Enterprise Architecture Approach for Project Management and Project-Based Organizations: A Review

Project-based organizations (PBOs) derive income from conducting projects for their clients. Maintaining the most effective and efficient project governance style is an ongoing process for these organizations as the context continuously changes. Enterprise architecture (EA) is a systemic approach that supports organizations in modeling and describing themselves in different layers, such as strategy, business, application, and technology. This literature review describes the current state of EA usage in improving and quickly revising project management governance in PBOs to benefit practitioners and researchers for an integrated view of EA, PM, and PBO, and identification of future research gaps. This review used an EA model composed of layers as an analytical framework. The extracted bibliometric and content data from selected articles were processed using the VOSviewer tool for identifying and understanding the relationships between main concepts through network mapping. The selected articles are oriented to internal organization projects, mainly in information technology (IT). The need to align projects with business is highlighted, with EA positioned as a governance tool. It was found that application of EA in PBOs is rare. A trend toward using popular PM and EA frameworks, such as PMBOK and ArchiMate, was observed

Enterprise modelling framework for dynamic and complex business environment: socio-technical systems perspective

The modern business environment is characterised by dynamism and ambiguity. The causes include global economic change, rapid change requirements, shortened development life cycles and the increasing complexity of information technology and information systems (IT/IS). However, enterprises have been seen as socio-technical systems. The dynamic complex business environment cannot be understood without intensive modelling and simulation. Nevertheless, there is no single description of reality, which has been seen as relative to its context and point of view. Human perception is considered an important determinant for the subjectivist view of reality. Many scholars working in the socio-technical systems and enterprise modelling domains have conceived the holistic sociotechnical systems analysis and design possible using a limited number of procedural and modelling approaches. For instance, the ETHICS and Human-centred design approaches of socio-technical analysis and design, goal-oriented and process-oriented modelling of enterprise modelling perspectives, and the Zachman and DoDAF enterprise architecture frameworks all have limitations that can be improved upon, which have been significantly explained in this thesis. [Continues.

Model driven validation approach for enterprise architecture and motivation extensions

As the endorsement of Enterprise Architecture (EA) modelling continues to grow in diversity and complexity, management of its schema, artefacts, semantics and relationships has become an important business concern. To maintain agility and flexibility within competitive markets, organizations have also been compelled to explore ways of adjusting proactively to innovations, changes and complex events also by use of EA concepts to model business processes and strategies. Thus the need to ensure appropriate validation of EA taxonomies has been considered severally as an essential requirement for these processes in order to exert business motivation; relate information systems to technological infrastructure. However, since many taxonomies deployed today use widespread and disparate modelling methodologies, the possibility to adopt a generic validation approach remains a challenge. The proliferation of EA methodologies and perspectives has also led to intricacies in the formalization and validation of EA constructs as models often times have variant schematic interpretations. Thus, disparate implementations and inconsistent simulation of alignment between business architectures and heterogeneous application systems is common within the EA domain (Jonkers et al., 2003). In this research, the Model Driven Validation Approach (MDVA) is introduced. MDVA allows modelling of EA with validation attributes, formalization of the validation concepts and transformation of model artefacts to ontologies. The transformation simplifies querying based on motivation and constraints. As the extended methodology is grounded on the semiotics of existing tools, validation is executed using ubiquitous query language. The major contributions of this work are the extension of a metamodel of Business Layer of an EAF with Validation Element and the development of EAF model to ontology transformation Approach. With this innovation, domain-driven design and object-oriented analysis concepts are applied to achieve EAF model’s validation using ontology querying methodology. Additionally, the MDVA facilitates the traceability of EA artefacts using ontology graph patterns

Proposing a Delphi-derived, inter-enterprise service-oriented architecture maturity model

Companies have long sought to integrate existing Information Systems (IS) in order to support existing and potentially new business processes spread throughout their “territories” and possibly to collaborating organizations. A variety of designs can be used to this end, ranging from rigid point-to-point electronic data interchange (EDI) interactions to “Web auctions”. By updating older technologies, such as “Internet-enabling” EDI-based systems, companies can make their IT systems available to internal or external customers; but the resulting systems have not proven to be flexible enough to meet business demands. A more flexible, standardized architecture is required to better support the connection of various applications and the sharing of data. Service- Oriented Architecture (SOA) is one such architecture. It unifies (“orchestrates”) business processes by structuring large applications as an ad-hoc collection of smaller modules called “Services”. These applications can be used by different groups of people both inside and outside the company, and new applications built from a mix of services (located in a global repository) exhibit greater agility and uniformity

From engagement to alignment : exploring enterprise architecture through the lens of design science

Information Systems Design Science (ISDS) as a research community is limited by a small number of research frameworks with considerable influence. The small triad of influential ISDS research, consisting of Walls, et al (1992), March and Smith (1995), and Hevner et al (2004) have primarily limited ISDS research to the positivist paradigm and the IT artifact. In contrast, Herbert Simon’s intentions for design science never had such restrictions and intended a broader perspective. This dissertation explores Simon’s intentions for design science, the Simonian stream of thought that includes The Sciences of the Artificial, as well as much of his most notable research, and offers an ‘informed view’ of design science in the tradition of Rortyian neopragmatism. Using this new lens of design science, a Bhaskarian critical realist treatment of human artifacts is also developed. Collectively, a Rortyian neopragmatist treatment for design science, and a Bhaskarian critical realist treatment of human artifacts are used as a lens to augment the Walls et al (1992) framework for Information Systems Design Theories (ISDT). An example of how to apply this lens is accomplished in Paper 2 of the dissertation. The ISDS lens is applied to the topic of Enterprise Architecture (EA). EA as vehicle for IS Alignment is well defined in terms of frameworks, artifacts, and methodology. However little is understood with respect to the discipline and practice of EA. Seeking to advance our understanding of effective vehicles for IS alignment, this research examines EA as an alignment practice and how it attempts to realize alignment. Specifically, we address the following question: How does EA manifest itself in organizations? This research employs an interpretivist epistemology in a manner quite distinct from ISDS research and thus provides contributions to academia in terms of methodology and insight on EA, and for practitioners who wish to mature an EA practice in their organization. Some of the main concepts discovered in the empirical study in Paper 2 are used to develop a practitioner-oriented framework for EA practice in Paper 3

An enterprise architecture for environmental information management and reporting

Organisations globally are communicating their environmental sustainability impact to stakeholders by means of the widely used sustainability report. A key benefit of environmental sustainability reporting is that organisations can gain a positive reputation when these reports are presented to stakeholders. Organisations in South Africa are faced with many challenges regarding managing sustainability information and producing an environmental sustainability report. Two of the primary challenges are the many diverse standards for sustainability reporting and data quality issues. Information Technology (IT) can be used to support and improve the process of sustainability reporting but it is important to align the environmental sustainability strategies with the strategies of business and also with the IT strategy to avoid silos of information and reporting. Enterprise Architecture (EA) can be used to solve alignment problems since it supports business-IT alignment. EA is defined by the International Standards Organisation (ISO) as “The fundamental concepts or properties of a system in its environment embodied in its elements, relationships, and in the principles of its design and evolution”. It can be argued, therefore, that EA can be used to support environmental sustainability information management and the reporting process by means of its support of improved business-IT alignment and ultimately integrated systems. The main objective of this study is to investigate how EA can be used to support environmental information management (EIM) and reporting. A survey study of thirty one prominent South African organisations was undertaken in order to investigate the status of their EA adoption and environmental reporting and EIM processes. An EA for EIM Toolkit and a set of guidelines are proposed which can provide support for EIM through the use of EA. These guidelines were proposed based on best-practice for each of the three process levels of an organisation, namely, the strategic level, the operational level and the technological level. The toolkit and guidelines were derived from theory and the results of the industry survey were then validated by an in-depth analysis of a case study consisting of multiple cases with key employees of seven South African organisations which have proved to be successful at EA and EIM and reporting. The results of the case study show that the EA for EIM Toolkit and related guidelines can assist organisations to align their environmental sustainability strategies with their organisational and IT strategies

EmC-ICDSST 2019: 5th International Conference on Decision Support System Technology - ICDSST 2019 & EURO Mini Conference 2019 on "Decision Support Systems: Main Developments & Future Trends"

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Enterprise architecture in practice : from IT concept towards enterprise architecture leadership

Informaatioteknologia (Information Technology, IT) on kaikkialla ja liiketoimintakriittisesti välttämätön osa yritysten nykytoimintaa, viestintää ja tulevaisuuden strategioita (Nolan 2012). Informaatiota tarvitaan ihmisten ja organisaatioiden hyvinvointiin, kasvuun ja selviytymiseen. IT muuttaa liiketoimintaa, työtä ja työnjakoa nopeammin ja laajemmin kuin mikään aikaisempi tekninen keksintö. Teknologiaa käytetään informaation hankkimiseen, hallintaan ja jakamiseen. Teknologioiden, tietojärjestelmien (Information Systems, IS) ja informaation hallinta vaativat uutta ajattelua, konsepteja ja välineitä työn organisointiin (Orlikowski 2007). Tämä opinnäytetyö tutkii kokonaisarkkitehtuurin (Enterprise Architecture, EA) mahdollisuuksia hallita teknologioita ja digitalisaatiota osana nykyaikaista liiketoimintaa. EA-käsitteellä ei ole vakiintunutta määritelmää. Burgess, Ramakrishnan, Salmans ja Kappelman (2010, 252) raportoi 10 erilaista tapaa määritellä EA-käsite, joista korkeimman abstraktiotason määritelmä on “kaikki tietämys yrityksestä”. EA-käsitteen moniselitteisyys johtuu osittain informaatioteknologian nopeasta kehityksestä ja hyvin teknisestä näkökulmasta. Viimeisen 20 vuoden aikana kokonaisarkkitehtuurin hallinnan (EA management; EAM) idea on kasvanut tietotekniikasta ja IT-arkkitehtuureista kohti hallinnollista innovaatiota, jolla ohjataan organisaation rahan käyttöä (Luftman & Ben-Zvi 2011, 206), tietojärjestelmien kehitystä (Makiya 2012, 6) ja strategian toteutusta (Simon, Fischbach & Schoder 2014). EAM on uusi käsite, joka lupaa moninaisia hyötyjä, mutta sisältää samalla ristiriitaisia odotuksia ja monimutkaisia systeemisiä ja sosiaalisia haasteita mahdollisten hyötyjen realisoimiseksi. Tämä työ tarkastelee kokonaisarkkitehtuuria IT-käsitteenä ja monimutkaisena sosioteknisenä ilmiönä. Etenemme EA:n tietoteknisistä juurista, arkkitehtuureista, liiketoiminnan ja tietotekniikan samansuuntaisuuden (alignment) kautta kokonaisarkkitehtuurin hallintaan. Kokonaisarkkitehtuurin hallinnasta jatkamme toiminnan teorian (Vygotsky 1978, Leontiev 1978, 1981; Engeström 1987), toimijaverkostoteorian (Actor-Network Theory, ANT: Latour 1999a; Monteiro 2000), strukturaatioteorian (Giddens 1984) ja sosiomateriaalisuuden (Orlikowski 2007) avulla kohti kokonaisarkkitehtuurin johtamista (EA leadership). Teoriaosuudessa esittelemme kolme viitekehystä ja näkökulman analysoida organisaation tietotekniikan, kokonaisarkkitehtuurin ja tietämyksen hallinnan sosiomaterialistista kokonaisuutta. Opinnäytetyön kokeellinen osuus on tapaustutkimus kohdeyrityksemme kokonaisarkkitehtuurin kehittymisestä. Teoriaosuuden viitekehyksiä testataan analysoimalla kohdeyrityksen kokonaisarkkitehtuurin kehityksestä tehtyjä etnografisia havaintoja vuosilta 1996-2011. Seitsemän lyhyttä kuvausta (vignettes) kertovat kohdeyrityksen kokonaisarkkitehtuurin kehitystarinoita, joita arvioidaan IT, EA, EAM ja tietämyksen hallinnan näkökulmista. Tämä työ osoittaa kokonaisarkkitehtuurin hallinnan mahdollisuuksia parantaa informaatiotekniikan tuottavuutta integroimalla liiketoiminnan, prosessien ja tietojärjestelmien/tekniikan kehittämistä. Kokonaisarkkitehtuurin hallinta vaatii lisää systeemistä ymmärrystä miten sosiomateriaalisia rakenteita ja käytäntöjä tulisi (uudelleen)määrittää ja sovittaa yrityksen tietämyksen ja muutoksen hallinnan tehostamiseksi. Tutkimuksessa esitettyjä viitekehyksiä voidaan jatkossa käyttää pyrittäessä kohti reflektoivia kokonaisarkkitehtuurin hallinnan ja johtamisen käytäntöjä

Method support for enterprise architecture management capabilities

"What can our EA organization do and/or what should it be capable of?". In order to answer this questions, a capability-based method is developed, which assists in the identification, structuring and management of capabilities. The approach is embedded in a process comprising four building blocks providing appropriated procedures, concepts and supporting tools evolved from theory and practical use cases. The guide represents a flexible method for capability newcomers and experienced audiences to optimize enterprises’ economic impacts of EAM supporting the alignment of business and IT.„Was muss unser UAM leisten können?“ Als Grundlage für die Beantwortung dieser Frage sollen Konzepte aus dem Fähigkeitenmanagement genutzt werden. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wird eine fähigkeitenbasierte Methode entwickelt, welche Unternehmen bei der Identifikation, Strukturierung und Verwaltung von UAM-Fähigkeiten unterstützt. Der Ansatz ist in einen Prozess eingegliedert, welcher vier Hauptbestandteile beinhaltet und die für die Durchführung notwendigen Vorgehen, Konzepte und Hilfsmittel beschreibt, welche wiederrum in Kooperationen mit der Praxis getestet wurden