UNDERSTANDING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTEGRATION ARCHITECTURE AND ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE: THE CANONICAL MODEL AS A GOVERNANCE RESOURCE - A CASE STUDY IN A TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANY

The Total Architecture concept is increasingly present at a time when organizations are consolidating plans for the implementation of SOA. The assumption that the integration of heterogeneous systems must be planned is undeniable. Enterprise Architecture has been advocated as a first new step towards systems integration. The nature of its attributes - namely the holistic vision of the organization as the Information System itself and its orientation towards the business process - seems to fit well with the characteristics of EAI. This article summarizes the research performed in an organization implementing SOA. It sought not only to validate the existence of a relationship between Enterprise Architecture and Integration Architecture as expressed in literature, but also to understand its nature more deeply. The result demonstrated the importance of the Canonical Model as a Governance artifact in the regulation of the relationship between the two architectures. The Canonical Model seems to serve in addition as a tool for knowledge sharing between the actors involved in the problem of alignment between business and information systems. A conceptual model is proposed in order to express the logical flow and patterns identified in the relationship. Key Words: Enterprise Architecture, Integration Architecture, Canonical Model, Governanc