Enterprise !

What is an enterprise? Here is a billion dollar question, and there seems to be many prospective takers. The MBA types will often describe the word in terms of company size as is evident in many business journals and advertisements; the reserve the word for the largest corporations. In the information technology industry, there is no such consensus. Almost any organization type has been reffered to as enterprise, as are (in growing number) several organizational units. John Zachman, in defining the original Zachman Framework crystalized the concept to an IT audience from the perspective of a major corporation (IBM's typcial client in 1987).

From a purist perspective (which is mine, mostly); various dictionary definitions are in order. At least that has been the crux of much of my definitions so far, and it formed the starting point of my thinking during my dissertation research:

The American Heritage Dictionary has the following to say :

" An undertaking, especially one of some scope, complication, and risk."  It goes on to suggest "A business organization".

The Unabridged dictionary has this to say : " A project undertaken or to be undertaken, especially one that is important or difficult or that requires boldness or energy : A plan for such a project; participation or engagement in such projects..."

 --- Both cited from Dictionary.com

Other definitions include that of TOGAF which says "An enterprise is any collection of organizations that have a set of common goals or a single bottom line". 

The IEEE standard 1471-2000 defined an enterprise as "The fundamental organization of systems, embodied in its components, their relationships teach other and their environment, the principles governing its design and evolution"

In these definitions, we begin to see the picture that Zachman wanted to paint when he developed the concept of Enterprise Architecture in 1987. It was the work of Zachman that spurred all future efforts in the intervening decades since, and the Zachman framework it was that served as the soul of the original TOGAF (inspite of its more elaborate history).  However, none of these standard definitions provide a clearer definition that was presented in my dissertation work.

And now here is my definition (see D.Eng dissertation by Adewole Akpose, 2007): 

"An Enterprise is an organization of people, policies and technologies towards the attainment of some well defined goals, and or objectives"