Lesson 10
e-business Architecture Conclusion
The goal of the e-business architect is to provide a unified view of the e-business and its effects on the existing business.
This module discussed e-business architecture and the need for a broad scope of awareness.
We discussed how decisions regarding the e-business design can be heavily influenced by many and varied factors.
The architect should strive to fully understand and, perhaps more importantly, to anticipate the concerns of the stakeholders.
It is also important for an e-business architect to expect competing demands from different dimensions, and to weigh these against one another in a cost-versus-benefit analysis. Because the developers ultimately take on the task of building to the architect's design, investing time in achieving developer buy-in to the design and its viability is time well spent.
We then discussed the relevance of the history of e-business and eCommerce to the way e-business is conducted today and the importance of standards. We concluded this module with a brief introduction to the e-business models, focusing our attention on the business-to-business and business-to-consumer models.
After completing this module, you should be able to:
- Define architecture and its role in e-business
- Identify the scope of the architect's role and responsibilities
- Define the differences between the roles of the architect and the developer
- Identify the viewpoint and perspectives of e-business stakeholders
- Describe the primary business models available for e-business
- Explain why service quality is part of an architect's responsibility
- Apply quality metrics to a an e-business environment
- Outline the key issues and concerns that an architect must address
e-business Glossary
The following terms may be new to you:
- Architecture: For purposes of this course, architecture is the structure or design of an e-business.
- e-business: An integration of communications, data management and security capabilities that allows organizations to exchange information about the sale of goods and services.
- Business to Business: A primary Business model where the buyer and seller are both businesses. This would be the case for a wholesale stationer selling stock to retail outlets. Also known as B2B.
- Business to Consumer: A primary two-business model where the seller is a business and the buyer is a consumer or individual such as with a bookstore that sells books to the public. Also known as B2C.
- Government to Business: (G2B) A secondary model for e-business where the seller is a government entity, and the buyer is a business. The Business to Government (B2G) model operates in the reverse.
- Consumer to Consumer: A Business model where the buyer and seller are both consumers. An example might be the trade that takes place on an auction site.
- Bot: A bot is a software tool for digging through data. Sometimes referred to as an Agent. You give a bot directions and it brings back answers. Bots were used as early as the first Net newsgroups.
There are different kinds of bots. For example, a service bot they might answer specific questions about a product or service.
- Closed standard: Closed systems or standards are based on proprietary standards. They are usually unique to a single vendor and are not compatible with offerings from other vendors. The opposite of closed standards are open standards.
e-business models
Although we have discussed the more common e-business models briefly in this module, in taking a "real-world approach" to e-business
strategies you will need to understand these in more detail. We will take a closer look at e-business models in the next lesson.
Scope e-business Architect - Quiz
