A Practical Approach to the Formulation and Use of Architecture Principles D. Greefhorst * and H.A. Proper †‡ * ArchiXL, Amersfoort, The Netherlands † Public Research Centre – Henri Tudor, Luxembourg ‡ Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Abstract—This paper describes an approach and accompa- nying process for the development and use of architecture principles. In doing so, it builds on earlier work in which we defined the concept of architecture principle itself. The approach presented in this paper is based on a combination of experiences gathered from practice, as well as a synthesis of past work and other sources from both academia and industry, including standards such as TOGAF. The approach is practical in the sense that it provides more detail on how to develop architecture principles than offered by other source. Also, it shows the ‘magic’ involved in how to translate drivers to architecture principles. Keywords-enterprise architecture; architecture principles; I. I NTRODUCTION Enterprise architecture, and its associated formulation, implementation and governance processes, are increasingly recognized by organizations as an important capability [1]– [3]. Several approaches to enterprise architecture position principles as an important ingredient [2]–[7], while some even go as far to position principles as being the essence of architecture [8]–[11]. Architecture principles fill the gap between high-level strategic intentions and concrete design decisions. The concept of architecture principles has not received a lot of research attention [12], while at the same time, there is a need to better understand their essence. In previous work, we therefore focussed on indeed gaining a better understand- ing of the essence of architecture principle [13], [14]. In this paper we turn our focus to the processes involved in formulating and using principles. In our work on architecture principles, we essentially use a design science based research approach [15]. Having a process for formulating and using principles, based on the framework presented in [13], [14], enables us to actually conduct real-life case studies that will validate both the original framework and the associated processes, as well as provide insight for further refinements. The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. Section II provides a brief summary of the framework presented in [13], [14], providing the reader with a core understanding of the concept of architecture principles as used in the remainder of this paper. In Section III we continue with the identification of some of the core drivers of architecture principles. We will illustrate these in terms of a running example. Section IV then presents the suggested process for formulating and using architecture principles. These processes will also be illustrated by means of an example. Before concluding, we reflect upon the process as described and describe related work. II. ARCHITECTURE PRINCIPLES In this section we provide a brief summary of the con- ceptual framework for architecture principles as introduced in our earlier work [13], [14]. This framework also aimed to provide a synthesis of the role, and concept, of principles as used by existing views on enterprise architecture and enterprise engineering [2], [3], [8], [16]. A more elaborate discussion on the concept of principles can be found in our forthcoming book [17]. A. Scientific principles versus normative principles An important distinction that needs to be made within our field, is the distinction between scientific principles and normative principles. The American Engineers’ Council for Professional Development [18] states that engineering concerns “the creative application of scientific principles to design or develop structures, machines, apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or works utilising them . . . ”. These principles are used in a wide range of engineering disciplines such as industrial engineering, chemical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering and systems engineering. They can be seen as a form of design knowledge that should be shared, in order to increase the quality of designs. In line with [18], we will refer to these principles as scientific principles. We define a scientific principle as “a law or fact of nature underlying the working of an artifact”. Principles from general systems theory, such as the law of requisite variety [19], are examples of scientific principles that are applicable in an enterprise engineering context. The other important class of principles are the normative principles, which we define as “a declarative statement that normatively prescribes a property of something”. In contrast to scientific principles, normative principles are not enforced by nature but require explicit attention to be enforced. We regard architecture principles to be a specific form of norma- tive principle; they guide/direct the enterprise by normatively restricting design freedom. This is in line with the common interpretation of the term. TOGAF [3] states that “principles are general rules and guidelines, intended to be enduring and