Readiness & Changed-Fact Drills
Answer from memory before uncovering the checks.
60-second readiness checks
1. Define Data Architecture without saying “data model.”
Check: identify enterprise data needs and design/maintain master blueprints that guide integration/control/investment. A model is one artifact family, not the discipline definition.
2. Why is EDM alone incomplete?
Check: EDM stabilizes enterprise meaning/relationships; Data Flow Design adds origin, movement, storage, transformation, use, and context.
3. Name the four EA domains.
Check: Business, Data, Application, Technology. Classify by value/process; data organization; application function; physical enablement.
4. Why is Zachman not a methodology?
Check: it classifies interrogatives/perspectives/artifacts; it does not prescribe the creation or project sequence.
5. Explain vertical and horizontal EDM linkage.
Check: vertical crosses abstraction levels and creates model lineage; horizontal links peer models/entities at the same level.
6. Explain current, target, and transition.
Check: current = as-is; target = intended end-state; transition = intermediate migration/project architecture.
7. What does the 3–5 year roadmap do?
Check: sequences capabilities, milestones, resources, costs, dependencies, and transition work from actual conditions toward target architecture.
8. Classify Buy / Reuse / Build.
Check: Buy maps/possibly reverse-engineers vendor structures; Reuse maps existing enterprise capability and authority/CRUD; Build creates new implementation to architecture standards.
9. Classify Preferred / Emerging / Containment / Retirement.
Check: grow/recommend; pilot/test; restrict; exit.
10. Four governance activities and three metric families?
Check: oversee projects; manage designs/lifecycle/tools; define standards; create artifacts. Metrics = compliance, implementation trends, business value.
Changed-fact discrimination
Drill 1 — EDM or Flow?
Base: A model defines Customer, Product, and Order relationships. → EDM.
Changed fact: now the question asks where Customer originates, which systems transform it, and who updates it. → Data Flow Design.
Switch clue: meaning/relationship → movement/processing.
Drill 2 — Enterprise or project model?
Base: common enterprise Customer semantics independent of technology. → Enterprise conceptual/logical.
Changed fact: Oracle tables, indexes, and storage choices for one application. → Project physical design.
Drill 3 — Current, target, or transition?
Base: architecture after modernization is complete. → Target.
Changed fact: legacy CRM and new hub coexist temporarily during migration. → Transition.
Drill 4 — Evaluate or roadmap?
Base: diagrams may not match the live estate. → Evaluate/update current specifications.
Changed fact: current state is trusted and leaders need a four-year sequence. → Develop roadmap.
Drill 5 — Buy, reuse, or build?
Base: package purchased; internal model undocumented. → Buy, including reverse engineering/mapping as needed.
Changed fact: an existing governed Customer service already meets the requirement. → Reuse.
Drill 6 — Lifecycle status
Base: researching/piloting possible future platform. → Emerging.
Changed fact: now allowed only in existing applications and expansion is discouraged. → Containment.
Drill 7 — Compliance or business value?
Base: percentage of projects completing architecture review. → Compliance.
Changed fact: measure asks whether architecture reduced cycle time and improved agility. → Business value.
Drill 8 — Architecture or Modeling & Design?
Base: executives need enterprise requirements, target blueprints, investment sequencing. → Data Architecture.
Changed fact: team must normalize a logical model and define physical keys/tables. → Data Modeling & Design.
Readiness rule
Do not move to the Question Bank until you can explain why the changed fact changes the classification, not merely name the new label.