A Flexible Approach to Realize an Enterprise Architecture

A desired to-be enterprise architecture is realized through many individual projects that incrementally bring the enterprise toward the target enterprise architecture. There are many alternatives projects and the problem is how to decide among the alternatives given budget and time constraints. This paper presents a real options framework to plan a portfolio of projects to realize a target enterprise architecture. Using DoDAF, we describe a method for defining projects as a collection of compound real options. A switching model is used with Monte Carlo simulation to determine the capability phasing view of DoDAF v2.0. We present a case study of a small defense contractor to illustrate our approach. The model and method contributes a means to value a portfolio of projects to realize an enterprise architecture. The motivation for this research is the development of systems engineering tools to help the Department of Defense realize their net-centric transformation to have a more effective and efficient war-fighting capabilities.