A Knowledge Strategy

to the task at hand are dealt with by means of a ‘planners view’, ‘owners view’,
‘designer’s view’ and ‘builder’s view’. The Zachman framework provides for a
clear definition and distinction of three kinds of architecture – data, process
(application), and network (technology). This framework is a breakthrough in
information systems strategy development in that it clearly identifies the differing
levels of detail or purpose of architectures.
The Zachman framework, however, does not explain how to define the top two
levels of the framework. It was left to Steven Spewak to take this Zachman
‘architecture’ concept for information systems planning to the practical level of
implementation. He introduced the architecture and the plans for implementation
by means of the Spewak Enterprise Architecture Planning (EAP) methodology. The
enterprise-wide architectures and plans created by the EAP methodology serve as
blueprints for the subsequent technical design and levels of implementation, the
‘designer’ and ‘builders views’, of the Zachman framework.
In better aligning ICT to the Bank’s business, an enterprise architecture has been
adopted that has shifted the focus from individual application systems
(information ‘silos’) to a broader structured enterprise architecture methodology
formulated around the works of Johan Zachman and Steven Spewak.
The architecture, as implemented by the Bank, is depicted in Figure 5, which
shows the data, applications and infrastructure sub-architectures of the ICT
architecture. To establish the ‘as-is’ architecture we have moved upwards from the
bottom layer, the infrastructure architecture, as this was the most stable and
established. The focus, over the past few years and in some respects an opportunity
afforded by the Y2K issue, has been on the applications architecture. To date the
bank has implemented the applications architecture by updating and consolidating
the information systems into a more coherent and business process aligned
portfolio of transactional systems. This has resulted in a consolidated portfolio of
transactional application systems that form the platform for the Bank’s data assets
covering the financial, human resource, treasury and project and loan
administration sub-business process areas.
These systems, to a large extent, resolve the problem of the past where there
existed multiple different data and information sources. Each data source in its
specific silo was technically and functionally correct as each set of data was in a
different state of processing or update. When viewed across a single value chain in
the enterprise, however, the cumulative information did not make business sense.
The future focus is now on the data architecture and linking this to the business
process renewal initiatives. The objective is to refine the business processes from the
perspective of efficiency and effectiveness remembering the shifting dynamics of
the market and the need periodically to introduce new or even retire old products
and services. By linking the data architecture to the workflow layers of the business
processes we finally achieve the elusive goal of linking the ICT strategy to the
business strategy as a whole. The linkages cascade directly from this business
strategy all the way down to the infrastructure required to support this strategy.
Development Bank of Southern Africa 45