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Evaluating the capabilities of Enterprise Architecture modeling tools for Visual Analysis

By: . In model analysis activities, it is critical to make early statements and diagnosis from a high level of abstraction. Currently, these tasks are difficult to perform, and they require both the involvement of experts and the elaboration of specialized artifacts. Furthermore, the complexity of the tasks increases as models become bigger and more detailed. In other contexts, it has been noticed that total / holistic / unfiltered visualizations may give insight about the models, providing analysts a starting point for exploration and general pattern discovery. In this paper, we evaluate the support that six different Enterprise Architecture (EA) modeling tools offer to EA analysis activities, and assess the strengths and weaknesses of six visualization frameworks, in order to extend the analysis of enterprise models by Visual Analysis. The evaluation is based on a set of 14 requirements which are either visualization-related or specific to EA analysis, and its results were harvested from a) observed characteristics of the diagrams of these tools, and b) visualizations from an enterprise model, generated with the aforementioned visualization frameworks. These results point to several actionable subjects and research opportunities for the field of EA Modeling and Analysis.

How do Committees Invent?

The original article defining Conway’s Law, which states: Organizations which design systems are constrained to produce system which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.

The Integrated Enterprise: Enterprise Architecture, Investment Process and System Development

The enterprise architecture provides benefits to the organization that utilizes it. However, if the enterprise architecture is not tightly coupled with other enterprise level programs such as investment management and system development process, its overall effectiveness is compromised. This paper will identify the process integration and enterprise architecture touchpoints from the perspective of the investment management process and it outlines an overall Integrated Enterprise Life Cycle process flow. The paper also presents a case study of the implementation of the enterprise life cycle process flow.

Use of enterprise architectures in managing strategic change

This article discusses the benefits of applying structured, holistic analysis to human enterprises. It describes the Axum framework for enterprise architecture which the author developed as a tool for managing strategic change. This has been used successfully in many varied organisations such as civil service, Web?based betting and even a major political party. It explains how the framework evolved out of earlier work on bussiness process reengineering to provide a more holistic approach in which process is set in the context of all other things that must be managed for successful change. The application of the framework in complex diversified enterprises is also explained and illustrations from the experience of the author are given.

Selected EA articles

Selected articles (Concepts for Framework for EA, Enterprise Architecture And Legacy Systems, The Challenge Is Change: A Management Paper).

A Framework for Information Systems Architecture

With increasing size and complexity of the implementations of information systems, it is necessary to use some logical construct (or architecture) for defining and controlling the interfaces and the integration of all of the components of the system. This paper defines information systems architecture by creating a descriptive framework from disciplines quite independent of information systems, then by analogy specifies information systems architecture based upon the neutral, objective framework. Also, some preliminary conclusions about the implications of the resultant descriptive framework are drawn. The discussion is limited to architecture and does not include a strategic planning methodology.