A case for a Living Enterprise Architecture in a Private Bank

This paper presents a case for the development of an Enterprise Architecture (EA) in a private bank. Architectural Blueprints are generated on-the-fly based on information collected from information sources. Such blueprints are integrated in the bank ́s intranet and are the entry point not only for the technical documentation of the bank ́s IT, but also for a knowledge database supported by wikis that development teams can update and use to improve their effectiveness. So EA is a living asset used in the day to day work of the bank ́s IT teams. Currently, the bank is moving ahead further integrating EA with their Agile development process, by making sprints results (TO-BE states) also available in the EA for everyone. The EAMS tool supports such living EA, not only by supporting automatic generation of blueprints but also by providing a time travel bar allowing a seamless navigation between past, present and future states every blueprint.