The research focuses on the relationship and interlinking between the different architectural domains within the enterprise architecture of an enterprise. The architectural domains are grouped together as business architecture, information architecture and technology architecture. First, a literature review of the definitions, history, role, functions and qualities, existing frameworks, models and domains of enterprise architecture was conducted. The definitions; role and benefits; models, frameworks, ontologies and descriptive languages of the different architectural domains were then studied as background and basis. New definitions were deduced. Second, the modelling methodology, process, elements and deliverables were investigated. An integration metamodel for enterprise architecture was developed, according to this modelling methodology. The metamodel is called the Relational Enterprise Architecture Metamodel or the REAM. Third, the research methodology for the empirical research section was investigated and determined. The proposed conceptual metamodel has been assessed through a case study within three different industries each. The feedback from the case studies was used to modify/enhance the metamodel. The possibilities for application of the modified model were then assessed at the University of Pretoria. The contribution of this research lies mainly in the development, empirical testing and refining of an integrated EA metamodel (REAM) as well as the development of new definitions for enterprise, business, information and technology architecture and relating them. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria 2015. / Information Science / Unrestricted

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Ciência da Informação, 2011. / Submitted by Albânia Cézar de Melo (albania@bce.unb.br) on 2011-12-22T12:13:22Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2011_JorgeCordeiroDuarte.pdf: 4994378 bytes, checksum: 87522d963519e02cd0e2362bfae5abca (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marília Freitas(marilia@bce.unb.br) on 2012-01-03T15:23:15Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2011_JorgeCordeiroDuarte.pdf: 4994378 bytes, checksum: 87522d963519e02cd0e2362bfae5abca (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-01-03T15:23:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2011_JorgeCordeiroDuarte.pdf: 4994378 bytes, checksum: 87522d963519e02cd0e2362bfae5abca (MD5) / As organizações atuam hoje em um ambiente caracterizado pela mudança constante. Por isso, necessitam de instrumentos que permitam agilidade para adaptar suas estratégias, processos e sistemas µas necessidades de cada momento. A Arquitetura Empresarial (AE) tem sido identificada por pesquisadores como a abordagem adequada para prover a agilidade organizacional, pois permite o conhecimento dos elementos organizacionais favorecendo planejar e realizar as mudanças necessárias. Entretanto, a AE ainda não é uma realidade para a maioria das organizações. Os motivos são a complexidade inerente, a falha das abordagens atuais para lidar com essa complexidade e o custo das ferramentas envolvidas. A AE é uma disciplina em desenvolvimento e requer princípios, teorias e instrumentos adequados µa sua natureza e acessíveis a organizações de qualquer porte. Nesse contexto, este estudo identifica um novo referencial teórico: a AE como Arquitetura de Informação Organizacional (AIO). O estudo propõe, ainda, uma abordagem para a AIO, que se fundamenta nos princípios da colaboração organizacional e nos métodos frágeis. Seu principal objetivo é reduzir a complexidade e o custo da AIO. A solução proposta é avaliada em estudo de caso em uma instituição do sistema financeiro brasileiro. ______________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT / Currently, organizations operate in an environment marked by constant changes. Thus, they need instruments bringing agility to adopt their strategies, processes and systems to each moment needs. Enterprise Architecture (EA) has been identified by researchers as the approach suitable to the organizational agility as it allows the know-ledge of different organizational elements leading to planning and accomplishment of the changing actions. However, AE has not comprised the most part of organizations yet. The reasons are due to its complexity, the current approach failure to deal with the complexity and the cost of the tools involved. AE is an on-going process discipline and it requires appropriate principles and specific theories and instruments for organizations of any size. In this context, this study identifies a new theoretical framework: EA as Architecture of Information for Organizations (AIO) and proposes a new approach that is based on the principles of organizational collaboration and agile methods. Its main objective is to reduce complexity and cost of AIO. The proposed solution is evaluated on a case study in an institution of the Brazilian financial system. Currently, organizations operate in an environment marked by constant changes. Thus, they need instruments bringing agility to adopt their strategies, processes and systems to each moment needs. Enterprise Architecture (EA) has been identified by researchers as the approach suitable to the organizational agility as it allows the know-ledge of different organizational elements leading to planning and accomplishment of the changing actions. However, AE has not comprised the most part of organizations yet. The reasons are due to its complexity, the current approach failure to deal with the complexity and the cost of the tools involved. AE is an on-going process discipline and it requires appropriate principles and specific theories and instruments for organizations of any size. In this context, this study identfies a new theoretical framework: EA as Architecture of Information for Organizations (AIO) and proposes a new approach that is based on the principles of organizational collaboration and agile methods. Its main objective is to educe complexity and cost of AIO. The proposed solution is evaluated on a case study in an institution of the Brazilian financial system.

Företagens tillväxt har resulterat i en ökad mängd data som kräver analys och därmed uppkommer utmaningar för hantering och analys. För att stödja företagens mål har Enterprise Architecture (EA) utvecklats som ett ramverk. Dessutom har begreppet Technical Debt (TD) uppkommit för att bistå i beslutsfattande om hur begränsade resurser ska investeras och identifiera eventuella nackdelar med befintliga designbeslut. För att inkludera både tekniska och affärsrelaterade aspekter har begreppet Enterprise Architecture Debt (EAD) introducerats. Trots att EAD har börjat bli mer välkänt saknas för närvarande fastställda gränsvärden för mätning och hantering av konceptet. Detta gör det svårt för organisationer att erhålla en klar uppfattning om sin skuld och prioritera lämpliga åtgärder. Mot denna bakgrund har syftet med denna uppsats varit att definiera gränsvärden för Enterprise Architecture Debt Measurements (EADM) för att underlätta för organisationer att förstå omfattningen av sin skuld och därigenom kunna prioritera åtgärder på ett bättre sätt. För att uppnå detta har en kvalitativ forskningsansats använts i studien, där data har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med EA-experter. Genom att lägga fokus på deltagarnas synpunkter och åsikter syftar studien till att bidra till kunskapen om EAD och dess mätvärden. Resultaten visar på en stark vilja bland EA-experter att anpassa och förbättra mätning och hantering av EA inom organisationer. Förändringsarbete betraktas som nödvändigt för att uppnå effektivitet och relevans inom EA, där kostnadsaspekter spelar en betydande roll vid beslutsfattande. Studien undersöker även möjligheten att fastställa kvaliteten på mätningar inom EA. Respondenterna uttrycker en positiv inställning till standardisering av EAD, samtidigt som de betonar utmaningar med att tillämpa generella mätetal. Studien framhäver vikten av flexibilitet och kontinuerlig anpassning för att utveckla meningsfulla och användbara mätvärden som effektivt kan bedöma kvaliteten inom EAD. Slutsatsen i studien blev att fastställandet av kvaliteten på mätetal är möjligt i de sammanhang där organisationerna visar en vilja att påta sig de kostnader som kan uppstå vid utvecklingen av sådana mätetal och att kvaliteten endast kan fastställas när mätetalen är anpassade efter organisationen. / The growth of companies has resulted in an increased amount of data that requires analysis, posing challenges for its management and analysis. To support the goals of companies, Enterprise Architecture (EA) has been developed as a framework. Furthermore the concept of Technical Debt (TD) has emerged to assist in decision-making regarding the allocation of limited resources and identifying potential drawbacks of existing design decisions. To encompass both technical and business-related aspects, the concept of Enterprise Architecture Debt (EAD) has been introduced. Despite EAD gaining recognition, there are currently no established thresholds for measuring and managing this concept. This poses difficulties for organizations to gain a clear understanding of their debt and prioritize appropriate actions. Against this backdrop, the aim of this thesis has been to define thresholds for Enterprise Architecture Debt Measurements (EADM) to facilitate organizations' understanding of the extent of their debt and enable better prioritization of actions. To achieve this, a qualitative research approach has been employed, with data collected through semi-structured interviews with EA experts. By focusing on participants' perspectives and opinions, the study aims to contribute to the knowledge of EAD and its metrics. The findings indicate a strong willingness among EA experts to adapt and improve the measurement and management of EA within organizations. Change efforts are seen as necessary to achieve efficiency and relevance in EA, with cost considerations playing a significant role in decision-making. The study also explores the possibility of determining the quality of EA measurements. Respondents express a positive attitude towards the standardization of EAD while highlighting challenges in applying generic metrics. The study emphasizes the importance of flexibility and continuous adaptation in developing meaningful and useful metrics that can effectively assess the quality within EAD. The conclusion of the study was that determining the quality of metrics is possible in contexts where organizations show a willingness to bear the costs that may arise in the development of such metrics, and that the quality can only be determined when the metrics are tailored to the organization's needs.

This thesis explores the potential to unify three emerging disciplines: enterprise engineering, enterprise architecture and enterprise ontology. The current fragmentation that exists in literature on enterprise alignment and design constrains the development and growth of the emerging disciplines. Enterprises need to use a multi-disciplinary approach when they continuously align, design and re-design the enterprise. Although enterprises need to be aligned internally (across various enterprise facets), as well as externally (with the environment), most alignment approaches still focus on business-IT alignment, i.e. aligning the business operations with the information and communication technologies and systems of the enterprise. This study focuses on a popular business-IT alignment approach,called the foundation for execution approach, and its associated artefact, called the operating model. The study acknowledges the theoretical contribution of the operating model to establish the required level of business process integration and standardisation at an enterprise in delivering goods and services to customers. Highlighting the practical problems in selecting an operating model for an enterprise, and more specifically the practical problems of identifying process reuse potential at an enterprise, a thesis statement is formulated: The operating model concept, as part of a business-IT alignment approach, can be enhanced with a process reuse identification framework, when a business-IT alignment contextualisation is used. The study is divided into two research questions. The first research question addresses the current fragmentation that exists in the literature, which impairs reuse of the existing business-IT alignment knowledge base. An inductive literature review develops the Business-IT Alignment Model to provide a common contextualisation for current business-IT alignment approaches. The second research question addresses the practical problems of the operating model regarding the identification of process reuse potential at an enterprise. Applying the newly developed Business-IT Alignment Model as a contextualisation instrument, the study demonstrates the use of design research in developing the Process Reuse Identification Framework. The conclusion after the investigation of the two research questions is that the thesis statement was confirmed, i.e. the operating model concept, as part of a business-IT alignment approach, can be enhanced with a process reuse identification framework, when a business-IT contextualisation is used. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Industrial and Systems Engineering / Unrestricted

A common challenge in organizations is a perception of that different languages are spoken among IT and other departments. Co-workers come from different background, have different knowledge base and sometimes even different objectives which can make an alignment more challenging. Enterprise Architecture (EA) can align IT investments with business directions and potentially solve issues regarding business-IT misalignments and bring value to organizations. Technical Debt (TD) is a well-established concept in software development and means that a solution that is “quick and dirty” is applied in order to earn time in short term and be able to provide a function in a system more quickly. This primitive implementation will at a later stage need to be corrected and rewritten, and the longer it takes, the more advanced, complex and time-consuming the correction will be. As EA has grown, major scientific and academic contributions have been developed. What is still missing is insight and ability to include a debt concept, which not only address TD but also business aspects. By adapting the TD concept in the EA domain, a new metaphor, providing a holistic perspective, has been proposed; Enterprise Architecture Debt (EAD). Up to the present debts for measuring EAD has been identified, but current research projects has not yet identified when a certain measure is to be considered of high or low quality. There is a need to develop a process for deriving such thresholds and identifying them. To be able to communicate the severity of an EAD to stakeholders, thresholds for EAD measures plays an important role. These thresholds will in the long term play a role in providing a tool for computer scientist working in organizations exploiting EA, and also contribute to current research within the field of IT-management and EA. By adopting a systematic process for defining expert driven thresholds a first version of a process for defining EAD thresholds could be presented and tested with domain experts. Five common opinions were detected, regarding the process, among the experts. The process could potentially facilitate useful communication and it was considered positive that it highlighted the context of the EAD. Also, that clearer process description and real-world EA model examples was needed, and that the moment of selecting membership function was unnecessary came up. Further, drivers for EAD thresholds and areas where it is perceived as important to have thresholds for EADs was a focus during the study. Cost and time, responsibility and engagement and context are perceived to be important drivers for EAD thresholds. While the business-it alignment and master data are seen as important areas. Also, context can play an important role when determine important areas. / En vanlig utmaning inom organisationer är uppfattningen av att olika språka talas på IT-avdelningen och övriga avdelningar. Medarbetare kommer från olika bakgrund, har olika kunskapsbas och ibland till och med olika mål, vilket kan göra fastställandet av riktning mer utmanande. Enterprise Architecture (EA) kan säkerställa att IT investeringar och affärs direktiv går i samma riktning och kan därmed potentiellt lösa problem i anslutning till IT och övrig affärsverksamhet som uppstått på grund av detta och skapa värde till organisationen. Teknisk skuld är ett väletablerat koncept inom mjukvaruutveckling och syftar till att enlösning som är ”quick and dirty” tillämpas för att vinna tid på kort sikt och kunna tillämpa en funktionalitet i ett system snabbare. Denna primitiva implementation kommer vid senare tillfälle behöva korrigeras och skrivas om. Ju längre tid det tar desto mer avancerad, komplex och tidskrävande kommer ändringen att bli. I takt med att EA har vuxit har stora vetenskapliga och akademiska bidrag utvecklats. Vad som fortfarande saknas är insikt och förmåga att inkludera ett skuldkoncept som inte bara adresserar tekniks skuld utan även affärsaspekter. Genom att introducera konceptet teknisk skult i EA domänen har en ny metafor, som tillhandahåller ett helhetsperspektiv, föreslagits; Enterprise Architecture Debt (EA Debt). Fram tills idag har skulder för att mäta EA Debt blivit identifierade, men aktuella forskningsprojekt har ännu inte identifierat när en viss EA Debt är hög eller låg. Det finns ett behov av att utveckla en process för att härleda sådana gränsvärden och identifiera dem. För att kunna kommunicera all varlighetsgraden för en EA Debt till intressenter kan gränsvärden för EA Debt spela en viktig roll. Dessa gränsvärden kommer på lång sikt spela en roll när det kommer till att tillhandahålla verktyg för datavetare som arbetar i organisationer som tillämpar EA, och också bidra till aktuell forskning inom IT-förvaltning och EA. Genom att anta en systematisk process för att definiera expertdrivna gränsvärden har en första version av en process för att definiera EA Debt-gränsvärden kunnat presenteras och testas med domän-experter. Fem vanliga uppfattningar, gällande processen, kunde uppräckas bland experterna. Processens skulle också potentiellt kunna främja användbar kommunikation och det ansågs positivt att den belysta och tog hänsyn till kontext gällande EA Debt. Att tydligare processbeskrivning och verklighetstrogna EA-modeller som exempel behövdes samt att momentet där medlemsfunktion skulle väljas var onödigt kom också upp. Vidare så fokuserade studien på drivkrafter för att ta fram gränsvärden för EA Debt och områden där uppfattningen är att detta är viktigt. Kostnad och tid, ansvar och engagemang och kontext är uppfattade som viktiga drivkrafter när det kommer till gränsvärden för EA skuld, medan inriktningen för IT och övrig affärsverksamhet och basdata ses som viktiga områden. Även kontexten kan ha en viktig roll när det kommer till att avgöra vilka områden som är viktiga.