Cyclic alignment and electronic conunerce systems: the role of enterprise architectures

Agile e-commerce systems are required in a world in which the environment and corporate strategy change rapidly. However structured form all approaches such as those provided by enterprise architectures (EA) are still required for large, global systems. It is suggested that the degree to which an EA framework allows for a cyclic alignment process should he assessed. This process involves both integration and feed back /exchange mechanisms among the component parts of an EA. A review of several proprietary EA frameworks shows all frameworks except for the Zachman architecture offer support for an integrating structure. Most link their constituent models with feed back and exchange channels, though some channels are unidirectional. None of the selected architectures, except for ARIS, have a discernible feed back loop to corporate requirements specification.