Fostering Collaborative and Integrated Enterprise Architecture Modelling

Abstract

Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) is a challenging task in modern enterprises. Tools supporting EA management activities are based on extensive models either created by enterprise architects or built-in. However, these models cannot be adapted according to specific data acquisition needs by persons having the architectural knowledge on the instance level. In this article, we describe how Hybrid Wikis empower these information carriers and enterprise architects to collaboratively and incrementally develop and manage a model in a bottom-up fashion by using wiki pages enriched with types and attributes. We visualise these emergent models by using UML-like class diagrams. Our approach is evaluated in a case study in a global operating bank participating in our Wiki4EAM community, a community of German enterprise architects applying Hybrid Wikis in different EA management contexts.