Excerpt from Enterprise Architecture Fundamentals:
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The digital transformation raises the capabilities of EA frameworks to a new dimension by paving the way to a seamless integration of actual and symbolic artifacts and architectures (cf. chapter 9).
Taking advantage of the digital convergence between business and systems perspectives (cf. chapter 4), EA frameworks could go further and merge systems and knowledge architectures into a continuous decision-making loop (cf. chapter 10).
The benefits of weaving together decision-making with the processing of data, information, and knowledge can be illustrated using the Observation-Orientation- Decision-Action (OODA) loop. On that basis, frameworks should help to design and build business and engineering processes:
- Observation (data): changes in territories (environments and systems) can be monitored and assessed at the digital (e.g., data- and process mining) and enterprise (e.g., business intelligence) levels.
- Orientation (information): accurate, relevant, and up-to-date maps uphold the assessment of business observations with regard to enterprise commitments and anticipations.
- Decision (knowledge): alternative courses of action can be presented according to the nature of commitments: business, organization, or platforms, and the windows of opportunity.
- Action (data again): decisions can be carried out in a timely and consistent way, and their implementation can be fully monitored.
Such integration of business, organizational, and technical dimensions with knowledge management and decision-making processes can be a decisive factor for enterprises’ success when competing in digital environments
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