Applying the V Model and Axiomatic Design in the Domain of IT Architecture Practice

Abstract

This paper applies and discusses the principles of Axiomatic Design for changing IT architecture in health care. It presents three case studies positioned in the field of Enterprise architecture that explore how IT architects, as professionals, manage change and re-design the structure of the IT systems in line with strategic goals. The research approach was to use a light modelling tool, Ampersand, for modelling the Enterprise architecture. Two types of models stand out: Type 1 Strategic IT models in which higher strategic goals are related to requirements for applications and Type 2 Technical management of systems models in which technical risks and risk of system failure in the current IT infrastructure were modelled. To bridge the views of different IT experts in the organization this work uses the customer domain, the functional domain and the physical domain from Axiomatic Design in an extended example in the paper. The V Model is used to bridge the models, and then it is extended with Axiomatic Design principles.