A Viewpoint for Analyzing Enterprise Architecture Evolution

Models are perceived as effective tools for stakeholder communication and analysis concerning a given system. Enterprise Architecture assists organizational change with the creation and maintenance of models as a means to mitigate the business-IT misalignment and supporting decision-making regarding the strategic vision of the enterprise. Literature has acknowledged the topic of enterprise architecture evolution as a relevant issue that requires research efforts. In particular, how can enterprise architecture models be used not only for capturing both the current and future states of the enterprise but also as tools for documenting and analyzing the rationale behind an enterprise architecture evolution, thus supporting decision-making and communication. This paper proposes a model-based viewpoint, as an extension of the enterprise architecture model, defining the concepts and relationships that express the evolution-specific concerns with respect to the architecture of the enterprise.