Modeling Virtual Organization Architecture with the Virtual Organization Breeding Methodology

While Enterprise Architecture Modeling (EAM) methodologies become more and more popular, an EAM methodology tailored to the needs of virtual organizations (VO) is still to be developed. Among the most popular EAM methodologies, TOGAF has been chosen as the basis for a new EAM methodology taking into account characteristics of VOs presented in this paper. In this new methodology, referred as Virtual Organization Breeding Methodology (VOBM), concepts developed within the ECOLEAD project, e.g. the concept of Virtual Breeding Environment (VBE) or the VO creation schema, serve as fundamental elements for development of VOBM. VOBM is a generic methodology that should be adapted to a given VBE. VOBM defines the structure of VBE and VO architectures in a service-oriented environment, as well as an architecture development method for virtual organizations (ADM4VO). Finally, a preliminary set of tools and methods for VOBM is given in this paper.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Towards an unified information systems reference model for higher education institutions

Higher education institutions are currently facing many challenges that are making them to start compete strategically, like other not-for-profit firm. To adequately support such new approach, their information systems and business strategies should be totally aligned. However, the current existing landscape of heterogeneous information systems and applications deployed in many institutions can compromise such aim. Recently, reference architectures and models have emerged as instruments suitable to help company’s decision-makers to cope with such tensions. However, whilst many of such architectural models already exist for several industries, little has been done so far in higher education. In this paper, we briefly review major existing developments in such way before to inductively derive a unified information systems reference model tailored for higher education institutions.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Adaptive enterprise architecture drivenagiledevelopment

Agile development practices focus on developing and delivering working software systems in small iterations with minimal documentation. However, locally project focused agile practices overlook the need for holistic enterprise architecture. Lack of enterprise architecture in agile, especially in the large agile environments, may lead to a number of problems such as technical debt, unnecessary re-work, inconsistent communication, locally focused isolated architecture, design and implementation. There is a missing link between the enterprise architecture and agile development. Enterprise architecture is a strategic capability that should enable and enhance agility of agile development. However, organisations are not sure how best to approach strategic enterprise architecture capability for supporting agile development. This paper proposes and demonstrate the applicability of an integrated adaptive enterprise architecture driven agile development approach for large agile environments

Requirements for IT Governance in Organizations Experiencing Decentralization

International audienceDecentralization of organizations and subsequent change of their management and operation styles require changes in organization's processes and heavily involve IT. Enterprise Architecture (EA) frameworks fit to primarily centralized organizational structures, and as such have shortcomings when used in decentralized organizations. We illustrate this idea on the example of one organization in the Higher Education sector that faces decentralization of its structure and has to adapt to it. Overcoming these challenges requires some new principles to be introduced and incorporated into the EA knowledge. In particular for IT governance, in this study we argue that peer-to-peer principles can offer more suitable governance over current EA frameworks as they are able to better align with decentralized components of an organizational structure

Creating architecture for a digital information system leveraging virtual environments

Abstract. The topic of the thesis was the creation of a proof of concept digital information system, which utilizes virtual environments. The focus was finding a working design, which can then be expanded upon. The research was conducted using design science research, by creating the information system as the artifact. The research was conducted for Nokia Networks in Oulu, Finland; in this document referred to as “the target organization”. An information system is a collection of distributed computing components, which come together to create value for an organization. Information system architecture is generally derived from enterprise architecture, and consists of a data-, technical- and application architectures. Data architecture outlines the data that the system uses, and the policies related to its usage, manipulation and storage. Technical architecture relates to various technological areas, such as networking and protocols, as well as any environmental factors. The application architecture consists of deconstructing the applications that are used in the operations of the information system. Virtual reality is an experience, where the concepts of presence, autonomy and interaction come together to create an immersive alternative to a regular display-based computer environment. The most typical form of virtual reality consists of a headmounted device, controllers and movement-tracking base stations. The user’s head- and body movement can be tracked, which changes their position in the virtual environment. The proof-of-concept information system architecture used a multi-server -based solution, where one central physical server hosted multiple virtual servers. The system consisted of a website, which was the knowledge-center and where a client software could be downloaded. The client software was the authorization portal, which determined the virtual environments that were available to the user. The virtual reality application included functionalities, which enable co-operative, virtualized use of various Nokia products, in immersive environments. The system was tested in working situations, such as during exhibitions with customers. The proof-of-concept system fulfilled many of the functional requirements set for it, allowing for co-operation in the virtual reality. Additionally, a rudimentary model for access control was available in the designed system. The shortcomings of the system were related to areas such as security and scaling, which can be further developed by introducing a cloud-hosted environment to the architecture

Towards an E-Government Enterprise Architecture Framework for Developing Economies

The growth and uptake of e-government in developing economies are still affected by the interoperability challenge, which can be perceived as an orchestration of several issues that imply the existence of gaps in methods used for e-government planning and implementation. To a great extent, various counterparts in developed economies have succeeded in addressing the method-related gaps by developing e-government enterprise architectures, as blueprints for guiding e-government initiatives in a holistic and manageable way. However, existing e-government enterprise architectures are country-specific to appropriately serve their intended purpose, while enterprise architecture frameworks or methods are generic to accommodate several enterprise contexts. The latter do not directly accommodate the unique peculiarities of e-government efforts. Thus, a detailed method is lacking that can be adapted by developing economies to develop e-government enterprise architectures that fit their contexts. To address the gap, this article presents research that adopted a Design Science approach to develop an e-Government Enterprise Architecture Framework (EGEAF), as an explicit method for guiding the design of e-government enterprise architectures in a developing economy. EGEAF was designed by extending the Architecture Development Method of The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF ADM) to address requirements for developing interoperable e-government solutions in a developing economy. EGEAF was evaluated using two scenarios in the Ugandan context, and findings indicate that it is feasible; its design is understandable to enable its adoption and extension to accommodate requirements for developing interoperable e-government solutions in other developing economies

Modeling BDN framework in ArchiMate: benefits management of IS investments applied in the context of media and television industry digital transformation

O alinhamento entre os investimentos em Tecnologia da Informação (TI) e a definição ao dos objetivos de negócios e recorrentemente referido na literatura como uma tarefa primordial com impacto direto no lucro da organização. A Arquitetura Corporativa (EA) desempenha um papel importante na descrição das dependências entre um roteiro de migração ao de TI e as contra- partes de negócios, portanto, facilitando as decisões das partes interessadas. No entanto, as evidencias mostram que um número significativo de projetos de TI não consegue entregar os resultados desejados. Normalmente, as causas do fracasso incluem (i) a predominância de abordagens de gestão financeira de caixa preta que oferecem indicadores fracos, empheg, retorno sobre o investimento ou redução de custos, e (ii) não identificar os benefícios de negócios reais fornecidos pelo valor que pode ser gerado por um investimento em TI. Este artigo usa ArchiMate para propor um modelo para entender, projetar e gerenciar os benefícios do negocio. ArchiMate permite, entre outros, modelar camadas de negócios, aplicativos, tecnologia ou estratégia e agora é estendido com benefícios de negócios. Especificamente, é apresentado um ponto de vista da ArchiMate baseado no modelo Benefit Dependence Network (BDN). O objetivo dessa visão é apoiar os stakeholders que estão ao gerenciando os benefícios a serem alcançados por um investimento em TI. A solução conceitual e discutida e demonstrada no contexto do caso de uso da industria de televisão ao e vídeo de mídia. Posteriormente, as deficiências ontológicas desse modelo s ´ ao discutidas utilizando o método Wand Weber e por meio de entrevistas com especialistas.The alignment between Information Technologies (IT) investments and business objectives definition is recurrently referred in the literature as a paramount task owning a direct impact on the organization’s profit. Enterprise Architecture (EA) plays an important role in describing the dependencies between an IT migration roadmap and business counterparts, therefore, facilitating the stakeholder’s decisions. However, evidence shows that a significant number of IT projects fail to deliver the desired outcomes. Usually, the failure causes are (i) the dominance of blackbox financial management approaches offering poor indicators, e.g., return-on-investment or cost reduction, and (ii) not identifying the real business benefits provided by the value that can be generated by an IT investment. This paper uses ArchiMate to propose a model to understand, design, and manage the business benefits. ArchiMate enables, among others, to model business, application, technology, or strategy layers and is now extended with business benefits. In specific, an ArchiMate viewpoint based on the Benefits Dependency Network (BDN) model is presented. The purpose of this viewpoint is to support the stakeholders that are managing the benefits to be achieved by an IT investment. The conceptual solution is argued and demonstrated in the context of the media video and television industry use case. Afterward, the ontological deficiencies of this model are discussed using the Wand Weber method and through interviews with experts

Validation of a Generic Service Governance Meta Model based on the Comparison of Major Governance Frameworks

The effective governance of organizational capabilities in the areas of Service Management and Service-oriented Architectures (SOA) has been broadly recognized as an essential success factor for service-oriented enterprises. Organizations that target the adoption of an adequate Service Governance approach face the difficulty of selecting from a variety of related frameworks with differing scopes and objectives. In this paper, we provide a structural comparison of the major, non vendor-specific IT and SOA Governance and Management frameworks and use this comparison to validate our own Service Governance meta model. This generic meta model is intended to provide a sound conceptualization, thereby contributing to a better understanding and facilitation of Service Governance, e.g. by forming the foundation for the development of a flexible and configurable Service Governance tool

Enterprise architecture in the higher education sector: A case study

Organizations live in an ever changing environment where a robust architecture is needed in order to cope with such changes while maintaining the required standards to stay competitive. Enterprise Architecture is the discipline which studies an organization architecture, its components and their relationship with each other and with the outside context. It is a discipline which has been researched for the last 40 years but only recently started to show interest in exploring the frameworks and methods developed in the higher education sector. Therefore this research aims to explore the use of such practices in the higher education sector, applying it to a real-life scenario. Iscte, a university based in Portugal, as any other organization goes through regular changes to adapt to the outside environment which may cause dysfunctions in the university's social-cultural context as well as in the information systems. This work will apply the Zachman Framework to the university, more speci cally in the scope of the IT services in order to help them manage the on-going transformations and spot potential issues that already exist and may yet appear in the university architecture. A wiki style platform will be developed to host the framework and to allow stakeholders to get involved. A series of interviews with key players are conducted in order to get their perspectives into the current social and technological dimensions in the university. Recommendations to the current Iscte architecture are done based on the results from the framework and the interviews.As organizações vivem num ambiente em constante mudança, onde é necessária uma arquitetura robusta para fazer face a tais mudanças, mantendo simultaneamente os padrões necessários para se manterem competitivas. A Arquitetura Empresarial é a disciplina que estuda a arquitetura de uma organização, os seus componentes, a sua relação uns com os outros e com o contexto exterior. É uma disciplina que tem sido investigada nos últimos 40 anos, mas só recentemente começou a mostrar interesse em explorar e aplicar as frameworks e métodos desenvolvidos no sector do ensino superior. Por conseguinte, esta investigaçã visa explorar a utilização de tais práticas no sector do ensino superior, aplicando-as a um cenário da vida real. O Iscte, uma universidade sediada em Portugal, como qualquer outra organizção passa por mudanças regulares para se adaptar ao ambiente envolvente o que pode causar disfunções no contexto sócio-cultural da universidade, bem como nos sistemas de informação. Este trabalho aplicará a Framework de Zachman à universidade, mais especificamente no âmbito dos serviços de informática a fim de ajudar a gerir as transformações em curso e a detetar potenciais problemas que já existem e que podem ainda surgir na arquitetura da universidade. Será desenvolvida uma plataforma de estilo wiki para acolher a framework e permitir que os intervenientes se envolvam. Uma série de entrevistas com atores-chave é conduzida a fim de perceber as suas perspetivas sobre as atuais dimensões sociais e tecnológicas da universidade. Recomendações para a atual arquitetura organizacional do Iscte são feitas com base nos resultados da framework e nas entrevistas

Evaluating Enterprise Architecture Frameworks Using Essential Elements

Enterprise architecture (EA) frameworks offer principles, models, and guidance to help one develop an EA program. Due to EA’s flexible and abstract nature, there is a proliferation of EA frameworks in practice. Yet, comparison studies to make sense of them are far from satisfactory in that they lack a theoretical foundation for comparison criteria and do not meaningfully interpret the differences. In this paper, I propose a comparison approach using EA essential elements—the underlying key features of EA programs—to distinguish EA frameworks. Based on the extant literature, I identify eight elements, each with its own theoretical justification and empirical evidence. I illustrate how to use these elements to evaluate eight popular EA frameworks. The results show three ideal types of EA frameworks: technical, operational, and strategic EA. Each type has a different focus, set of assumptions, and historical context. The essential elements offer a more systematic way to evaluate EA frameworks. In addition, they shift attention from the maturity models often used in EA development to focus on particular EA elements being implemented by organizations