How can reference architectures help in the process of building enterprise architectures?

Abstract

Consulta en la Biblioteca ETSI Industriales (9056)

[EN] Nowadays there is a strong divergence between a company¿s IT requirements and the capabilities of its information system. In this context the Reference Architectures are born as a way to guide business management in order to establish design specifications, modeling approaches and tools to underpin the construction of their own Enterprise Architecture. This is a complex ¿but also necessary¿ process in which the RA tries to establish a structured way, effective and fast to build the EA: ¿An enterprise architecture approach can help align business and IT resources and conform them to fundamental principles and common methodologies governing the entire information systems development process. In that sense, architectural frameworks are a convenient way to support such methodologies and separate roles that facilitate and implement these methodologies as needed¿ (Shah and El Kourdi, 2007). This research will analyze how the Reference Architectures help in the process of designing, managing and maintaining the Enterprise Architecture as well as other factors related to this such as the problems presented currently in enterprise architecting process, the advantages of using Reference Architectures and their main disadvantages.