Towards a Multi-Level Model of Enterprise Architecture Modeling Notations

Over the past few decades, the field of enterprise architecture (EA) has grown, and many EA modeling notations have been proposed. In order to support the different needs, the different notations vary in the element types that they provide in their metamodel. This abundance of elements makes it difficult for the end-user to differentiate between the various elements and complicates the model transformation between different EA model notations. Therefore, this research analyzes existing EA frameworks and their modeling notations and extracts common properties. First, we performed a literature review to identify common EA frameworks and their modeling notations. Second, based on the found notations’ concepts, we create a taxonomy based on their similarities that leads to a multi-level model of EA notations. Our results showed that The Open Group Architecture Framework, ArchiMate, Department of Defense Architecture Framework, and Integrated Architecture Framework are the most used EA frameworks. Those frameworks served as input for a multi-level model comprising the common concepts of the different modeling notations.
Part of ISBN 9789897586484QC 20231031