Business Architecture Elicitation for Enterprise Architecture: VMOST versus Conventional Strategy Capture

The goal of enterprise architecture (EA) artifacts is to create an information technology (IT) infrastructure that aligns with the institution´s business environment. To facilitate this, enterprise architecture frameworks (EAF) have been used to understand an enterprise´s strategy and business architecture to synthesize a supporting IT strategy. This understanding is critical to the success of an EA. This paper contrasts the use of a systematic elicitation approach, VMOST, to recently completed strategy capture artifacts. We assess our approach through interviews with a number of employees across several departments within a University library, then comparing the interview responses to the conventionally compiled Strategic Plan. Placing data gathered by the two efforts side by side will allow coverage comparison of EA-unguided artifacts against a lightweight-guidance method and determine the usefulness of a non-EA strategy effort in completing an EAF. Insights into the utility of the two methods will be provided by completing relevant aspects of the Zachman Framework, which will further the understanding of the use of EA methods and tools within organizations without EA expertise or significant experience.