Traceability and Modeling of Requirements in Enterprise Architecture from a Design Rationale Perspective

in Ninth IEEE conference on Research Challenges in Information Systems (RCIS 2015), Athens, May 13-15, 2015 (2015)

Our work aims to rationalize Enterprise Architectures (EA) by providing the reasoning behind the designs, in terms of selection criteria, design alternatives and more. Its major contribution is a formal ... [more ▼]

Our work aims to rationalize Enterprise Architectures (EA) by providing the reasoning behind the designs, in terms of selection criteria, design alternatives and more. Its major contribution is a formal metamodel that captures the reasoning and the inter-relationships of design decisions. This paper extends our approach in order to provide an explicit bridging between the Problem space that is defined by the different requirements and the Solution space that is described by specific design decisions. In doing so, EA Anamnesis also supports traceability from specific design decisions to the given requirements. [less ▲]

Capturing Design Rationales in Enterprise Architecture: A Case Study

in 7th IFIP WG 8.1 Working Conference, PoEM 2014, Manchester, UK, November 12-13 (2014, November 12)

We aim for rationalizing Enterprise Architecture, supplementing models that express EA designs with models that express the decision making behind the designs. In our previous work we introduced the EA ... [more ▼]

We aim for rationalizing Enterprise Architecture, supplementing models that express EA designs with models that express the decision making behind the designs. In our previous work we introduced the EA Anamnesis approach for architectural rationalization, and illustrated it with a fictitious case study. In this paper we evaluate our approach in terms of its ability to capture design rationales in the context of a real life case study. Together with stakeholders from the business and IT domains of a Luxembourgish Research and Technology Organization, we captured the design rationales behind the introduction of a new budget forecast business process. Our case study shows that EA Anamnesis can reflect the design rationales of the stakeholders, also linking business and IT concerns. Furthermore our study shows that, for this particular case, the stakeholders often used heuristics (commonsensical “short cuts”) to make their decision, or even made decisions without considering alternative choices. Finally, we discuss what the lessons learned from this case imply for further research. [less ▲]

Implementing a Software Prototype for Enterprise Architecture Rationalization: Lessons Learned

in 9th workshop on Trends in Enterprise Architecture (TEAR 2014), Ulm 1-2 september 2014 (2014)

Enterprise Architecture (EA) modeling languages describe an enterprise architecture holistically. Therefore, they show an enterprises business products and services, and how these are realized by IT ... [more ▼]

Enterprise Architecture (EA) modeling languages describe an enterprise architecture holistically. Therefore, they show an enterprises business products and services, and how these are realized by IT infrastructure and applications. However, EA modeling languages lack the capability of capturing rationalization information behind these models in terms of selection criteria, alternatives etc. Our earlier work proposes the EA Anamnesis approach for enterprise architecture rationalization. Its major contribution is a formal metamodel and a corresponding concrete syntax to interrelate business and IT decisions and in turn complement EA models with design rationale information. Yet, up to now the EA Anamnesis approach lacks software tool support. In this paper we discuss the lessons learned during the implementation of our metamodel into a software prototype. Furthermore, we provide a reflection of our aim to develop a tool by rapid prototyping, whereby practitioner feedback enables concurrent maturation of the software tool and metamodel and the idea of presenting a tool to foster acceptance and practical uptake of EA Anamnesis [less ▲]

Formalizing Enterprise Architecture Decision Models using Integrity Constraints

in Unknown, Unknown (Ed.) Formalizing Enterprise Architecture Decision Models using Integrity Constraints (2014)

In creating an enterprise architecture (EA) several design decisions have to be made. The aim of this paper is to provide a logic-based formalism for capturing architectural design decisions in order to ... [more ▼]

In creating an enterprise architecture (EA) several design decisions have to be made. The aim of this paper is to provide a logic-based formalism for capturing architectural design decisions in order to make the rationalization of these decisions explicit as well as traceable. Our working hypothesis is that capturing of design knowledge in terms of a logic-based framework will enable consistency checks of the underlying rationales and advanced impact/what-if analysis when confronted with changes (e.g. decisions are changed, issues are solved). We formalize a set of integrity constraints, which allow guidance of decision capturing during model creation and provide means to perform consistency checks. We apply our formal framework to a practical case study from the insurance sector. [less ▲]