Enterprise architecture principles

Enterprise Architecture Principles I believe enterprise architecture principles are essential in ensuring effectiveness of enterprise architecture since they offer a means of governing changes. Principles in enterprise architecture provide enterprises with mechanisms for better balancing of top-down approach and bottom-up approach by focusing on what is regarded as essential using strategy. EA principles can be employed to precisely meet the needs of propagating enterprise transformation because they decrease the risk of being trapped in over-specification. Since EA principles offer guidance relating to efforts in architecture, there application ought to reflect a degree of consensus across the enterprise while at the same time embodying EA thinking (Minoli, 2008). Therefore, application of EA principles needs to focus on not only the architecture-level issues but also restate and embody a set of business principles. Hence, application of these EA principles support business principles, goals and strategic drivers since architects have to ensure current definition of business principles and clarify areas of ambiguity (Minoli, 2008).
General principles like business continuity together with information principles such as treating information as asset seem to be essential principles in any company. Moreover, application principles like easy-to-use applications as well as technological principles that ensure changes are made based on requirements are critical to my company. All these principles embody every aspect of enterprise architecture since they consider crucial aspects in EA like business, application and technological principles. To a colleague, EA principles form the basic reference for all IT projects and initiatives since they propel governance of EA. Illustration of the usefulness of the EA principles relies on fact that principles form the foundation of EA because they embody rules and guidelines for the EA (Greefhorst & Proper, 2011).
References
Greefhorst, D., & Proper, E. (2011). Architecture principles: The cornerstones of enterprise architecture. Berlin: Springer.
Minoli, D. (2008). Enterprise architecture A to Z: Frameworks, business process modeling, SOA, and infrastructure technology. Boca Raton: CRC Press.