Introduction to EA Principles
To ensure successful application of EA practice in any entity, it is important to define a set of principles for each EA domain. These principles define the main rules for developing EA components, clarify their intent, rationale, and implications. They are not exhaustive and can be extended in coordination with specialists.
Benefits of EA Principles
Applying EA principles successfully helps entities achieve the following:
More efficient documentation and development of EA components and views
Consistency and alignment between components in each domain
Compliance with regulatory requirements per domain
Getting value from each stage of the EA methodology and reaching intended outcomes
Efficient spending on investment decisions for proposed initiatives and projects
Better EA governance and decision-making, and verification of compliance through checklists and audits (workbooks, technical proposals, technical requirements, architectures, etc.)
Choosing solutions that align with EA principles and meet entity needs
Building reference models for all domains on principles-aligned foundations that meet entity needs and technical developments
Principles by Domain
Business Architecture Principles
Strategic Alignment
Translate business architecture to entity strategic directions through an integrated approach linking business and EA strategy.
Innovation and Creativity
Adopt innovation and creativity in developing EA components and in investment decisions for emerging technology.
Co-creation
Adopt co-creation between internal units and external stakeholders when developing business architecture components.
Unified Approach to Document and Execute Services and Processes
Follow unified reference standards for documenting and executing capabilities, services, and processes.
Business Continuity
Ensure continuity of critical capabilities, services, and processes at target level in all circumstances.
Compliance with Regulations and Mandate
Ensure compliance with internal and national regulations and policies, and solutions that support the entity mandate.
Beneficiary Experience Architecture Principles
Beneficiary Centricity
Align beneficiary experience architecture with DGA beneficiary-centric policy: enablement, improvement, participation, continuous improvement.
Beneficiary Segmentation
Study all beneficiary segments and their needs and expectations when developing beneficiary experience components.
Life Experience
Develop components that support life experience, full coverage, and integration in service delivery.
Application Architecture Principles
Fit for Purpose
Define application functions that fit business digitisation requirements and align with entity capabilities and current investment.
Based on Standards
Build entity applications on approved global standards while complying with relevant national policies and controls.
Ease of Use
Design applications that are easy to learn and support business performance and access via multiple channels.
Scalable
Structure applications to accommodate changes in requirements, scale, and data growth.
Reusable
Build application components that work independently and can be reused across functional contexts.
Data Architecture Principles
Single Request for Data
Request data from beneficiaries once; integrate with systems/entities when data exists internally or externally to obtain it from source.
Single Data Source
Rely on a single trusted source per data entity and data owner for attributes; avoid storing in multiple operational systems.
Data Management and Governance Compliance
Comply with approved data management and governance requirements and standards across current and target data architecture.
Support Decision Making
Use data to support leadership in decision-making, business rules, and performance indicators based on high-quality data.
360 View
Provide complete documentation of data entities and their links to systems, sources, and other components for a full, accurate view.
Technology Architecture Principles
Cloud First
Make cloud computing a core part of technology strategy for flexibility, scale, and efficiency and to reduce data centre ownership and operations.
Compliance with Standards
Comply with national (NCA, NDMO, DGA, CST, SAMA) and international (ISO, NIST, Uptime Institute, PCI-DSS) standards for updates and protection.
Business Led Changes
Respond to business needs and requirements and plan application and technology changes accordingly.
Control Technical Diversity
Control technical diversity to reduce maintenance and integration costs and unify technologies and platforms for simpler operations.
Resilience and High Availability
Design services to tolerate failures and continue when a component fails; redundancy, fault-tolerant design, load balancing for critical availability.
Cost Optimization and Efficiency
Design technology infrastructure for best cost use and efficiency, balancing performance with resource use.
Scalability and Performance
Design technical solutions to scale with growing demand and deliver strong performance under varying workloads.
Sustainability and Environmental Responsibility
Consider environmental sustainability, reduce carbon impact, and adopt green practices and energy-efficient design.
Security Architecture Principles
Least Privilege
Restrict user permissions to the minimum required for their role and duties.
Defense in Depth
Apply multiple layers of security controls across different levels of the entity technology architecture.
Zero Trust Architecture
Security model based on «never trust, always verify»; assume threats exist inside and outside the network.
Implement a Strong Identity Foundation
Establish a strong Identity and Access Management (IAM) framework so only authorised users and devices get access.
Secured by Design
Integrate security into the design of all architectures across EA domains (applications, data, technology, security controls).
Compliance and Expected Outputs
EA principles can be linked to requirements per domain, and compliance status (compliant, non-compliant, partially compliant, not applicable, unknown) can be measured for technical specifications, workbooks, designs, technical requirements, and proposals. Expected outputs include: EA principle cards for all domains, linking principles to EA requirements per domain, and compliance status.
