The issue of information architecture (IA) for organizations has recently received considerable attention in IS development. However, as yet little research has been reported on modeling IA using a systematic approach. This paper describes an object-oriented method for modeling it. The proposed method extends the traditional concept of IS analysis into the context of contemporary information technology (IT), and is useful for planning IT-enabled business process reengineering for the organization.
An information architecture (IA) is a high-levelmap of the information requirements of an organization[3]. IA (or information systems (IS) architecture)is becoming one of the most important issues in ISdevelopment [1]. This is due to the extraordinary rateof growth of information technology (IT) and the waveof business process reengineering. In the information
era, traditional monolithic computer systems nolonger support cross-functional business processes.Organizations are seeking opportunities to exploitnew IT, such as officeautomation, imaging documentation,networks, and client-server technology to redesignbusiness processes. The analysis and design ofhigh-level architecture for the enterprises is importantin assessing the business, technology, and informationneeds of the organization.The analysis and design of an IA are the tasks ofinformation specialists in the organization [30]. Fromthe point of view of modeling IA, a natural language isuniversal, in the sense that it can describe anything
important. Yet natural languages have potential ambiguities.Especially, in the system implementationstages, natural language descriptions do not providemeasures to map the real world to the computer world.Conventional systems analysis methods, such as thedata flow diagram method [8, 14], entity-relationshipmethod [6] and the combination of these methods [25],emphasize descriptions of functional and data requirementswithin the context of monolithic computingsystems. On the other hand, contemporary IS analysismust present many global system aspects includingspecial techniques (e.g. imaging and EDI), locations
of data and applications (company-wide and locallymanaged), and adopted system standards and rules.Although there have been many discussions about IA,there is no theory of its modeling. One of the problemsof research in IS development is the failure to integratethe modeling of IA with systems analysis. This lack ofintegration may cause difficulties in applying a uniformtechnique to analyzing the global IA and thespecific applications for a reengineered business process.In recent years, the object-oriented approach hasreceived attention from the IS communities [2, 16, 32,36]. A recent information industry survey indicatedthat the adoption rate of object-oriented methods isincreasing dramatically. Organizations that embracedthe approach have experienced significant cost savingsin the systems development area [27]. Nevertheless,little research into the integration of modeling IA withthe object-oriented method can be found. This paperpresents a framework for modeling IA for an organization.Although IS architecture is related to informationand business strategy, our research was limited tomodeling IS architecture and should not be construedas presenting a strategic planning methodology. Whilethe development of a strategy for organizations whichcould manifest itself in architectural expression is animportant subject, it is outside this study.
