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Business Architecture Implementation

Chaker Jomaa, Tahir LU and Garcia, Stephany LU (2012) INFM03 20121
Department of Informatics
Abstract
The Enterprise Architecture (EA) discipline was initiated roughly two decades ago. During the same timeframe, Information Technology (IT) spending has generally increased year after year. As a result, organisations have started to consider implementing EA projects to better manage their IT spending. When implementing EA projects, Enterprise Architects may choose to use EA frameworks as a guide to help them manage the complexity within enterprises. These frameworks are generally strong in the descriptive sense, but weak in the actionable one. EA essentially
entails the collaboration between the business and IT elements, which are intertwined in any given EA project implementation. Despite the extensive details pertaining to EA frameworks,... (More)
The Enterprise Architecture (EA) discipline was initiated roughly two decades ago. During the same timeframe, Information Technology (IT) spending has generally increased year after year. As a result, organisations have started to consider implementing EA projects to better manage their IT spending. When implementing EA projects, Enterprise Architects may choose to use EA frameworks as a guide to help them manage the complexity within enterprises. These frameworks are generally strong in the descriptive sense, but weak in the actionable one. EA essentially
entails the collaboration between the business and IT elements, which are intertwined in any given EA project implementation. Despite the extensive details pertaining to EA frameworks, and the use of these frameworks in aiding EA project implementations, Enterprise Architects may find
themselves having to deviate from a framework’s prescribed guidelines when implementing an EA project. As such, this thesis conducts an in depth comparison between the Business Architecture (BA) element’s theoretically prescribed implementation steps, and its practical
implementation guidelines that are commonly applied by Enterprise Architects. The Open Group’s Architecture Framework (TOGAF) was selected within this study, enabling the comparison to be performed. Interviews with Enterprise Architects across Sweden and Denmark were carried out in order to determine the steps that they put into practice during the actual
implementation of the BA phase within an EA project. The empirical findings obtained as a result of these interviews illustrate that a number of differences exist between TOGAF’s prescribed steps for implementing the BA phase and the steps practically implemented by the experienced Enterprise Architects. In overall terms, TOGAF was found to provide fairly comprehensive guidelines regarding BA’s implementation. However, certain steps could be further enhanced by making a number of small, but significantly important modifications to them, ensuring that their practical implementation is achievable to a higher degree. Consequently, this study aims to provide Architects with more comprehensive guidelines that will aid them when implementing the BA phase within EA projects. Additionally, by raising awareness of the existing differences, this study should enable Architects to take actionable steps in order to bridge this existing gap when implementing EA projects. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Chaker Jomaa, Tahir LU and Garcia, Stephany LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
Differences between TOGAF’s view of Business Architecture and its Practical Implementation
course
INFM03 20121
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
Business Architecture, Enterprise Architecture, TOGAF, Enterprirse Architecture Frameworks, Enterprise Architecture Implementation
report number
INF12-006
language
English
id
2732551
date added to LUP
2012-06-15 08:30:53
date last changed
2012-06-15 08:30:53
@misc{2732551,
  abstract     = {{The Enterprise Architecture (EA) discipline was initiated roughly two decades ago. During the same timeframe, Information Technology (IT) spending has generally increased year after year. As a result, organisations have started to consider implementing EA projects to better manage their IT spending. When implementing EA projects, Enterprise Architects may choose to use EA frameworks as a guide to help them manage the complexity within enterprises. These frameworks are generally strong in the descriptive sense, but weak in the actionable one. EA essentially
entails the collaboration between the business and IT elements, which are intertwined in any given EA project implementation. Despite the extensive details pertaining to EA frameworks, and the use of these frameworks in aiding EA project implementations, Enterprise Architects may find
themselves having to deviate from a framework’s prescribed guidelines when implementing an EA project. As such, this thesis conducts an in depth comparison between the Business Architecture (BA) element’s theoretically prescribed implementation steps, and its practical
implementation guidelines that are commonly applied by Enterprise Architects. The Open Group’s Architecture Framework (TOGAF) was selected within this study, enabling the comparison to be performed. Interviews with Enterprise Architects across Sweden and Denmark were carried out in order to determine the steps that they put into practice during the actual
implementation of the BA phase within an EA project. The empirical findings obtained as a result of these interviews illustrate that a number of differences exist between TOGAF’s prescribed steps for implementing the BA phase and the steps practically implemented by the experienced Enterprise Architects. In overall terms, TOGAF was found to provide fairly comprehensive guidelines regarding BA’s implementation. However, certain steps could be further enhanced by making a number of small, but significantly important modifications to them, ensuring that their practical implementation is achievable to a higher degree. Consequently, this study aims to provide Architects with more comprehensive guidelines that will aid them when implementing the BA phase within EA projects. Additionally, by raising awareness of the existing differences, this study should enable Architects to take actionable steps in order to bridge this existing gap when implementing EA projects.}},
  author       = {{Chaker Jomaa, Tahir and Garcia, Stephany}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Business Architecture Implementation}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}