The benefit of enterprise architecture (EA) management is directly coupled to the underlying conceptualization of the enterprise. This conceptualization should reflect the goals pursued by the EA management endeavor and focus on the areas of interest of the involved stakeholders. Whereas this statements often goes as a matter of course, an enterprise willing to develop such a goal-adequate conceptualization, finds itself confronted with a plethora of different approaches typically proposing a one-size-fits-it-all model, which neglects the subject of enterprise-specificity. These models are typically described in an object-oriented manner utilizing concepts like class, property, and relationship. Specific aspects relevant in the area of EAM, such as temporality, property-dependency, and cross-cutting aspects are more often than not neglected in this approaches.
In this paper, we addresses the challenge of conceptualizing cross-cutting aspects in EA modeling. Cross-cutting aspects refer to EA-related concepts, like goals or projects, which may exert influence on other concepts of the EA model. Therefore, the state-of-the-art in EA conceptualization is revisited resulting in the identification of four cross-cutting aspects of EA modeling: goals, lifecycles, projects, and standards. Along these aspects we raise questions concerning a suitable alternative modeling language for EA conceptualizations and discuss options of future research.