proaches utilizing a similar method with similar steps
regardless of the addressed goal and subject. In con-
trast a functional category summarizes approaches ad-
dressing the same objectives and goals. Since an ap-
proach can fulfill different goals, there are several ap-
proaches with more than one functional category. For
example the cost analysis of (Niemann, 2006) is as-
signed to the technical category KPI and the func-
tional category Financial. Whereas the quality analy-
sis of (N
¨
arman et al., 2008) is assigned to the techni-
cal category Bayesian Networks and to the functional
categories System, Attribute, Quality and Data.
We identified 10 functional categories: System,
Attribute, Dependencies, Quality, Design, Effects,
Requirements, Financial, Data and Business Objects.
The technical dimension concluded with 17 cate-
gories: Bayesian Networks, Business Entities, Proba-
bilistic Relational Models, Social Network, Analytic
Hierarchy Process, Time Evaluation, Tree, KPI, Com-
parison, Views, Lifecycle, Ontology, Extended Influ-
ence Diagrams, Weak Points, Matrices, Design and
Structural. The assignment of the analyses to the cat-
egories is described in detail in (Rauscher et al., 2017)
and (Rauscher, 2015). About 30% of the analysis ap-
proaches are assigned to a technical category describ-
ing probabilistic approaches. Further important tech-
niques are the calculation of measures and KPIs to
address the architecture quality and attributes as well
as the definition of views on the architecture. Addi-
tionally the functional category Dependencies is often
used. The technical realization for analyses address-
ing dependencies varies widely.
Current approaches that try to cover different anal-
ysis types are rare. The majority of the approaches
are isolated ones that cannot be related to each other.
A uniform interface to the different EA analyses is
missing. Further challenges that are given only little
attention are recursive analysis definitions. Cyclic de-
pendencies in the models as well as incomplete mod-
els are sparsely considered. Only a few approaches
(e.g. (Kurpjuweit and Aier, 2009)) deal with the in-
direct relationships in EA models. (Sunkle et al.,
2013) addresses EA analysis using ontologies. A
lot of approaches utilize probabilistic techniques (e.g.
(N
¨
arman et al., 2008; Franke et al., 2009)). But
none of these approaches is able to cover the vari-
ous different goals that are addressed by EA analyses.
(Naranjo et al., 2014) propose the PRIMROSe frame-
work for visual analysis of EA models. This is a graph
based, modular approach to compose predefined anal-
ysis function and create sound visualizations by utiliz-
ing selectors and decorators. The architect can define
the analysis chains, although the scope of the analysis
functions is restricted to those that are prespecified.
Customization is possible through the defining of a
composition chain.
Current EA modeling tools provide extensive
analysis support. Limitations are caused by to the
modeling approach, the supported meta models and
the technical analysis capabilities (Naranjo et al.,
2015). Such capabilities can for example only in-
clude conformity checks or the generation of prede-
fined views. Some EA tools provide also a possibility
to query the model either by providing a DSL or by
integrating for example a SQL interface. EA tools
provide currently two major approaches to enterprise
architecture analysis: Either they are shipped with
a predefined and static meta model (e.g. iteraplan,
leanIX). Upon their meta model these tools typically
provide several analysis techniques out of the box. In
the other case the meta model of the tool can be cus-
tomized to the organization needs (e.g. planningIT).
In this case the analysis functions of a tool typically
have also be adapted, which is associated with a high
effort.
3 ARCHITECTURE ANALYSIS
LANGUAGE
The Architecture Analysis Language (Arla) provides
a universal interface for the definition and execution
of analyses. Thereby Arla abstracts from technical
details. The architect defines only ”what” he is in-
terested in, how this information is retrieved is gen-
erated from the Arla analysis definition. This execu-
tion process is described in section 4. The language
supports the specification of analyses for a concrete
EA model, but also the definition of templates us-
ing placeholder variables for EA stereotypes. In order
to apply a template on a concrete EA model, the de-
clared variables have to be mapped to existing stereo-
types. A re-definition of the analysis is not necessary.
Another concept to ease the re-use of analyses
and support template definition is node and edge
classes. Those classes are used to abstract from EA
specific stereotypes during analysis definition. Based
on a review of EA frameworks we classified relation-
ship types according to their semantics. We identi-
fied five classes of relationship types: Provide, Con-
sumedBy, LocalizedAt, StructuralDependentOf and
BehavioralDependentOf. These edge classes are suc-
cessfully used in previous work for change impact
analysis (Langermeier et al., 2014a) in order to ab-
stract form the concrete EA meta model. Additionally
we adapted this concept to the element types. Thereby
we identified three types, that are used in all com-
mon EA meta models: Process, Application and In-
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