Applying enterprise architecture modeling to identify technical dependencies in context of transforming legacy system landscapes

This paper describes a case study in which enterprise architecture modeling has been applied in an industrial context for modernising a historically grown information systems landscape in the clinical R&D domain with complex dependencies and numerous integrations following the TOGAF Architecture Development Method (ADM) and using a professional enterprise architecture toolset to create an UML-based architecture repository.The key observation is, that once a consolidated machine-readable model of the systems landscape and its integrations is available, dependencies, information flows and architecture structures can be identified, analysed and visualized with next to no effort. The major challenge on this way is not the actual modelling, but consolidating the available information required to create the model in the first place. Once however the model has reached a relevant maturity, it can become the source of information itself by specifying system designs directly in the model rather then creating design specification documents.