Issue 1

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A Contingency Approach to Enterprise Architecture Method Engineering

Enterprise Architecture (EA) and methods for the design and employment of EA significantly contribute to the transparency, consistency, and eventually to the flexibility of an organization. However, there is hardly any “one-size-fits-all” EA method that is equally effective for a broad range of transformation projects or in a large number of different contexts. Based on an empirical analysis, this paper identifies three relevant EA contingency factors, three dominating EA application scenarios, as well as the correlations of both as a basis for a situational EA method engineering taking these differences into account.

Using Metamodels to Improve Enterprise Architecture

This case study article describes the rationale for the development, use, and benefits of a metamodel to provide the underlying data model for Enterprise Architecture (EA) content. The case study uses the “EA3 Framework” (Bernard 2004, 2005) to illustrate these points. Metamodels enable integration among models and other artifacts that constitute most EA content. Integrated EA content enables repeatable and reliable analysis and reporting, mapping content to frameworks or reference models, and transitions among EA tools for upgrades or conversions. The initial publication of the EA3 Framework in did not define a metamodel or prescribe artifact content in detail. Artifact content and examples were added in the second edition of the EA3 Framework in 2005, including 46 artifact types that document the five layers and three thread areas of this framework. Though the relationships between the layers and threads were described in the 2nd edition of the EA3 Framework, this case study article provides the first detailed meta-model. The proposed EA3 Metamodel that is described in conceptual and diagrammatic form was developed to support the use of the EA3 approach by the author within a federal government agency using a bottom-up approach based on tool capabilities and reporting obligations. The metamodel described in this case study has been implemented using a commercially-available modeling toolset, and required no tool customization.

Framework Standards – What’s It All About?

Two years ago, some of my friends pressed me intensely to be more definitive about the Framework concepts. Even though, I had written “The Book,” they were specifically asking me for definitions of the entities that comprise the meta model of Row 2 of the Enterprise Framework. It has taken me and a team of dedicated folks two years, however we have progressed far beyond the original requirement. We have produced definitions, not only of the meta entities of Row 2 of the Enterprise Framework, but also we have dictionary definitions of the meta entities of Row 1, Row 2, Row 3, Row 4, Row 5 and Row 6 of the Enterprise Framework plus dictionary definitions for the Product Framework (where I learned about the Framework classification in the first place), for the Profession Framework (that I used to call the I/S Framework, the “meta Framework” relative to the Enterprise Framework) and for the Zachman Classification Framework (the Framework classification for all Frameworks). This work is particularly significant at this point in time for several reasons.

The Organization’s Compass – Enterprise Architecture

This article seeks to establish Enterprise Architecture (EA) as a discipline to achieve an organization’s operating model and position it beyond its current perceived value as framework for standardization and documentation. This is analogous to using a compass, not just to establish the magnetic north but also to chart the direction to go. It describes our operating models, problem space, and the work that has been done to advance the maturity of EA. This is in the form of a foundation layer in the common integrated operating environment that is enabled by our IT governance process. This incremental approach enables projects to incorporate enterprise requirements and collectively build up capabilities to achieve our desired operating model. In this aspect, EA can enable the Ministry of Defense and the Singapore Armed Forces to achieve their operating models – and in the process become their organizational compass.