Agile enterprise architecture modelling: Evaluating the applicability and integration of six modelling standards

ContextAgile enterprise architecture artefacts are initially architected at the high-level and the details of those artefacts iteratively evolve in small project increments. There is a need to model agile enterprise architecture artefacts both at the high and low detailed level for a particular context. ArchiMate is relatively a new high-level architecture modelling standard. There is a growing interest amongst organisations in applying ArchiMate for high-level agile enterprise architecture modelling. However, organisations are unsure how to effectively apply ArchiMate at high-level and integrate it with their existing low detailed level modelling standards in practice for supporting end-to-end agile enterprise architecture modelling.ObjectiveThis paper evaluates the applicability and integration of high-level ArchiMate modelling standard with the existing low-level modelling standards such as BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation), UML (Unified Modelling Language), FAML (FAME [Framework for Agent-Oriented Method Engineering] Language), SoaML (Service Oriented Architecture Modelling Language), and BMM (Business Motivation Model).MethodA qualitative questionnaire-based evaluation criteria has been developed based on the well-known and comprehensive The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF). The evaluation criteria has been applied to evaluate the applicability and integration of the selected six modelling standards from the business, application, infrastructure and extension perspectives.ResultsEach modelling standard is different in scope. A single modelling standard usually does not provide the kind of support required by the agile enterprise architecture modelling. Based on the review results, a hybrid enterprise architecture modelling approach is proposed. This paper demonstrates the application of the proposed hybrid approach with the help of an agile enterprise architecture modelling case study.ConclusionIt is concluded that the ArchiMate does not replace the existing low-level modelling standards, rather it can be used in conjunction with low-level modelling standards. This calls for the adoption of hybrid and integrated approach for agile enterprise architecture modelling.     

企业架构设计规范研究与实践

现今企业分布式的特性和复杂性的加强,对企业架构方法的定制性、扩展性和敏捷性提出了新的要求.本文对三种主流的企业架构方法Zachman、FEA和TOGAF进行了横向对比和介绍,对TOGAF方法论配套的架构设计语言ArchiMate和统一建模语言UML进行了纵向对比和分析,通过一个真实案例展示了使用ArchiMate设计企业架构的基本方法,以及在实践过程中如何根据项目需要进行定制,此案例可为企业架构设计提供参考.