The chapter presents an alignment framework and an associated representation framework for information systems (IS) architecture management. The alignment framework supports identification of high-level longer-term principles for evolution of IS architectures. The fundamental idea of the alignment framework is to generate alternative future IS architectures by grouping IS-architecture phenomena into IS-architecture areas in different ways. The representation framework supports the creation of IS-architecture models that can support IS-architecture alignment and other IS-architecture management tasks. In addition, the representation framework is a conceptual model for thinking about IS-architectures. Together, the alignment and representation frameworks constitute an early theory of IS architectures and IS-architecture work. They are part of a comprehensive methodology that results from several years of case and theory studies, tool developments, industrial projects and consulting.
An approach to service-oriented information systems architecture development based on semantic closure measure