5.1: Information Collection
Collect Information Other Information:
The first step in the build approach is to identify and collect existing products that describe the enterprise as it exists
today and as it is intended to look and operate in the future. Data collection is the crucial, initial effort involving review
of documentation, staging of training sessions, and interviewing SMEs and domain owners. All appropriate collected information
and products should be placed in a centralized electronic EA repository. In the case of the baseline architecture, sample
products to be collected include: • Current business functions and information flows • Data models • External interface descriptions
• Existing application and systems documentation • Technical designs, specifications, and equipment inventories. In the case
of the target architecture, sample products to be collected include: • Proposed business processes and information flow •
Strategic plans • Modernization plans • Requirements documents. Many of these products may not exist or may not accurately
represent the current baseline or proposed target environments. If documentation is missing, the architecture core team should
develop a strategy to create the needed documentation or decide whether to make the investment. In this case, the interviewers
will have to rely on business or system SMEs concerning the purpose and scope of the activity and the expectations for their
participation. After collecting a sufficient amount of this data, work can begin on creating the EA products and populating
the EA repository. Ideally, preliminary, draft architectural products can be generated at this time without in-depth SME involvement.
With the development of strawman products, the architects can then conduct a series of stakeholder brainstorming sessions
and in-depth SME interviews to solidify the products. The Chief Architect should review and validate the proposed interview
list and ensure SME participation via communications with the domain owners. The marketing and buy-in process described in
Section 3 should have set the stage for this participation. It may be useful to record these interviews for future reference.
Always follow up to ensure that interview information is interpreted correctly. Once the initial interviews are completed,
the architecture core team extracts information from the interviews and then refines the existing products within the EA repository.
Indicator(s):
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