Component Matching as a Graph Matching Problem

TL;DR

This paper presents an automated component matching approach using graph matching techniques to link business and IT architectures, building on previous formal models based on category theory and contracts.

Contribution

It introduces a novel automated graph matching method for component linkage, extending prior manual matching processes in business-IT architecture alignment.

Findings

Implemented a graph matching-based component matching process

Demonstrated automation reduces manual effort

Enhanced accuracy in linking business and IT components

Abstract

The development of an IT strategy and ensuring that it is the best possible one for business is a key problem many organizations face. This problem is that of linking business architecture to IT architecture in general and application architecture specifically. In our earlier work we proposed Category theory as the formal language to unify the business and IT worlds with the ability to represent the concepts and relations between the two in a unified way. We used rCOS as the underlying model for the specification of interfaces, contracts, and components. The concept of pseudo-category was then utilized to represent the business and application architecture specifications and the relationships contained within. Contracts are used for the specification of both IT and Business architecture components. The linkages between them is now established using the matching of the business component contracts with the application component contracts. Typically, the matching was based on manual process, in this paper we extend the work by considering automated component matching process. In this paper we provide implementation of the matching process using graph matching.