A lightweight approach for designing enterprise architectures using BPMN: An application in hospitals

Abstract

An Enterprise Architecture (EA) comprises different models at different levels of abstraction. Since existing EA design approaches, e.g. MDA, use UML for modeling, the design of the architecture becomes complex and time consuming. In this paper, we present an integrated and lightweight design approach for EA that uses a generic architecture and patterns, expressed in BPMN. The approach facilitates the modeling between the different levels. This has been applied in real cases in hospitals and other domains, demonstrating its feasibility and usability, reducing complexity and time for modeling. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.