Architecture Framework for Resolution of System Complexity in an Enterprise

Abstract

Software engineers and architects have been faced with the problem of IT system complexity for some years. The challenge to build highly complex IT systems, ensure that these systems meet the needs of increasingly complex business processes and do all this in a way that allows everything to adapt quickly to changing market condition coupled with rapid development in information technology has been a problem facing the development and building of workable and functional information systems. Research on this problem has been conducted and it was found to cause large cost of software development project, schedule overrun and outright software project failure. A novel architecture framework was developed as a tool for resolving and managing IT system complexity in the enterprise as the end objective. Comprehensive business system frameworks are necessary to capture the entire complexity of such systems. The framework provides the conceptual foundation necessary for building and managing the integral business system and all its components and also provides an integrated description of enterprise information systems that comprises of the back-end systems, front-end systems, management tools and communication system. The framework provides a detailed process of information system development and defines the necessary subsystems that make up the integrated enterprise information system.