Strategy guided enterprise architecting: A case study

Abstract

Enterprises and their architecture (EA) are changing continuously, what leads to changes in enterprise information systems (IS) and its architecture. Ineffective IS change management has a particularly adverse effect on EA because of wrong architectural decisions. These decisions can lead to several problems such as poor IS performance, wrong interfaces, bad data quality, doubled data input and sub-optimal IS support to business processes. It is assumed than an enterprise IS strategy is an important source of information guiding the EA architecting and implementation of the changes. In this paper, a case study on definition of the IS strategy for a Latvian telecommunication company is presented. The goal of the case study is to identify typical practical challenges arising in EA architecting and to examine the role of the enterprise IS strategy. The results of this study will be used in further research on development of the approach for the strategic IS change control.