4.1: Purpose
Define the Intended Use of the Architecture Other Information:
Architectures should be built with a specific purpose in mind. It could be business process reengineering, systems acquisition,
system-of-systems migration or integration, user training, interoperability evaluation, or any other intent. The purpose of
the architecture is closely tied to the organization's Strategic Plan(s), legislation such as GPRA and Clinger-Cohen, and
support of the capital investment process. Before an architect begins to describe an architecture, the organization determines
the changes the architecture is intended to facilitate, the issue(s) the architecture is intended to explore, the questions
the architecture is expected to help answer, and the interests and perspectives of the audience and users. One important practical
consideration is determining the types of analyses that will be performed; i.e., knowing that the architecture may be used
as input to specific models or simulations can affect what to include and how to structure the products. The purpose of the
EA may, and likely will, evolve over time to meet new requirements. The Chief Architect should ensure that any such EA evolution
does, in fact, meet the newly determined requirements. This will increase the efficiency of the architecture development and
create greater balance in the resulting architecture.
Indicator(s):
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