Enterprise Architecture Analysis and Network Thinking: A Literature Review

Abstract

Previous works in enterprise architecture (EA) literature has mostly dealt with EA principles, qualitative aspects like EA value and benefits, modeling efforts like Archimate, and methodologies for EA implementation like The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) and others. Today, these are all common subjects in EA literature. In this paper, we are going in a complementary direction, aiming to contribute towards fostering a set of EA analysis methods based on network measures, considering the enterprise as a complex network. Thus, we present a central question: What is known about the application of network measures in order to analyze components and relationships in the EA context? To answer this question, we perform a broad literature review and create a state-of-the-art description of EA network analysis, applied measures and its main achievements. We also provide a research agenda for the field.