Junxian Liu

Charting the landscape of enterprise architecture complexity cybernetics: A systematic literature analysis

Complexity Cybernetics relating to Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a hot topic recently. Although many researchers, organizations made much progress in the past years, common understanding in this domain is still limited. In this paper, a systematic literature analysis on complexity cybernetics in relation to EA was presented, in order to chart a landscape of state-of-the-art and to summarize some suggestions for future research. By analyzing the contexts of the 33 papers collected by the review method, different classifications were conducted. Besides, an extensive analysis, including distribution of papers over time, regional distribution, type of publication, and author-group distribution, was studied. In the end, some discussions and suggestions were given. Our work contributes to getting a better understanding towards the domain and to building a new groundwork future research.

A Component Business Model-Based Approach for Business Architecture Integration of C4ISR System

Synthesis integration of C4ISR system is being well studied in the field of military operational research. As current methodologies for integrating C4ISR system mostly focus on application integration and physical integration, while researches on business architecture integration mostly ignore important features of C4ISR system, e.g., Command and Control (C2) organizations and operational resources. In this paper, we propose a new approach for business architecture integration of C4ISR systems using Component Business Model (CBM). First, we discuss the mapping criterion for transforming the business component to its corresponding DoDAF models. Then a new framework for business architecture integration is introduced, consisting of two phases, i.e., the business component identification and the business component integration. After that, we describe the main processes and techniques of these two phases in detail, and a case study is carried out by using our approach.

An impact analysis method of business processes evolution in enterprise architecture

Nowadays, enterprises are facing lots of challenges, such as changing market and evolving technologies. Enterprises must continuously adapt themselves to the changing business mode. Enterprise Architecture (EA) is an efficient tool to manage enterprise strategies and IT architecture evolution. As a drive for EA evolution, changing business processes promote IT solutions evolution, and make IT architecture to align with business architecture. To maintain the alignment between IT and business during EA evolution, an impact analysis method of business processes evolution is proposed in the paper, which can automatically analyze impacted IT elements based on the dependent chains built by the core concepts in ArchiMate 2.0. Our approach can provide quantitative guidelines for IT architecture evolution and design support for IT architecture transition.

Quantitative research on networked C2 structure based on the long chain

It is extremely important to optimize the C2 structure to suit to the information warfare. However, there has been no study launched, via increasing information sharing and collaboration ability of the C2 structure, to improve the flexibility of it. In this paper we present a networked C2 structure model, which has more flexibility and a flat netlike form normally, based on the long chain from the industry and OODA model. Two classes of networked C2 structures, the 2-stage and the 5-stage, are studied and we propose three indicators to measure the characteristics. The first class is the 2-stage structure where the operational requirements and C2 process capacities are balanced. We utilize the concept of chaining to build the networked structure and simulate them where the values of both stages follow the normal distribution. The results show that the long chain and the 3-chain structure perform well. The second one is the 5-stage structure, namely OODAT. Four networked structures, where each of them is composed of the well-performed 2-stage structures, are builded and analyzed, and the simulation interprets that the sparse flexible structures based on the long chain have good characteristics. By the research we conclude that such structures can be used in the design of C2 organization and C2 system to satisfy more operational requirements with less cost.

Method of Operational Activities and Processes Optimization Design in Architecture

As the foundation and basis for developing architecture products and data, designing operational activities and processes is the key in architecture design. Current research lacks the optimization design method about them. To solve this problem. Firstly, this paper analyzed the data meta-models related to operational activities, proposed the process of optimal design of the operational activities and processes. Secondly, the objective function of the optimization of operational activities and processes are studied considering the time, success rate and cost. Thirdly, the process of simulation evaluation of operational activities and processes is designed, then we propose the method of how to convert activity-related architecture data into object Petri-net simulation model. Finally, three means of improving the operational activities and processes are given to arrive the optimal design objectives.

Enterprise-level business component identification in business architecture integration

The component-based business architecture integration of military information systems is a popular research topic in the field of military operational research. Identifying enterprise-level business components is an important issue in business architecture integration. Currently used methodologies for business component identification tend to focus on software-level business components, and ignore such enterprise concerns in business architectures as organizations and resources. Moreover, approaches to enterprise-level business component identification have proven laborious. In this study, we propose a novel approach to enterprise-level business component identification by considering overall cohesion, coupling, granularity, maintainability, and reusability. We first define and formulate enterprise-level business components based on the component business model and the Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF) models. To quantify the indices of business components, we formulate a create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) matrix and use six metrics as criteria. We then formulate business component identification as a multi-objective optimization problem and solve it by a novel meta-heuristic optimization algorithm called the ‘simulated annealing hybrid genetic algorithm (SHGA)’. Case studies showed that our approach is more practical and efficient for enterprise-level business component identification than prevalent approaches.

Study on service deployment in C4ISR system integration

Service deployment is an important phase of aligning business to IT systems in the Service-oriented Architecture (SOA)-based C4ISR system integration. Current methodologies of service deployment mostly focus on system-level service deployment as well as service composition, while the deployment of enterprise-level services to align business processes to IT systems is ignored. This paper deals with the service deployment for business/IT alignments in the perspective of architecture designing. First, we redefine the service deployment problem in C4ISR system integration, and then propose the process of service deployment based on DoDAF 2.0 to meet the business requirements and goals. Finally, we present a service deployment model based on the Quality of Service (QoS) and use the Immune Genetic Algorithm (IGA) to solve an optimal problem. Through a comprehensive case study, we find that IT systems can align with business by applying our process and model in service deployment.

An approach to enterprise-level business component integration in business architecture

The component-based business architecture integration of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems is a popular research topic in the field of military operational research. Currently, the prevalent methodologies for business component integration tend to focus on software-level business component, and ignore enterprise concerns in business architecture, such as organizations and resources. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to enterprise-level business component integration. First, we discuss the conception of enterprise-level business component and its relationships with DoDAF models. Then, a four-step process is proposed for integrating business components, mainly by modeling enterprise-level business component based on IDEF0 and integrating IDEF0 models automatically based on Petri net. After that, a case study is carried out to illustrate our approach.

Influence on flexibility of networked C2 structure with different importance of tasks

It is extremely important to optimize the C2 structure to suit to the information warfare. The proposed networked C2 structure, which is composed of a C2 capacity array and a task array, based on the long chain system in industry, aims to fill the gap. This article lucubrates two typical systems, the long chain system (LCS) and 3-chain system (3CS), to explore how they perform when tasks array with value weight array. By the research we find that the typical networked C2 systems, long chain and 3-chian system, have high flexibility to meet the situation when the combat tasks array has different value weights and have high flexibility to meet the changeable tasks in practical battlefield.

System Structure Risk Metric Method Based on Information Flow

The measurement of structure risk aims to analysis and evaluate the not occurred, potential, and the objectively exist risk in system structure. It is an essential way to validate system function and system quality. This paper proposes the risk metric model and algorithm based on information flow and analysis risk trend between traditional tree structure and network-centric structure.