http://www.visualspec.org daily 1 2009-08-10T11:23:04Z http://www.visualspec.org/introduction/introduction The modern enterprise consists of several people working together towards common objectives. People work within different domains, such as operations, sales, development, or finance, each contributing. Although the organization's objectives might be common, different kinds of knowledge and perspectives are required each domain of the organization. These perspectives usually result in specialized systems for each domain, each contributing to fulfilling business services. No publisher danielcodrea 2009-08-12T07:27:50Z Page http://www.visualspec.org/introduction/foundations-of-enterprise-design The use of Information Systems within large enterprises has seen a transformation in how businesses are run today. Designing these Information Systems has become increasingly difficult, given that designers have to take into account a wide variety of users with different skills, performance requirements across an organization that is usually heavily distributed, and the sheer variety of functionality required to fulfill end-to-end business processes. The principles of Information Systems design still apply to large enterprises, and a good understanding of how information design principles can help designers solve some of these challenges. No publisher danielcodrea 2010-04-06T11:03:52Z Page http://www.visualspec.org/introduction/communicating-enterprise-designs Communicating designs is usually a challenging task. The systems designer goes through the challenge of establishing a strong conceptual foundation, and builds functional and technical models from that foundation. By far the greatest challenge to communicating an enterprise-scale design are the different perspectives on a common problem. Sometimes these different perspectives exist out of necessity, as roles within the enterprise require these perspectives. A conceptual foundation has to embrace these perspectives, and a systems design must be able to represent a complex business and system landscape. No publisher danielcodrea 2010-03-17T20:13:39Z Page http://www.visualspec.org/introduction/overview-of-enterprise-representations Representing an enterprise architecture eases the task of explanation. The representations of an enterprise architecture on the perspectives required for effective decision-making. For instance, a stakeholder responsible for strategic business decisions will want to outline the business's mission, objectives, strategy, and tactics in a manner that is easily comprehensible to those responsible for implementing them. Similarly, representing business and technical analysis can pose challenges in demanding enterprise environments. This section provides a structure for enterprise architectures, based on the different levels of execution within the enterprise. No publisher danielcodrea 2009-09-08T09:02:18Z Page http://www.visualspec.org/introduction/whats-important-to-the-business Analysts, and the solutions they present, have far-reaching influence within an organization. The information and solutions for the design of a system provided by an analyst may be the only basis on which the organization's stakeholders will make their decisions. The impact of a system on an organization tends to be measured by the most easily discernible factors, such as the cost of building and maintaining a system. Other influences are more esoteric, and they tend to emerge only after a solution has been adopted. The following list summarizes the types of impact a solution will have on an organization. No publisher danielcodrea 2010-04-06T14:37:48Z Page http://www.visualspec.org/introduction/introduction-the-analysts-attitude What kind of problem are you being asked to solve? Who has asked you to solve it? Have they given you a formal charter? Has the charter been explicitly phrased? Analysis through subterfuge rarely works in most organizations. If you are trying to start the analysis of a problem by packaging it as something else to your stakeholders, you will probably fail in the long run anyway. Seeking an extensive charter that gives you carte blanche is usually quite difficult as well. The middle ground is that you obtain a charter to solve a specific problem from stakeholders who can actually implement your solution if required. If your stakeholders do not have the charter to implement solutions, try and involve individuals in the process who can as additional stakeholders. When starting a new initiative, it's also important to keep the number of stakeholders as low as possible. No publisher danielcodrea 2010-05-05T11:42:54Z Page http://www.visualspec.org/introduction/characteristics-of-effective-information-systems What makes an Information System effective? No publisher indranil 2010-04-12T11:05:07Z Page http://www.visualspec.org/introduction/3forces.png The 3 primary design criteria. No publisher indranil 2010-04-06T11:09:08Z Image http://www.visualspec.org/introduction/VisualArchitectureCritiera.png Top-level architectural criteria No publisher indranil 2010-04-06T11:11:39Z Image http://www.visualspec.org/introduction/3conflictingCriteria.png An example of 3 conflicting architectural criteria No publisher indranil 2010-04-06T11:13:35Z Image http://www.visualspec.org/introduction/archcriteria.png Architectural Criteria as defined by ISO 9126 No publisher indranil 2010-04-06T11:14:47Z Image http://www.visualspec.org/introduction/AllArchitectureCriteria.png Architectural Criteria as defined by ISO 9126 No publisher indranil 2010-04-06T13:24:26Z Image http://www.visualspec.org/introduction/toomuchfunc.png Too much functionality results in poor usefulness, robustness, and aesthetics. No publisher indranil 2010-04-06T13:29:56Z Image