Assessing the Complexity of Dynamics in Enterprise Architecture Planning - Lessons from Chaos Theory

Enterprise Architecture (EA) models capture the fundamental elements of organizations and their relationships to servedocumentation, analysis and planning purposes. As the elements and their relationships change over time, EA planningbecomes increasingly complex. An analysis of existing methods shows that the complexity of dynamics is not sufficientlyaddressed. We argue that a sophisticated understanding of the complexity matter is prerequisite for EA planning methodconstruction. As Chaos Theory (CT) is deployed in natural and social sciences-as well as in different contexts of ISresearch-to describe and understand the behavior of complex systems over time, we use properties of CT to assess thecomplexity of dynamics in EA planning and to derive requirements for EA planning methods. Our findings emphasize theimportance of initial conditions of the architecture for EA planning and the need to harmonize planning granularities in orderto achieve predictable results.

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