Part I of the course The Practice of Enterprise Architecture provides a general introduction to the concept of enterprise architecture and other relevant topics. This part discusses the meaning of enterprise architecture, the place and role of enterprise architecture in the overall organizational context, key constituting elements and core mechanisms of an EA practice as well as the business value and benefits of using enterprise architecture in organizations.

Part I consists of seven consecutive sections:

• Section 1 (Introduction) discusses the role of IT in modern organizations, explains the problem of business and IT alignment and introduces the notion of enterprise architecture as a potential solution to this problem

• Section 2 (The Concept of Enterprise Architecture) explains the general meaning of enterprise architecture, EA practice and EA artifacts as well as the role of architects and architecture functions in organizations

• Section 3 (The Role of Enterprise Architecture Practice) discusses the need for enterprise architecture, the benefits of practicing enterprise architecture, the historical origin of modern EA best practices and clarifies what enterprise architecture practice is not

• Section 4 (Enterprise Architecture and City Planning) explains the key mechanisms of an EA practice and six essential types of EA artifacts based on the close analogy between enterprise architecture and city planning practices

• Section 5 (The Dialog Between Business and IT) discusses the typical problems associated with using a business strategy as the basis for IT planning and describes five convenient discussion points for establishing a productive dialog between business and IT

• Section 6 (Processes of Enterprise Architecture Practice) describes three key processes constituting an EA practice, explains the relationship between these processes and provides a high-level process-centric view of an EA practice

• Section 7 (IT Initiatives and Enterprise Architecture) discusses the role of IT initiatives in the context of an EA practice, describes five different types of IT initiatives and explains the flow of these initiatives through the processes of an EA practice