How should enterprise architecture frameworks and meta models be extended to provide genuine, deep support for service orientation?
Service orientation reshapes how applications are conceived, how systems are integrated, and ultimately how value is delivered to customers — yet most enterprise architecture frameworks treat it as a technical implementation detail rather than an architectural concern that spans the full enterprise stack. This 2008 presentation by Graham McLeod, delivered in his role as CTO of PROMIS Solutions AG, argues that achieving deep support for service orientation in EA requires rethinking frameworks and meta models from the ground up. The presentation distinguishes carefully between technical, application, information, and business services, and between logical service definitions — independent of technology and implementation — and their physical realisation, insisting that the mapping between these two levels is essential for meaningful planning and governance. A key architectural insight is the treatment of modern applications not as monolithic systems but as malleable bundles of functions exposed as services, where components can be replaced without impacting overall service delivery — a view that has significant implications for how application architecture is modelled. The presentation also addresses what it calls "enrichment": the additional concepts needed to govern services effectively, including intent (benchmarks, goals, objectives), responsibility and ownership, cross-cutting concerns (risk, cost, quality), and built-in computation and analysis. Archimate is proposed as a candidate notation for distinguishing domains and logical versus physical layers, with worked examples showing how service cross-referencing and traceability can be achieved in practice.
Originally presented by Graham McLeod at an Inspired/PROMIS event, December 2008.
