Enterprise Architecture Artifacts As Boundary Objects - A Framework Of Properties

This paper uses the concept of boundary objects to derive hypotheses for the design of Enterprise Architecture (EA) artifacts, with the goal of supporting communication and coordination in enterprise transformation projects. Boundary objects are a useful concept to understand the coordinative role of artifacts in practice. Since enterprise transformation projects typically involve multiple communities of practice, communication and coordination are important success factors. First, a set of 11 boundary object properties is identified via a structured literature review. After a focus group consisting of nine EA practitioners, the set is extended to 12 properties: Modularity, Abstraction, Concreteness, Annotation, Versioning, Shared Syntax, Accessibility, Up-to-dateness, Malleability, Stability, Visualization, and Participation. Finally, the set of boundary object properties is linked to three classes of EA artifacts (repositories, matrices, and diagrams) from the TOGAF framework, and three hypotheses are derived for the design of EA artifacts in order to become boundary objects capable of crossing a given knowledge boundary (syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic). The hypotheses argue for a common syntax, community-specific views, and joint editing and collaboration capabilities.