Toward a Teleology for the Enterprise

Abstract

The emphasis within the development of the field of enterprise architecture has typically focused on the construction and design of the enterprise itself. This has ignored a primary need which is first to understand the purpose for which the enterprise is, or is to be, constructed. Purpose gives meaningful context to all the key features of the enterprise, its structure, behaviour, and measures. It is because of this requirement to understand purpose and therefore to have this context that issues of what an enterprise seeks to accomplish must first be resolved and made clear before being able meaningfully to analyse, design, plan, and determine future functions within the organisation—and thereby to implement a useful ontological view that leaves no room for misunderstanding.