A Traceability and Synchronization Approach of the Computational Models of an Enterprise Architecture

Abstract

An Enterprise Architecture (EA) represents the fundamental organization of the business process and Information Technology (IT) infrastructure, serving to capture the essentials of business, IT and its evolution, being relevant to protecting the business and maintaining the flexibility and adaptability of the organization. In the context of the enterprise architecture modeling, some problems were identified: (i) the lack of traceability of the elements present in the computational models or the visualization, in an understandable way, of the chain of elements that are related; and (ii) the absence of synchronization between the computational models of the strategic (strategic model), tactical (business process model) and operational IT levels, focusing on information systems (system requirements model). Among the negative impacts related to these problems are, for example, the obsolescence of models, the difficulty of carrying out impact analysis and decision making, in scenarios of organizational changes. Thus, in order to provide a reduction or elimination of the negative impacts caused by these problems, an approach is proposed to promote the traceability and synchronization of the computational models of an AE. The approach proposed in this work is composed of three layers that together provide: (i) a set of meta-models, representing the strategic, tactical and operational levels of the EA; (ii) a model traceability structure that supports change and configuration management through the use of COBIT, ITIL and ISO 20.000 recommendations and good practices; and (iii) a model synchronization structure that uses the techniques of model driven development (DDM) and allows automated (or semi) automated support to synchronize between the models produced. The purpose of this approach is to keep the computer models traceable and up-to-date, allowing: (i) the support for visualization and understanding of how a set of models (strategic, tactical and operational IT) and their elements relate; (ii) the support for impact analysis and decision-making in change scenarios; (iii) the necessary support to avoid the obsolescence of the models; and (iv) the creation and maintenance of the strategic alignment of the business with IT.