Strengthen the Architecture Principle Definition and Its
Characteristics
A Survey Encompassing 27 Years of Architecture Principle Literature
Michiel Borgers and Frank Harmsen
School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University, Tongersestraat 53, Maastricht, The Netherlands
Keywords: Architecture Principles, Definition, Description, Characteristics, Information System.
Abstract: Although architecture principles are important in the implementation of information systems requirements,
empirical evidence of the effect of architecture principles is lacking. Before actually conducting the
empirical research, it is important to have a solid definition and description of the research object, i.e. the
architecture principle. In this paper, we strengthen both the definition of the architecture principle and the
description of its characteristics. With a model based analysis we investigated 27 years of literature on
architecture principles and eliminated inaccuracies and incompleteness. This definition and description
provides a basis for determining the impact of using architecture principles during the implementation of the
information systems requirements in our next step of research.
1 INTRODUCTION
The implementation of information systems plays an
important role in digital transformations.
Architecture principles play a key role in guiding the
design and the implementation of information
system requirements. Architecture principles are
“central elements of enterprise architecture
frameworks” (Stelzer 2009) and architecture
principles enable the regulative role of enterprise
architecture (Greefhorst and Proper 2011).
Furthermore architects have a positive attitude
towards architecture principles (Greefhorst et al.
2013). But so far, there is no empirical evidence of
any contribution architecture principles have to the
success of information system implementation
(Borgers 2016; Haki and Legner 2012, 2013),
notwithstanding the fact, that in practice the
implementation of information system requirements
is not straightforward (Elias 2014; Flyvbjerg and
Budzier 2011). So, are architecture principles
effective?
To be able to determine the impact of applying
architecture principles on the successful
implementation of the requirements, we have to
identify and describe them first. We need to identify
architecture principles, in order to distinguish them
from general design principles, guidelines, or
technology standards. To this end, a good definition
is necessary but currently lacking. Subsequently we
need a way to describe the architecture principles
distinctively, in order to compare them. For
example, what are the differences between the
principles “good is good enough” and “business data
have to be used throughout the application”? Which
of those architecture principles is formulated well,
are they linked to requirements, and are there
prerequisites to be fulfilled? A description of the
characteristics of the architecture principles will help
in answering these questions.
Based on a limited literature review, we
conducted a case study research at the Dutch Tax
Agency (Borgers and Harmsen 2016) to identify and
measure architecture principles. We concluded that
the definition of ‘architecture principle’ we used in
the case study was not distinctive enough to
uniquely identify architecture principles in relation
to other kind of statements. Secondly, the
descriptions of the characteristics were not
distinctive enough as well, because they contained
subjective terms like “enough”, “easy” and
“obvious”. Moreover, the coherence between the
used characteristics was not explicit, causing that
some characteristics were more highlighted than
others.
Borgers, M. and Harmsen, F.
Strengthen the Architecture Principle Definition and Its Characteristics.
DOI: 10.5220/0006676506070622
In Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS 2018), pages 607-622
ISBN: 978-989-758-298-1
Copyright
c
2019 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
607
To strengthen both the definition and description
of the architecture principles, we have conducted an
elaborate literature review. Our aim is to consolidate
all known relevant literature into a comprehensive
and consistent definition and set of characteristics
captured in a model. This result will help us in our
empirical research of comparing architecture
principles. Moreover, a good definition and
description of architecture principles will help in
drawing up and using architecture principles in
practice as well.
Given the analysis described above, we answer
in this paper the following research question:
“How are, according to literature, architecture
principles comprehensively and consistently defined
and described?”
The definition should provide an exact statement
of the meaning of an architecture principle. The
definition describes the essence of the term
‘architecture principle’ without additional elements.
The description is a listing of all characteristics of an
architecture principle. It describes the architecture
principle in his exhaustiveness by his characteristics
and their interrelationships. The distinction between
these two concepts are in accordance with both the
Oxford dictionary and Lyons (1977).
We start this paper with the research
methodology in section two. In the third section we
provide the results of the literature review. Next, in
section four, we discuss the results and give
limitations to those results. We finish this article
with conclusions and further research.
2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
To answer the research question we started refining
the research question into two sub questions. Based
on those two research questions we defined our
research process, including scope definition, models
for analysis, and selection criteria for selecting the
right literature.
2.1 Research Question
To be able to find the right results, we refined our
general research question into two sub questions.
The first sub question should focus on the
identification of architecture principles: what kinds
of statement are in scope as architecture principles?
The second sub question should help in getting a
model to describe an architecture principle in a
manner as exhaustive as possible. As a result, we
used the following two research questions in our
research:
1. What are definitions of architecture
principles in literature and what are the
similarities and differences between those
definitions?
2. With which characteristics are architecture
principles described and how are
architecture principles related to their
environment?
2.2 Research Process
We used a six-step approach for this literature
review, based on the literature review method of
Webster and Watson (2002). This method was also
used by Stelzer (2009) and Haki (2012) and with
that, we have equivocality of the research process in
this area of research. The six steps were:
1. Defining the boundaries of the literature
review;
2. Compiling two models (one for each
research question) needed for analysing
the results of the literature review;
3. Identifying and selecting relevant
literature;
4. Reviewing the results of the literature
review using our models
5. Answering the sub research questions
based on the results of the analysis.
6. Addressing the limitations, discussing the
results and presenting implications for
further research
2.3 Boundaries of Research
Our research is focusing on architecture principles to
be used for implementing information system (IS)
requirements. In the initiation of this literature
review, however, we found out that there is a lack of
architecture principle literature related to the scope
of IS specifically. There is, however, literature on
enterprise architecture principles and software
architecture principles. IS architecture is part of
enterprise architecture (Land et al. 2008), and
therefore it is possible to confine the literature
review to the enterprise, which we did. Therefore, all
conclusions related to principles used in enterprise
architecture can be applied to principles for the IS
architecture as well. As a consequence, we scoped
our literature search on architecture principles
related to Enterprise, Information System, or IT.
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2.4 Models Used for Analysis
We used two models to help us analysing the results
that we found in the selected publications. For the
first research question our aim is to have an
instrument helping to decompose the definitions
found. This decomposition helps to identify all
elements relevant for describing the essence of the
term ‘architecture principle’ and also to determine
which additional elements are not distinctive.
To experience the essence of a subject, the
interrogative WH-questions (Wikipedia 2017) are
helpful. We used the 7 most-used interrogative WH
questions (what, why, how, with which, who, when,
and where) to decompose the definitions. Each
element of a definition is attached to one of the
questions. After the decomposition of all definitions,
we analysed per question the similarities and
differences in phrasing. Based on the analysis we
formulated a new phrasing for a strengthened
definition (see table 5).
Figure 1: Decomposing architecture principle definitions
with WH-questions.
In answering the second research question we
used a framework to model the architecture
principle. In this framework (see fig 2) we
distinguish the relevant entities in our research, like
architecture principle, design, and strategy. Most of
them are artefacts of the development process.
Figure 2: Framework for modelling the characteristics of
an architecture principle.
An entity has characteristics, defined as “a
feature belonging typically to an architecture
principle and serving to identify it.” A characteristic,
in its turn, has one or more attributes, as “an inherent
part of the characteristic”. We also address the
relationships between the entities and between the
entity and its characteristics. In designing the model
we used the UML in accordance with (Fischer et al.
2010; Aier et al. 2011).
During the literature review we listed each new
characteristic or entity we found in a table, including
the definition, attributes and relationship. When we
did find a synonym, we added that one to the one
found earlier. In the end this resulted in a list of
unique characteristics, entities and relationships to
each other. As a final step, we designed the model
describing the architecture principle using the
framework.
2.5 Search & Selection of Literature
We used the various well-known databases, journals,
and search mechanisms (for instance, EBSCO,
Google Scholar, AISeL and Research Gate), to find
relevant literature. In selecting the right publications,
we used the following inclusion and exclusion
criteria. First criterion is the selection of English
publications only. Secondly, the title or abstract has
to contain at least the combination of terms
<architecture principle> AND (<Enterprise> OR
<IS> OR <IT>). Based on those criteria we obtained
a list of publications (see table III).
We analysed the abstracts of those publications
and selected those ones addressing the definition or
description of architecture principles in general. We
excluded all other literature covering the application
of architecture principles. Each of the selected
publications was read and analysed extensively and
all relevant information in the publication was
structured for analysis.
In some publications we did find citations to
prior literature as well. When those publications
were addressing specific elements of architecture
principles, we added them to our list of publications.
In most cases those publications did not satisfy all
selection criteria, because they were addressing
another (related) subjects.
3 RESULTS
In this section we describe the results of our research
and we answer the two sub research questions
defined. We start with the general research results,
and in the two following sub-sections we provide the
Strengthen the Architecture Principle Definition and Its Characteristics
609
definition and description of the architecture
principles respectively.
3.1 General Research Results
After the search and selection of publications we
found 28 publications we rated as most relevant in
defining and describing architecture principles (see
table 3). Those publications are covering a time span
between 1990 and 2017. Some of those publications
introduce new definitions and descriptions, while
others strengthen existing ones. Many publications
confirm and use the conclusions of previous
publications.
All authors confirm the importance of
architecture principles for the architecture and
design of systems. Not only from a theoretical
perspective, but also in practice architects state that
architecture principles have added value, according
to different surveys (Greefhorst et al. 2013; Winter
and Aier 2011; Haki and Legner 2013).
Of all publications found, most of them are
describing architecture principles in general, calling
it Enterprise Architecture (EA) principles. Only a
few are related to a specific layer of the architecture,
such as business, information system, application, or
technical infrastructure (The Open Group 2011a;
Greefhorst and Proper 2011; Hoogervorst 2004).
Specific publications related to architecture
principles are difficult to find. Therefore, as
discussed in section 2, we used the more general yet
still applicable literature on EA principles instead.
Our research shows, generally speaking,
consensus about architecture principle definitions
and its characteristics over the previous 27 years. In
2013 Haki already mentioned the increasing
consensus on what he was calling “the nature and
definition of EA principles” (Haki and Legner
2013). Since Haki’s paper, there were only a few
new publications with similar ideas. Nevertheless,
between the 28 publications we did find some
inaccuracy or incompleteness, which we will
elaborate in the next two sections to strengthen both
the definition and description of an architecture
principle.
3.2 Definition of an Architecture
Principle
In answering the first sub research question we first
listed all found definitions in literature in a table (see
table 4 for an overview of all definitions). In this
overview it is interesting to see that the definitions in
later publications are a consolidation of previous
definitions and are evolving to more comprehensive
ones. In (Fischer et al. 2010; Haki and Legner 2013)
the elaboration of the definitions is quite detailed,
which would make it in our terms more a
description than a definition. It is noteworthy to see
there were no really deviating definition or remarks
on prior publications whatsoever.
To give insight in the similarities and differences
between those definitions, we decomposed the
definition with the WH-questions. During the
analysis we were, in accordance with the Oxford
definition, focussing on the essence of an
architecture principle, while the definition should be
comprehensive and consistent as well. Here we will
address the similarities and differences per WH-
question as also summarised table 5 in the appendix.
In describing the determining elements of an
architecture principle most authors do agree that an
architecture principle is a statement, as a type of
design principle. In accordance with Haki et al.
(2013), and Fischer et al. (2010) we state that the
architecture principle should be “based on business
and IT strategy”, because with architecture we want
to focus on the essential requirements. Although
many authors do agree that an architecture principle
is a type of design principle, we omit this because
we address the design-element later in the definition.
Although defined in many different ways, the
purpose of the architecture principle can be
summarised as describing restriction to the design.
This is consistently formulated by Greefhorst and
Proper (2011) with “normatively describes a
property of the design of an artefact”. In our case the
artefact is the Information System.
In many definitions the objective of the
architecture principle is described as “should be met
by the architecture” or “justification for decision
making throughout an EA”. But an architecture in
itself has the objective that a system meets its
essential requirements. And because architecture is
focusing on the ‘essential’ requirements, we would
like to address this in the definition. With that, it is
the distinguishing element between design and
architecture principles.
Looking for additional elements in describing the
essence of an architecture principle, we do not see
real distinctive parts. In our analysis of the
remaining WH-questions, we only identify elements,
which we can link to elements in our definition. E.g.,
“a rationale is formulated” can be linked to the
elements “is based on business and IT strategy” and
“its essential requirements”. That does not mean that
those elements are irrelevant: those elements have
to be part of the description of the architecture
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principle, as we already indicated above. This
hypothesis is strengthened by the fact that only four
authors are addressing one or more remaining WH-
questions in their definition.
By combining these findings, we define an
architecture principle for information systems as:
“ An architecture principle is a declarative
statement, based on, at least, business and IT
strategy. It normatively describes a property of the
design of an information system, which is necessary
to ensure that the information system meets its
essential requirements.”
With this analysis we conclude that there is
consensus in literature about the definition of an
architecture principle. The differences in the
definitions found are related to the use of undefined
terms or the use of synonyms. Furthermore, we
found incomplete or copious definitions, without
catching the essence of an architecture principle.
3.3 Description of Architecture
Principles
Although we now have defined the essentials of an
architecture principle, we still have to describe it. As
a consequence, we answer the question “With which
characteristics are architecture principles described
and how are architecture principles related to its
environment?”.
In answering this question, we started
investigating the different types of principles. For
many years, there were, in general, two types of
architecture principle: design principles and
representation principles (Stelzer 2009; Winter and
Aier 2011; Haki and Legner 2012). The latter type
refers to the way architectures should be
represented, while the first directs the design of a
system itself. In literature they were described as
having different characteristics and serving different
objectives.
Recently Lumor, et al. (2016) introduced a third
type of principle, namely architecture management
principles. Those architecture management
principles are reflecting the process nature of EA.
The idea behind this third type of principles is the
fact that in general architecture and its principles
might be a product, process, result, etc. (Slot 2010;
Lumor et al. 2016; Greefhorst and Proper 2011;
Sandkuhl et al. 2015), and an architecture principle
should address the process view as well.
In this literature review we take the view that
these different types are different perspectives on the
same kind of architecture principles. This is in
accordance with Lindström (2006), who
distinguishes syntactic and semantic characteristics.
Syntactic characteristics are describing the elements
and their interrelationships of a principle. Semantic
characteristics describe the quality elements of the
principle. Haki posed in (Haki and Legner 2012) that
this differentiation is the same kind of subdivision as
the differentiation of design and representation
principles. So, depending on perspective, the
architecture principle has more or less specific
characteristics.
We do understand that, with this choice, we will
collect all kinds of characteristics, which also might
be related to each other. We encountered this
consequence already in our case study research
(Borgers and Harmsen 2016). To address this
consequence, we will, in the next step of our
research project, classify all the characteristics
found.
Next, we distinguished the characteristics of the
architecture principle itself on the one hand and the
relationship with entities in its environment on the
other. This breakdown is comparable with the
definition of Richardson and Aier et al. (Fischer et
al. 2010; Winter and Aier 2011), (Richardson et al.
1990) in a core definition and basic extensions, and
helpful to get more transparency in the description
of the architecture principle. In literature we found
all kinds of characteristics and entities described.
Using our framework we listed all these
characteristics (see table 1 and fig 3).
3.3.1 Characteristics
We start with the ‘specification’ characteristic.
There is consensus on the specification of an
architecture principle by the attributes “statement”,
“rationale”, and “implications”. All authors naming
these three attributes as an inherent part of an
architecture principle. We group these three
attributes together in one characteristic, because
together they specify the architecture principle.
The second characteristic of an architecture
principle is called ‘measure’. This characteristic
describes the level of fulfilment of the principle. To
some authors, e.g. Aier, Haki and Lindström (Haki
and Legner 2013; Fischer et al. 2010; Lindström
2006), this is a typical characteristic for an
architecture principle, because of an architecture
principle should be respected to some extent.
Hoogervorst (2004; 2009), endorsed by (Aier et
al. 2011; Winter and Aier 2011), and Greefhorst and
Proper (2011), introduced the characteristic “Key
action” as guidelines for implementing the principle.
Strengthen the Architecture Principle Definition and Its Characteristics
611
Recently Marosin (2016) added the characteristic
“Precondition”, which has to be fulfilled by key
actions before a principle can be applied. Because
both elements are strongly related to each other, we
consider them as attributes of one characteristic
called ‘Prerequisites’ of which the principles
depends on.
We also introduce the ‘meta data’ characteristic.
This characteristic typifies the architecture principle
so it can be managed. Attributes like name,
assurance, visualisation and generic information are
in scope of this characteristic. Many of such
attributes are defined by Greefhorst and Proper
(2011) and till now there is no exhaustive overview
of this kind of attributes.
Finally, there are all kinds of quality, or
semantic, attributes defined in literature, which the
architecture principle should meet. TOGAF (The
Open Group 2011a), Van Bommel (2006),
Lindström (2006), Marosin (2016) and Greefhorst
(2011) all have their own list of quality attributes. A
more detailed comparison shows that they only use
different terms for the same type of attributes or use
a slightly different definition of the quality attribute.
Therefore we choose the quality attributes used by
Van Bommel (2006) and Greefhorst (2011):
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and
Time-framed (SMART). The reason to choose this
list of quality attributes, is the fact that they are
defined quite detailed in (Greefhorst and Proper
2011) and that they are easy to remember because of
the re-use of the SMART criteria for objectives.
Table 1: Characteristics for Architecture principles.
Characteristic
Attribute
Definition
Specification
Statement
Succinctly and
unambiguously
communicates the
fundamental rule to the
user of the principle
Rationale
Highlights the business
benefits of adhering to
the principle
Implications
Highlights the
requirements for
carrying out the
principle
Measure
Level of the fulfilment
of the statement
Prerequisites
Precondition
Preconditions and
requirements to be
fulfilled before the
principle can be
applied
Key action
Guidelines for
implementing the
principle, giving the
preconditions
Meta data
Several
Specifications to be
able to govern the
principle
Quality
Specific
The user can
understand its intention
and its effects to use it
in his work
Measurable
Possible to determine
whether or not a given
behaviour is in line
with architecture
principle
Achievable
The implications of it
can all be performed
by or adhered to by all
those affected
Relevant
The principle should
lead to a improvement
of the system meeting
the essential
requirement
Time framed
Principe should be
stable in context and
time
3.3.2 Entities in Its Environment
Next to their characteristics listed above, the context
in which the architecture principles are used, is
important as well (Stelzer 2009; Fischer et al. 2010;
Aier et al. 2011; Proper and Greefhorst 2010;
Greefhorst and Proper 2011), in particular for the
effect of a principle. The key context of an
architecture principle, according to literature,
consists of the ‘design’, ‘requirements’, ‘the
architecture’, ‘the strategy’, and ‘the architecture
principle set’. We describe those relationships one
by one and are visualised in figure 3.
The most direct relationship an architecture
principle has, is with the ‘design’. Architecture and
therefore also architecture principles restricts the
design freedom of a system, according to
(Hoogervorst 2009; Hoogervorst 2004; Dietz 2008;
Greefhorst and Proper 2011). As we already have
seen in the definition of the architecture principle,
that restriction is necessary “to ensure the
information system meeting its essential
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requirements”. So via the design the architecture
principle should ensure the Information System
satisfies the ‘requirements’.
Besides, an architecture principle is, most of the
time, part of a set of principles. Although in most
literature the focus is on individual architecture
principles, a principle is only effective if it is part of
a set (Lindström 2006; Greefhorst and Proper 2011;
Stelzer 2009), (Marosin and Ghanavati 2015),
(Marosin et al. 2016). Because we are interested in
the contribution of architecture principles, we have
to describe ‘the architecture principle set’ as well.
We define an architecture principle set as a group of
architecture principles defined and presented as a
collection. Because a set of principles is an entity in
itself, it has characteristics and attributes as well.
Based on Greefhorst and Proper (2011) we define
three types of characteristic: ‘classification’, ‘meta
data’ and ‘quality of the set’. See table 2 for a
definition of the characteristic types.
First, architecture principles are grouped together
based on a ‘classification’. This ‘classification’ is
based on the type and scope of the architecture
principles. The type is related to the architecture
layers of an architecture model. There are many
definitions of architecture layers in use like TOGAF
(The Open Group 2011b), Zachmann (1987), and
IAF (Van ’t Wout et al. 2010). In our scope we
consider the Information System layer and within
this layer the subdivisions Application and
Infrastructure. Architecture principles can also be
classified based on the (organisational) level of use:
for a specific solution, a division, for an entire
organisation, etc.
Secondly, an architecture principle set can be
typified by ‘meta data’ to manage the principle set,
such as name, release number, amount of
architecture principles in the set, etc. Some authors
do address the point that the amount of principles in
the set should be as small as possible (Land and
Proper 2007; Lindström 2006; van Bommel et al.
2006). Many attributes may be added to the
characteristic ‘meta data’, and for now there is no
complete list available.
And lastly, similar to the individual architecture
principle, an architecture principle set meets quality
standards: ‘quality of the set’. In the case of a set of
principles we distinguish the attributes
‘representative’, ‘accessible’ and ‘consistent’.
Looking at the entities related to an architecture
principle we have two left. In the architecture
principle definition we also have described the
statement “…based on business and IT strategy”. In
our literature review we did not see a sharp
Table 2: Characteristics for architecture principle set.
Characteristic
Attribute
Definition
Classification
Type
The principles in the
set are related to one of
the architecture layers.
Scope
Level of use of the
principle.
Meta Data
Several
Specifications to be
able to govern the
principle set.
Quality of the set
Representative
The set covers all
relevant requirements
in a specific problem
domain.
Accessible
Users can find and
retrieve the set of
principles and they can
comprehend the
principles.
Consistent
No contradictions
between the
architecture principles
in the set.
clarification of the relationship between ‘business
and IT strategy’ and an architecture principle. We
see the architecture principle set as part of the
‘architecture’ and the ‘strategy’ guides this
architecture. Because an architecture principle is part
of the architecture, it is based on the strategy as well.
Figure 3: Framework of Architecture principles and its
environment.
Based on our analysis and the framework in
section II, we built up the final model of describing
the architecture principle including his environment
(see figure 3). As discussed in our analysis above,
this model is diverging slightly from the meta-model
of Aier, et al. (Fischer et al. 2010; Aier et al. 2011).
In our literature review we determined consensus
on the characteristics as well. Although we are of the
Strengthen the Architecture Principle Definition and Its Characteristics
613
opinion that the different types of architecture
principles are perspectives on the same kind of
principles, we did not find any contradictions. We
added and reorganised some characteristic and
attributes. As already addressed in our case study
research (Borgers and Harmsen 2016), some
characteristics were defined relatively subjective in
literature, using terms like “significant”, “easy”, or
“obvious”. We have strengthened the definitions
where possible (see table 1 and 2), while we are
aware of the fact that architecture principles are semi
structured, informal and written in natural language
(Land et al. 2008; Marosin and Ghanavati 2015;
Marosin et al. 2016; Marosin et al. 2014; Buckl et al.
2010). Furthermore, we have described the
architecture principle set with characteristics and
attributes as well, because the contribution of
architecture principle is only effective in a set.
4 LIMITATIONS, CONCLUSIONS
& FURTHER RESEARCH
With the results of section 3 we may conclude that
we are able to define and describe architecture
principles comprehensively en consistently. In this
section, we address the limitations of our research
methodology. Secondly we discuss the results of our
literature review and end up with implications for
further research to consolidate this area of research.
4.1 Limitations
There are two threats to the validity of our results.
The first limitation we have identified is the
interpretation of the words that have been used in the
definitions and the characteristics. Although
semantics of natural language is always an issue in
literature study, we encountered in several papers
descriptions that were rather vague, and therefore
subject to (personal) interpretation and possible
wrong conclusions. Because many publications
confirm and use the conclusions of previous
publications, we judge the risk of misinterpretation
low.
The other limitation is the rather broad scope of
the literature search by considering architecture
principles in the enterprise domain instead of
architecture principles in the IS domain. In certain
cases, we translated architecture principle
characteristics to specific IS ones without knowing
whether that would be valid in practice. This is a
topic for further research. Because architecture
principles can affect multiple architecture domains
(Greefhorst and Proper 2011), we consider this as
low risk.
To discuss the results of our literature review we
also sent our draft paper to a small group of senior
experts in this research area. We used their response
to eliminate indistinctness in the draft paper. Besides
that, the experts addressed some specific remarks
related to the paper.
Several experts mentioned that formulating
architecture principles is important, but that the use
of architecture principle is the real issue in practice.
The description of the architecture principle is a
precondition, necessary to determine the use and the
effectiveness of architecture principles.
The second remark is related to the ordering of
the characteristics. As addressed in section 3 we
have chosen not to order the characteristics in this
part of our research, although there are different
perspectives on architecture principles. Two experts
suggest to order the characteristics using some
framework, for example the dimensions framework
defined in Greeforst and Proper (2011). Such
frameworks will help in evaluating the relationships
between the different characteristics as well.
The last remark was related to the definition of
the architecture principle. The original definition
suggests that architecture principles are based on
business and IT strategy only. We do agree with the
experts that business and IT strategy are just two, be
it important, sources to formulate architecture
principles. So we reframed the definition by adding
‘at least’ in the phrasing.
4.2 Final Conclusions
In most relevant publications we found 15 different
definitions of architecture principles and a large set
of characteristics. In a period of 27 years the
definition of an architecture principle has been
consolidated. Besides, there is consensus about
many characteristics. Nevertheless we did find some
inaccuracy or incompleteness in definitions and
descriptions, as we addressed in this paper.
First, we found all kinds of definitions in
literature, with most of them incomplete or just not
striking the essentials of an architecture principle.
By decomposing and rephrasing the elements of
those definitions we ended up with a more
comprehensive and consistent definition.
In describing the architecture principles with
characteristics we defined all types of principles as
different perspectives on the same kind of principles.
We grouped together the rationale, statement and
ICEIS 2018 - 20th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems
614
implication into one characteristic ‘specification’.
Besides we distinguished ‘key action’ and
‘preconditions’ as two separate attributes, combined
in the characteristic ‘Prerequisites’. We also
considered ‘Meta data’ and ‘Quality’ as explicit
characteristics of an architecture principle, which
has not been done in all past literature. Where
possible we tried to define the characteristics more
objectively – despite the fact that in natural
language, interpretations of words is always
possible. Altogether, there were no contradictions
found in past literature, but we have extended the
description of the Architecture principle with new
characteristics.
Analysing the contribution of individual
architecture principles without looking at the set of
principles is of no use. An architecture principle is
only effective in combination with other architecture
principles. We therefore also described the
characteristics of the architecture principle set:
‘Classification’, ‘Quality’ and ‘Meta data’. We
described the characteristics of both an architecture
principle and the architecture principle set into a
framework also related to entities in its environment.
4.3 Further Research
The results of this literature study are interesting in
itself, but are the definition and description still valid
in practice? Is the assumption that the characteristics
of an enterprise architecture principle can be applied
to an architecture principle in all cases? And are the
definition and description of the architecture
principles suitable for comparing principles with
each other? To answer these questions, the next step
in this research is to examine the definition and
description in real life cases.
Using the results of this literature study we will
initiate new case studies, focusing on the question:
“To what extent is there a fit between the definition
and description of architecture principles from the
literature review and the appearance of architecture
principles in practice?”. The results of these case
studies will help to improve and further refine the
definition and description of architecture principles.
And more importantly, it is the next step in
determining their contribution to the success of IS
requirements implementation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Dutch Tax Agency (DTA) funded this survey.
Special thanks to the senior experts Saco Bekius
(DTA), Martin van den Berg (Dutch Central Bank),
Danny Greefhorst (ArchiXL), Paul Oude Luttighuis
(Le Blanc Advies) and Raymond Slot (Hogeschool
Utrecht).
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617
APPENDIX
Table 3: Most relevant publications related to defining and describing architecture principles.
Nr.
Author
Year of
Publication
Reference
1
G.L. Richardson, et al.
1990
(Richardson et al. 1990)
2
F.J. Armour, et al.
1999
(Armour et al. 1999)
3
J. Hoogervorst
2004
(Hoogervorst 2004)
4
D. Chen, et al.
2004
(Chen & Lillehagen
2004)
5
P. van Bommel, et al.
2006
(van Bommel et al.
2006)
6
Ä. Lindström
2006
(Lindström 2006)
7
Martin Op ‘t Land, Erik
Proper
2007
(Land & Proper 2007)
8
Van Bommel, et al.
2007
(van Bommel et al.
2007)
9,10
The Open Group
2007, 2011
(The Open Group 2007)
(The Open Group
2011b)
11
Dirk Stelzer
2009
(Stelzer 2009)
12
Erik Proper, Danny
Greefhorst
2010
(Proper & Greefhorst
2010)
13
Christian Fischer,
Robert Winter, Stephan
Aier
2010
(Fischer et al. 2010)
14
Sabine Buckl
2010
(Buckl et al. 2010)
15
Kalevi Pessi, et al.
2011
(Pessi et al. 2010)
16
Robert Winter, Stephan
Aier
2011
(Winter & Aier 2011)
17
Stephan Aier, Christian
Fischer, Robert Winter
2011
(Aier et al. 2011)
18
Danny Greefhorst, Erik
Proper
2011
(Greefhorst & Proper
2011)
19
Mohammad Kazem
Haki, Christine Legner
2012
(Haki & Legner 2012)
20
Danny Greefhorst,
Hendrik Proper,
Georgios Plataniotis
2013
(Greefhorst et al. 2013)
21
Mohammad Kazem
Haki, Christine Legner
2013
(Haki & Legner 2013)
22
Diana Marosin, Sepideh
Ghanavati, Dirk van der
Linden
2014
(Marosin et al. 2014)
23
Christer Tallberg,
Kalevi Pessi, et al.
2015
(Tallberg & Pessi 2015)
24
Diana Marosin, Sepideh
Ghanavati
2015
(Marosin & Ghanavati
2015)
25
Kurt Sandkuhl, Daniel
Simon, Matthias
Wissotzki, Christoph
Starke
2015
(Sandkuhl et al. 2015)
26
Michiel Borgers
2016
(Borgers 2016)
27
Michiel Borgers,
Frank Harmsen
2016
(Borgers & Harmsen
2016)
28
Diana Marosin, Marc
van Zee, Sepideh
Ghanavati
2016
(Marosin et al. 2016)
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Table 4: Overview of architecture principle definitions by different authors.
Nr.
Definition of architecture principle
Author
Year of
Publication
Reference
1
“Principles are an organization’s basic philosophies that guide the
development of the architecture… Principles provide guidelines and
rationales for the constant examination and re-evaluation of technology
plans.”
G.L. Richardson, et
al.
1990
(Richardson et
al. 1990)
2
“… simple, direct statements of how an enterprise wants to use IT.
These statements establish a context for architecture design decisions
by translating business criteria into language and specifications that
technology managers can understand and use. Architecture principles
put boundaries around decisions about system architecture.”
F.J. Armour, et al.
1999
(Armour et al.
1999)
3
“ … collectively the design principles are identified as enterprise
architecture.”
J. Hoogervorst
2004
(Hoogervorst
2004)
4
“Architecture principles are rules to use when elaborating
enterprise architectures.”
D. Chen, et al.
2004
(Chen &
Lillehagen 2004)
5
“Architecture principles define the underlying general rules and
guidelines for the use and deployment of all IT resources and assets
across the enterprise….”
Ä. Lindström
2006
(Lindström
2006)
6
“Principles are general rules and guidelines, intended to be
enduring and seldom amended, that inform and support the way in
which an organization sets about fulfilling its mission”
TOGAF
2007
(The Open
Group 2007)
7
“Enterprise architecture principles are fundamental propositions
that guide the description, construction, and evaluation of enterprise
architectures.”
Dirk Stelzer
2009
(Stelzer 2009)
8
“An EA principle constrains and guides the design of the EA and may
in turn provide justification for decision-making throughout an EA. In
general, principles are self-restraint and not externally obliged, …. by
law in terms of compliances.”
Sabine Buckl
2010
(Buckl et al.
2010)
9
“ An EA principle is based on business strategy and IT strategy.
Principles can be attributed to different layers. An EA principle is
described in a principle statement saying what to improve. For each
principle, a rationale is formulated explaining why the principle is
meant to help reaching a predefined goal. For each principle, concrete
implications or key actions are described explaining how to implement
the principle. Measurement is a key issue of EA principles. For every
principle, it should be defined how to determine its fulfilment.”
Aier, et al.
2010
(Fischer et al.
2010)
10
“Architectural principles are statements that express how your
enterprise needs to design and deploy information systems across the
enterprise to connect, share and structure information.”
Pessi, et al.
2010
(Pessi et al.
2010)
11
“A qualitative statement of intent that should be met by the
architecture. Has at least a supporting rationale and a measure of
importance.”
The Open Group
2011
(The Open
Group 2011b)
12
“a declarative statement that normatively prescribes a property of
the design of an artifact, which is necessary to ensure the artifact meets
its essential requirements.”
Danny
Greefhorst, Erik
Proper,
2011
(Greefhorst &
Proper 2011)
13
“EA principles can be attributed to different architectural layers,
should be based on business and IT strategies, and refer to the
construction of an organization. Each EA principle should be described
in a principle statement along with a rationale that explains why this
principle is helpful in attaining a predetermined goal, as well as
implications that describe how to implement this principle. Finally,
metrics could be identified for each principle to measure its fulfilment.”
Mohammad Kazem
Haki, Christine
Legner
2013
(Haki & Legner
2013)
14
“an enterprise-specific and abstract, yet simple collection of statements,
which generally provide a framework for decision making and thus
support the transformation process of an enterprise from a current to a
target EA.”
Kurt Sandkuhl,
Daniel Simon,
Matthias Wissotzki,
Christoph Starke
2015
(Sandkuhl et al.
2015)
15
“In EA, principles have been defined as guidelines and rationales for
the design and evolution of technology plans. In other words, EA
principles can be seen as “rules of conduct” and can be made more
precise and operational by formalization.”
Diana Marosin
2016
(Marosin et al.
2016)
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619
Table 5: Decomposition and consolidation of an architecture principle definition.
Interrogative
question
Explanation
Definitions in literature
Consolidated description for
Architecture principle
What
What is an
architecture principle?
Describing the determining
elements.
are organisation's basic
philosophies [23], are simple, direct
statements [20], are design principles
[17], are rules [21], defines the
underlying general rules and guidelines
[24], are general rules and guidelines,
intended to be enduring and seldom
amended [39], are fundamental
propositions [1], are self-restraint and
not externally obliged [31], is based on
business and IT strategy [18], are
statements [40], a qualitative statement
of intent [ 33], a declarative statement
[2], should be based on business and IT
strategies [15], have been defined as
guideliness and rationales [28], can be
seen as 'rules of conduct' [28], is
described in a principal statement [18],
an enterprise-specific and abstract, yet
simple collection of statements [25],
which generally provide a framework
[25]
is a declarative statement, as a
specific type of design principle,
based on business and IT strategy.
How
How does the
principle work? Describing
the manner of the
principle.
establish a context for architecture
design decisions by translating business
criteria into language and specifications
[20], put boundaries around decisions
about system architecture [20], can be
attributed to different layers [18], that
normatively prescribes a property of the
design of an artifact [2], can be
attributed to different architectural
layers [15], refer to the construction of
an organization [15], can be made more
precise and operational by formalization
[28]
It normatively describes a property
of the design of an IS,
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Table 5: Decomposition and consolidation of an architecture principle definition (cont.).
Interrogative
question
Explanation
Definitions in literature
Consolidated description for
Architecture principle
Why
Why is the
architecture principle
described? Describing the
reason(s) or objectives to
achieve.
that guide the development of the
architecture [23], for the constant
examination and re-evaluation of
technology plans [23], how an
enterprise wants to use IT [20], for the
use and deployment of all IT resources
and assets across the enterprise [24],
that inform and support the way in
which an organization sets about
fulfilling its mission [39], that guide the
description, construction, and evaluation
of enterprise architectures [1],
constrains and guides the design of the
EA and may in turn provide
justification, for decision making
throughout an EA [31], saying what to
improve [18], reaching a predefined
goal [18], that express how your
enterprise needs to design and deploy
information systems across the
enterprise to connect, share and
structure information [40], that should
be met by the architecture [33], to
ensure the artifact meets its essential
requirements [2], why this principle is
helpful in attaining a predetermined
goal [15], for the design and evolution
of technolgy plans [27], for decision
making and thus support of the
transformation process of an enterprise
from a current to a target EA [25]
which is necessary to ensure the IS
meeting its essential requirements.
,
Which
With which elements
is an architecture principle
included? Describing the
elementary components of
an architecture principle.
provide guideliness and rationales
[23], a rationale is formulated
explaining why the principle is meant to
help [18], concrete implications or key
actions are described [18], measurement
is a key issue of EA principles..it should
be defined how to determine its
fulfillment [18], has at least a
supporting rationale and a measure of
importance [33], should be described in
a principle statement, along with a
rationale...., as well as implications [15],
metrics should be identified for each
principle to measure its fulfilment [15]
[Not relevant]
Who
Who is using the
architecture principle?
Describing the personal
related to the architecture
principle.
that technology managers can
understand and use [20]
[Not relevant]
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621
Table 5: Decomposition and consolidation of an architecture principle definition (cont.).
Interrogative
question
Explanation
Definitions in literature
Consolidated description for
Architecture principle
When
When are architecture
principles used?
Describing the timing of
the use.
constant [23], when elaborating
enterprise architectures [24]
[Not relevant]
Where
Where is the
architecture principle
located? An architecture
principle should be
accessible for people.
-
[Not relevant]
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