What is Information Architecture?
Dragon1 definition of Information Architecture: The total concept or coherent set of concepts of an information facility in or shared by organizations.
Dragon1 definition of Information Facility: The total or coherent set of automated and manual information systems of an organization.
A concept is an approach, way of working and an abstraction of an implementation.
The total concept of an architecture consist of three types of concepts: constructive concepts (like departments), operative concepts (like processes) and decorative concepts (like marketing and image).
Table, chair, bank and car are all examples of concepts.
A concept consists of elements (logical functional parts). The way a concept works is the concept's principle. A concept's principle can and should always be visualized as pattern. A literature reference for a concept that is made part of the total concept (architecture), should always be referred to.
Strategy is indirect input for choosing concepts as part of the total concept.
A list of commonly used concepts, principles, patterns and standards for information architecture is:
- 1. Open Standards
- 2. Standardization
- 3. COTS Standard Software Applications / Application Suites (RE-use before buy before build)
- 4. Client Oriented / Orientatie (database nodig voor behoeften en herontwerp producten en diensten)
- 5. Service oriented
- 6. Citizen oriented
- 7. Centralization
- 8. Decentralization
- 9. Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
- 10. Loosely Coupling
- 11. Program of Requirements
- 12. Requirements Engineering
- 13. Business Case
- 14. Project Orientation
- 15. Plan of Approach (Plan van Aanpak)
- 16. Federated System
- 17. Self Service
- 18. Online Computing
- 19. TMap
- 20. HTML
- 21. XML
- 22. JSON
- 23. CMDB
- 24. Service Orientation
- 25. Data Hiding
- 26. Data Abstraction
- 27. Model View Controller
- 28. Service Broker and Service Consumer
- 29. Microservices (for custom functionality)
- 30. Blockchain
- 31. Modularity
- 32. Simplicity
- 33. Reuse
- 34. SAML
- 35. REST API
- 36. Data Replication
- 37. Standby Environment
- 38. Information Security
- 39. Data Integrity
- 40. Front, Mid, Back Office
- 41. Canonical Data Model (CDM)
- 42. Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
- 43. Adapter
- 44. Business Rules
- 45. Rules Engine
- 46. Machine Learning
- 47. Artificial Intelligence
- 48. Agile
- 49. Website
- 50. Intranet, Internet, Extranet
- 51. Navigation
- 52. Role Based Access Control
- 53. Meta Model
- 54. Glossary of Terms / Definitions List
- 55. Labeling / Tagging (AI)
- 56. Numbering (Unique)
- 57. Global Enterprise Search Engine
- 58. CRM (Customer Relationship Management
- 59. CMS (Content Management System)
- 60. Chain
- 61. Persona
- 62. Use Case
- 63. Customer Journey
- 64. Needs Database
- 65. Data Lake
- 66. GDPR / AVG
- 67. Auditing
- 68. Privacy
- 69. Identity Management
- 70. Logging
- 71. Interest Graph
- 72. Data as a Resource
- 73. Real-time Data Analytics (to enrich data)
- 74. Event Driven Data Exchange
- 75. Source Databases (Single Source of Truth)
- 76. Open API’s
Visualizing Information Architecture
Three types of visualization can be created as a minimal set:
- Information Architecture Diagram (IA Architecture Blueprint)
- Logical Information Structure Diagram (IA Structure Vision)
- Principles Details Diagram / Pattern Diagram
An Information Architecture Diagram contains ovals depicting the concepts. They can be placed on a functional model as background.
An IA Structure Vision contains processes and their activities, supported by information systems grouped in domains. The information systems contain at least services, software applications, databases and interfaces.
Preferably one visualizes the current situation and its problems. Applying the concept at a mature level in the organization should take away the issues.