SAP LeanIX' enterprise architecture diagramming capabilities empower enterprise architects to visualize their current and future IT landscape. Discover the abilities of the three powerful diagramming tools included within SAP LeanIX.
SAP LeanIX has extensive enterprise architecture diagramming capabilities built directly into the platform. Without them, we could never have become a market leader for enterprise architecture.
Diagramming has been an essential part of enterprise architecture since it was first conceived nearly 40 years ago. Today it is even more essential to have live-updating models of your IT landscape that can be analyzed and manipulated to build a vision for the future.
In the first part of this three-part series, we'll explore the reasons why diagramming is so essential for enterprise architects and the extensive capabilities of the three different diagram tools within our solution. Don't take our word for it, though, book a demo to get hands-on with SAP LeanIX diagrams:
What Is An Enterprise Architecture Diagram?
An enterprise architecture diagram is a model of your company's IT landscape. The format will vary depending on your needs, but will show the arrangement of all your organization's:
- IT components, such as servers, operating systems, and physical locations
- software applications, both in the cloud and on-premise
- stored data and how it flows through your landscape
Diagrams, however, don't just list the features of your IT landscape, but show the context of how they connect with one another and how information flows through your applications. Not to mention, what IT components are supporting this process.
This is vitally important for gaining clarity on, and proper oversight of, the setup of your organization's technology, without which it's impossible to ensure efficiency or return on investment. Why does this clarification have to be visual, though?
As the aphorism goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. A document can only ever list the features of an IT landscape, while only a diagram can give you a complete overview at a glance.
Imagine, for example, how much more valuable a picture of an elephant would be to comprehending the animal than a simple list of 'grey, large ears, trunk'. Even better, a three-dimensional, scale model would be more beneficial than a picture.
Documenting your IT landscape and applications will, likewise, never offer as much clarity as creating a visual model. It's simply easier to conceptualize a diagram than it is to keep all the information in text or number format.
A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words
Diagrams lend themselves to enterprise architecture work significantly better than documentation. Words and numbers are excellent ways to note down key facts, but diagrams are, by their nature, more conceptual.
Noting down that an application handles a certain amount of data is useful. Actually seeing where that information flows from and to, however, will make it far easier to understand, interpret, and innovate on.
It's always going to be a more creative and inspiring pursuit to be able to point your finger at a representation of an application on a diagram and trace its links to the rest of your landscape than just reading about it. This is why diagramming has always been an essential part of enterprise architecture.
The very first formal conceptualization of enterprise architecture was John Zachman's ontological grid all the way back in 1987. This was a way of framing enterprise architecture decisions as a diagram that mapped the issues you were trying to resolve against the types of stakeholders impacted by the decision.
SAP LEANIX DEFINITIVE GUIDE: The Zachman Framework
One could say, therefore, that diagramming is an essential part of enterprise architecture. As such, of course SAP LeanIX has extensive, out-of-the-box diagramming capabilities built into the solution.
Diagramming In SAP LeanIX
SAP LeanIX enterprise architecture diagrams are generated based on data from your application and IT component inventory within the solution. That means your diagrams will reflect changes made to your live IT landscape as they happen.
In SAP LeanIX, each software application or hardware component in your landscape has its own fact sheet, storing comprehensive and customizable information about it. This data can be imported from a variety of sources with full artificial intelligence (AI) support, including Excel spreadsheets and configuration management databases (CMDB) like ServiceNow, as well as user surveys and vendor information.
Once you have fact sheets, that information can be leveraged to create any diagram you need, for both your current architecture and your target state. To do this, you can leverage established enterprise architecture shapes and images - such as those used in Archimate modelling - or create your own.
SAP LeanIX has, not one, but three different diagram editors that you can leverage:
- Free Draw: allows you to create any diagram you can imagine within SAP LeanIX
- Data Flow: is a similar, but more-prescribed type of interface, that allows you to model the flow of data through your landscape
- LucidChart: is another option that integrates with the leading visual collaboration tool, Lucid
Within any of these diagrams, you can pull in fact sheet information and even link directly to any part of a fact sheet. This ensures that all your diagramming is data-driven and supported by live information.
Our customers' favourite feature is the ability to create a timeline that moves between your current state and your target architecture. You can then drag the timeline back and forth to watch your architecture evolve according to your current plan.
Leverage SAP LeanIX To Visualize Your Landscape
SAP LeanIX enterprise architecture diagrams are incredibly popular with our customers. Users are even telling us that their leaders are asking them to skip the PowerPoint presentations and just show them the live data within our solution.
SAP LeanIX wouldn't have become a market-leading enterprise architecture solution without comprehensive diagramming capabilities, and we're only building on those features. We've recently added the ability to create, annotate, combine, and share reports and diagrams directly from within SAP LeanIX.
We're going to continue to expand upon our diagramming capabilities in the future, just as we're always looking to add more innovative features to keep SAP LeanIX on the cutting edge of enterprise architecture. To find out more about the current and future capabilities of SAP LeanIX, go directly to the source and book a demo of the platform:
