Abstract:

The paper discusses findings of the case study for applying multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method to select attributes of the Enterprise Architecture (EA) frameworks for an e-Government implementation in a developing country. The paper follows on earlier work by the same authors which focussed on identifying critical success factors to deploy a good enterprise architecture proposed for e-Government projects in Botswana. The research continues to contribute to an e-Government service architecture, and here explore the processes of selecting an appropriate enterprise architecture framework in the context of a developing country such as Botswana. This selection process aligns the organisational goals with the known attributes of EA Frameworks.  

The authors apply an MCDM tool, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to select EA frameworks attributes from four alternatives being the Framework (ZEAF), Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF), The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) and Treasury Enterprise Architecture Framework (TEAF). These frameworks constitute the four common EA frameworks for e-Government projects. The research concludes that adopting enterprise architecture when developing e-Government helps to visualise business functions and comprehensively to support ICT. The government must select a suitable EA framework before they implement Enterprise Architecture. Also, the findings demonstrate that ZEAF attributes are the most preferred attributes. The results also are consistent with the literature review and establish the viability of utilising MCDM methods in EA projects to improve decision making.