An effective Enterprise Architecture Implementation Methodology

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a holistic strategy that is commonly used to improve the alignment of enterprise’s business and Information Technology. Enterprise Architecture Implementation Methodology (EAIM) prepares a set of methods and practices for developing, managing, and maintaining an EA implementation project. There is ineffectiveness in existing EAIMs due to complexities emerging from EAIM practices, models, factors, and strategy. Consequently, EA projects may encounter lack of support in the following areas: requirements analysis, governance and evaluation, guideline for implementation, and continual improvement of EA implementation. The aim of this research is to develop an effective EAIM to support EA implementation. To fulfill this objective, the first step is to identify effective EA implementation practices and the factors that impact the effectiveness of EAIM. In this regard, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was conducted in order to identify the effective practices and factors of EAIM. Secondly, the proposed EAIM is developed based on the foundations and information extracted from the SLR and semi-structured interviews with EA practitioners. Finally, the proposed EAIM is evaluated by means of case study as the research methodology. The target audience for this research is twofold: (1) researchers who would extend the effective EA implementation and continue this research topic with further analysis and exploration; (2) practitioners who would like to employ an effective and lightweight EAIM for an EA project.     

Application portfolio management: a decision-oriented view of enterprise architecture

Today large companies operate 100s of computer-based information systems (IS), also called applications, to support their businesses. Enterprise Architecture (EA) is regarded as a promising concept to cope with the complexity caused by large application portfolios (AP). This article focuses on senior IT managers’ decision-making with regard to their AP, and EA’s role therein. Through multiple case studies in large companies, we found that these managers consider and balance a set of aspects, each of which is supported by partial EA models maintained by specific groups within their IT departments. These models are, however, not sufficiently integrated. Based on the empirical findings, we propose indicators for each of the partial EA models to aggregate the AP-relevant characteristics per application, which are then integrated into an AP dashboard to support senior IT managers’ holistic AP management. Consequently, a decision-oriented view is created of the overall EA, which the managers of the case studies companies deemed to be very helpful for steering their AP.     

A situational method for semi-automated Enterprise Architecture Documentation

The business capabilities of modern enterprises crucially rely on the enterprises’ information systems and underlying IT infrastructure. Hence, optimization of the business-IT alignment is a key objective of Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM). To achieve this objective, EAM creates, maintains and analyzes a model of the current state of the Enterprise Architecture. This model covers different concepts reflecting both the business and the IT perspective and has to be constantly maintained in response to ongoing transformations of the enterprise. In practice, EA models grow large and are difficult to maintain, since many stakeholders from various backgrounds have to contribute architecture-relevant information. EAM literature and two practitioner surveys conducted by the authors indicate that EA model maintenance, in particular the manual documentation activities, poses one of the biggest challenges to EAM in practice. Current research approaches target the automation of the EA documentation based on specific data sources. These approaches, as our systematic literature review showed, do not consider enterprise specificity of the documentation context or the variability of the data sources from organization to organization. The approach presented in this article specifically accounts for these factors and presents a situational method for EA documentation. It builds on four process-supported documentation techniques which can be selected, composed and applied to design an organization-specific documentation process. The techniques build on a meta-model for EA documentation, which is implemented in an EA-repository prototype that supports the configuration and execution of the documentation techniques. We applied our documentation method assembly process at a German insurance company and report the findings from this case study in particular regarding practical applicability and usability of our approach.     

Enterprise modeling using the foundation concepts of the RM-ODP ISO/ITU standard

Enterprise architecture (EA) projects require analyzing and designing across the whole enterprise and its environment. Enterprise architects, therefore, frequently develop enterprise models that span from the markets in which the organization operates down to the implementation of the IT systems that support its operations. In this paper, we present SEAM for EA: a method for defining an enterprise model in which all the systems are systematically represented with the same modeling ontology. We base our modeling ontology on the foundation modeling concepts defined in Part 2 of ISO/ITU Standard “Reference Model of Open Distributed Processing” (RM-ODP). This work has two contributions to enterprise architecture: the SEAM for EA method itself and the use of Part 2 of the RM-ODP standard as a modeling ontology.

A novel credibility-based group decision making method for Enterprise Architecture scenario analysis using Data Envelopment Analysis

Analysis and selection of Enterprise Architecture (EA) scenarios is a difficult and complex decision making process directly effecting the long-term business strategies realization. This complexity is associated with contradictory objectives and significant uncertainties involved in analysis process. Although a large body of intuitive and analytical models for EA analysis has evolved over the last few years, none of them leads to an efficient and optimized ranking in fuzzy environments. Moreover, it is necessary to simultaneously employ some complementary methods to reflect the ambiguity and vagueness as the main sources of uncertainty. This paper incorporates the concept of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model into EA scenario analysis through a group analysis under uncertain conditions. To resolve the vagueness and ambiguity of the EA analysis, fuzzy credibility constrained programming and p-robustness technique are applied, respectively. Not only is the proposed DEA model linear, robust, and flexible in aggregating experts’ opinion in a group decision making process, but it also is successful in discrimination power improvement – a major shortcoming associated with classic DEA model. The proposed model provides useful solutions to support decision making process for large-scale Information Technology (IT) development planning.     

Enterprise engineering and management at the crossroads

The article provides an overview of the challenges and the state of the art of the discipline of Enterprise Architecture (EA), with emphasis on the challenges and future development opportunities of the underlying Information System (IS), and its IT implementation, the Enterprise Information System (EIS). The first challenge is to overcome the narrowness of scope of present practice in IS and EA, and re-gain the coverage of the entire business on all levels of management, and a holistic and systemic coverage of the enterprise as an economic entity in its social and ecological environment. The second challenge is how to face the problems caused by complexity that limit the controllability and manageability of the enterprise as a system. The third challenge is connected with the complexity problem, and describes fundamental issues of sustainability and viability. Following from the third, the fourth challenge is to identify modes of survival for systems, and dynamic system architectures that evolve and are resilient to changes of the environment in which they live. The state of the art section provides pointers to possible radical changes to models, methodologies, theories and tools in EIS design and implementation, with the potential to solve these grand challenges.     

Achieving benefits with enterprise architecture

There is strong anecdotal evidence that Enterprise Architecture (EA) brings benefits to organisations and that organisations are investing significantly in EA initiatives. However, demonstrating the business value of EA has proven elusive. Many of the benefits of EA are intangible and value is achieved indirectly within business change projects. Furthermore, it is not the EA itself that provides benefits, it is the ability to provide advisory services enabled by the EA that is important. In this paper we focus on EA service capability and develop and test a new research model that explains how EA service brings benefits to organisations. Our findings highlight the importance of EA service capability and dynamic capabilities in creating benefits from EA.     

Automatic data collection for enterprise architecture models

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is an approach used to provide decision support based on organization-wide models. The creation of such models is, however, cumbersome as multiple aspects of an organization need to be considered, making manual efforts time-consuming, and error prone. Thus, the EA approach would be significantly more promising if the data used when creating the models could be collected automatically—a topic not yet properly addressed by either academia or industry. This paper proposes network scanning for automatic data collection and uses an existing software tool for generating EA models (ArchiMate is employed as an example) based on the IT infrastructure of enterprises. While some manual effort is required to make the models fully useful to many practical scenarios (e.g., to detail the actual services provided by IT components), empirical results show that the methodology is accurate and (in its default state) require little effort to carry out.     

A survey on CIO concerns-do enterprise architecture frameworks support them?

The challenge of IT management is today considerable. In industry, the organizational role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) has been promoted as the owner of these challenges. In spite of a general acceptance of the problems associated with the responsibilities of the CIO, very little academic research has been conducted on the issues and constraints of this role. In order to address these shortcomings, this article presents the results of a survey in which Swedish CIOs have prioritized their most important concerns. In academia, a response to the IT system management challenges has presented itself in the discipline of Enterprise Architecture. The article argues that the CIO role is the primary stakeholder of Enterprise Architecture, so his/her need for decision support should guide Enterprise Architecture research and framework development. Therefore, the article presents a brief review over how well two existing Enterprise Architecture frameworks address the surveyed concerns of the CIO. Results from the survey indicate that the three highest prioritized concerns of CIOs are to decrease the cost related to the business organization, to improve the quality of the interplay between the IT organization and the business organization and to provide new computer-aided support to the business organization. The comparison between the CIOs' prioritization and the foci of the frameworks shows some discrepancies. The largest disharmony lies in the lack of decision support for issues related to the IT organization. Furthermore, support for explicitly estimating and managing costs is lacking within the frameworks.     

EAFoC: Enterprise Architecture Framework Based on Commonality

The recent rapid development in information systems （ISs） has resulted in a critical need for integration and interoperability between heterogeneous ISs in various domains, using specific commonalities. However, stovepipe systems have been caused due to inconsistencies in planning IS architecture among stakeholders. So far, there has been no research on an enterprise architecture framework （EAF） that can satisfy with the coefficient factors of system architecture （SA） and enterprise architecture （EA）. This paper proposes a new EAF that can resolve the problems inherent in existing legacy EAFs and their features. EAFoC （Enterprise Architecture Framework based on Commonality） is based on commonality that can be satisfied as the coefficient factors in both SA and EA within a common information technology （IT） domain. Thus, it should be possible to integrate an established heterogeneous framework for each stakeholder＇s view. Consequently, the most important contribution of this paper is to establish the appropriate EAFoC for the development of consistent IS architecture, smooth communication among stakeholders, systematic integration management of diversified and complicated new IT technologies, interoperability among heterogeneous ISs, and reusability based on commonality with other platforms.     

CHOOSE: Towards a metamodel for enterprise architecture in small and medium-sized enterprises

Enterprise architecture (EA) is a coherent whole of principles, methods, and models that are used in the design and realization of an enterprise’s organizational structure, business processes, information systems, and IT infrastructure. Recent research indicates the need for EA in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), important drivers of the economy, as they struggle with problems related to a lack of structure and overview of their business. However, existing EA frameworks are perceived as too complex and, to date, none of the EA approaches are sufficiently adapted to the SME context. Therefore, this paper presents the CHOOSE metamodel for EA in SMEs that was developed and evaluated through action research in an SME and further refined and validated through case study research in five other SMEs. This metamodel is based on the essential dimensions of EA frameworks and is kept simple so that it may be applied in an SME context. The final CHOOSE metamodel includes only four essential concepts (i.e. goal, actor, operation, object), one for each most frequently used EA focus. As an example, an extract is included from the specific model that was created for the SME used in our action research. Finally, the CHOOSE metamodel is evaluated according to the dimensions essential in EA and the requirements for EA in an SME context.     

The importance of business process modeling in software systems design

Despite diligent efforts made by the software engineering community, the failure of software projects keeps increasing at an alarming rate. After two decades of this problem reoccurring, one of the leading causes for the high failure rate is still poor process modeling (requirements’ specification). Therefore both researchers and practitioners recognize the importance of business process modeling in understanding and designing accurate software systems. However, lack of direct model checking (verification) feature is one of the main shortcomings in conventional process modeling methods. It is important that models provide verifiable insight into underlying business processes in order to design complex software systems such as Enterprise Information Systems (EIS). The software engineering community has been deploying the same methods that have haunted the industry with failure. In this paper, we try to remedy this issue by looking at a non-conventional framework. We introduce a business process modeling method that is amenable to automatic analysis (simulation), yet powerful enough to capture the rich reality of business systems as enacted in the behavior and interactions of users. The proposed method is based on the innovative language-action perspective.     

An IT management assessment framework: evaluating enterprise architecture scenarios

Enterprise architecture, EA, is an established approach for the model-based and holistic management of IT. The scope of EA is however wide and the predominant EA frameworks suggest the creation of broad and detailed models. IT management cannot control all areas spanned by the present frameworks for EA models. In order to ensure well-informed decisions, IT management has a series of questions that need to be answered. This paper proposes an assessment framework that can be used to identify relevant questions for assessments of EA and EA scenarios, within the areas of EA that IT management can control. Three top dimensions in the proposed framework are presented: IT organization, IT systems, and Business organization. The framework further includes sub dimensions for identifying questions. An application of the assessment framework, as it was applied to assess EA scenarios in a power company, is also described.     

Towards an enterprise architecture for public administration using a top-down approach

The use of Enterprise Architectures is becoming increasingly widespread in the private sector. Borrowing insights from enterprise reference architectures developed during the last decade, IT vendors and companies belonging to specific industries are establishing reference data and process models advancing the standardisation of their businesses and creating a more integrated environment for their activities. Although public administrations share the same problem of non-standardisation, which is being magnified rapidly in a changing and demanding environment, little has been done so far in the direction of integration. This article builds a basis, shows initial directions and attempts to stimulate interest in a PA enterprise framework. Following a top-down approach and employing concepts from the fields of public administration, enterprise integration and generic process and data modeling, the outline of the ArchPad enterprise architecture for Public Administration is presented.     

Enterprise architecture: Twenty years of the GERAM framework

Apart from the 20-year anniversary in 2014 of the first publication of the GERAM (‘Generalised Enterprise Reference Architecture and Methodology’) Enterprise Architecture Framework, the timeliness of this paper lies in the new interest in the use of systems theory in enterprise architecture (EA), and consequently, ‘light-weight’ architecture frameworks (AFs). Thus, this paper is about the use of systems thinking and systems theory in EA and about how it is possible to reconcile and understand, based on a single overarching framework, the interplay of two major enterprise change endeavours: on one hand enterprise engineering (i.e. deliberate change) and on the other hand evolutionary, organic change. The paper also demonstrates how such change processes can be illustrated by employing systems thinking to construct dynamic business models; the evolution of these concepts is exemplified using past applications in networked enterprise building, and more recent proposals in environmental-, disaster- and healthcare management. Finally, the paper attempts to plot the way GERAM, as a framework to think about the creation and evolution of complex socio-technical systems, will continue to contribute to the society in the context of future challenges and emerging opportunities.     

A systematic literature review on Enterprise Architecture Implementation Methodologies

ContextEnterprise Architecture (EA) is a strategy to align business and Information Technology (IT) within an enterprise. EA is managed, developed, and maintained throughout the EA Implementation Methodology (EAIM).ObjectiveThe aims of this study are to identify the existing effective practices that are used by existing EAIMs, identify the factors that affect the effectiveness of EAIM, identify the current tools that are used by existing EAIMs, and identify the open problems and areas related to EAIM for improvement.MethodA Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was carried out. 669 papers were retrieved by a manual search in 6 databases and 46 primary studies were finally included.ResultFrom these studies 33% were journal articles, 41% were conference papers while 26% were contributions from the studies consisted of book chapters. Consequently, 28 practices, 19 factors, and 15 tools were identified and analysed.ConclusionSeveral rigorous researches have been done in order to provide effective EAIM, however there are still problems in components of EAIM, including: there is lack of tool support for whole part of EA implementation, there are deficiency in addressing the EAIM’s practices especially in modeling, management, and maintenance, there is lack of consideration on non-functional requirement in existing EAIM, there is no appropriate consideration on requirement analysis in most existing EAIM. This review provides researchers with some guidelines for future research on this topic. It also provides broad information on EAIM, which could be useful for practitioners.     

Enabling self-service BI: A methodology and a case study for a model management warehouse

The promise of Self-Service Business Intelligence (BI) is its ability to give business users access to selection, analysis, and reporting tools without requiring intervention from IT. This is essential if BI is to maximize its contribution by radically transforming how people make decisions. However, while some progress has been made through tools such as SAS Enterprise Miner, IBM SPSS Modeler, and RapidMiner, analytical modeling remains firmly in the domain of IT departments and data scientists. The development of tools that mitigate the need for modeling expertise remains the “missing link” in self-service BI, but prior attempts at developing modeling languages for non-technical audiences have not been widely implemented. By introducing a structured methodology for model formulation specifically designed for practitioners, this paper fills the unmet need to bring model-building to a mainstream business audience. The paper also shows how to build a dimensional Model Management Warehouse that supports the proposed methodology, and demonstrates the viability of this approach by applying it to a problem faced by the Division of Fiscal and Actuarial Services of the US Department of Labor. The paper concludes by outlining several areas for future research.     

Outcomes and success factors of enterprise IT architecture management: empirical insight from the international financial services industry

Within the last decades, corporate information technology (IT) environments have approached considerable degrees of complexity. As a consequence, IT has become increasingly difficult to manage resulting in high costs and poor flexibility. Today, it is generally acknowledged that the sustainability of corporate IT environments can only be ensured through a continuous and long-term management on the level of the Enterprise (IT) Architecture (EA). To address this, many firms have implemented a dedicated Enterprise (IT) Architecture Management (EAM) function. However, little is known yet on the effectiveness of such functions and the factors influencing EAM success. Within this research, we thus seek to answer two main questions: (1) do firms adopting EAM perform better with regard to high-level information management objectives like IT flexibility and IT efficiency, and if so, (2) what are the critical success factors in attaining these goals? To answer these questions, a field survey was conducted within the international financial services industry. The results provide evidence that the implementation of an EAM function is in fact supportive in the creation and sustainment of IT efficiency and IT flexibility. Several factors are shown to be of critical importance for achieving these goals with architectural governance being the most important one.