ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE EVALUATION: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

By being holistically preoccupied with coherency among organizational elements such as organizational strategy, business needs and the IT functions role in supporting the business, enterprise architecture (EA) has grown to become a core competitive advantage. Though EA is a maturing research area, little has been done to understand how e.g. projects, application or other organizational elements contribute to the overall EA. The current paper presents a literature review on EA evaluation. Different types of evaluation are a necessity in order to ensure that EA demands are being met by disparate IT initiatives. Still, EA evaluation has attracted little attention within academic literature. Thus, the aim of the current review is to get an overview of the topic, which can serve as a foundation for further development of the field. Overall, the study shows that while little research has been done within this area, research is especially lacking regarding empirical studies of how EA evaluation unfolds in practice, while holistic views on EA evaluation is almost non-existin

An Exploration of Enterprise Architecture Research

Management of the enterprise architecture has become increasingly recognized as a crucial part of both business and IT management. Still, a common understanding and methodological consistency seems far from being developed. Acknowledging the significant role of research in moving the development process along, this article employs different bibliometric methods, complemented by an extensive qualitative interpretation of the research field, to provide a unique overview of the enterprise architecture literature. After answering our research questions about the collaboration via co-authorships, the intellectual structure of the research field and its most influential works, and the principal themes of research, we propose an agenda for future research based on the findings from the above analyses and their comparison to empirical insights from the literature. In particular, our study finds a considerable degree of co-authorship clustering and a positive impact of the extent of co-authorship on the diffusion of works on enterprise architecture. In addition, this article identifies three major research streams and shows that research to date has revolved around specific themes, while some of high practical relevance receive minor attention. Hence, the contribution of our study is manifold and offers support for researchers and practitioners alike

Systems Theory Based Architecture Framework for Complex System Governance

The purpose of this research was to develop a systems theory based framework for complex system governance using grounded theory approach. Motivation for this research includes: 1) the lack of research that identifies modeling characteristics for complex system governance, 2) the lack of a framework rooted in systems theory to support performance of complex system governance functions for maintaining system viability. This research focused on answering: What systems theoretic framework can be developed to inform complex system governance and enable articulation of governance function performance? The grounded theory research approach utilized three phases. First, the literature in systems theory, management cybernetics, governance and enterprise architecture was synthesized and open-coded to generalize main themes using broad analysis in NVivo software, researcher note taking in EndNote, and cataloging in Excel spreadsheets. Second, the literature underwent axial-coding to identify interconnections and relevance to systems theory and complex system governance, primarily using Excel spreadsheets. Finally, selective coding and interrelationships were identified and the complex system governance architecture framework was shaped, reviewed, and validated by qualified experts. This research examined a grounded theory approach not traditionally used in systems theory research. It produced a useful systems theory based framework for practical application, bridging the gap between theory and practice in the emerging field of complex system governance. Theoretical implications of this research include identifying the state of knowledge in each literature domain and the production of a unique framework for performing metasystem governance functions that is analytically generalizable. Management cybernetics, governance, and systems theory are expanded through a testable tool for meta-level organizational and system governance theories. Enterprise architecture is advanced with a multi-disciplinary framework that coherently presents and facilitates new use for architecture at the metasystem level. Methodological implications of this research include using grounded theory approach for systems theory research, where it is atypical. Although a non-traditional method, it provides an example for conducting fruitful research that can contribute knowledge. Practical implications of this research include a useable framework for complex system governance which has never before existed and a living structure adaptable to evolutionary change coming from any related domain or future practical application feedback

Organizational practices and praxes in the implementation, execution and governance of enterprise architecture - A strategic management perspective

Organizational Practices and Praxes in the Implementation, Execution and Governance of Enterprise Architecture - A Strategic Management Perspectiv

Fatores determinantes do valor das arquiteturas empresariais

Tese de doutoramento do Programa Doutoral em Tecnologias e Sistemas de Informação.Nos últimos anos, as Arquiteturas Empresariais têm vindo a ser alvo de uma considerável atenção quer no meio académico, quer no meio empresarial em virtude do reconhecimento da sua utilidade e importância para as organizações. Fruto deste reconhecimento, diversas organizações têm vindo a desenvolver esforços significativos na implementação de projetos ou programas que visam a conceção, implementação e manutenção/evolução de Arquiteturas Empresariais. Todavia, apesar de ser amplamente referido que as Arquiteturas Empresariais proporcionam inúmeros benefícios às organizações, ainda subsiste a ideia de que os investimentos em projetos desta natureza apresentam um fraco retorno. Dado o atual contexto económico e a crescente necessidade de justificar os investimentos realizados, os responsáveis por projetos de Arquiteturas Empresariais têm vindo a ser cada vez mais pressionados para analisar e determinar o seu valor. A investigação desta problemática permitiu constatar que a análise e determinação do valor das Arquiteturas Empresariais ainda está numa fase embrionária e que ainda se apresenta muito difícil para as organizações, em virtude das diversas questões que condicionam o processo de análise e determinação do valor. Duas dessas questões são a dificuldade das organizações em identificar os fatores determinantes para o valor, já que é praticamente impossível e extremamente complexo avaliar todos os benefícios das Arquiteturas Empresariais, e as características em termos de tangibilidade e de horizonte temporal que diversos fatores apresentam, que dificultam não só a sua quantificação como a sua determinação no curto prazo. Perante estes problemas, procurou-se neste trabalho proceder à identificação, validação e caracterização dos fatores determinantes para o valor das Arquiteturas Empresariais. Para o efeito procedeu-se à realização de um estudo Delphi com três rondas, que contou a participação de vários peritos internacionais com antecedentes quer em Gestão quer nas Tecnologias e Sistemas de Informação e com uma vasta experiência profissional em cargos relacionados com as Arquiteturas Empresariais. No final do estudo Delphi foi obtida uma lista com um conjunto de fatores determinantes do valor das Arquiteturas Empresariais, para os quais foi estabelecido um ranking em função da sua importância para as organizações e ainda identificadas as suas características de tangibilidade e de horizonte temporal. Após a análise e interpretação dos resultados foi possível destacar e propor uma lista reduzida com os 15 fatores determinantes do valor, considerados como os mais importantes para as organizações. Para além disso, a caracterização destes fatores em termos de tangibilidade e horizonte temporal combinada com a identificação dos potenciais relacionamentos entre eles permitiu a proposta de um modelo que permite contextualizar e explicitar o que é mais importante na análise do valor das Arquiteturas Empresariais.Over the last years, Enterprise Architecture has gained considerable attention both from academia and industry due to the recognitiori of its usefulness and importance for organizations. As a result of this recognition several organizations have been making signiflcant investments to implement Enterprise Architecture projects ar programs. However, despite being widely reported that Enterprise Architecture can provide numerous benefits to organizations, there stili remains the idea that investments in projects of this nature have a iow return. Given the current economic pressures and the growing need to justify ali the investments, Enterprise Architecture managers and senhor managers have been increasingly pressured to quickly determine its value. Our research revealed that Enterprise Architecture value analysis is stili in its infancy and due to several issues that affect the vaiue assessment process it still is a very difficult task for organizations. Two of these issues are the organization's difficuity to identify the key value drivers orEhterprise Architecture, since it is virtuaily impossibie and extremely compiex to assess ali the benefits, and the intangibie nature e timeframe characteristics of severai value drivers which make difficult not oniy to quantify de value but also to assess it in short term a period The aim of this work was to identify, validate and characterize the key value drivers of Enterprise Architecture for organizations. To this end, we carry aut a Delphi study with three rounds, in which participated 63 internationai experts with either management ar IT background and with an extensive professionai experience in Enterprise Architecture related positions. At the end of the Delphi study we obtained a iist of 29 value drivers of Enterprise Architectures, for which a ranking of its importance for organizations was estabiíshed and aiso it was identified its tangibiiity and timeframe characteristics. After the analysis and interpretation ofthe resuits it was possibie to highiight and propose a short iist with 15 vaiue drivers considered as the most important to organizations. Furthermore, the characterization of these factors in terms of tangibiiity and timeframe combined with the identification of the potentiai reiationships between them, ailowed the proposai of a framework that contextuaiizes and makes expiicit what is importarit in the analysis of the Enterprise Architectures vaiue.Ao Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto (ISCAP), ao Instituto Politécnico do Porto (IPP) e à Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) pelo apoio concedido, nomeadamente através através da redução so serviço docente e do apoio financeiro através dos Programas de Formação Avançada (ISCAP/IPP) e PROTEC (FCT-PROTEC SFRH/BD/49266/2008)