What Is an Enterprise Architecture Principle? - Towards a Consolidated Definition

Architecture can be defined as the fundamental organization of a system and the principles governing its design and evolution (IEEE 2000). While design representation issues like meta-modeling and notations have been intensely discussed in Enterprise Architecture (EA), design activity issues are often neglected. This is surprising because EA principles play an important role in practice. As a contribution towards a consensus on a clear definition of EA principles, we analyze state-of-the-art on EA principle definitions. Our literature analysis is based on the results of Stelzer’s (2009) broad literature review. Based on five selected approaches, seven common main components of EA principle definitions are identified: (1) An EA principle is based on business strategy and IT strategy; (2) EA design principles refer to the construction of an enterprise while requirements refer to its function; (3) Principles can be attributed to different layers (e.g. business, information system, technology); (4) An EA principle is described in a principle statement saying what to improve; (5) For each principle, a rationale is formulated explaining why the principle is meant to help reaching a pre-defined goal; (6) For each principle, concrete implications or key actions are described explaining how to implement the principle; and (7) For every principle, it should be defined how to determine its fulfillment.