Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Business Architecture

Business Architecture

It is more than 30 years ago since John Zachman in 1982 first mentioned Enterprise Architecture in the public domain. Since then, various different enterprise architecture frameworks (EA frameworks) as well as business architecture concepts have been developed. At present, there is a tremendous proliferation of such business architecture concepts; a docent are in current or recent use, and new ones are being created. Business Architects are architecting organizations and enterprises need ways to understand, choose and adapt strategy concepts, business modelling and business transformation into their business architecture frameworks.

Together with the Global University Alliance (GUA) the standards organizations ISO, IEEE, CSIR, LEADing Practice and OMG Business Architecture Special Interest Group and the OMG Academia & Research Working Group, intend to solicit information and research into basis for the comparison, assessment, and selection of business architecture concepts and their evolution as a practice matures.

Research Focus

Information and research is sought on topics related to the understanding and comparison of Business Architecture Frameworks (BAFs), including, but not limited to:

  • Semantic foundations of Business Architecture Frameworks
    • What common Ontology aspects do the various Business Architecture concepts have?
    • What common meta objects do they these Business Architecture concepts have?
    • What common templates/models do the Business Architecture concepts have?
  • Organization and modularization principles of their Business Architecture concepts
  • Extension and customization mechanisms for Business Architecture
  • Comparing Business Architecture method and approaches for comparison
  • What Business Architecture roles exist
  • Concern-oriented Business Architecture considerations:
    • What are the most common business architecture customer concerns?
    • What concerns are well-supported (typical concerns tackled by Business Architecture concepts)?
    • What concerns are not currently handled?
  • Model and viewpoint considerations:
    • Typical Business Architecture models the organizations work with?
    • What challenges are being addressed by current Business Architecture models?
    • What challenges are not being addressed by current Business Architecture models?
    • What are the tasks for Business Architecture models used?
  • Business Architecture LifeCycle considerations:
    • Which concepts have Business Architecture LifeCycle aspects
    • What are the Business Architecture LifeCycle phases
    • What are the Business Architecture LifeCycle tasks
    • What are the Business Architecture LifeCycle roles and which task do they do in the various phases
  • Business Architecture KPI considerations:
    • Which Business Architecture measures (KPIs) exist
    • Which framework, method or approach have Business Architecture measures
    • What is the relationship between Business Architecture measures and lifecycle
  • Tool support:
    • Which Business Architecture Tool exist
    • Which framework, method or approach have Business Architecture Tools
    • What is the relationship between Business Architecture Tool method and lifecycle

Examples of research findings can be found here:

Baseline For Research

As a basis for the research we will base it on the international standard uniformity and interoperability, we adopt the conceptual model established in ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010, Systems and software engineering — Architecture description, as a foundation for exploring architecture frameworks, defined as follows:

Architecture Framework: conventions, principles and practices for the description of architectures established within a specific domain of application and/or community of stakeholders.

Following the ISO/IEC/IEEE Standard, an architecture framework should be specified by:[1]

  • information identifying the framework;
  • one or more concerns;
  • one or more stakeholders having those concerns;
  • one or more architecture viewpoints (and their specifications);
  • correspondence rules, integrating the viewpoints;
  • conditions on applicability;
  • relationship with the provisions of the ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010 conceptual model (“meta model”).[2]

Developing & Applying Business Architecture (Part 1) Webinar

Developing & Applying Business Architecture (Part 1)

Research Team

The Business Architecture research team and contacts are:

Research Leader:
Prof. Mark von Rosing
ISO 42010 Development Member
Global University Alliance, Chairman
OMG Business Architecture Special Interest Group, Co-Chair
OMG Academia & Research Working Group, Chair

Fred Cummins
OMG, Business Modeling & Integration Task Force, Chairman
OMG Business Architecture Special Interest Group, Co-Chair

Prof. Antonio Margarito
University of Salento
OMG Business Architecture Special Interest Group: OMG standards that are BA relevant

Prof. Maxim Arzumanyan
Business Architecture Roles
OMG Academia & Research Working Group, Co-Chair
Global University Alliance, Co-Chair

Prof. Sjir Nijssen
PNA Group
OMG Academia & Research Working Group, member
Global University Alliance, member

Prof. Wim Laurier
Business Architecture Ontology
Global University Alliance, Co-Chairman

Prof. Simon Polovina
Business Architecture Semantics (relations and rules)
Global University Alliance, Co-Chairman

Prof. Hans Scheruhn
Typical Business Architecture models
Global University Alliance, Co-Chairman

Thierry Boissay
OMG Business Architecture Special Interest Group: Syntax Analysis

Henk DeMan
OMG Business Architecture Special Interest Group: Value Model
OMG VDML Chairman

Denis Gagne
OMG Business Architecture Special Interest Group: Case Modelling
OMG Case Management Model Notations, Chairman

Gagan Saxena
OMG Business Architecture Special Interest Group: Decision Model and Notation
OMG Decision Model and Notation SIG
Decision Management Solutions

CSIR Coordinator:
Rentia Barnard
Research Institute CSIR, Enterprise Architect Research Group Leader

Georg Etzel
LEADing Practice, Co-CEO

John A. Zachman
Inventor and Father of Enterprise Architecture, Zachman International

NATO Coordinators:
Johan Goossens
NATO Allied Command Transformation
Branch Head, Technology & Human Factors

Krzysztof Skurzak
NATO C3 Architecture & Design

Peter Woudsma
NATO C3 Technology Innovation

UNESCO Coordinators:
Dr. Selin N. Şenocak
UNESCO Chair Holder
Cultural Diplomacy, Governance and Education
Director, Occidental Studies Applied Research Center
Political Sciences and International Relations Faculty Member

Ulrik Foldager
Business Architecture KPIs
LEADing Practice, researcher

Architecture Viewpoints

[1] Survey of Architecture Frameworks.

[2] See ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010, Clause 6.