236 research outputs found

    Applying TOGAF to Define and Govern a Service-oriented Architecture in a Large-scale Research Project

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    The Service-oriented Architecture paradigm has become a widely adopted solution for enterprise application landscapes. SOA promises system integration improvement, business and IT alignment, applications reusability, and fast adaptability to changing requirements. Yet, the advantages that SOA offers lead to its main management challenges. An SOA consists not only of services. Business requirements, processes, models, rules, policies, and different stakeholders play also an important role. To manage this increased complexity and heterogeneity in SOA landscapes enterprises apply architecture frameworks and governance approaches. An essential enabler for SOA Governance is the traceable documentation of the service-oriented application landscape. This paper shows how the TOGAF Architecture Development Method was applied in a large-scale SOA-based research project to support the governance proposes in the context of a service marketplace. Supplementary templates were defined to guide the description of services, data models, and architectural components. Some of the models and decisions proposed by TOGAF were shifted to other phases to fit the innovative nature of research projects

    Exploring ‘People’ as the key element in enterprise architecture implementation: A Critical Realist Perspective

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    TOGAF (2009) describes the purpose of Enterprise Architecture (EA) is to optimise enterprisewide systems - the often-fragmented legacy of data processes (both manual and automated) - into an integrated environment that is responsive to change and supports the delivery of the business strategy (The Open Group Architecture Framework [TOGAF], 2009). However, for a number of reasons organisations still have difficulties establishing an effective EA (Raadt & Vliet, 2008; Gartner, 2009; and Janssen & Klievink, 2012, among others) and various reports suggest up to two thirds of implementations do not fulfil expectations (Roeleven, 2010). Being organisation wide with a strong governance element EA has significant social implications and social dependence, yet many implementations wrongly treat EA as solely a technical program. This thesis argues that the lack of focus on the ‘people’ element of EA could be the reason why many organisations still struggle with EA implementation. Recognising the importance of people in EA implementation requires acceptance of implementation as a social program, heavily influenced by the structural and cultural systems surrounding the architecture. In order to address the need for greater recognition of the role of people and the social aspects of EA implementation, this thesis adopts critical realism (CR) and its most recognised methodology, the morphogenetic approach (MA). Realism emphasises ontology and strongly argues that ontology, methodology and epistemology are closely linked – as Fleetwood (2005, p. 197) suggests, ontology matters: “The way we think the world is (ontology) influences: what we think can be known about it (epistemology); how we think it can be investigated (methodology and research techniques); the kinds of theories we think can be constructed about it; and the political and policy stances we are prepared to take”. In order to examine the social implications of technology implementation it makes sense to adopt a wellrecognized social theory like critical realism. This social realist approach proposes an analytical separation between structure, culture and agency (people) in order to examine their interactions over time. The MA suggests three important cycles – structural conditioning, social interaction and structural elaboration that provide a platform for examining possible change. Archer also importantly suggests that the emergent properties of collectivities and individuals differ. Such a model has clear value for examining the “people” acceptance of the new impositions and opportunities provided by the EA implementation. It acknowledges the sociocultural consequences of interactions between the structure and the culture to provide particular situational logics that direct, but do not determine the actions of people. The MA emphasises strongly the role of time in situation examination suggesting that structure and culture predate subsequent actions by involved agents. The thesis describes particular situational logics or mechanisms emanating from the interaction between structural and cultural systems that encourage particular behaviours in response to the EA program. These actions are then further examined in the sequence of MA cycles. Since mechanisms are only effective if people adopt them or not, another important element in this study is the part played by “reflexivity”. Reflexivity highlights the linkage between people concerns, projects and practices as people act in order to promote their concerns, and form projects to advance or to protect what they care about most. Reflexivity is an important mechanism for explaining how people’s ultimate concerns impact on their approach to the impositions of EA. An Australian university implementing EA (termed UX for anonymity) has been used as a case study in this research – this fortuitous timing allowed a careful and detailed examination of implementation over a 3-year period from initial rollout to ultimate acceptance. The study describes the challenging environment of university implementation where “academic freedom” is paramount and individual and group autonomies are threatened by EA – the study presents the important mechanisms and situational logics that direct people’s actions within the complex social context of a university. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were used as the primary method of data collection across UX stakeholders. A range of interviews were held throughout the study period with the university IT Governance Committee, the University Architecture Board, the CIO, and the Enterprise Business Group, as well as individual end-users such as teaching staff, researchers, students, and administrative staff of the faculties, schools and service centres. The MA provided a basic structure for unravelling the social complexity and helped guide the interview questions to identify the generative mechanisms hidden in the real domain, and to highlight the conditions that encourage individual and collective acceptance of EA practices. The reflexivity indicator developed by Archer –ICONI– is used throughout to explain how personal projects are formed and how they mediate the exercise of structural/cultural constraints and enablement within EA implementation. Passive participation in regular EA implementation meetings at UX was also important and useful to unearth possible perceived causal possibilities emanating from within the program itself and evident within the social context of implementation. Underpinned by a critical realist perspective, the thesis demonstrates that the MA is a powerful analytical tool to uncover the hidden mechanisms (the situational logics of structures and cultures) and social responses that enable success of EA implementation. The research examines the particular situational logics evident within the University under study and how these provide opportunities and constraints to the acceptance of EA over time. Equally important was reflexivity theory in attaining knowledge and understanding about what it is about people’s internal relations that makes EA implementation succeed. This thesis offers organisations a means to focus on the deeper issues of EA implementation programs by understanding the social complexity surrounding the architecture. The recognition of people as a key element in EA implementation provides a useful explanation of how the key stakeholders (and their power, influence and interests) may constrain and enable EA implementation. By including reflexivity as an important mechanism, organisations will be in a better position to understand the role of people and their interactions with preexisting structures and cultures operating over different time periods – reflexivity suggesting that “people” always have the possibility to do otherwise than expected, largely dependent on their personal history and their current personal projects and ultimate concerns

    Security architecture methodology for large net-centric systems

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    This thesis describes an over-arching security architecture methodology for large network enabled systems that can be scaled down for smaller network centric operations such as present at the University of Missouri-Rolla. By leveraging the five elements of security policy & standards, security risk management, security auditing, security federation and security management, of the proposed security architecture and addressing the specific needs of UMR, the methodology was used to determine places of improvement for UMR --Abstract, page iii

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

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    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.

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

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    O alinhamento entre os investimentos em Tecnologia da Informação (TI) e a definição ao dos objetivos de negĂłcios 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 dependĂȘncias entre um roteiro de migração ao de TI e as contra- partes de negĂłcios, portanto, facilitando as decisĂ”es das partes interessadas. No entanto, as evidencias mostram que um nĂșmero significativo de projetos de TI nĂŁo consegue entregar os resultados desejados. Normalmente, as causas do fracasso incluem (i) a predominĂąncia de abordagens de gestĂŁo financeira de caixa preta que oferecem indicadores fracos, empheg, retorno sobre o investimento ou redução de custos, e (ii) nĂŁo identificar os benefĂ­cios de negĂłcios 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 benefĂ­cios do negocio. ArchiMate permite, entre outros, modelar camadas de negĂłcios, aplicativos, tecnologia ou estratĂ©gia e agora Ă© estendido com benefĂ­cios de negĂłcios. Especificamente, Ă© apresentado um ponto de vista da ArchiMate baseado no modelo Benefit Dependence Network (BDN). O objetivo dessa visĂŁo Ă© apoiar os stakeholders que estĂŁo ao gerenciando os benefĂ­cios a serem alcançados por um investimento em TI. A solução conceitual e discutida e demonstrada no contexto do caso de uso da industria de televisĂŁo ao e vĂ­deo de mĂ­dia. Posteriormente, as deficiĂȘncias ontolĂłgicas desse modelo s ÂŽ ao discutidas utilizando o mĂ©todo 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

    Comparing Enterprise Architecture Frameworks – A Case Study at the Estonian Rescue Board

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    Igal organisatsioonil on strateegilised eesmĂ€rgid, mida ta soovib saavutada. Ilma tervikliku arhitektuurita, mis kombineerib kĂ”ik erinevad elemendid - Ă€riprotsessid, infosĂŒsteemid, andmevood ja platvormid -, ei saa olla kindel, kas vĂ”i kuidas viivad investeeringud eemĂ€rkide tĂ€itmisele. Kuna ĂŒhegi Eesti riigiasutuse kohta ei ole teadaolevalt selleteemalist uurimust tehtud, valiti selles magistritöös juhtumiuuringu nĂ€iteks PÀÀsteamet. Magistritöös antakse esmalt sĂŒstemaatiline ĂŒlevaade erialasest kirjandusest eesmĂ€rgiga leida sobivad organisatsiooni arhitektuuri raamistikud ning kriteeriumid raamistike vĂ”rdleva analĂŒĂŒsi lĂ€biviimiseks ja edasiseks hindamiseks PÀÀsteameti nĂ€itel. Valitud allikate pĂ”hjal vastatakse uurimiskĂŒsimustele. See aitas tuvastada seitse ettevĂ”tte arhitektuuri raamistikku, mida hinnati ja jĂ€ttis alles kolm raamistikku edasiseks rakendamiseks: The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF), The Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF), Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). SeejĂ€rel modelleeritakse juhtumiuuringus erinevaid raamistikke kasutades detailselt 2-3 teenust ning viiakse kirjanduse ĂŒlevaates kirjeldatud kriteeriumite abil lĂ€bi hindamine ja arutelu PÀÀsteameti töötajatega. Juhtumiuuring ja kohapealne kohtumine pÀÀsteametis seadsid ettevĂ”tte organisatsioonide arendamiseks organisatsiooni arhitektuuri raamistikud jaoks kĂ”ige olulisemad kaks peamist asjaolu: organiseerida arhitektuur seisukohtadesse, mis on organisatsiooni infokĂŒsimuste struktuuri alamhulk ja mĂ”ista, kuidas organisatsiooni eesmĂ€rgid on toetatud. Töö tulemus on heaks aluseks organisatsiooni arhitektuuri edasisele arendamisele PÀÀsteametis ja teistes Eesti riigiasutustes.Every organisation has strategic goals it wants to achieve, and if it does not have an architecture combining all different elements such as business processes, enabling information systems, data flows and platforms, it will not be sure which investments will lead to achieving which objectives. Since there has not been any research like this performed for Estonian Government Organisations, the Estonian Rescue Board is taken as an example for conducting a case study. A systematic literature review is performed, for identifying Enterprise Architecture Frameworks, criteria for performing a comparative analysis of the framework as well as for the further evaluation at the Estonian Rescue Board. The identified final papers are analysed in order to answer the Research Questions (RQ). This helped to identify seven Enterprise Architecture Frameworks, which were evaluated and left only three frameworks for further implementation: The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF), The Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF), Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). In the case study, the selected frameworks are modelled, showing 2 or 3 services in details, with further evaluation and discussion of them during the meeting at the Rescue Board, following the criteria, which are described in the literature review. Case study and on-site meeting at the Rescue Board set two main things to be the most vital while developing Enterprise Architecture Framework in the organisation: organising architecture into views that are subsets of the organisation information architecture and understanding how the goals in the organisation are supported. This can be a good backbone for further developing Enterprise Architecture in the Rescue Board, and other Estonian Government Organisations in general

    Planning of Higher Education Information Technology Strategy Using TOGAF (A Case Study at AMN Cilacap)

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    Information technology that develops along with the rapid role of communication through the Internet makes technology and information systems have a position that is vital for the business alignment of an institution including higher education institutions. The strategic planning of this sector has a goal to develop the basis / guidelines in developing and developing information technology and systems to support organizational goals and increase increasingly competitive competitive advantage. Thus, the integration between business and information technology becomes important to support the competitiveness of institutions. The responsibility of Enterprise Architecture (EA) is to provide an accurate and fast information system based on the business demands of the institution. Appropriate standards and models are needed by higher education institutions to improve the alignment of business strategies and information technology. This study will explore the problems faced by AMN Cilacap and provide the development of information technology and systems needed to use EA using the Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) methodology. TOGAF provides methods and tools to assist in the receipt, production, use and maintenance of corporate architecture

    Enterprise architecture alignment

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    ProsocialLearn: D2.3 - 1st system requirements and architecture

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    This document present the first version of the ProsocialLearn architecture covering the principle definition, the requirement collection, the “business”, “information system”, “technology” architecture as defined in the TOGAF methodology
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