Enterprise Architecture: A Literature Review

Abstract

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is principles, methods and models that are used in the design and realization of an enterprise’s organizational structure, business processes, information systems and IT infrastructure. There has been a steady growth in the number of research conducted in this field, however there is a need to consolidate the focus of the research in this field. This paper conducts an extensive review on 177 journal publications in the field of EA from 1974 to 2016 available in Science Citation Index (SCI) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) database. The aim of this paper is to present scholars and practitioners with a detailed overview on the available research in the field of EA. The selected papers have been grouped into 27 categories. The contents of papers in each category are summarized and future research direction for each categories are outlined. This overview indicates that the research in EA that has spanned from late 90’s till date, requires more concentrated effort in terms of developing new methodologies and framework to integrate enterprise applications that are the need of today’s growing business that venture into new technologies like SOA, frameworks, modeling and healthcare.