The Role of Enterprise Architecture Artifacts in cross-organizational collaboration

Abstract

Organizations are increasingly collaborating with other organizations. These forms of cross-organizational collaboration include the exchange and integration of Enterprise Architecture (EA) artifacts. However, it is not known which artifacts provide value and why they are used in this context. To address this knowledge gap, this thesis aims to investigate how EA artifacts provide value in a cross-organizational context.
This study used multiple research methods including a literature review to create understanding of existing knowledge and to identify knowledge gaps, followed by a qualitative case study and document research. The results were analysed using a pattern matching method.
The results from the qualitative case study indicate that in a cross-organizational context, providing knowledge and giving an overview are the main reason why artifacts are used and how they provide value. The artifacts that ranked high on providing knowledge and giving overview are Solution Designs, Landscape Diagrams, and Solution Overviews, and Roadmaps. Furthermore, artifacts are mainly used in the design/preparation phase in a cross-organizational collaboration context. This study provides an empirical view of used artifacts in a cross-organizational context in practice, and therefore contributes to the EA discipline.

Date of Award	12 Jan 2023
Original language	English
Supervisor	M. (Maurice) Pattij (Supervisor) & Rogier van de Wetering (Examiner)