Some extensions to the Purdue Enterprise Reference Architecture (PERA): I. Explaining the Purdue architecture and the Purdue methodology using the axioms of engineering design

Abstract

The initial development of the Purdue Enterprise Reference Architecture (PERA) and the Purdue Methodology (PM) was necessitated by the desires of the industry for guidance in the field of enterprise integration and the necessary application of modern information technology in that field. As such, the original version was written based on intuitive and engineering logic. This article verifies whether PERA and PM are good engineering design solutions on the basis of Suh's design axioms and a related set of Functional Requirements (FRs) and Design Parameters (DPs). This paper thus shows in this way that the structure of PERA, though developed intuitively, is inherently consistent and logical. In Suh's term, it is a good engineering design. The executability and simplicity of PERA are, therefore, further strengthened.