The EAM Pattern Catalog, as a collection of observed proven practices in EA management, supports different activities with four of them detailed below.

Establishing an organization-specific EA Management through EAM Pattern Integration

The EAM Pattern Catalog supports introducing a light-weight, organization-specific approach to EA management based on best practices. In this use case it is assumed that EA management is introduced in a green field approach. In this case, first of all the pain points of the company, the so called problems have to be identified. This is supported by the list of problems included in the EAM Pattern Catalog [Bu08a].

The selected problems include references to M-Pattern that can be used to address these problems. According to the EAM pattern approach the methodology described in the M-Pattern uses certain V-Pattern for visualizing aspects of the EA, which are referenced by the M-Pattern. Based on the selected V-Pattern the associated I-Patterns can be selected. The last step is to integrate the EAM patterns to an organization-specific approach for EA management. This page gives some hints on how to integrate the EAM patterns. This approach is the same as the generalized process on how to implement an EA management approach based on EAM patterns shown in the following figure.

One or more catalogs of EAM patterns, supplied by pattern authors, serve as a basis. From these catalogs, the developers for EA management support choose EAM patterns, that are perceived as adequate for addressing specific problems of the respective organization, preferably under participation of the prospective users. After integrating EAM patterns, thereby creating a coherent, light-weight, organization-specific conceptual model, the respective concepts can be implemented, e.g. in an EA management tool or a suite of tools.

This procedure offers the possibility to incrementally implement an EA management approach, starting with an initial set of M-Patterns, V-Patterns, and I-Patterns, which on the one hand includes rationale for the decisions made, e.g. why certain elements of the information model have been selected and on the other hand can later be extended, when a higher maturity level has been reached. In this case the EAM pattern graph (see [Bu08a] page 23) can be used to e.g. identify EAM patterns, which easily fit into the already selected EAM patterns due to being closely related.

For example, it can be possible to create additional visualizations using the information already collected. In this case the I-Patterns, which are already in use have to be determined and then further V-Patterns have to be found, which use the same information model fragments.

The same is true for M-Patterns, as they use V-Patterns. Therefore, it may be possible that V-Patterns, which are already in use, can be utilized to address additional problems with M-Patterns.

Inspiring and Assessing an already implemented EA Management approach

The second usage scenario for the EAM Pattern Catalog is to take it as a reference book for suggestions concerning the approach currently selected in a company. This offers the possibility to compare the own EA management approach with best practices in use elsewhere.
The EAM Pattern Catalog can e.g. be used to look for typical problems, which occur in other companies. This case may best be addressed by simply skipping through the EAM Pattern Catalog.

Additionally the EAM Pattern Catalog can suggest visualizations that can be found in academia and practice, which may be helpful in the currently selected EA management approach.

In this cases the EAM pattern graph (see [Bu08a] page 23) can be used to find on the one hand M-Patterns to address the problems and on the other hand to find I-Patterns, showing the information needed to be able to create the required visualizations.

Specifying requirements and goals for EA Management

Specifying goals and requirements is always a difficult task. The same is true in the context of EA management.

Consider a company thinking about introducing EA management as a way to improve the alignment between business and IT. In this case you typically have to decide between working with a consulting company in order to define concrete goals for you initiative or you can try to define these goals by yourself. Using the EAM pattern approach you have the possibility to use the list of problems, which can typically be found within companies and use these to define the goals of your own company.

The situation is similar during the requirements elicitation, e.g. for an EA management tool. One approach to find the existing requirements is to as the affected stakeholders (if they are known or have previously been identified) what they want. Usually this results in a "make a wish" contest creating a long list of requirements, which does not reflect the real requirements of the company. Using the EAM pattern approach this situation can be changed due to the following reasons. Selecting requirements from an existing list is always easier then creating an own list and selecting from this list. Especially if the list is based on proven-practice, like the EAM patterns. The second reason is that it is easier to express the requirements, e.g. it is easier to talk to a tool vendor and say we need to be able to use a visualization according to V-Pattern Business Application and Organizational Unit Cluster Map or we need to document information according to I-Pattern Architectural Solution Conformance then to have a short textual description available. And again this is based on proven solutions and not invented on an ad-hoc manner.

EAM Pattern Catalog as a basis for academic research

In addition to the application of the EAM Pattern Catalog in practice, it may also be seen as a basis for future academic research. Currently, there is no common ground for research on EA management, meaning that there is no approach for EA management, which may be iteratively enhanced and extended. There are punctiform approaches for specific EA management topics, but these lack the integration into a holistic EA management approach, and the acceptance in wider communities.

The pattern based approach addresses this de ciency as it offers the possibility to improve single EAM patterns without having to create a completely new approach. Furthermore, the existing EAM Pattern Catalog can easily be extended due to the openness of the pattern based approach.

Therefore, we are currently establishing a community, which will govern the future development, by e.g. performing reviews, improvement, extension, etc., of the EAM Pattern Catalog.