A Network-Based View of Enterprise Architecture

Abstract

Traditional notions of architecture have focused on the components and (or domains of interest—process, data, and infrastructure) aspects of architecture. Their goal is to separate concerns into modules and provide interfaces between modules. This view helps designers understand the ideal or espoused view of architecture. In our work, we view architecture from a dependency perspective. These dependencies evolve over time, creating an emergent architecture. The emergence is influenced by both technical and social factors. Dependencies occur during the design, production, and use of enterprise components. This leads us to use network-based analysis techniques in order to understand the emerging dependency networks. In order to provide architects with support tools to communicate and make decisions about architecture, we describe the data requirements and algorithms that can be used to build a decision support system that enable enterprises to incorporate a network perspective in their decision making process. We present our approach and methods in the context of a case study