This set of terms are related to the concerns of architects who need to relate other key concepts to a traditional hierarchical view of an enterprise. Many of the terms relevant to this area are shared terms, and appear in that list instead.

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Business Unit Viewpoint highlights the elements of an enterprise architecture that are of concern to managers of business teams, departments, units or divisions.

Asset

An asset is a generalization of property owned by the enterprise.  An asset is any property controlled by a business unit through a business process. The management of that asset is subject to the constraints created by business directives.

Business Initiative

A chartered (or proposed) project or ongoing group of projects designed to change the architectural aspects of an organization, including structure, capabilities, or performance.

Typically, initiatives are chartered to create a measurable improvement in a capability, often through process improvement, technology improvement, structural change (reorganization, insourcing / outsourcing, etc), or accountability changes (governance, reporting, scorecarding, incentives).

Business Role

A set of responsibilities that can be assigned to, and performed by, a person.  A person may have more than one role, and may have a role for a short period of time.

Business Unit / Org Unit

A business unit is typically a high level division of a company.  An organizational unit is a coherent set of teams and departments, usually structured in a hierarchy. Business units are typically composed of organization units.  Organizational units exist to provide resources (money, staff, infrastructure, and governance) to enable business processes to occur.