Enterprise Architecture seeks to align IT spending with business goals and strategy. In other words, EA seeks to give business more bang for their IT buck. From a practical perspective — it's all about making the business happy.
The Economics of Happiness
Pareto efficiency — is an economic theory that has powerful implications for EA. It goes something like this:
For a fixed amount of spending there are many different possible baskets of goods. Changing the mix of goods makes people feel better or worse. Pareto efficiency is achieved when the basket of goods optimizes general happiness.
Pareto Efficiency (example)
Pareto efficiency says nothing about actual efficiency — it's a theory about happiness.
IT Optimization
IT Optimization is often discussed in terms of business metrics, cost, risk and time to market. There is another dimension to optimization that should not be ignored: business satisfaction.
Consider mapping your projects on a grid according to price and business satisfaction:
Pareto efficient IT spending is difficult to achieve — the challenge is predicting business satisfaction.
Enterprise Architecture Guide
A large collection of enterprise architecture tools.
