Enterprise Architecture

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Ambidextrous Enterprise Architecting: Betting on the Future and Hacking Path-dependencies

Much existing research on IS and enterprise architecture focuses on suggesting different representa-tions describing a ‘target architecture’ for processes, information and information systems at different levels across the organization. Less emphasis has been put on the actual evolution of the current en-terprise architecture towards this envisioned ‘target architecture’. In this paper we look at enterprise architecture from a process perspective and explore how actual practices of architecting enfold and how they are mutually shaped by context. In doing so, we offer two contributions. First, we contribute empirically showing how enterprise architecting in practice is an ambidextrous activity focusing on both fixing the limitations of historically entrenched architectures and establishing new architecture by betting on what needs are going to give the most flexibility and value in the future. Secondly, we contribute by conceptualizing how enterprise architecture evolves over time, and propose the concepts of ‘architectural path-dependency’ and ‘enterprise architecting’. Architectural path-dependencies is the effect of existing architectures that become economically, technically and organizationally hard to change – at least in a radical manner. Enterprise architecting, on the other hand, is the intentional acts to circumvent path-dependencies and evolve towards an envisioned architecture. Henceforth, we argue that enterprise architecture transition is shaped by multiple architectural path-dependencies as well as various acts of enterprise architecting to establish new paths. The paper discusses theses con-cepts in relation to existing literature on software and enterprise architecture.

Business Architectures in the Public Sector: Experiences from Practice

Government agencies need to transform the way in which they are organized in order to be able to provide better services to their constituents and adapt to changes in legislation. Whereas much e-government research has a technology focus, our goal is to investigate whether business architectures can help governments to recreate agencies to make them robust in dealing with political preferences, and further, whether their adoption can guide the realization of IT-oriented enterprise architectures. In this article the concept of business architecture and its implications are analyzed by investigating the case study of the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Services. The case demonstrates the mediating role business architectures can play between policy and strategy on the one hand, and enterprise IT architecture on the other. Business architectures help: (1) to define business domains and the events connecting them, and (2) to use principles to integrate the domains and ensure synergies. Business domains can be designed and operated independently, which enable higher levels of adaptability. Our case analyses show that the pluriformity of the political visions, public values, and actors involved and the division of responsibilities complicate the creation of a business architecture.

A multidimensional Classification of 55 Enterprise Architecture Frameworks

Many enterprises are still in the early stage of research and exploration into the concrete practice of enterprise architecture. Under the milieu of globalization, it is increasingly necessary for an enterprise to improve cognition and practices of informatization construction. Also crucial for enterprises is the ability to exploit and develop a myriad of architecture frameworks in order to remain creative and dynamic in this field in order to determine which EAF suits them best. Enterprises should do so based on the understanding of not only business strategy and process, but also on the meanings of EA frameworks. This paper defines a classification system which is used to analyze 55 different EA frameworks.

Adaptive Enterprise Architecture Driven Agile Development

Agile development practices focus on developing and delivering working software systems in small iterations with minimal documentation. However, locally project focused agile practices overlook the need for holistic enterprise architecture. Lack of enterprise architecture in agile, especially in the large agile environments, may lead to a number of problems such as technical debt, unnecessary re-work, inconsistent communication, locally focused isolated architecture, design and implementation. There is a missing link between the enterprise architecture and agile development. Enterprise architecture is a strategic capability that should enable and enhance agility of agile development. However, organisations are not sure how best to approach strategic enterprise architecture capability for supporting agile development. This paper proposes and demonstrate the applicability of an integrated adaptive enterprise architecture driven agile development approach for large agile environments.

Perceived Benefits from Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise Architecture has been developed in order to optimize the alignment between business needs and the (rapidly changing) possibilities of information technology. But do organizations indeed benefit from the application of Enterprise Architecture according to those who are in any way involved in architecture? To answer this question, a model has been developed (the Enterprise Architecture Value Framework) to organize the benefits of Enterprise Architecture. Based on this model, a survey has been conducted among the various types of stakeholders of Enterprise Architecture, such as architects, project managers, developers and business or IT managers. In the survey the respondents were asked to what extent they perceive various benefits of Enterprise Architecture in their organization. The results of this survey (with 287 fully completed responses) are analyzed and presented in this paper. In all categories of the framework benefits are perceived, though to different extent. Very few benefits are perceived in relation to the external orientation of the organization. Few statistically significant correlations were found in relation to the background of the respondents: the overall view on benefits of Enterprise Architecture appeared independent of the role of the respondents, the economic sector and the number of years of experience with architecture

Factors Influencing the Engagement Between Enterprise Architects and Stakeholders in Enterprise Architecture Development

The development of Enterprise Architecture (EA) is facing several challenges. The highly referenced challenges in literature are related to enterprise architects and stakeholders. The enterprise architects and the stakeholders are the main actors in EA development. However, there are limited studies that cover the relationship of the enterprise architects and the stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors characterizing the engagement of enterprise architects and the stakeholders in EA development. The study used a systematic literature review (SLR) as a method to identify the factors and proposing an initial engagement model. The SLR revealed 12 factors that influence the engagement between the enterprise architect and the stakeholders. These factors are organized using the multiple perspective theory under three perspectives namely; technical, organizational and personal that comprise the initial engagement model. The study is contributing by shedding the light on the key aspects of engagement factors between the enterprise architects and the stakeholders in the development of EA. Furthermore, it is an initial step towards developing the engagement framework by comprehending these key aspects.