Towards a classification framework for approaches to enterprise architecture analysis

Analysis is an important part of the Enterprise Architecture Management Process. Prior to decisions regarding transformation of the Enterprise Architecture, the current situation and the outcomes of alternative action plans have to be analyzed. Many analysis approaches have been proposed by researchers and current Enterprise Architecture Management tools implement Analysis functionalities. However, few work has been done structuring and classifying Enterprise Architecture Analysis approaches. This paper collects and extends existing classification schemes, presenting a framework for Enterprise Architecture Analysis classification. For evaluation, a collection of Enterprise Architecture Analysis approaches has been classified based on this framework. As a result, the description of these approaches has been assessed, a common set of important categories for Enterprise Architecture Analysis classification has been derived and suggestions for further development are drawn

Tendências do BPM

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia e Gestão de Sistemas de InformaçãoAtualmente, as organizações encontram-se inseridas em ambientes de mercado cada vez mais competitivos, deparando-se com várias dificuldades, em que face a estas, necessitam de encontrar soluções. Por essa razão, viram o BPM como uma solução para melhorar o seu negócio. Um dos objetivos do BPM é ter a capacidade de identificar, monitorar e otimizar processos de negócio cujo resultado final é um conjunto de atividades realizadas. Com base nesta monitorização e otimização, as organizações tornam-se capazes de identificar possíveis lacunas nos seus processos e com isto melhorá-los. Com isto, verificou-se a falta de informação existente cientificamente em relação à identificação de novas tendências para o BPM. Neste sentido, com este trabalho propomos realizar uma investigação seguindo a metodologia de pesquisa em Design Science Research, em que iniciamos uma pesquisa de levantamento de tendência seguindo a abordagem proposta por Webster e Watson (2002), com base em duas conferências internacionais em BPM de ranking elevado, em que se identificou os tópicos mais abordados como também problemas e soluções desde 2013 até 2015. Posteriormente, com informação recolhida ao longo de três anos, através da criação de um framework identificamos algumas tendências para o BPM, de forma a melhorá-lo. Para garantir a credibilidade dos resultados, através da criação de um inquérito por questionário realizou-se a avaliação dos resultados obtidos.Nowadays, the market gets more and more competitive, thus companies need to learn how to manage and find the right solutions for their business when facing challenges. For that reason, they saw BPM as a great tool to expand their business. One of the features of BPM is the capacity to identify, monetize and optimize processes within the business which ultimately allow for an aggregation of performed activities. Thanks to these features, the business have been capable of identifying possible gaps in their processes and how to improve them. With this, it was verified the lack of scientific information regarding the identification of new trends for BPM. Therefore, with this work we propose to conduct an investigation that follows the searching methodology in Design Science Research, where we initiate a search of lifting trends as proposed by Webster and Watson (2002). This is based on two international conferences on BPM, in which it identified the most discussed topics and also the problems and solutions since 2013 until 2015. After this investigation, with collected information over 3 years, through the creation of framework we identify some BPM trends. To approve this results, we created a survey that was held an evaluation of the final results

Generic analysis support for understanding, evaluating and comparing enterprise architecture models

Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) is one mean to deal with the increasing complexity of today’s IT landscapes. Architectural models are used within EAM to describe the business processes, the used applications, the required infrastructure as well as the dependencies between them. The creation of those models is expensive, since the whole organization and therewith a large amount of data has to be considered. It is important to make use of these models and reuse them for planning purposes and decision making. The models are a solid foundation for various kinds of analyses that support the understanding, evaluation and comparisons of them. Analyses can approximate the effects of the retirement of an application or of a server failure. It is also possible to quantify the models using metrics like the IT coverage of business processes or the workload of a server. The generation of views sets the focus on a specific aspect of the model. An example is the limitation to the processes and applications of a specific organization unit. Architectural models can also be used for planning purposes. The development of a target architecture is supported by identifying weak points and evaluating planning scenarios. Current approaches for EAM analysis are typically isolated ones, addressing only a limited subset of the different analysis goals. An integrated approach that covers the different information demands of the stakeholders is missing. Additionally, the analysis approaches are highly dependent on the utilized meta model. This is a serious problem since the EAM domain is characterized by a large variety of frameworks and meta models. In this thesis, we propose a generic framework that supports the different analysis activities during EAM. We develop the required techniques for the specification and execution of analyses, independently from the utilized meta model. An analysis language is implemented for the definition and customization of the analyses according to the current needs of the stakeholder. Thereby, we focus on reuse and a generic definition. We utilize a generic representation format to be able to abstract from the great variety of used meta models in the EAM domain. The execution of the analyses is done with Semantic Web Technologies and data-flow based model analysis. The framework is applied for the identification of weak points as well as the evaluation of planning scenarios regarding consistency of changes and goal fulfillment. Two methods are developed for these tasks, as well as respective analysis support is identified and implemented. These are, for example, a change impact analysis, specific metrics or the scoping of the architectural model according to different aspects. Finally, the coverage of the framework regarding existing EA analysis approaches is determined with a scenario-based evaluation. The applicability and relevance of the language and of the proposed methods is proved within three large case studies