Goal-oriented requirements engineering and enterprise architecture: Two case studies and some lessons learned

Abstract

An enterprise-architecture (EA) is a high-level representation of the enterprise, used for managing the relation between business and IT. [Problem] Ideally, all elements of an enterprise architecture can be traced to business goals ad vice versa, but in practice, this is not the case. In this experience paper we explore the use of goal-oriented requirements engineering (GORE) techniques to improve this bidirectional traceability. [Principal ideas/results] We collected GORE techniques from KAOS, i*, Tropos, BMM and TOGAF and integrated them in a language called ARMOR. This was used by enterprise architects in case study. It turned out that the language was too complex for the architects to understand as intended. Based on this we redefined ARMOR to contain only a minimum number of goal-oriented concepts, and this was tested in a second case study. This second case study suggests that the minimal version is still useful for traceability management in practice. [Contribution] We have identified a core set of concepts of goal-oriented requirements engineering, that can be used in the practice of enterprise architecture. Our analysis provides hypotheses into GORE that will be tested in future case studies. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.