Microsoft and Enterprise Architecture

Mike Walker answers the question very clearly in his post:

– Does Microsoft have an EA framework, methodology or a EA product?

– No.

He explains the “Enterprise Architecture Toolkit (EATK)” is not a framework but just one tool in the EA Toolbox. Here’s some disappointing bullets I noted from the alignment between TOGAF and EATK:

3. Create Architecture Models

There are a variety of activities have to occur to create architecture models.
1. System Architecture Document – First you need a place to describe those modes. The EATK uses the System Architecture document for this task.
2. Visio – Most architects and developers use Visio to model their architectures. The EATK has linked valuable information from the AMR so that the shapes in the model link to real assets and patterns.
3. AMR Pattern References – The AMR provides the facility for storing assets and building blocks that an organization has standardized upon.

B. Business Architecture

Supports the document management and workflow aspects however there is limited automation to these tasks.

It’s also very unfortunate that Microsoft sees enterprise architecture as an IT practice that encompass all of the various IT aspects and processes. Tom Graves explains enterprise is bigger than the organization, let alone IT, and enterprise architecture cannot be it practice. Gartner also identifies this as one of the pitfalls of enterprise architecture.

I wish we could see Microsoft more business oriented rather than technology oriented. Unfortunately this became a pattern for them despite community feedback (here on oslo, here on workflow foundation, …)