Rob Henk Bemthuis

Christin Pagels, Simon Hacks, Rob Henk Bemthuis

Enterprise Architecture Debt (EA Debt) arises from suboptimal design decisions and misaligned components that can degrade an organization's IT landscape over time. Early indicators, Enterprise Architecture Smells (EA Smells), are currently mainly detected manually or only from structured artifacts, leaving much unstructured documentation under-analyzed. This study proposes an approach using a large language model (LLM) to identify and quantify EA Debt in unstructured architectural documentation. Following a design science research approach, we design and evaluate an LLM-based prototype for automated EA Smell detection. The artifact ingests unstructured documents (e.g., process descriptions, strategy papers), applies fine-tuned detection models, and outputs identified smells. We evaluate the prototype through a case study using synthetic yet realistic business documents, benchmarking against a custom GPT-based model. Results show that LLMs can detect multiple predefined EA Smells in unstructured text, with the benchmark model achieving higher precision and processing speed, and the fine-tuned on-premise model offering data protection advantages. The findings highlight opportunities for integrating LLM-based smell detection into EA governance practice.

Stefan Julian Kooy, Jean Paul Sebastian Piest, Rob Henk Bemthuis

Generative AI (GenAI) is reshaping enterprise architecture work in agile software organizations, yet evidence on its effects remains scattered. We report a systematic literature review (SLR), following established SLR protocols of Kitchenham and PRISMA, of 1,697 records, yielding 33 studies across enterprise, solution, domain, business, and IT architect roles. GenAI most consistently supports (i) design ideation and trade-off exploration; (ii) rapid creation and refinement of artifacts (e.g., code, models, documentation); and (iii) architectural decision support and knowledge retrieval. Reported risks include opacity and bias, contextually incorrect outputs leading to rework, privacy and compliance concerns, and social loafing. We also identify emerging skills and competencies, including prompt engineering, model evaluation, and professional oversight, and organizational enablers around readiness and adaptive governance. The review contributes with (1) a mapping of GenAI use cases and risks in agile architecting, (2) implications for capability building and governance, and (3) an initial research agenda on human-AI collaboration in architecture. Overall, the findings inform responsible adoption of GenAI that accelerates digital transformation while safeguarding architectural integrity.