Creating a Matrix from Domains

An e-business architect must focus on several key domains during the **architectural decision-making process** to ensure that the solution aligns with business goals, technology capabilities, and operational requirements. These domains include:

1. Business Domain
   • Focus: Understanding the business goals, strategy, and processes.
   • Key Considerations:
     • Alignment of the architecture with the business objectives.
     • Scalability to support future growth and market demands.
     • Customer experience and engagement models.
     • Compliance with business policies and regulations.
2. Application Domain
   • Focus: Defining the application landscape to support business processes.
   • Key Considerations:
     • Integration of new applications with existing systems.
     • Application lifecycle management (e.g., development, deployment, updates).
     • Suitability of off-the-shelf vs. custom-built applications.
     • Ensuring high availability and performance.
3. Technology Domain
   • Focus: Selecting and utilizing the right technologies to build the architecture.
   • Key Considerations:
     • Choice of platforms (e.g., cloud vs. on-premises).
     • Technology stack selection (e.g., programming languages, frameworks).
     • Adoption of emerging technologies like AI, IoT, and blockchain if relevant.
     • Vendor and product evaluation to meet technical requirements.
4. Data Domain
   • Focus: Managing data assets effectively to support business needs.
   • Key Considerations:
     • Data storage, retrieval, and processing mechanisms.
     • Data security, privacy, and compliance (e.g., GDPR, CCPA).
     • Ensuring data integration across platforms and systems.
     • Analytics and insights for decision-making.
5. Integration Domain
   • Focus: Establishing seamless communication and interaction between systems.
   • Key Considerations:
     • API strategy and standards for system communication.
     • Middleware and enterprise service bus (ESB) adoption.
     • Managing data exchange between internal systems and external partners.
     • Real-time vs. batch integration needs.
6. Security Domain
   • Focus: Protecting the e-business architecture from vulnerabilities and threats.
   • Key Considerations:
     • Identity and access management (IAM).
     • Network security, application security, and data encryption.
     • Risk assessment and mitigation strategies.
     • Regulatory compliance with security standards (e.g., ISO 27001, PCI DSS).
7. User Experience (UX) Domain
   • Focus: Ensuring the architecture delivers a seamless and intuitive experience.
   • Key Considerations:
     • Responsive design for cross-platform usability.
     • Accessibility compliance (e.g., WCAG standards).
     • Personalization and localization capabilities.
     • Performance optimization for end-user satisfaction.
8. Operations Domain
   • Focus: Ensuring smooth ongoing operations and support.
   • Key Considerations:
     • Monitoring and logging for proactive maintenance.
     • Disaster recovery and business continuity planning.
     • Automation for deployment and system updates.
     • Training and support for operational teams.

By addressing these domains comprehensively, an e-business architect can ensure a robust and scalable architecture that meets business needs, is technically sound, and provides a high-quality user experience.

Domains are the specific focus areas of architectural decision making:

1. Business (processes, organizational structure, and geographic distribution)
2. e-architecture feedback
3. Application (the major systems implementing business functionality)
4. Information (the information we are interested in such as who owns it and where does it live)
5. Technical (my hardware, network, and operating system standards, and how I manage them)

These domains can be viewed from each perspective on the IT scale, yielding a set of building blocks.

Building blocks These building blocks are linked together. A solution architecture can be constructed by defining a path through the intersections of domain and perspective, a solution architecture which provides a common understanding and a means to trace the satisfaction and suitability of decisions made along the way. Unfolding the cube results in a matrix of architectural artifacts and these artifacts are the visible trail left to document the process of e-engineering new business solutions. For an example, take a look at the attached deliverable matrix spreadsheet.

• Understanding Complexity
  How the building blocks and the artifacts are selected to provide e-Business solutions is the real challenge for seotrance, countless possibilities and new variants appear daily. More about these building blocks will be discussed in the module entitled the building blocks of architecture. The ability to provide solutions among a wide range of complex choices is the competitive edge of this architectural framework.