General Enterprise Framework (GEF) - An agile framework to define the business architecture of enterprises

We present a technique in the domain of the business architecture of enterprises. It is called GEF (General Enterprise Framework) because it intends to be universal and to apply at whole enterprise. GEF is a grid where the activities of business processes are classified into five levels - Plan, Execute, Monitor, Control, Manage information. In an ideal situation, all levels are defined and computerized. By surveying the current situation, management can check to which extent the organization’s business processes (a) cover levels (completeness) and (b) are IT-supported (computerization). This twofold assessment enables a fit-gap analysis and a maturity appraisal. The novelties of GEF are agility and universality, and also the completeness of the analysis. A test on real projects showed that GEF is easy and effective.