Value-Driven Enterprise Architecture Score: Evaluation Applied to Joint Force Protection Future State Design

TLDR: An overall numerical quality score that can be used to identify the advantages and disadvantages of a system's design and associated architecture documentation, or to track its quality across discrete evaluation epochs is presented.

Abstract: : This research presents a methodology to evaluate the quality of a system's architecture using principles drawn from Value-Focused Thinking (VFT) and resulting in a Value-Driven Enterprise Architecture Score (VDEA-Score). This is an overall numerical quality score that can be used to identify the advantages and disadvantages of a system's design and associated architecture documentation, or to track its quality across discrete evaluation epochs. This effort determined which aspects of the architecture are most valuable to the stakeholder in the following areas: (1) the system's effectiveness values (quality of the instantiated system being represented and its ability to perform its stated mission), and (2) the architecture's quality values (intrinsic quality of the products themselves in terms of documentation standards and desired attributes). The results are reported across three theses. In this thesis, architecture documentation quality is assessed by examining usability, modifiability, accessibility, and other functions regarded as essential to any architecture. The evaluation methodology was tested against architectures from two enterprises, including the sponsor's enterprise of joint force protection. An overall architecture documentation quality score is reported for both enterprises which may be useful for identifying areas for potential improvement.