A methodology in selecting enterprise architecture framework for corporate information factory

Abstract

For growing and mature organization, information system (IS) implementation turns out to be critical in organization's sustainability. IS and information availability become the backbone of operational and management in organization. It is also often used as a foundation for decision making in any level in the organization. Corporate Information Factory (CIF) is one of data communication tools that empower IS with logical structure in information management. CIF provides a flow in transforming data from operational systems into useful information for decision making. The complexity of CIF implementation is relative to the scale of business being empowered. CIF implementation should align with organizational objectives and consider the nature of the business process. Thus, CIF implementation can adopt Enterprise Architecture (EA) approach in order to get systematic and comprehensive view regarding the needs of organization. Unfortunately, existing EA framework and methodology usually is not specifically assigned for CIF development. The problem is that common EA framework and methodology only guide general step for creating EA, which often not suitable for every organization with different IT vision. Thus, one needs to evaluate the EA best practice and selecting a relevant one. This study explores methodology in evaluating EA framework and methodology for developing CIF in organization by defining domain and factor that is specifically needed for CIF development. Existing EAF are evaluated based on those domain and factor. The objectives of this study are two-fold: analyzing critical aspect in selecting EA development; and exploring existing EA framework and methodology based on the critical aspect. Our analysis mentioned that every framework and methodology has its strength and weakness. Thus, organization can combine some framework or methodology to build a systematic and comprehensive EA in CIF development.