The first deliverable of Phase Two is a list of conceptual architecture principles.  The Conceptual Architecture Principles (CAPs) represent the core business and technical principles on which all the technical domain architectures are based. These principles guide the implementation of technology to meet these requirements. They are the rules that guide investment and design decision-making to maximize business benefit and the adaptability of the IT environment. The CAPs must be incorporated into information technology planning and solution design activities by the agencies and their IT contractors.

Guided by industry best practices provided by META Group research, the Architecture Team articulated the principles in basic business language that can be understood by all those involved in the IT decision making process. The team developed 23 Conceptual Architecture Principles  organized them into three categories:

1. Business Oriented
2. Technology Oriented
3. Business Continuity Oriented

A PDF version of the Conceptual Architecture Principles which includes the rationale for each principle and architectural and environmental implications of each principle is available at:
Conceptual Architecture Principles(PDF 54K)

Business Oriented

1. Information is valued as an enterprise asset, which must be shared to enhance and accelerate decision-making.
2. The planning and management of the State’s enterprise-wide technical architecture must be unified and have a planned evolution that is governed across the enterprise.
3. Architecture support and review structures shall be used to ensure that the integrity of the architecture is maintained as systems and infrastructure are acquired, developed and enhanced.
4. We should leverage data warehouses to facilitate the sharing of existing information to accelerate and improve decision-making at all levels.
5. IT systems should be implemented in adherence with all security, confidentiality and privacy policies and applicable statutes.
6. The enterprise architecture must reduce integration complexity to the greatest extent possible.
7. Systems must be designed, acquired, developed, or enhanced such that data and processes can be shared and integrated across the enterprise and with our partners.
8. We will consider re-use of existing applications, systems, and infrastructure before investing in new solutions. We will build only those applications or systems that will provide clear business advantages and demonstrable cost savings
9. New information systems will be implemented after business processes have been analyzed, simplified or otherwise redesigned as appropriate.
10. Adopt a total cost of ownership model for applications and technologies which balances the costs of development, support, disaster recovery and retirement against the costs of flexibility, scalability, ease of use and reduction of integration complexity.
11. Create a small number of consistent configurations for deployment across the enterprise.
12. A standardized set of basic information services (e.g., email, voicemail, e-forms) will be provided to all employees.

Technology Oriented

1. Applications, systems and infrastructure will employ reusable components across the enterprise, using an n-tier model.
2. The logical design of application systems and databases should be highly partitioned. These partitions must have logical boundaries established and the logical boundaries must not be violated.
3. The interfaces between separate application systems must be message-based; this applies to both internal and external systems.
4. We must deploy application systems that are driven by business events.
5. We should separate on-line transaction processing (OLTP) from data warehouse and other end-user computing.
6. The State shall adopt and employ consistent software engineering practices and methods based on accepted industry standards.

Business Continuity Oriented

1. IT solutions will use industry-proven, mainstream technologies.
2. Priority will be given to products adhering to industry standards and open architecture.
3. An assessment of business recovery requirements is mandatory when acquiring, developing, enhancing or outsourcing systems. Based on that assessment, appropriate disaster recovery and business continuity planning, design and testing will take place.
4. We must implement a statewide backbone network that provides a virtual, enterprise-wide local area network
5. The underlying technology infrastructure and applications must be scalable in size, capacity, and functionality to meet changing business and technical requirements.

State Technical Architecture

Send comments or questions to doit.architecture@po.state.ct.us