Towards Ontology-Based Validation of EA Principles.

This research demonstrates the feasibility of using enterprise ontologies as representation formalism for automated validation of Enterprise Architecture (EA) principles. EA Principles are usually described in natural language, while the Enterprise Architecture is represented with graphical models. As both are intended for human interpretation, it requires humans to validate whether EA Principles are satisfied by an Enterprise Architecture. This is a complex and time-consuming process. We describe a step-by-step procedure for transforming the knowledge of Enterprise Architecture models and the vocabulary of EA Principles into the ArchiMEO ontology, which allows for automated validation. The approach is evaluated in two case studies. They confirm that an ontology-based validation of EA Principles is applicable in reality.