BUILDING AN IS ARCHITECTURE - COLLECTIVE WISDOM FROM THE FIELD

Abstract

This paper is the result of two years of discussion sessions with a group of managers responsible for the development and maintenance of IS architectures. The paper refines the definition of IS architecture and puts it into broader perspective by defining a set of concrete, thus more manageable sub-architectures: process, data, control and technology architectures. The resulting IS architecture framework should help the management develop a clear understanding of their critical information resources and guide them toward more effective planning and management of those resources. The IS managers in our discussion sessions shared their experiences in developing and maintaining IS architectures for their organizations. While their initial experiences were not very successful, they recognized the benefits of having a well-maintained IS architecture. They were also confident that the shared knowledge would help them avoid the pitfalls they had previously encountered and enable them to develop a successful IS architecture.