page_title: NIST Enterprise Architecture Model
section_title: Foundations
hierarchical_section_title: NIST Enterprise Architecture Model / NIST Enterprise Architecture Model topics / Foundations
caption_attribution_description: English: Sample Elements of an Enterprise Architecture
context_page_description: NIST Enterprise Architecture Model is a late-1980s reference model for enterprise architecture. It defines an enterprise architecture by the interrelationship between an enterprise's business, information, and technology environments.
  Developed late-1980s by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and others, the federal government of the United States promoted this reference model in the 1990s as the foundation for enterprise architectures of individual U.S. government agencies and in the overall federal enterprise architecture.
context_section_description: According to Rigdon et al. (1989) an architecture is "a clear representation of a conceptual framework of components and their relationship at a point in time". It may for example represent "a view of a current situation with islands of automation, redundant processes and data inconsistencies" or a "future integrated automation information structure towards which the enterprise will move in a prescribed number on years." The role of standards in architecture is to "enable or constrain the architecture and serve as its foundation".
  In order to develop an enterprise architecture Rigdon acknowledge:
  There are multiple ways to develop an architecture
  There are multiple ways to implement standards
  Development and implementation should be customized to the environment
  Yet, every architecture itself can be divided into different levels.
  The different levels of an enterprise architecture can be visualized as a pyramid: On top the business unit of an enterprise, and at the bottom the delivery system within the enterprise. The enterprise can consist of one or more business units, working in specific business area. The five levels of architecture are defined as: Business Unit, Information, Information System, Data and Delivery System.
  The separate levels of an enterprise architecture are interrelated in a special way. On every level the architectures assumes or dictates the architectures at the higher level. The illustration on the right gives an example of which elements can constitute an Enterprise Architecture.
caption: Sample elements of an Enterprise Architecture (1989).
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