Data-driven Analytics for Business Architectures: Proposed Use of Graph Theory

In the age of globalization with fierce competition, dynamic marketplaces and changing customer demands, it is critical that business organizations understand their structures and processses, align business strategy and organization's capabilities and investment, detect and reorganize redundant business capabilities (especially after mergers and acquisitions), and recognize business innovations. Consequently, great efforts have been made to design and improve Business Architecture (BA) models for solving those challenges. Business Architecture (BA) is a blueprint of the enterprise that provides a common understanding of the organization and is used to align strategic objectives and tactical demands, which articulates the structure of an enterprise in terms of its capabilities, governance structure, business processes, and business information [1]. In the past few decades, various BA models have been developed, of which some major models including: ArchiMate [2] that is maintained by the Archimate Foundation and approved as technical standard by the Open Group, and can be used to formally describe business operations; Business Architecture Working Group (BAWG) [3] that is founded as a part of the Objected Management Group (OMG) for establishing industry standards, supporting the creation, and alignment of business blueprints; Business driven analytics is implemented in CBM and explore what and how business insights can be obtained through the data-driven analytics. We conclude the paper by summarizing our current work, and discussing future directions.