Mapping the Enterprise: Modelling the Enterprise as Services with Enterprise Canvas

One of the hardest tasks strategists and enterprise architects face is mapping an enterprise in a form that creates and supports making sense of the whole. This book introduces an alternate approach to create consistency at every level by modelling the enterprise as services with the Enterprise Canvas.

This new model type that can be used to describe just about anything in any area and at any level of the enterprise, and that acts as a consistent frame for all the other models that we need in our architectures. It is also simple enough to scribble on the back of a napkin - and engage all of your stakeholders in the enterprise-scale conversations you need. There is also a simple notation for Enterprise Canvas that is suitable for use in service-design toolsets.

The book teaches the use of architectural techniques to describe any aspect of the enterprise. It will help you identify the business reasons and business value for every activity, and you will also learn how to align strategy, tactics and operations to enterprise vision and values. By the end of this book, you will understand how an enterprise works as a web of services, and what needs to be done to make your enterprise work in the best possible way.

What You’ll Learn

• Gain insight into the concepts of service to enhance agility, adaptability and resilience.
• Understand how to enhance efficiency and effectiveness throughout the enterprise.
• Grasp how an enterprise is made up of services that each serve an overall set of needs

Who This Book Is For

Enterprise architects, Business architects, IT architects and process designers.

Tom Graves has been an independent consultant for more than four decades, in systems development, business transformation, enterprise architecture and knowledge management. His clients in Europe, Australasia and the Americas cover a broad range of industries including small-business, banking, utilities, manufacturing, logistics, engineering, media, telecoms, research, defense and government. He has a special interest in whole-enterprise architectures for non-profit, social, government and commercial enterprises.