3. Future State: future for architecture and its implementation. Improving ability to change
5 Steps in Creating Activity Diagram
1. choose a business process, previously identified to model, review requirement definitions 2. identify sets of activities necessary to support business process 3. identify the control flows and nodes necessary to document the logic of business process 4. identify the object flows and nodes necessary to support the logic of business process 5. lay out and draw the activity diagram to document the business process
4 Domains of EA
1. how a business operates (business architecture) 2. software solutions that help business do their job and adapt to change (application architecture) 3. modeling of sources, formats, management, quality (data architecture) 4. description of underlying infrastructure (technology architecture)
Ways Cloud Computing Enables Businesses to Strategically Transform Itself:
1. moving from primary focus on manufacturing to providing service 2. shifting from self-sufficient model to one of collaboration with a network of partners 3. ensuring that the partner network was flexible and its capabilities were tightly integrated
Understanding Existing Architecture
1. objectively analyze the existing architecture and infrastructure 2. objectively analyze the strategy served by the existing architecture 3. objectively analyze the ability of the exiting architecture and infrastructure to further the current strategic goals
Architectural Principle: Data Quality
Accountability of each data element through a trustee responsible for data quality
Centralized Architecture
All purchases, support, and management from data center
How does an Architecture benefit the Business IT Landscape?
Allows IT landscape to be robust, flexible, and efficient.
Hairball Architecture
An architecture that made from an endless network of dependent automated applications and software and is not tracked or controlled by any individual.
Reuse
Involves using a resource over and over in the same form
Architectural Principle: Data Asset
Management of data like other valuable assets
Server Based Architecture
a decentralized architecture that uses numerous servers often located in different physical locations - ex: the internet, no central computer that is the "internet"
Key Driver of Productivity and Efficiency
ability of modern enterprise systems to effectively manage a business process from beginning to end in an integrated, consistent, and highly efficient manner
Architectural Principle: Speed and Quality
acceleration of time to market for solutions while still maintaining required quality levels
BPM: Miracle Activity
activity that does not have ant inflow
Procurement Process
all activities involved in buying or acquiring the material used by orgs - acquiring materials externally from vendor - triggered by low inventory levels
Wireless Infrastructure
allows communication from remote locations using a variety of wireless technologies
Peer to Peer Architecture
allows networked computers to share resources without needing a central server to play dominant role
Software as a Service (SaaS)
applications delivered over the internet; referred to as "in the cloud"
Bleeding-Edge Tech
architecture that requires high reliability, a manager seldom is tempted by brand new tech
Integrated Enterprise System
can manage business processes and can be monitored and improved very easily
Architectural Principle: Common Data Vocab
consistent definitions of data throughout the enterprise, which aree understandable and available toall users
Architectural Principle: Single Point of View
consistent, integrated view of business regardless of how it is accessed
Fulfillment Process
consists of all steps involved in selling and delivering the products to customers - efficiently processing customer orders - triggered by sales order
Architectural Principle: Data and System Security
data protection from unauthorized use and disclosure, systems protection from access and modification by unauthorized intruders
Maintainability
ease and speed with which a system can be made to run correctly again after a failure occurs - key technical consideration because complexity increases the number of things that can go wrong, need fixing, or replacing
Material
encompasses all products, components, parts orgs use - finished goods, semi finished goods, raw materials
Scalability
how well an infrastructure components can adopt to increased or decreased demands
Architectural Principle: Innovation
incorporation of new technologies, facilitating innovation
BPM: Merge Node
used to bring back together different decision paths that were created using decision nodes
Architectural Principle: Ease of Use
in building and supporting the architecture and solutions based on the architecture
Production Process
involves the actual creation of products within org: externally or internally - acquire material internally - triggered by customer request or internal production request
BPM: Activity
presents set of actions
Architectural Principle: Buy Rather than Build
purchase of applications, components, and enabling frameworks unless there is a competitive reason to develop internally
Utility Computing
purchasing any part of the consumers storage or processing infrastructure they need when they need it
BPM: Decision Node
represent a test of conditions to ensure that the control flow or object low only goes down one path
BPM: Control Flows
sequence of execution
BPM: Object Flow
shows flow of an object from one activity (or action) to another activity (or action)
BPM: Action
simple behavior
Legacy System
systems in place before organizations transform to newer systems
Standards
technical specifications that expected to be followed throughout an infastructure
Adaptability
the architecture should be able to handle expected tecnological advances
Problem with Building BPM from Object Oriented Systems Development Perspective
they tend to reinforce a functional decomposition mindset
Major Challenge Facing Organizations: Silo Effect
to coordinate activities among the different functional areas - to view the business across functional boundaries and focus on the end to end nature of the process and its intended outcomes - learning to view a process from end to end is essential in understanding how enterprise systems help businesses manage their processes efficiently
BPM: Join Node
used to bring back together a set of parallel or concurrent flows of activities
Characteristics of Enterprise Systems
• Integration of manufacturing, accounting, human resources, sales • Packages (Commercial of the Shelf - COTS), committing to a relationship with vendor • Best Practices for industry are incorporated • "Some assembly require" to fit legacy systems (middleware) • Evolving to fit new architectures
