Analysing Enterprise Architecture Models to Detect Misalignment Symptoms

Business–IT alignment has been one of the top information management concerns since the organisational role of information systems has accentuated. The state of alignment between business and IT can be analysed either through its presence (alignment) or through its absence or deficiencies (misalignment). Most of traditional alignment studies deal with achieving alignment. On the contrary, misalignment issues (detecting, analysing and correcting misalignment) are considerably underemphasized in the literature. This paper relates to misalignment analysis. The state of (mis)alignment can be examined via several methods. Analysing enterprise architecture models to detect misalignment is a possible examination approach. The paper aims to introduce architecture assessment-based misalignment analysis from a theoretical perspective. With regard to the theoretical foundation the paper focuses on presenting an initial research plan, pointing out the conceptual body of the proposed research. The financial support of TÁMOP 4.2.2/B-10/1-2010-0023 is gratefully acknowledged.