Measuring Enterprise Architecture Complexity

Abstract

Complexity management has become an essential undertaking for enterprise architecture (EA). It strives for an optimal level of complexity to efficiently and effectively use the EA for its intended purposes. The basis for complexity management is measurement, yet no standardized or proven method for EA complexity measurement currently exists, nor is there consensus about the attributes contributing to complexity. Additionally, the many stakeholders involved in an EA all have a different perception of complexity, leading to the notion of subjective complexity. This research aims to incorporate objective and subjective complexity metrics in a single EA complexity measurement model. A systematic literature review has been carried out to make an inventory of existing complexity metrics. Semi-structured interviews were used to gain insights in stakeholder perceptions and subjective complexity attributes. Based on these results, a conceptual model of EA complexity was designed. The constructs in this model have been operationalized with metrics to create a measurement instrument of EA complexity. The model and its operationalization was then validated through expert interviews, and tested during a case study, where it has been applied in practice.

Analysis and implementation of the impact of change: application to heterogeneity algorithms in enterprise architecture

“…The Cambridge Dictionary defines complexity as -the state of having many parts and being difficult to understand or find an answer to‖. Much of the existing architecture research endorses this view, by relating complexity to the number of components or elements, their relationship, and totheir variation/variety, and heterogeneity [8][9][10][11] adds that the total complexity of an EA must take into account complexity within each domain, as well as the complexity of the interrelations between domains [12]: According to Davis and LeBlanc [13] the complexity of application architecture is -number of its components or elements, kind or type of elements and structure of the relationship between elements‖. On the infrastructure architecture level defined complexity as -The complexity can be defined here as the dramatic increase in the number and heterogeneity of included components, relations, and their dynamic and unexpected interactions in IT solutions‖ [14], another definition proposed by [15] covers all aspects of complexity -The complexity can be defined on the basis of the number and variety of components and interactions plus the rate of change of these‖.…”