Enterprise information architecture
is the practice of applying a comprehensive and rigorous method
for describing a current and/or future structure and behavior for an
organization's processes, information systems, personnel and
organizational sub-units, so that they align with the organization's
core goals and strategic direction. Although often associated strictly
with IT, it relates more broadly to the practice of business
optimization in that it addresses business architecture, performance
management, organizational structure and process architecture as well.
Its focus is the development of an architecture framework to describe a series of "current", "intermediate" and "target" reference architectures and applying them to align change within the enterprise. These frameworks detail all relevant structure within the organisation including business, applications, technology and data.
TOGAF methodology
is used to identify, decompose, analyze and redefine the structures and
processes within the four categories above.