Recently, Ada and Simon started the development of an ontology for Enterprise Architecture (EA) Debt. It delves into the nuances
Publications on the Topic of EA Debts
Slupczynski, Ada; Hacks, Simon Towards a Knowledge Base of Terms on Enterprise Architecture Debt Proceedings Article In: Sales, Tiago Prince; Kinderen, Sybren; Proper, Henderik A.; Pufahl, Luise; Karastoyanova, Dimka; Sinderen, Marten (Ed.): Enterprise Design, Operations, and Computing. EDOC 2023 Workshops, pp. 194–210, Springer Nature Switzerland, Cham, 2024, ISBN: 978-3-031-54712-6. Daoudi, Sara; Larsson, Malin; Hacks, Simon; Jung, Jürgen Discovering and Assessing Enterprise Architecture Debts Journal Article In: Complex Systems Informatics and Modeling Quarterly, no. 35, pp. 1–29, 2023. Hacks, Simon; Jung, Jürgen A First Validation of the Enterprise Architecture Debts Concept Proceedings Article In: Bork, Dominik; Proper, Henderik A. (Ed.): International Conference on Business Process Modeling, Development and Support, pp. 217-226, Springer, 2023. Slupczynski, Ada; Alexander, Peter; Lichter, Horst A Process for Evaluating the Prudence of Enterprise Architecture Debts Conference Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems, vol. 2, INSTICC SciTePress, 2023, ISSN: 2184-4992. Bråtfors, Robin; Hacks, Simon; Bork, Dominik Historization of Enterprise Architecture Models Via Enterprise Architecture Knowledge Graphs Proceedings Article In: Barn, Balbir S.; Sandkuhl, Kurt (Ed.): The Practice of Enterprise Modeling. PoEM 2022, Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2022. Maqsood, Ather; Alexander, Peter; Lichter, Horst; Tanachutiwat, Sansiri A Viewpoints-Based Analysis of Enterprise Architecture Debt Proceedings Article In: Wang, Chua-Chin; Nallanathan, Arumugam (Ed.): Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Signal Processing and Information Communications, pp. 133–154, Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2022, ISBN: 978-3-031-13181-3. Hacks, Simon; Smajevic, Muhamed; Bork, Dominik Using Knowledge Graphs to Detect Enterprise Architecture Smells (Extended Abstract) Proceedings Article In: Leopold, Henrik; Proper, Henderik A. (Ed.): EMISA 2022, Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. 2022. Liss, Lukas; Kämmerling, Henrik; Alexander, Peter; Lichter, Horst Towards a Catalog of Refactoring Solutions for Enterprise Architecture Smells Proceedings Article In: Gan, Benjamin; Ouh, Eng Lieh; Wadhwa, Bimlesh; Chawla, Shailey; Lichter, Horst; Aydin, Selin; Sunetnanta, Thanwadee; Anwar, Toni (Ed.): Joint Proceedings of SEED 2021 & QuASoQ 2021 co-located with 28th Asia Pacific Software Engineering Conference 2021, Taipei [Virtual], December 6, 2021, pp. 60–69, CEUR-WS.org, 2021. Jung, Jürgen; Hacks, Simon; Gooijer, Thijmen; Kinnunen, Matti; Rehring, Kevin Revealing Common Enterprise Architecture Debts: Conceptualization and Critical Reflection on a Workshop Format Industry Experience Report Proceedings Article In: 2021 IEEE 25th International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Workshop (EDOCW), pp. 271-278, 2021. Smajevic, Muhamed; Hacks, Simon; Bork, Dominik Using Knowledge Graphs to Detect Enterprise Architecture Smells Proceedings Article In: Serral, Estefanía; Stirna, Janis; Ralyté, Jolita; Grabis, Jānis (Ed.): The Practice of Enterprise Modeling, pp. 48–63, Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2021, ISBN: 978-3-030-91279-6. Tieu, Benny; Hacks, Simon Determining Enterprise Architecture Smells from Software Architecture Smells Proceedings Article In: 2021 IEEE 23rd Conference on Business Informatics (CBI), pp. 134-142, IEEE, 2021. Hacks, Simon; Jung, Jürgen Enterprise Architecture Debts — A Concept to Manage EA Evolution? Miscellaneous ICIS 2020 TREOs, 2020. Lehmann, Barry-Detlef; Alexander, Peter; Lichter, Horst; Hacks, Simon Towards the Identification of Process Anti-Patterns in Enterprise Architecture Models Proceedings Article In: 8th International Workshop on Quantitative Approaches to Software Quality in conjunction with the 27th Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference (APSEC 2020), pp. 47-54, CEUR-WS, 2020. Alexander, Peter; Hacks, Simon; Jung, Jürgen; Steffens, Ulrike; Uludag, Ömer; Lichter, Horst A Framework for Managing Enterprise Architecture Debts – Outline and Research Directions Proceedings Article In: Koschmider, Agnes; Michael, Judith; Thalheim, Bernhard (Ed.): 10th International Workshop on Enterprise Modeling and Information Systems Architectures, Kiel, Germany, May 14-15, 2020, pp. 5–10, CEUR-WS.org, 2020. Salentin, Johannes; Hacks, Simon Towards a Catalog of Enterprise Architecture Smells Book Section In: Gronau, Norbert; Heine, Moreen; Poustcchi, K; Krasnova, H (Ed.): WI2020 Community Tracks, pp. 276–290, GITO Verlag, 2020, ISBN: 9783955453367. Yeong, Yoon Chow; Hacks, Simon; Lichter, Horst Prioritization of EA Debts Facilitating Portfolio Theory Proceedings Article In: Lichter, Horst; Fögen, Konrad; Sunetnanta, Thanwadee; Anwar, Toni (Ed.): Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Quantitative Approaches to Software Quality co-located with 26th Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference (APSEC 2019), pp. 45–52, CEUR-WS.org, 2019. Petterson, Dan; Hacks, Simon; Lagerström, Robert Using EA Debts to Steer Digitalization in Agile Environments Miscellaneous Digitalize in Stockholm, 2019. Hacks, Simon; Hofert, Hendrik; Salentin, Johannes; Yeong, Yoon Chow; Lichter, Horst Towards the Definition of Enterprise Architecture Debts Proceedings Article In: IEEE 23rd International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Workshop (EDOCW), pp. 9–16, IEEE, 2019, ISBN: 978-1-7281-4598-3.2024
18.@inproceedings{10.1007/978-3-031-54712-6_12,
title = {Towards a Knowledge Base of Terms on Enterprise Architecture Debt},
author = {Ada Slupczynski and Simon Hacks},
editor = {Tiago Prince Sales and Sybren Kinderen and Henderik A. Proper and Luise Pufahl and Dimka Karastoyanova and Marten Sinderen},
isbn = {978-3-031-54712-6},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-03-01},
urldate = {2024-01-01},
booktitle = {Enterprise Design, Operations, and Computing. EDOC 2023 Workshops},
pages = {194–210},
publisher = {Springer Nature Switzerland},
address = {Cham},
abstract = {The term Enterprise Architecture (EA) Debt has been coined to grasp the difference between the actual state of the EA and its hypothetical, optimal state. Since its first definition in 2019, different theses have been conducted on the topic, and different articles have been published working on and with the term EA Debt. Consequently, using different terms has evolved to describe different phenomena within the domain. Due to the different authors involved in this development, perceiving these terms might differ. To avoid misunderstandings and to ease common understanding of the domain, we propose an ontology for the domain of EA Debt. We rely on a lightweight methodology for rapid ontology engineering (UPON light) and the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO) to engineer our ontology.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
The term Enterprise Architecture (EA) Debt has been coined to grasp the difference between the actual state of the EA and its hypothetical, optimal state. Since its first definition in 2019, different theses have been conducted on the topic, and different articles have been published working on and with the term EA Debt. Consequently, using different terms has evolved to describe different phenomena within the domain. Due to the different authors involved in this development, perceiving these terms might differ. To avoid misunderstandings and to ease common understanding of the domain, we propose an ontology for the domain of EA Debt. We rely on a lightweight methodology for rapid ontology engineering (UPON light) and the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO) to engineer our ontology.2023
17.@article{daoudi2023discovering,
title = {Discovering and Assessing Enterprise Architecture Debts},
author = {Sara Daoudi and Malin Larsson and Simon Hacks and Jürgen Jung},
doi = {10.7250/csimq.2023-35.01},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-08-01},
urldate = {2023-01-01},
journal = {Complex Systems Informatics and Modeling Quarterly},
number = {35},
pages = {1–29},
abstract = {The term Enterprise Architecture (EA) Debts has been coined to grasp the difference between the actual state of the EA and its hypothetical, optimal state. So far, different methods have been proposed to identify such EA Debts in organizations. However, these methods either are based on the transfer of known concepts from other domains to EA or are time and resource intensive. To overcome these shortcomings, we propose an approach that uses an interview format to identify EA Debts in enterprises and a method that allows a qualitative assessment of identified EA Debts. The proposed approach is supported by the designed framework that consists of an interview format and a process for determining thresholds of certain EA Smells.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
The term Enterprise Architecture (EA) Debts has been coined to grasp the difference between the actual state of the EA and its hypothetical, optimal state. So far, different methods have been proposed to identify such EA Debts in organizations. However, these methods either are based on the transfer of known concepts from other domains to EA or are time and resource intensive. To overcome these shortcomings, we propose an approach that uses an interview format to identify EA Debts in enterprises and a method that allows a qualitative assessment of identified EA Debts. The proposed approach is supported by the designed framework that consists of an interview format and a process for determining thresholds of certain EA Smells.16.@inproceedings{nokey,
title = {A First Validation of the Enterprise Architecture Debts Concept},
author = {Simon Hacks and Jürgen Jung},
editor = {Dominik Bork and Henderik A. Proper },
doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-34241-7_15},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-06-12},
urldate = {2023-06-12},
booktitle = {International Conference on Business Process Modeling, Development and Support},
journal = {International Working Conference on Exploring Modeling Methods for Systems Analysis and Development},
volume = {479},
pages = {217-226},
publisher = {Springer},
series = {Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing},
abstract = {The Enterprise Architecture (EA) discipline is now established in many companies. The architectures of these companies changed over time. They resulted from a long creation and maintenance process containing processes and services provided by legacy IT systems (e.g., systems, applications) that were reasonable when they were created but might now hamper the introduction of better solutions. To handle those legacies, we started researching on the notion of EA debts, which widens the scope of technical debts to organizational aspects. However, no studies have yet been conducted to validate if the concept of EA debts has a positive influence. Within this work, we have experimented with students of an EA course. Half of the students were taught the concept of EA debts, while the other half was taught about another topic simultaneously. Afterward, the students performed a modeling task graded by EA experts among the criteria of effectiveness, comprehensibility, minimality, and completeness. The analysis revealed no significant difference between the quality of the created models by the different student groups.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
The Enterprise Architecture (EA) discipline is now established in many companies. The architectures of these companies changed over time. They resulted from a long creation and maintenance process containing processes and services provided by legacy IT systems (e.g., systems, applications) that were reasonable when they were created but might now hamper the introduction of better solutions. To handle those legacies, we started researching on the notion of EA debts, which widens the scope of technical debts to organizational aspects. However, no studies have yet been conducted to validate if the concept of EA debts has a positive influence. Within this work, we have experimented with students of an EA course. Half of the students were taught the concept of EA debts, while the other half was taught about another topic simultaneously. Afterward, the students performed a modeling task graded by EA experts among the criteria of effectiveness, comprehensibility, minimality, and completeness. The analysis revealed no significant difference between the quality of the created models by the different student groups.15.@conference{iceis23,
title = {A Process for Evaluating the Prudence of Enterprise Architecture Debts},
author = {Ada Slupczynski and Peter Alexander and Horst Lichter},
doi = {10.5220/0011971400003467},
issn = {2184-4992},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-05-01},
urldate = {2023-05-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems},
volume = {2},
pages = {623-630},
publisher = {SciTePress},
organization = {INSTICC},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {conference}
}
2022
14.@inproceedings{nokey,
title = {Historization of Enterprise Architecture Models Via Enterprise Architecture Knowledge Graphs},
author = {Robin Bråtfors and Simon Hacks and Dominik Bork},
editor = {Balbir S. Barn and Kurt Sandkuhl},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-21488-2_4},
year = {2022},
date = {2022-11-30},
urldate = {2022-11-30},
booktitle = {The Practice of Enterprise Modeling. PoEM 2022},
volume = {456},
publisher = {Springer International Publishing},
address = {Cham},
series = {Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing},
abstract = {Enterprise Architecture (EA) is the discipline that aims to provide a holistic view of the enterprise by explicating business and IT alignment from the perspectives of high-level corporate strategy down to daily operations and network infrastructures. EAs are consequently complex as they compose and integrate many aspects on different architecture layers. A recent proposal to cope with this complexity and to make EAs amenable to automated and intuitive visual analysis is the transformation of EA models into EA Knowledge Graphs. A remaining limitation of these approaches is that they perceive the EA to be static, i.e., they represent and analyze EAs at a single point in time. In the paper at hand, we introduce a historization concept, a prototypical implementation, and a performance analysis for how EAs can be represented and processed to enable the analysis of their evolution.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Enterprise Architecture (EA) is the discipline that aims to provide a holistic view of the enterprise by explicating business and IT alignment from the perspectives of high-level corporate strategy down to daily operations and network infrastructures. EAs are consequently complex as they compose and integrate many aspects on different architecture layers. A recent proposal to cope with this complexity and to make EAs amenable to automated and intuitive visual analysis is the transformation of EA models into EA Knowledge Graphs. A remaining limitation of these approaches is that they perceive the EA to be static, i.e., they represent and analyze EAs at a single point in time. In the paper at hand, we introduce a historization concept, a prototypical implementation, and a performance analysis for how EAs can be represented and processed to enable the analysis of their evolution.13.@inproceedings{10.1007/978-3-031-13181-3_11,
title = {A Viewpoints-Based Analysis of Enterprise Architecture Debt},
author = {Ather Maqsood and Peter Alexander and Horst Lichter and Sansiri Tanachutiwat},
editor = {Chua-Chin Wang and Arumugam Nallanathan},
isbn = {978-3-031-13181-3},
year = {2022},
date = {2022-11-01},
urldate = {2022-01-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Signal Processing and Information Communications},
pages = {133--154},
publisher = {Springer International Publishing},
address = {Cham},
abstract = {Technical debt solely focuses on the technical aspect and fails to provide a holistic view to address the misalignment between business and IT aspects of enterprise architecture (EA). To provide a more holistic view and to include the business aspect in the context of debt, researchers have proposed the concept of EA debt. It refers to the gap between the present state and the hypothetically ideal state of EA. EA debt, if accumulated, has negative impacts on the enterprise and can result in a decrease in the value, maintainability, agility, and efficiency of EA. Therefore, it is very crucial to manage EA debt. Furthermore, each stakeholder in the enterprise has an interest in certain aspects and areas of EA. By applying viewpoints, stakeholders can analyze EA debt by focusing on aspects and areas of their interest. By analyzing EA debt, stakeholders can make informed decisions during EA debt management (EADM). This paper presents a systematic mapping study carried out to collect predefined viewpoints from areas of enterprise architecture, software architecture, and technical debt. The collected viewpoints are then assessed to determine if they can be used for the analysis of EA debt. Further, six categories are defined to categorize EA debt viewpoints based on their purpose and content.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Technical debt solely focuses on the technical aspect and fails to provide a holistic view to address the misalignment between business and IT aspects of enterprise architecture (EA). To provide a more holistic view and to include the business aspect in the context of debt, researchers have proposed the concept of EA debt. It refers to the gap between the present state and the hypothetically ideal state of EA. EA debt, if accumulated, has negative impacts on the enterprise and can result in a decrease in the value, maintainability, agility, and efficiency of EA. Therefore, it is very crucial to manage EA debt. Furthermore, each stakeholder in the enterprise has an interest in certain aspects and areas of EA. By applying viewpoints, stakeholders can analyze EA debt by focusing on aspects and areas of their interest. By analyzing EA debt, stakeholders can make informed decisions during EA debt management (EADM). This paper presents a systematic mapping study carried out to collect predefined viewpoints from areas of enterprise architecture, software architecture, and technical debt. The collected viewpoints are then assessed to determine if they can be used for the analysis of EA debt. Further, six categories are defined to categorize EA debt viewpoints based on their purpose and content.12.@inproceedings{nokey,
title = {Using Knowledge Graphs to Detect Enterprise Architecture Smells (Extended Abstract)},
author = {Simon Hacks and Muhamed Smajevic and Dominik Bork},
editor = {Henrik Leopold and Henderik A. Proper},
url = {https://dl.gi.de/bitstream/handle/20.500.12116/40217/EMISA2022-05.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y},
year = {2022},
date = {2022-06-05},
urldate = {2022-06-05},
booktitle = {EMISA 2022},
number = {5},
organization = {Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
2021
11.@inproceedings{DBLP:conf/apsec/LissKAL21,
title = {Towards a Catalog of Refactoring Solutions for Enterprise Architecture Smells},
author = {Lukas Liss and Henrik Kämmerling and Peter Alexander and Horst Lichter},
editor = {Benjamin Gan and Eng Lieh Ouh and Bimlesh Wadhwa and Shailey Chawla and Horst Lichter and Selin Aydin and Thanwadee Sunetnanta and Toni Anwar},
url = {http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3062/Paper09_QuASoQ.pdf},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-12-31},
urldate = {2021-12-01},
booktitle = {Joint Proceedings of SEED 2021 & QuASoQ 2021 co-located with 28th Asia Pacific Software Engineering Conference 2021, Taipei [Virtual], December 6, 2021},
volume = {3062},
pages = {60--69},
publisher = {CEUR-WS.org},
series = {CEUR Workshop Proceedings},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
10.@inproceedings{9626297,
title = {Revealing Common Enterprise Architecture Debts: Conceptualization and Critical Reflection on a Workshop Format Industry Experience Report},
author = {Jürgen Jung and Simon Hacks and Thijmen Gooijer and Matti Kinnunen and Kevin Rehring},
doi = {10.1109/EDOCW52865.2021.00058},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-12-01},
urldate = {2021-01-01},
booktitle = {2021 IEEE 25th International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Workshop (EDOCW)},
pages = {271-278},
abstract = {The Enterprise Architecture (EA) discipline evolved during the past two decades and is now established in a large number of companies. Architectures in these companies changed over time and are now the result of a long creation and maintenance process. Such architectures still contain processes and services provided by legacy IT systems (e.g., systems, applications) that were reasonable during the time they were created but might now hamper the introduction of better solutions. In order to support handling those legacies, research on the notion of EA debts has been started. The concept of EA debts widens the scope of technical debts to cover also organizational aspects offering a mean for managing EA in dynamic environments. The research encompasses the development of methods for managing debts together with a repository of typical EA debts. Identifying EA debts for the repository is challenging as required knowledge is usually not documented. Therefore, a structured approach is needed to externalize this knowledge. The paper presents a workshop format that is used to identify EA debts in organizations. Corresponding workshops are performed in two distinct companies to support them in understanding certain issues they face. First results from those workshops are presented in the second part of the paper.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
The Enterprise Architecture (EA) discipline evolved during the past two decades and is now established in a large number of companies. Architectures in these companies changed over time and are now the result of a long creation and maintenance process. Such architectures still contain processes and services provided by legacy IT systems (e.g., systems, applications) that were reasonable during the time they were created but might now hamper the introduction of better solutions. In order to support handling those legacies, research on the notion of EA debts has been started. The concept of EA debts widens the scope of technical debts to cover also organizational aspects offering a mean for managing EA in dynamic environments. The research encompasses the development of methods for managing debts together with a repository of typical EA debts. Identifying EA debts for the repository is challenging as required knowledge is usually not documented. Therefore, a structured approach is needed to externalize this knowledge. The paper presents a workshop format that is used to identify EA debts in organizations. Corresponding workshops are performed in two distinct companies to support them in understanding certain issues they face. First results from those workshops are presented in the second part of the paper.9.@inproceedings{10.1007/978-3-030-91279-6_4,
title = {Using Knowledge Graphs to Detect Enterprise Architecture Smells},
author = {Muhamed Smajevic and Simon Hacks and Dominik Bork},
editor = {Estefanía Serral and Janis Stirna and Jolita Ralyté and Jānis Grabis},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-030-91279-6_4},
isbn = {978-3-030-91279-6},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-11-15},
urldate = {2021-11-15},
booktitle = {The Practice of Enterprise Modeling},
pages = {48--63},
publisher = {Springer International Publishing},
address = {Cham},
abstract = {Hitherto, the concept of Enterprise Architecture (EA) Smells has been proposed to assess quality flaws in EAs and their models. Together with this new concept, a catalog of different EA Smells has been published and a first prototype was developed. However, this prototype is limited to ArchiMate and is not able to assess models adhering to other EA modeling languages. Moreover, the prototype is not integrate-able with other EA tools. Therefore, we propose to enhance the extensible Graph-based Enterprise Architecture Analysis (eGEAA) platform that relies on Knowledge Graphs with EA Smell detection capabilities. To align these two approaches, we show in this paper, how ArchiMate models can be transformed into Knowledge Graphs and provide a set of queries on the Knowledge Graph representation that are able to detect EA Smells. This enables enterprise architects to assess EA Smells on all types of EA models as long as there is a Knowledge Graph representation of the model. Finally, we evaluate the Knowledge Graph based EA Smell detection by analyzing a set of 347 EA models.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Hitherto, the concept of Enterprise Architecture (EA) Smells has been proposed to assess quality flaws in EAs and their models. Together with this new concept, a catalog of different EA Smells has been published and a first prototype was developed. However, this prototype is limited to ArchiMate and is not able to assess models adhering to other EA modeling languages. Moreover, the prototype is not integrate-able with other EA tools. Therefore, we propose to enhance the extensible Graph-based Enterprise Architecture Analysis (eGEAA) platform that relies on Knowledge Graphs with EA Smell detection capabilities. To align these two approaches, we show in this paper, how ArchiMate models can be transformed into Knowledge Graphs and provide a set of queries on the Knowledge Graph representation that are able to detect EA Smells. This enables enterprise architects to assess EA Smells on all types of EA models as long as there is a Knowledge Graph representation of the model. Finally, we evaluate the Knowledge Graph based EA Smell detection by analyzing a set of 347 EA models.8.@inproceedings{9610644,
title = {Determining Enterprise Architecture Smells from Software Architecture Smells},
author = {Benny Tieu and Simon Hacks},
doi = {10.1109/CBI52690.2021.10064},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-11-01},
urldate = {2021-11-01},
booktitle = {2021 IEEE 23rd Conference on Business Informatics (CBI)},
volume = {02},
pages = {134-142},
publisher = {IEEE},
abstract = {Software Architectural Smells (SA smells) are design problems in the internal structure and behavior of an SA. These can be seen as a specific category under the umbrella concept of Technical Debt (TD). TD is a central concept in software development projects and having the means to detect and measure the smells is important to understand impairments they may cause. However, TD is only limited to the technical aspects and does not describe smells found on an enterprise level. Enterprise Architecture Debt (EAD) expands the concepts of TD beyond the technical aspects such that it covers the debts that can be found in all layers of an Enterprise Architecture (EA). EA smells give a measurement for EAD, by providing means for detecting the smell, hence enabling a method to quantify the level of debt. The goal of this paper is to find EA smells derived from existing SA smells. This has resulted in three new EA smells that could be used as measurements for the quality of an EA. They can also be used in the future as a basis for automatic EA smell detection.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Software Architectural Smells (SA smells) are design problems in the internal structure and behavior of an SA. These can be seen as a specific category under the umbrella concept of Technical Debt (TD). TD is a central concept in software development projects and having the means to detect and measure the smells is important to understand impairments they may cause. However, TD is only limited to the technical aspects and does not describe smells found on an enterprise level. Enterprise Architecture Debt (EAD) expands the concepts of TD beyond the technical aspects such that it covers the debts that can be found in all layers of an Enterprise Architecture (EA). EA smells give a measurement for EAD, by providing means for detecting the smell, hence enabling a method to quantify the level of debt. The goal of this paper is to find EA smells derived from existing SA smells. This has resulted in three new EA smells that could be used as measurements for the quality of an EA. They can also be used in the future as a basis for automatic EA smell detection.2020
7.@misc{Hacks.b,
title = {Enterprise Architecture Debts -- A Concept to Manage EA Evolution?},
author = {Simon Hacks and Jürgen Jung},
url = {https://aisel.aisnet.org/treos_icis2020/5/
http://ea-debts.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/TREO_EADebt_final.pdf
https://ea-debts.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/TREO_Presentation.pdf
},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-12-14},
urldate = {2020-12-02},
number = {5},
series = {ICIS 2020 TREOs},
abstract = {The EA discipline provides methods and tools for aligning business with corporate IT and even fostering (digital) innovation in an organization. Despite the plethora of research and practice, business-IT alignment is still a challenging task as it requires changes throughout an enterprise's technology, processes, and organization. The complexity of those changes does not only lie in their nature but is also influenced by the corporate environment. Established IT systems, technical debt (TD), outdated processes or even an extensive EAM framework might hamper the introduction or renovation of required business systems and processes. Furthermore, those debts slow down innovation and impose a tremendous risk on continu-ously optimizing business and IT. Even though these debts might have a big impact, it is sometimes hard to identify them explicitly due to the complexity of the organization and its processes. Methodical support is required in order to help with identifying them and miti-gating the associated risk.
Hitherto, we have proposed the concept of EA Debts arising from the concept of TD. While TD focuses on technical aspects, like flaws in the code basis or issues with the database de-sign, EA Debts try to capture a holistic view on the organization. EA Debts cover aspects among all EA layers but also their interdependencies. We assume that the concept of EA Debts can help enterprise architects to cope with the upcoming challenges related to digital-ization and agile projects. It provides them with a means to visualize the consequences of certain decisions on the EA and, thus, eases their argumentation towards a more sustainable architecture.
As the concept of EA Debts is relatively young, it offers a wide spectrum of future research activities: Adopting established metrics that can contribute to the assessment of EA Debt, but also developing new metrics. Thresholds need to be determined that indicate when a metric’s value should be interpreted as critical. Management techniques need to be estab-lished that keep the level of EA Debt in an organization under control. Finally, socio-technical aspects related to EA Debts in organizations should not be neglected.
In our talk, we like to introduce the topic to the audience and gather their feedback. Fur-thermore, we like to invite other researchers to contribute to the EA Debt related stream of research in future and to collaborate with us.},
howpublished = {ICIS 2020 TREOs},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {misc}
}
The EA discipline provides methods and tools for aligning business with corporate IT and even fostering (digital) innovation in an organization. Despite the plethora of research and practice, business-IT alignment is still a challenging task as it requires changes throughout an enterprise’s technology, processes, and organization. The complexity of those changes does not only lie in their nature but is also influenced by the corporate environment. Established IT systems, technical debt (TD), outdated processes or even an extensive EAM framework might hamper the introduction or renovation of required business systems and processes. Furthermore, those debts slow down innovation and impose a tremendous risk on continu-ously optimizing business and IT. Even though these debts might have a big impact, it is sometimes hard to identify them explicitly due to the complexity of the organization and its processes. Methodical support is required in order to help with identifying them and miti-gating the associated risk.
Hitherto, we have proposed the concept of EA Debts arising from the concept of TD. While TD focuses on technical aspects, like flaws in the code basis or issues with the database de-sign, EA Debts try to capture a holistic view on the organization. EA Debts cover aspects among all EA layers but also their interdependencies. We assume that the concept of EA Debts can help enterprise architects to cope with the upcoming challenges related to digital-ization and agile projects. It provides them with a means to visualize the consequences of certain decisions on the EA and, thus, eases their argumentation towards a more sustainable architecture.
As the concept of EA Debts is relatively young, it offers a wide spectrum of future research activities: Adopting established metrics that can contribute to the assessment of EA Debt, but also developing new metrics. Thresholds need to be determined that indicate when a metric’s value should be interpreted as critical. Management techniques need to be estab-lished that keep the level of EA Debt in an organization under control. Finally, socio-technical aspects related to EA Debts in organizations should not be neglected.
In our talk, we like to introduce the topic to the audience and gather their feedback. Fur-thermore, we like to invite other researchers to contribute to the EA Debt related stream of research in future and to collaborate with us.6.@inproceedings{Lehmann2020,
title = {Towards the Identification of Process Anti-Patterns in Enterprise Architecture Models},
author = {Barry-Detlef Lehmann and Peter Alexander and Horst Lichter and Simon Hacks},
url = {http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2767/06-QuASoQ-2020.pdf},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-12-11},
booktitle = {8th International Workshop on Quantitative Approaches to Software Quality in conjunction with the 27th Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference (APSEC 2020)},
volume = {2767},
pages = {47-54},
publisher = {CEUR-WS},
abstract = {IT processes constitute the backbone of an integrated enterprise architecture (EA). The model thereof sustains the development and management of the EA. Nevertheless, the quality of such models tends to degrade over time due to, e.g. improper modeling practices or ineffective evaluation. In this regard, the knowledge of relevant modeling anti-patterns can help identify, mitigate, and prevent the occurrence of sub-optimal or adverse constructs in the model. In the field of business process modeling (BPM), a plethora of BPM anti-patterns has been defined and compiled in various taxonomies. However, these BPM anti-patterns mostly focus on technical issues, which thus are applicable for evaluating workflows but not EA-level processes. We strongly argue that the concept of process anti-pattern in EA domain can facilitate EA analyses on process-related issues. To address this gap, this paper presents a catalogue of 18 EA process modeling anti-patterns, which we derived from the existing BPM anti-patterns. Our result should serve as food for thought and motivation for future research in this context.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
IT processes constitute the backbone of an integrated enterprise architecture (EA). The model thereof sustains the development and management of the EA. Nevertheless, the quality of such models tends to degrade over time due to, e.g. improper modeling practices or ineffective evaluation. In this regard, the knowledge of relevant modeling anti-patterns can help identify, mitigate, and prevent the occurrence of sub-optimal or adverse constructs in the model. In the field of business process modeling (BPM), a plethora of BPM anti-patterns has been defined and compiled in various taxonomies. However, these BPM anti-patterns mostly focus on technical issues, which thus are applicable for evaluating workflows but not EA-level processes. We strongly argue that the concept of process anti-pattern in EA domain can facilitate EA analyses on process-related issues. To address this gap, this paper presents a catalogue of 18 EA process modeling anti-patterns, which we derived from the existing BPM anti-patterns. Our result should serve as food for thought and motivation for future research in this context.5.@inproceedings{Alexander.2020,
title = {A Framework for Managing Enterprise Architecture Debts - Outline and Research Directions},
author = {Peter Alexander and Simon Hacks and Jürgen Jung and Ulrike Steffens and Ömer Uludag and Horst Lichter},
editor = {Agnes Koschmider and Judith Michael and Bernhard Thalheim},
url = {http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2628/paper1.pdf},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-05-25},
booktitle = {10th International Workshop on Enterprise Modeling and Information Systems Architectures, Kiel, Germany, May 14-15, 2020},
volume = {2628},
pages = {5--10},
publisher = {CEUR-WS.org},
series = {CEUR Workshop Proceedings},
abstract = {Even though enterprise architecture management (EAM) offers a wide range of methods and tools for aligning business with IT, an architect’s work is challenged by reality. The evolution of enterprise architecture (EA) and given constraints (e.g. legacy systems and processes) lead to debts which may complicate and hinder opportunities; however, the management of such debts has not been considered in EAM research. This paper presents a framework for strategically managing EA-debt-related issues and propose open questions as well as future research directions in this field.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Even though enterprise architecture management (EAM) offers a wide range of methods and tools for aligning business with IT, an architect’s work is challenged by reality. The evolution of enterprise architecture (EA) and given constraints (e.g. legacy systems and processes) lead to debts which may complicate and hinder opportunities; however, the management of such debts has not been considered in EAM research. This paper presents a framework for strategically managing EA-debt-related issues and propose open questions as well as future research directions in this field.4.@incollection{Salentin.2020,
title = {Towards a Catalog of Enterprise Architecture Smells},
author = {Johannes Salentin and Simon Hacks},
editor = {Norbert Gronau and Moreen Heine and K Poustcchi and H Krasnova},
url = {https://dx.doi.org/10.30844/wi_2020_y1-salentin},
doi = {10.30844/wi_2020_y1-salentin},
isbn = {9783955453367},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-03-23},
booktitle = {WI2020 Community Tracks},
pages = {276--290},
publisher = {GITO Verlag},
abstract = {Code Smells are well known in the domain of Technical Debt (TD). They hint at common bad habits that impair the quality of the software system. By detecting those smells it is possible to suggest a better solution or, at least, make the developers aware of possible drawbacks. However, in terms of Enterprise Architecture (EA), which is a more holistic view of an enterprise including TD, there does not exist such a concept of EA Smells.
Such EA Smells can be a component of EA Debt, working like a metric to rate the quality of data and estimate parts of the EA Debt in an EA Repository. The main goal of this work is to start the development of a catalog to facilitate future design and development of EAs. This catalog should be expanded and serve as food for thought to create a corresponding tool for the detection of smells.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {incollection}
}
Code Smells are well known in the domain of Technical Debt (TD). They hint at common bad habits that impair the quality of the software system. By detecting those smells it is possible to suggest a better solution or, at least, make the developers aware of possible drawbacks. However, in terms of Enterprise Architecture (EA), which is a more holistic view of an enterprise including TD, there does not exist such a concept of EA Smells.
Such EA Smells can be a component of EA Debt, working like a metric to rate the quality of data and estimate parts of the EA Debt in an EA Repository. The main goal of this work is to start the development of a catalog to facilitate future design and development of EAs. This catalog should be expanded and serve as food for thought to create a corresponding tool for the detection of smells.2019
3.@inproceedings{Yeong.2019,
title = {Prioritization of EA Debts Facilitating Portfolio Theory},
author = {Yoon Chow Yeong and Simon Hacks and Horst Lichter},
editor = {Horst Lichter and Konrad Fögen and Thanwadee Sunetnanta and Toni Anwar},
url = {http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2511/QuASoQ-06.pdf},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-12-02},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Quantitative Approaches to Software Quality co-located with 26th Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference (APSEC 2019)},
pages = {45--52},
publisher = {CEUR-WS.org},
abstract = {Implementing an enterprise architecture (EA) project might not always be a success due to uncertainty and unavailability of resources. Hitherto, we have proposed a new metaphor –Enterprise Architecture Debt (EAD)–, which makes bad habits within EAs explicit. We anticipate that the
accumulation of EAD will negatively influence EA quality, also expose the business into risk.
Recognizing the importance of business-IT alignment in enterprise architecture context, this paper proposes an application of portfolio-based thinking and utility theory for EAD prioritization. For proof-of-concept purpose, we develop synthetic data using coarse-grained estimates to demonstrate the application of the proposed portfolio-based approach which helps to determine the optimum selection of EAD to be resolved. The results show that our approach can help EA practitioners and management to reason their EA investment decisions based on the EAD concept, with adjustable enterprises risk tolerance level.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Implementing an enterprise architecture (EA) project might not always be a success due to uncertainty and unavailability of resources. Hitherto, we have proposed a new metaphor –Enterprise Architecture Debt (EAD)–, which makes bad habits within EAs explicit. We anticipate that the
accumulation of EAD will negatively influence EA quality, also expose the business into risk.
Recognizing the importance of business-IT alignment in enterprise architecture context, this paper proposes an application of portfolio-based thinking and utility theory for EAD prioritization. For proof-of-concept purpose, we develop synthetic data using coarse-grained estimates to demonstrate the application of the proposed portfolio-based approach which helps to determine the optimum selection of EAD to be resolved. The results show that our approach can help EA practitioners and management to reason their EA investment decisions based on the EAD concept, with adjustable enterprises risk tolerance level.2.@misc{Petterson2020,
title = {Using EA Debts to Steer Digitalization in Agile Environments},
author = {Dan Petterson and Simon Hacks and Robert Lagerström},
url = {http://kth.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1478644/FULLTEXT01.pdf},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-11-23},
abstract = {Enterprise Architecture (EA) is seen as a tool to achieve business-/IT-alignment. Accordingly, it is also identified as a means to support the progressing digitalization of organizations. In parallel with the digitalization, we experience a paradigm shift for the projects driving the digital transformation of the organizations: Arising from software development projects, agile fashioned projects get more and more popular. However, established disciplines like EA or IT-security struggle to place their needs into agile driven projects. This is caused by the fact that agile projects optimize their outcome related to short-term goals, which might be in contrast to the long-term goals of EA.
However, the goals of EA are still important. Therefore, techniques are needed that motivate agile projects to consider them in their development. Hitherto, we have proposed the concept of EA Debts that can help to steer agile projects into the desired direction by linking the established methods of EA to the agile environment. Thus, we have reused the definition of Technical Debt (TD) and lifted it to the entire organization to provide a holistic view. TD is used to describe the implied cost of additional rework caused by choosing an easy solution now instead of using a better approach that would take longer to implement. This does not solely hold for source code but can also be applied to the entire environment of an organization.
To Bridge EA Debt to digitalization, we formulate our research question: Which EA Smells (KPIs) are suitable to identify the digitalization potential and to assess the progression of the digitalization?
Embedding these smells into the framework of EA Debts fosters a holistic view on the actual status of the organization and allows comparing different evolution scenarios with each other.},
howpublished = {Digitalize in Stockholm},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {misc}
}
Enterprise Architecture (EA) is seen as a tool to achieve business-/IT-alignment. Accordingly, it is also identified as a means to support the progressing digitalization of organizations. In parallel with the digitalization, we experience a paradigm shift for the projects driving the digital transformation of the organizations: Arising from software development projects, agile fashioned projects get more and more popular. However, established disciplines like EA or IT-security struggle to place their needs into agile driven projects. This is caused by the fact that agile projects optimize their outcome related to short-term goals, which might be in contrast to the long-term goals of EA.
However, the goals of EA are still important. Therefore, techniques are needed that motivate agile projects to consider them in their development. Hitherto, we have proposed the concept of EA Debts that can help to steer agile projects into the desired direction by linking the established methods of EA to the agile environment. Thus, we have reused the definition of Technical Debt (TD) and lifted it to the entire organization to provide a holistic view. TD is used to describe the implied cost of additional rework caused by choosing an easy solution now instead of using a better approach that would take longer to implement. This does not solely hold for source code but can also be applied to the entire environment of an organization.
To Bridge EA Debt to digitalization, we formulate our research question: Which EA Smells (KPIs) are suitable to identify the digitalization potential and to assess the progression of the digitalization?
Embedding these smells into the framework of EA Debts fosters a holistic view on the actual status of the organization and allows comparing different evolution scenarios with each other.1.@inproceedings{Hacks.2019,
title = {Towards the Definition of Enterprise Architecture Debts},
author = {Simon Hacks and Hendrik Hofert and Johannes Salentin and Yoon Chow Yeong and Horst Lichter},
doi = {10.1109/EDOCW.2019.00016},
isbn = {978-1-7281-4598-3},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-10-30},
booktitle = {IEEE 23rd International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Workshop (EDOCW)},
pages = {9--16},
publisher = {IEEE},
abstract = {In the software development industry, Technical Debt is regarded as a critical issue in terms of the negative consequences such as increased software development cost, low product quality, decreased maintainability, and slowed progress to the long-term success of developing software. However, despite the vast research contributions in Technical Debt management for software engineering, the idea of Technical Debt fails to provide a holistic consideration to include both IT and business aspects. Further, implementing an enterprise architecture (EA) project might not always be a success due to uncertainty and unavailability of resources. Therefore, we relate the consequences of EA implementation failure with a new metaphor – Enterprise Architecture Debt (EA Debt).We anticipate that the accumulation of EA Debt will negatively influence EA quality, and expose the business to risk.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
In the software development industry, Technical Debt is regarded as a critical issue in terms of the negative consequences such as increased software development cost, low product quality, decreased maintainability, and slowed progress to the long-term success of developing software. However, despite the vast research contributions in Technical Debt management for software engineering, the idea of Technical Debt fails to provide a holistic consideration to include both IT and business aspects. Further, implementing an enterprise architecture (EA) project might not always be a success due to uncertainty and unavailability of resources. Therefore, we relate the consequences of EA implementation failure with a new metaphor – Enterprise Architecture Debt (EA Debt).We anticipate that the accumulation of EA Debt will negatively influence EA quality, and expose the business to risk.
