Applying Agility and Living Service Systems Thinking to Enterprise Architecture

Applying Agility and Living Service Systems Thinking to Enterprise Architecture

Asif Qumer Gill (School of Software, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia)
Copyright: © 2017 |Pages: 16
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1837-2.ch023

Abstract

Adaptive enterprise architecture capability plays an important role in enabling complex enterprise transformations. One of the key challenges when establishing an adaptive enterprise architecture capability is identifying the enterprise context and the scope of the enterprise architecture. The objective of this paper is to develop and present an adaptive enterprise service system (AESS) conceptual model, which is a part of The Gill Framework for Adaptive Enterprise Service Systems. This model has been developed using a “Design Research” approach. The AESS conceptual model assimilates agility, service, and living systems thinking (following multi-agent system modelling) for describing and analyzing the enterprise context and scope for establishing an adaptive enterprise architecture capability. The target audience of this AESS model driven approach includes both, enterprise architecture researchers and practitioners.
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Research Context

There are a number of well-known EA frameworks such as Zachman (1987), Federal Enterprise Architecture (CIO Council 2001), and The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) (Harrison 2011) that can be used for developing an adaptive EA capability of an enterprise. However, these frameworks are unlikely to be able to be used or adopted off-the-shelf for any specific organization. Organizations need to tailor their own situation-specific adaptive EA capability by integrating the necessary elements from different well-known EA frameworks (Bokang 2013). Adaptive EA capability needs to be tailored according to specific enterprise context and scope of the EA work (Harrison 2011). The challenge is how best to define the enterprise context and scope of the EA work? The AESS model is developed as a part of The Gill Framework for Adaptive Enterprise Service Systems (Gill 2013 - see Figure 1). The AESS model is intended to be used by organisations for defining an adaptive enterprise context and EA work scope for a specific situation.

Figure 1.

The Gill framework for adaptive enterprise architecture systems (© Asif Q. Gill)

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