Relating business modelling and enterprise architecture

This thesis proposes a methodology for creating business models, evaluating them, and relating them to enterprise architecture.The methodology consists of several steps, leading from an organization's current situation to a target situation, via business models and enterprise architecture. The problems with Business-IT AlignmentCurrently, increasing amounts of businesses rely on IT systems to do their business.However, success rates of IT implementations projects are low.Difficulties exist in aligning existing IT systems with business objectives.A consensus exists among researchers and practitioners alike that business-IT alignment (BITA) is necessary to improve business performance.Typical symptoms of lack of BITA include:• People cannot use the systems effectively.• Changes in systems often do not consider the financial impacts.• Systems cannot be changed easily and quickly to adapt to new situations.Difficulties also exist with technological innovations.Most difficulties are not caused by technical issues.Lack of consideration for financial and organisational aspects is a cause for projects not surviving after the pilot phase.A lack of attention is paid to financial aspects of innovations.Projects are often more expensive than planned due to changing requirements.Projects are often more expensive than planned because demands are not well known.Therefore, we have a problem to build and adapt IT systems to changing business needs.This thesis attempts to combine two partial solutions to this problem, Enterprise Architecture (EA) and Business Modelling (BM). A partial solution: Enterprise ArchitectureEnterprise Architecture comprises a collection of simplified representations of the organisation, from different viewpoints and according to the needs of different stakeholders.A coherent description of enterprise architecture provides insight, enables communication among stakeholders, and guides complicated change processes.ArchiMate provides a language to create such descriptions in a precise and formal way.While Enterprise Architecture helps to manage change, it includes insufficient business strategy, and use of ArchiMate is limited to expert users. Another partial solution: Business ModellingIn the basis, business models are used to describe businesses and explore possibilities for future development.Business modelling is intuitive to use by managers, consultants, How to create business models?No widely accepted method existed for design and specification of business models.We propose the Business Modelling Method to create business models.This six-step method, named BMM, is developed, demonstrated, and evaluated in this thesis.The VII BMM provides a way to create business models systematically.Innovators can apply the steps to create business cases for their ideas.This helps them to show the viability and get things implemented. How to evaluate business models?Having built one or more business models, a need arises for a method to objectively compare alternative business models, and choose the best course of action.We propose the business case method as a way to evaluate business models.The designed business case method to compare business models objectively can be used to compare and choose the best business model successfully.This is what has to happen in the last step of the BMM. How to relate business models to enterprise architecture?We show how business models and enterprise architecture can be related.The contribution is threefold: 1.We relate Business Model Canvas building blocks to ArchiMate, 2. We demonstrate the value of that relationship in a cost/benefit-analysis, 3. We provide methodological support, clarifying the role of business models in the Architecture Development Method.The U*Care project serves as a case study to demonstrate the above three methods chained together.Business models are created, evaluated, and related to enterprise architecture.Combining enterprise architecture and business modelling leads to better EA and BM models, and therefore, more successful business-IT innovations.