How is EA Related to Information Management and to What Extent

Information Management is a Governance Activity which is within the Scope of EA.

Information is the lifeblood in the digital organization, the effective information management will directly impact an organization’s business capabilities and capacities, so what’s the correlation between information architecture and information management, information and process; as information architecture is sub-set of EA, how is EA related to information management and to what extent?

1. Metaphorically, the information architecture would be like the description of the nervous system. A disruption in the flow of information along the nervous system leads to serious disruption of body function. Likewise, information architecture is a critical piece of the enterprise. A disruption in the information flows can seriously disrupt processes and production. Information architecture like the organization’s nervous system, orchestrates data, and information into the knowledge/insight in enabling business collaboration and optimization. 

2. EA provides information related artifacts and IA (Information Architecture) is a good starting point for an EA program. ALL architectures would be subsets of true enterprise architecture; however, what architecture subsystems are considered at what level would depend on variety of factors including organization, skill-set, culture, business model, level of organizational commitment, etc. The EA framework "Data and Information" architecture component includes artifacts like the knowledge management plan, the information exchange matrix, entity-activity matrix, etc. Actually, focused information architecture may be a great place to start an EA program as the information is related to and sometimes reveals processes and systems. 

3. Information vs. Process: Information and process are two sides of the same coin - it is unwise to consider one without the other. Information is the connection between two processes and a process is the connection between two information "states". Information is contextual. It is a process input and process output and can exist in a variety of forms. On the other hand, enterprises have parts of their business that are transaction-oriented and therefore process intensive, and parts of their business which are information intensive. So the analysis needs to be wise to take heed of the nature of the activity to determine how best to analyze the subject area. For some, it is enough to view an enterprise through the process lens and virtually ignore the information lens. For others, it is essential to view an enterprise through the information lens and virtually ignore the process lens 

4. Information management is a governance activity, all governance, and management processes are within the scope of EA/ business architecture. As such, it should manage the information (objects identified and represented in the architecture) in order to achieve the organization’s outcomes (also identified and represented in the architecture).  

• The debate of Data/Information/Knowledge cannot be avoided. That becomes especially clear for enterprises since they must: (1) deal with a huge amount of changing data from their business context; (2) select and process a subset into information relevant for their concerns; (3) use that information as knowledge. 

• Quality checks: 1) does every functional requirements have a corresponding information requirement. 2) Does every information requirement have relating functional requirements for creating, updating, and deleting/archiving  

• In the BA part: 1) All the organization's information is dealt with at a conceptual level (CDM); 2) Appropriate IT processes for information governance and management are defined.  

• In the ITA part: 1) All the information that is to be used by applications is dealt with at a logical level (LDM). This is a subset of the information in BA 

5. Informational Architecture Objectives (Similar Format to define Knowledge-architecture, wisdom-architecture):
   • Covers Governance, Management, and Accomplishment (includes strategic, tactical and operational);
   • Identifies weaknesses and priorities in strategy formulation;
   • Identifies weaknesses and priorities in strategy roll-out;
   • Incorporates cultural requirements;
   • Has a formal and complete informational design capability (information requirements / user requirements);
   • Provides i) primary (common-cause), ii) secondary (special-cause) and iii) corrective action informational as appropriate;
   • Establishes the three informational occurrences required for all management & accomplishment elements;
   • Incorporates informational balancing;
   • Establishes optimized structures for best informational application (including processes);
   • Provides a real-time architecture and inputs to the Information Architecture.

Data Architecture:
• Identifies entities;
• Assigns attributes;
• Defines table layout;
• Defines the physical model;
• Defines files;
• Defines records;
• Defines fields.