Realizing strategic fit within the business architecture: the design of a Process-Goal Alignment modeling and analysis technique

The realization of strategic fit within the business architecture is an important challenge for organizations. Research in the field of enterprise modeling has resulted in the development of a wide range of modeling techniques that provide visual representations to improve the understanding and communication about the business architecture. As these techniques only provide partial solutions for the issue of realizing strategic fit, the Process-Goal Alignment technique is presented in this paper. This technique combines the visual expressiveness of heat mapping techniques with the analytical capabilities of performance measurement and Strategic Management frameworks to provide a comprehensible and well-informed modeling language for the realization of strategic fit within an organization’s business architecture. The paper reports on the design of the proposed technique by means of Action Design Research, which included iterative cycles of building, intervention, and evaluation through case studies. To support the application of the technique, a software tool was developed using the ADOxx meta-modeling platform.