AbstractsBusiness Management & Administration

Enterprise architecture frameworks (EAFs) have been used to plan and manage large-scale enterprise deployments for more than four decades. EAFs are important tools used by systems engineers and are integral to characterize enterprise information architectures. They are increasingly being used as a proxy for managing entire organizations – enterprises. Enterprises represent complex, multi-disciplinary, socio-technical systems. They are ubiquitous, and involve and affect a vast number of humans every day. However, as inter-disciplinary tools for the management of the enterprise, there are certain limitations to the efficacy of existing enterprise architecture frameworks. The effective management of enterprises presents significant challenge and opportunity for the systems engineering community. This research discusses the limitations of, and proposes enhancements to, existing EAFs, based on research into extant business management frameworks. An historical perspective is provided on both systems engineering and business enterprise domain frameworks. Research into the common elements of successful business management frameworks confirms the limitations of existing systems engineering frameworks and suggests key additions for enhanced efficacy. The applicability and relevance of enhancing extant enterprise architectures with elements from extant business frameworks is examined. Finally, recommendations are made for enhancements to extant frameworks and suggestions advanced on future research into efficacy. This dissertation concludes with implications of these findings for systems engineers engaged in enterprise architecture and enterprise transformation efforts and a recommendation that systems engineers take a more holistic approach in their enterprise architecture and enterprise transformation efforts.