A Conceptual Model for Compliance Checking Support of Enterprise Architecture Decisions

Enterprise architecture modeling languages capture holistically the structure of an enterprise. They therefore represent how the services and business processes of an organization are supported by IT infrastructure and applications. However, the reasoning behind the selection of specific design decisions in the architecture remains usually implicit. In our earlier work we proposed the EA Anamnesis approach which captures design rationalization information in the solution space of the enterprise architecture. Its major contribution is a formal metamodel that captures the reasoning behind design decisions and the relationships between them. In this paper, we extend our approach with concepts from the problem space domain of the enterprise architecture, such as goals, principles, requirements. Furthermore, we provide a bridging with the existing concepts of EA Anamnesis which are part of the solution space. In doing so, we can represent the extent to which EA design decisions, which define the EA design, comply with given goals, principles and requirements. The extension is evaluated with a real world case study within a Research and Technology Organization.