Abstract:
Despite the hype surrounding enterprise architectures,
they have delivered little on their promise. In this paper,
we argue that enterprise architectures built using
component-based frameworks are fundamentally flawed,
in that they model the enterprise as a set of independent
structures with discrete boundaries. Disparate concrete
metaphors are used to describe each of these structures,
with the result that enterprise architectures can only
achieve partial success, at best, in providing a unified
view of the enterprise.
This paper introduces the concept of ‘elastic metaphors’
as society-sourced metaphors for the conceptual
modelling of information systems. By modelling the
organisation using elastic metaphors sourced from
naturally occurring enterprise structures, the enterprise
architecture approach presented in this paper avoids the
framework segmentation problem.
