Evaluating Integration Architectures - A Scenario-Based Evaluation of Integration Technologies

A major aspect of complex Enterprise Architectures is the integration of existing heterogeneous IT-systems in a business process oriented way. Based on an empirical study the authors of the paper proved that there is no significant process orientation in information system integration projects today. Among other reasons this is due to deficits in mastering integration methodologies and technologies. This paper addresses the evaluation of diverse integration architectures. As a general differentiation of integration architectures the paper defines individually coded interfaces, centralized hub & spoke and distributed approaches based on standardized interface descriptions (Service Oriented Architecture–SOA). To assure a reliable evaluation the integration architectures have been implemented in the same scenario. The paper finally compares integration architectures with a set of 11 criteria. 1 Harmonizing Business Process Orientation and IT Architecture The current discussion about integrative enterprise architectures is not very structured. Both methodological and technology-oriented aspects are arbitrarily taken up referring on a specific context. Generic approaches are missing – an industry standard is far away. A precondition for a standardization of methods and technologies for the development and implementation of integrative enterprise architectures is the definition of generally accepted requirements and criteria. Only on the basis of those requirements and criteria one can evaluate the appropriateness of both methods and technologies. This article first discusses the foundations concerning methodological and technological aspects. Thereafter we will focus on the evaluation of technology sets which are currently discussed for the design and implementation of integrative enterprise architectures. An important precondition for a fruitful discussion is a coherent understanding of enterprise architecture. Our understanding utilizes the term integration concept which refers to methods and technologies supporting the integration of information systems in a process oriented way. An architecture can be understood as an abstract, holistic view on structures and patterns [1]. Architectures are usually the result of a planning process and thus represent a master plan for the holistic realization of future measures. These general char2 Stephan Aier and Marten Schoenherr acteristics applied on enterprises become the enterprise architecture. Enterprise architecture is the combination of organizational, technical, and psychosocial aspects during planning and development of socio-technical business information systems [2]. In this article we will focus on organizational and technical aspects of enterprise architecture. Therefore we use the terms organizational architecture and IT architecture (fig. 1). integration concepts enterprise architecture organizational architecture IT architecture