First in-depth analysis of enterprise architectures and models for higher education institutions

Enterprise Reference Architectures (ERAs) and Reference Models (RMs) have emerged over the last years as relevant instruments for improving the quality and effectiveness of enterprise architecture (EA) practice. Whilst a wide variety of different ERAs and RMs have been proposed for different industries and types of business, only few of them have been devoted to the Higher Education (HE) sector. In this paper, we propose an in-depth analysis process which we then critically apply to review, compare and classify 20 existing ERAs and RMs targeted to the HE domain. Our process uses a common set of 12 definitional attributes. In so doing, we contribute to the existing body of knowledge by providing a unified, structured and comprehensive analysis process and catalog of these abstract EA artifacts. With this we aim to create awareness on their potential practical utility and to increase their visibility, transparency and opportunity for their reusability by different HE stakeholders. Hence, the proposed process and catalog is expected to be useful both for practitioners and researchers by providing a panoramic view of more or less ready-to-use existing ERAs and RMs for HE, as well as a structure way to regard them. Moreover, and by specifying their main scope, coverage and extend of knowledge captured, the process and catalog might become a valuable tool for providing guidance to HE stakeholders on making better-informed decisions on the selection of suitable architectural artifacts for being conveniently adapted or applied in different EA practices conducted at their respective institutions.