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--- name: enterprise-architecture description: >- Design and evolve enterprise architectures by connecting business capabilities, value streams, applications, information, technology, operating models, and transition choices. Use when mapping an enterprise portfolio, comparing current and target states, sequencing transition architectures, or defining federated architecture decision rights and stakeholder communication. Do not use for system or solution design, API or data-platform design, organizational or talent design, product roadmaps, technology adoption, or corporate strategy; route those to the named specialist skills. license: MIT compatibility: Platform-agnostic methodology. No runtime dependencies. metadata: tags: enterprise-architecture, capability-mapping, value-streams, application-portfolio, operating-model, decision-rights --- # Enterprise Architecture Use this skill to make enterprise-wide structure and change legible without turning architecture into a shelf of diagrams. Connect outcomes to capabilities, value streams, applications, information, technology, ownership, and a feasible sequence of change. ## Workflow 1. **Frame the enterprise question.** State the outcome, scope, time horizon, stakeholders, constraints, authority, and evidence gaps. Separate strategy, product commitments, operational facts, and architectural hypotheses. 2. **Map the landscape.** Identify capabilities and value streams, then relate applications, information objects, technology dependencies, owners, costs, risks, duplication, and lifecycle status. Use `references/capability-value-stream-and-portfolio-mapping.md`. 3. **Describe states.** Record the current state from evidence, define a target state from explicit principles and outcomes, and identify constraints that make a direct jump unsafe or unrealistic. Use `references/current-target-and-transition-architecture.md`. 4. **Choose the operating model.** Compare centralized, federated, and hybrid arrangements against decision locality, coordination cost, required coherence, skills, and risk. Do not prescribe reporting lines or compensation. Use `references/enterprise-operating-model-and-roles.md`. 5. **Make authority executable.** Assign decision rights, consultation, standards, exceptions, escalation, and feedback to named roles. Use `references/federated-governance-and-decision-rights.md`. 6. **Engage and publish for use.** Adapt views to stakeholder jobs, make uncertainty and provenance visible, and maintain accessible, findable information with a review owner. Use `references/stakeholder-engagement-and-architecture-information.md`. 7. **Sequence change.** Connect transition increments to capabilities, outcomes, dependencies, investment assumptions, and exit evidence. Use `templates/transition-architecture-roadmap.md`; hand approved delivery plans to `implementation-planning` or `migration-engineering` as appropriate. ## Output Contract Produce an enterprise context brief, capability/application portfolio view, current-target-transition assessment, operating-model and decision-rights record, or transition roadmap. Every material claim must be labeled as evidence, assumption, decision, or open question and have a source or named owner. ## Ownership Boundaries - System boundaries, runtime behavior, architecture characteristics, and solution tradeoffs belong to `software-architecture`. - API contracts and API portfolio mechanics belong to `api-design-and-evolution`. - Data platforms, data products, data models, and data governance belong to `data-architect`. - Reporting structures, team topology, talent, compensation, and culture belong to `org-design`; this skill records organizational dependencies without designing HR systems. - Product bets, product outcomes, and product sequencing belong to `product-roadmapping-and-portfolio`. - Technology adoption posture, build-versus-buy, standards, and technology governance mechanics belong to `technology-radar`. - Corporate direction, competitive choices, capital allocation, and M&A belong to `strategy-frameworks`. - Process optimization and operational execution belong to `operational-design`; enterprise architecture may use its findings as evidence. - Approved cross-system execution belongs to `implementation-planning` and `migration-engineering`, not this skill. ## When Not To Use Use the narrow owner when the request has no enterprise portfolio, cross-domain alignment, operating-model, or transition-architecture question. Do not use this skill to produce a solution design, organization chart, product roadmap, technology radar entry, data architecture, API contract, or corporate strategy verdict. ## Reference Guide | Decision point | Load | |---|---| | Mapping capabilities, value streams, applications, information, or duplication | `references/capability-value-stream-and-portfolio-mapping.md` | | Comparing current, target, and transition states | `references/current-target-and-transition-architecture.md` | | Selecting an enterprise operating model and defining architecture roles | `references/enterprise-operating-model-and-roles.md` | | Assigning decision rights, standards, exceptions, or escalation | `references/federated-governance-and-decision-rights.md` | | Interviewing stakeholders or publishing usable architecture information | `references/stakeholder-engagement-and-architecture-information.md` | | Establishing scope and evidence | `templates/enterprise-context-brief.md` | | Creating a portfolio view | `templates/capability-portfolio-view.md` | | Sequencing target-state change | `templates/transition-architecture-roadmap.md` | | Checking provenance and transformation constraints | `references/source-index.md` | ## Completion Stop when the enterprise scope and decision owner are explicit, the portfolio and state claims have evidence or named gaps, transition increments have dependencies and exit evidence, decision rights include conflict handling, and specialist handoffs are recorded. Escalate unresolved authority or strategy conflicts rather than resolving them by assumption.