Updated 2010: The Pillars Of Enterprise Architecture Terminology

Since Forrester originally published this report in 2002, little has changed in the overall structure of enterprise architecture (EA), but business architecture practices are considerably more mature, and information architecture receives greater attention within EA programs. There is still no single right way or industry standard for defining EA, so your EA program must sort through industry discussion to arrive at defensible and coherent EA domain definitions that are structured to support both the technical and organizational issues of building and maintaining your architecture. As an EA resource, Forrester brings focus to a common thread of EA pillars that run through industry EA discussions: four core domains — business, application, information, and infrastructure — that embody a logical progression of architectural thought from designing the business to delivering business technology solutions. To provide additional detail and focus for the deliverables that will define and communicate your architecture, Forrester defines seven architecture layers that elaborate on the four domain pillars.