Some empirical evidence on business-IT alignment processes in the public sector: A case study report

An empirical study that explores business-IT alignment processes in a networked organization among the province Overijssel, the municipalities Zwolle and Enschede, the water board district Regge & Dinkel and Royal Grolsch N.V. in The Netherlands, is summarized in this report. The aim of the study was to identify processes that contribute to improve such alignment. This study represents a continuation of previous validation efforts that help us to confirm the business-IT alignment process areas that should ultimately be included in the ICoNOs MM. Evidence was sought for the alignment of business and IT through the use of information systems to support the requirements of the organization in a specific project. The results of this study in the public sector also are relevant to the private sector where (i) business-IT alignment plays an increasingly valuable role, and (ii) the characteristics of collaborative networked organizations are present

Enterprise Architecture: Charting the Territory for Academic Research

The concept of Enterprise Architecture (EA) has long been considered as a means to improve system integration and achieve better IT-business alignment by IT professionals. Recently, the subject gained significant visibility by IS academics. In this paper we provide an overview of existing EA research and practice and present key functions and benefits of EA as seen by IT professionals based on the results of the SIM Information Management Practices Survey. We then identify and discuss directions for future research, including the development of EA definition and nomological net, as well as development of theoretical propositions regarding EA business value

Organization Size, IT Capabilities, and EA Perceptions: Dark Clouds on the ERP Horizon?

The relationship between enterprise architecture (EA) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems can be a synergistic one, leading to improved organizational and IT capabilities, practices, and mission success. However, in examining this relationship, organization size must be considered since it plays an important role in influencing the success of these enterprise initiatives. This paper analyzes the responses of IT professionals to the SIM Information Management Practices Survey and discusses the relationship of organization size to the EA and ERP relationship and to IT capabilities within organizations

Extendibility of a proposed Business Architecture Assessment Model (BAAM)

Magister Commercii (Information Management) - MCom(IM)Purpose: The research aims to validate whether the proposed beta version of a Business Architecture Assessment Model (BAAM) can be usefully extended to organisations. Design/methodology/approach: The research draws from existing literature to further extend the scope of the BAAM. The literature review includes a description of Business Architecture (BA) and investigates the requirements of maturity models. The literature did reveal that the beta version of the BAAM’s maturity levels should be extended from the initial 3 levels to 5 well documented maturity levels (i.e. the roadmap). A focus group consisting of various subject matter experts evaluated the BAAM using an interpretative survey. The focus group approved the BAAM with some minor recommendations. The online BAAM survey was then deployed at eight (8) organisations to collect data on the level of maturity of the organisations’ business architecture. The output of the BAAM consists of a roadmap and the assessment results which assist organisations to improve their business architecture maturity. Findings: The literature review revealed that maturity models exist, but not many focus specifically on BA maturity. Those that does exist primarily focuses on the methodology involved in BA but do not specifically point out areas where the content matter of BA can be improved upon

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

Développement et évaluation d'un prototype d'outil d'autodiagnostic de la gestion de l'alignement stratégique des technologies de l'information (TI)

L'alignement stratégique des technologies de l'information (TI) constitue, aujourd' hui, une des préoccupations partagées entre les gestionnaires d'affaires et les gestionnaires en ressources informationnelles. En particulier, les décisions d'aligner les systèmes d'information avec les processus, les buts et les stratégies occupent de plus en plus de place et sont perçues comme prioritaires par les gestionnaires (Campbell et al., 2005). Ce mémoire est une étude exploratoire qui vise à répondre à la question suivante: est-il possible de concevoir un outil d'autodiagnostic pour améliorer les décisions d'alignement stratégique des gestionnaires de l'informatique? La conception de cet outil adopte une perspective de plus en plus utilisée en gestion stratégique, soit une perspective basée sur les capacités organisationnelles. En utilisant les travaux sur les capacités organisationnelles (St-Amant, 2003 et 2006) et d'autres recherches, notamment celles de Luftman (2003) sur l'alignement stratégique des TI, un outil web d'autodiagnostic et d'aide à la décision a été conçu, testé et évalué. Pour concevoir l'outil web selon une perspective d'aide à la décision, quatre domaines de connaissance ont été mobilisés et discutés dans une revue de littérature avant de programmer le site web. Le premier traite de l'autoévaluation et des processus d'autoévaluation. Le deuxième traite du processus d'autoévaluation selon une approche d'aide à la décision. Le troisième définit l'environnement organisationnel pour l'utilisation d'un outil d'autodiagnostic. Et le quatrième approfondit le concept d'alignement stratégique des TI ainsi que des mesures de l'alignement stratégique en TI. On termine cette revue de la littérature par le processus d'autoévaluation qui a servi à concevoir l'outil Web.\ud Le site Web d'autoévaluation de l'alignement stratégique a été testé et validé par quelques experts. Une fois terminé, on a procédé à douze évaluations auprès de gestionnaires des TI, principalement de petites et moyennes entreprises (PME) québécoises. Trois résultats sont particulièrement intéressants. Le processus d'autoévaluation a des effets limités pour ne pas dire nuls. En effet, les gens ne réagissent pas positivement à l'outil par manque de bagage théorique et d'une bonne compréhension des concepts d'alignement stratégique des TI. Il semble qu'il faille prévoir un module de e-learning avant le processus d'autoévaluation afin de bien comprendre le processus et les concepts reliés à l'alignement stratégique. Une fois les écueils de l'apprentissage résolus, les résultats de la recherche montrent que l'effet d'une autoévaluation individuelle suivie par une autre en groupe, mettant en scène l'interaction entre les perceptions des différents évaluateurs, influencent significativement et positivement le diagnostic et la compréhension de la situation actuelle de l'entreprise par rapport à l'alignement stratégique des TI. L'autodiagnostic, en termes de démarche structurée en deux phases et basée sur un modèle valide, à savoir le modèle de Luftman, a un impact positif sur l'apprentissage et le développement des connaissances au sein de l'organisation. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Alignement stratégique, Autodiagnostic, Capacités organisationnelles, Technologies de l’information

Accident versus Essence: Investigating the Relationship Among Information Systems Development and Requirements Capabilities and Perceptions of Enterprise Architecture

Information systems (IS) are indelibly linked to the global economy and are indispensable to society and organizations. Despite the decisive function of IS in organizations today, IS development problems continue to plague organizations. The failure to get the system requirements right is considered to be one of the primary, if not the most significant, reasons for this high IS failure rate. Getting requirements right is most notably identified with Frederick Brooks' contention that requirements are the essence of what IT professionals do, all the rest being accidents or risk management. However, enterprise architecture (EA) may also provide the discipline to bridge the gap between effective requirements, organizational objectives, and the actual IS implementations. The intent of this research is to examine the relationship between IS development capabilities and requirements analysis and design capabilities within the context of enterprise architecture. To accomplish this, a survey of IT professionals within the Society for Information Management (SIM) was conducted. Results indicate support for the hypothesized relationship between IS development and requirements capabilities. The hypothesized relationships with the organizational demographics were not supported nor was the hypothesized positive relationship between requirements capabilities and EA perceptions. However, the nature of the relationship of requirements and EA provided important insight into the relationship leading to several explanations as to its meaning and contributions to research and practice. This research contributes to IS development knowledge by providing evidence of the essential role of requirements in IS development capabilities and in IS development maturity. Furthermore, contributions to the nascent field of EA research and practice include key insight into EA maturity, EA implementation success, and the role of IT professionals in EA teams. Moreover, these results provide a template and research plan of action to pursue further EA research in exploring EA maturity models and critical success factors, and the state of practice of EA in organization

Software Requirements: Update, Upgrade, Redesign : Towards a Theory of Requirements Change

Veer, G.C. van der [Promotor]Vliet, J.C. van [Promotor