Systemic classification of concern-based design methods in the context of enterprise architecture

Inf Syst Front (2006) 8:115131

DOI 10.1007/s10796-006-7976-9Systemic classification of concern-based design methods

in the context of enterprise architecturePavel Balabko Alain WegmannSpringer Science + Business Media, LLC 2006Abstract Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a relatively new

domain that is rapidly developing. The primary reason for

developing EA is to support business by providing the fundamental technology and process structure for an IT strategy

[TOGAF]. EA models have to model enterprises facets that

span from marketing to IT. As a result, EA models tend to

become large. Large EA models create a problem for model

management. Concern-based design methods (CBDMs) aim

to solve this problem by considering EA models as a composition of smaller, manageable partsconcerns. There are

dozens of different CBDMs that can be used in the context

of EA: from very generic methods to specific methods for

business modeling or IT implementations. This variety of

methods can cause two problems for those who develop and

use innovative CBDMs in the field of Enterprise Architecture (EA). The first problem is to choose specific CBDMs

that can be used in a given EA methodology: this is a problem for researchers who develop their own EA methodology.

The second problem is to find similar methods (with the

same problem domain or with similar frameworks) in order

to make a comparative analysis with these methods: this is a

problem of researchers who develop their own CBDMs related to a specific problem domain in EA (such as business

process modeling or aspect oriented programming). We aim

to address both of these problems by means of a definition of

generic Requirements for CBDMs based on the system inquiry. We use these requirements to classify twenty CBDMs

in the context of EA. We conclude with a short discussionP. Balabko ([envelopeback]) A. Wegmann

Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne,

CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerlande-mail: [email protected]. Wegmann

e-mail: [email protected]

about trends that we have observed in the field of concernbased design and modeling.Keywords Classification . Concern . Design . Enterprise

architecture . Systemic inquiry . Organization level1. IntroductionThis paper presents a classification of concern-based design

methods (CBDMs) and considers how CBDMs can be used

in the context of Enterprise Architecture (EA).EA is a multi-disciplinary approach that enables enterprises to anticipate or react to necessary business or technical

changes....