Body
Purpose
Enterprise Architecture exists to help the University of Arkansas make better technology decisions by connecting people, ideas, services, data, and institutional requirements.
Enterprise Architecture promotes informed decision-making by documenting standards, patterns, and architectural guidance while enabling innovation through collaboration, visibility, and reuse.
Enterprise Architecture connects emerging ideas to existing institutional knowledge, standards, and obligations so innovation can scale safely and sustainably.
Enterprise Architecture recognizes that technology innovation can originate anywhere in the university. Architecture exists to help the institution learn from those innovations and apply lessons broadly rather than repeatedly solving the same problems.
Mission
Enable the university to adopt, evolve, and operate technology solutions in a way that is:
- Secure
- Supportable
- Sustainable
- Reusable
- Cost-conscious
- Aligned with university goals
Enterprise Architecture supports technology decision-making without unnecessarily delaying innovation.
What Enterprise Architecture Does
Enterprise Architecture serves three primary functions.
Curators
Enterprise Architecture curates institutional technology knowledge.
Examples include:
- Architecture principles
- Standards
- Patterns
- Reference architectures
- Architecture Decision Records (ADRs)
- Roadmaps
The goal is to document decisions, lessons learned, and reusable approaches so knowledge can be shared across the institution.
Connectors
Enterprise Architecture connects people and ideas.
Examples include:
- Connecting projects to existing services
- Connecting teams to subject matter experts
- Connecting solutions to university policies
- Connecting innovation efforts to existing investments
Architecture helps people find the right conversations earlier.
Accelerators
Enterprise Architecture helps reduce unnecessary friction.
Examples include:
- Recommending proven patterns
- Identifying reusable solutions
- Clarifying requirements
- Reducing duplicate effort
- Helping teams move from idea to implementation
The goal is not to say "no."
The goal is to help teams get to "yes" more quickly and with fewer surprises.
Scope
Enterprise Architecture focuses on:
- Technology strategy
- Technology capabilities
- Architecture standards
- Technology patterns
- Reference architectures
- Shared services alignment
- Technology roadmaps
- Cross-functional technology coordination
Enterprise Architecture may provide guidance regarding:
- Cloud
- Artificial Intelligence
- Identity
- Integrations
- Data
- Enterprise systems
- Shared technology capabilities
University systems and information already operate under numerous institutional, regulatory, contractual, security, and data management obligations, regardless of the technology used. Enterprise Architecture helps connect those requirements to implementation decisions.
Out of Scope
Enterprise Architecture does not:
- Approve funding
- Own projects
- Own business priorities
- Replace existing governance processes
- Replace security governance
- Replace privacy governance
- Replace procurement authority
- Replace operational ownership
Enterprise Architecture provides guidance and visibility.
Operational and business decisions remain with the appropriate stakeholders.
Enterprise Architecture organizes architecture knowledge through practices.
Practices are focused on architecture stewardship rather than operational ownership.
Initial practices include:
- Cloud Practice
- AI Practice
- Identity Practice
Additional practices may be established as organizational needs evolve.
Practices and Services
Architecture practices and operational services serve different purposes.
Practices
Practices steward:
- Standards
- Patterns
- Reference Architectures
- ADRs
- Roadmaps
- Guidance
Services
Services provide technology capabilities.
Examples include:
- Hosting services
- AI platform services
- Identity services
- Integration services
A practice may inform one or more services.
A service may be influenced by multiple practices.
Practice stewardship does not imply operational ownership of a service.
Operational ownership of a service does not imply stewardship of a practice.
The same individual may perform both roles when appropriate.
Stewardship Model
Enterprise Architecture is maintained through a stewardship model.
Enterprise Architecture practices are stewarded by subject matter experts and contributors drawn from across the organization. Stewardship responsibilities may be assigned through primary job duties, partial FTE allocation, service ownership responsibilities, special assignments, or other management-approved responsibilities.
The purpose of stewardship is to ensure that architecture knowledge survives organizational, staffing, and technology changes.
Roles
Enterprise Architecture Steward
The Enterprise Architecture Steward is responsible for:
- Maintaining the Enterprise Architecture Framework
- Maintaining this Charter
- Coordinating architecture practices
- Curating architecture artifacts
- Promoting architecture adoption
The Enterprise Architecture Steward serves as the primary coordinator of the architecture capability.
Practice Steward
Each architecture practice should have a named Practice Steward.
Practice Stewards are responsible for:
- Practice roadmap
- Standards
- Patterns
- Reference architectures
- ADRs
- Practice documentation
A practice should normally have a single steward to ensure accountability.
Practice Contributor
Practice Contributors provide expertise, experience, review, and support to a practice.
Contributors may participate on an ongoing basis or for specific initiatives.
Participation Expectations
Architecture stewardship is part of normal organizational responsibilities and does not require dedicated architecture positions.
Typical participation ranges:
| Role |
Monthly Commitment |
| Practice Contributor |
2–8 hours |
| Practice Steward |
8–16 hours |
| Enterprise Architecture Steward |
15-30 hours |
Actual participation is determined by organizational need and management direction.
Practice Lifecycle
Practices may operate in one of three states.
Active
- Steward assigned
- Artifacts maintained
- Practice actively used
Emerging
- Scope identified
- Initial artifacts exist
- Steward may be temporary
Unassigned
- Practice recognized
- Steward currently vacant
- Future stewardship desired
Unassigned practices provide visibility into institutional capability gaps without requiring immediate organizational change.
Success Measures
Enterprise Architecture is successful when:
- Technology decisions become easier to make.
- Architectural knowledge becomes easier to find.
- Reuse increases.
- Duplicate effort decreases.
- Teams engage earlier.
- Innovation reaches production more quickly.
- Lessons learned by one group benefit others.
Success is measured by increased visibility, improved collaboration, and the ability of the university to learn from and build upon technology change as it occurs.