Survey and Systematization of Prescriptive Analytics Systems: Towards Archetypes from a Human-Machine-Collaboration Perspective

Prescriptive analytics systems (PAS) represent the most mature form of business analytics (BA), offering advanced decision support. However, current research predominantly focuses on technical facets while neglecting social-technical design aspects. A pluralist research methodology was employed to address this gap, starting with a systematic literature review of over 200 papers. We used these papers to derive a concept matrix of fundamental elements that guided the development of a taxonomy conceptualizing the interplay and collaboration between humans and machines in PAS-based decision-making processes. Based on this taxonomy, we identified four recurring PAS archetypes with salient design characteristics: Informative, executive, adaptive, and autonomous PAS. Our findings have important implications for the BA community, including the need to investigate design options for executive, adaptive, and autonomous PAS; the underrepresentation of the human perspective; the missing links to the broader organizational landscape; and the potential for interpretable machine learning and reinforcement learning in PAS

BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS AS A NEW FRONTIER OF ENTERPRISE DATA MANAGEMENT

Big Data and Analytics (BDA) promises significant value generation opportunities across industries. Even though companies increase their investments, their BDA initiatives fall short of expectations and they struggle to guarantee a return on investments. In order to create business value from BDA, companies must build and extend their data-related capabilities. While BDA literature has emphasized the capabilities needed to analyze the increasing volumes of data from heterogeneous sources, EDM researchers have suggested organizational capabilities to improve data quality. However, to date, little is known how companies actually orchestrate the allocated resources, especially regarding the quality and use of data to create value from BDA. Considering these gaps, this thesis – through five interrelated essays – investigates how companies adapt their EDM capabilities to create additional business value from BDA. The first essay lays the foundation of the thesis by investigating how companies extend their Business Intelligence and Analytics (BI&A) capabilities to build more comprehensive enterprise analytics platforms. The second and third essays contribute to fundamental reflections on how organizations are changing and designing data governance in the context of BDA. The fourth and fifth essays look at how companies provide high quality data to an increasing number of users with innovative EDM tools, that are, machine learning (ML) and enterprise data catalogs (EDC). The thesis outcomes show that BDA has profound implications on EDM practices. In the past, operational data processing and analytical data processing were two “worlds” that were managed separately from each other. With BDA, these "worlds" are becoming increasingly interdependent and organizations must manage the lifecycles of data and analytics products in close coordination. Also, with BDA, data have become the long-expected, strategically relevant resource. As such data must now be viewed as a distinct value driver separate from IT as it requires specific mechanisms to foster value creation from BDA. BDA thus extends data governance goals: in addition to data quality and regulatory compliance, governance should facilitate data use by broadening data availability and enabling data monetization. Accordingly, companies establish comprehensive data governance designs including structural, procedural, and relational mechanisms to enable a broad network of employees to work with data. Existing EDM practices therefore need to be rethought to meet the emerging BDA requirements. While ML is a promising solution to improve data quality in a scalable and adaptable way, EDCs help companies democratize data to a broader range of employees

Towards a Governance of Low-Code Development Platforms Using the Example of Microsoft PowerPlatform in a Multinational Company

The advantages of low-code platforms include the ability to better manage corporate processes. These processes can quickly become customized and business critical. Consequently, governance of low-code development platforms gains increasing importance in the IT sector. This paper contributes to the design of a governance for low-code platforms using the example of Microsoft PowerPlatform through the action-design- research-paradigm within a consumer goods corporation. The paper shows both the relationship between IT governance and low-code platforms and what challenges this poses, as well as the importance of governance of low-code platforms in relation to the field of end-user computing. This work aims at developing governance for low-code platforms, and evaluates it using several methods. Based on the results of the naturalistic evaluation, design principles for the development of a governance for low-code platforms are derived. The principles summarize suggestions for designing such governance, providing evidence-based design knowledge for developing governance of low-code platforms

An Approach for the Development of Complex Systems Archetypes

The purpose of this research is to explore the principles and concepts of systems theory in pursuit of a collection of complex systems archetypes that can be used for system exploration and diagnostics. The study begins with an examination of the archetypes and classification systems that already exist in the domain of systems theory. This review includes a critique of their purpose, structure, and general applicability. The research then develops and employs a new approach to grounded theory, using a visual coding model to explore the origins, relationships, and meanings of the principles of systems theory. The goal of the visual grounded theory approach is to identity underlying, recurrent imagery in the systems literature that will form the basis for the archetypes. Using coding models derived from the literature, the study then examines the interrelationships between system principles. These relationships are used to clearly define the environment where the archetypes are found in terms of energy, entropy and time. A collection of complex system archetypes is then derived which are firmly rooted in the literature, as well as being demonstrably manifested in the real world. The definitions of the emerging complex systems archetypes are consistent with the environmental definition and are governed by the system’s behavior related to energy collection, entropy displacement, and the pursuit of viability. Once the archetypes have been identified, this study examines the similarities and differences that distinguish them. The individual system principles that either define or differentiate each of the archetypes are described, and real-world manifestations of the archetypes are discussed. The collection of archetypes is then examined as a continuum, where they are related to one another in terms of energy use, entropy accumulation, self-modification and external-modification. To illustrate the applicability of these archetypes, a case study is undertaken which examines a medium-sized organization with multiple departments in an industrial setting. The individual departments are discussed in detail, and their archetypical forms are identified and described. Finally, the study examines future applications for the archetypes and other research that might enhance their utility for complex systems governance

Identifying Gaps on IT Governance Capabilities: Findings in the Logistics and Transportation Industry in Colombia

Nowadays, Information Technology (IT) governance is a core activity adopted or expected by most organizations to control the behaviour of IT assets. However, this discipline faces a growing gap between the views, priorities and practices of academics and practitioners. This paper presents a consolidated view of capabilities for implementing IT governance within an organization. We evaluated these capabilities in the practice of Colombian companies within the logistic industry. The main gaps on adopting IT governance capabilities are discussed and research insights are provided for aligning theory and practice

Contributions to IT project portfolio management and individual digital study assistants in higher education

Diese kumulative Dissertation beschreibt und diskutiert 12 wissenschaftliche Artikel, die einen Beitrag zur Forschung in den Themenbereichen Informationstechnik (IT) Projektportfoliomanagement und individuelle, digitale Studienassistenten an Universitäten umfasst. Dafür wurden Modelle und Rahmenwerke entwickelt, die wesentliche IT Projektportfoliomanagement Phasen und Aktivitäten beschreiben, eine objektive IT Projektevaluation ermöglichen und Reifegrade von IT Projektportfoliomanagement Prozessen bestimmen. Außerdem wurde ein Optimierungsmodell zur Auswahl und Planung des IT Projektportfoliomanagement Prozesses aufgestellt und in einem Entscheidungsunterstützungssystem-Prototypen integriert. Bestehende IT Projektportfoliomanagement Tools, sowie Anforderungen und unternehmerische Vorteile für IT Projektmanager wurden jeweils in Taxonomien klassifiziert, Muster erkannt und Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede aufgezeigt. Zusätzlich wurden kritische Erfolgsfaktoren, Herausforderungen und Anforderungen für individuelle, digitale Studienassistenten identifiziert, analysiert und diskutiert. In mehreren Iterationen wurde basierend darauf ein Prototyp entwickelt, evaluiert, modifiziert und allgemeine Leitlinien für das Design, die Entwicklung und den Betrieb eines individuellen, digitalen Studienassistenten abgeleitet. Die Forschungsarbeiten ermöglichen IT Projektportfoliomanagement Prozesse effizienter und werteorientiert zu gestalten und subjektive Einflüsse zu minimieren sowie Hochschulen bei dem Design, der Entwicklung und dem Betrieb von individuellen, digitalen Studienassistenten zu unterstützen. Basierend auf Limitationen wird eine Forschungsagenda aufgestellt, die 13 weitere Forschungsmöglichkeiten im Themenbereich IT Projektportfoliomanagement und individuelle, digitale Studienassistenten aufzeigt und als Grundlage für weitere Forschung in diesen Themenfeldern dient.This cumulative dissertation outlines and discusses 12 scientific publications that contribute to the knowledge of Information Technology (IT) project portfolio management and individual digital study assistants in higher education. The papers developed models and frameworks that describe crucial IT project portfolio management phases and activities, enable an objective IT project evaluation, and define IT project portfolio management maturity levels. In addition, they deduced an optimization model for IT project portfolio management evaluation, selection, and scheduling decisions and implemented it in a decision support system prototype. Developed taxonomies and archetypes classify existing IT project portfolio management tools as well as requirements and corporate benefits of IT project manager positions to identify patterns, similarities, and differences. Further, critical success factors, challenges, and requirements for an individual digital study assistant were identified, analyzed, and discussed. Based on these and during several iterations, an individual digital study assistant prototype was developed, evaluated, adapted, and guidelines derived. The articles contribute knowledge on how to design more efficient and value-driven IT project portfolio management processes to minimize subjective influences. Also, they provide knowledge to support higher education institutions in the design, development, and operation of individual digital study assistants. Based on existing limitations, a further research agenda is deduced, including 13 further research directions for IT project portfolio management and individual digital study assistants in higher education institutions. They serve as a basis for further researchers in these fields of topics

Automatic definition of engineer archetypes: A text mining approach

With the rapid and continuous advancements in technology, as well as the constantly evolving competences required in the field of engineering, there is a critical need for the harmonization and unification of engineering professional figures or archetypes. The current limitations in tymely defining and updating engineers' archetypes are attributed to the absence of a structured and automated approach for processing educational and occupational data sources that evolve over time. This study aims to enhance the definition of professional figures in engineering by automating archetype definitions through text mining and adopting a more objective and structured methodology based on topic modeling. This will expand the use of archetypes as a common language, bridging the gap between educational and occupational frameworks by providing a unified and up-to-date engineering professional figure tailored to a specific period, specialization type, and level. We validate the automatically defined industrial engineer archetype against our previously manually defined profile

IT governance in small and medium enterprise post Sarbanes Oxley

The history of IT governance research has been dichotomous in that research either focused on the IT governance structural arrangements or the contingencies that affect IT organizational decisions. Weill and Ross’s (2004) seminal text on IT governance represents a synthesis of these two streams of research and thus establishes a new trajectory in the discourse related to IT governance. Their study included analysis from both survey data and case studies. However, the case study sites included were of large capitalized companies. Moreover, the cases were conducted prior to the mandated implementation of Section 404 of Sarbanes Oxley (SOX), which oversees the requirements for companies to ensure they have adequate controls in place to safeguard financial data and reporting. Compliance efforts with SOX have disproportionately impacted the finances of small publicly traded companies; consequently, the compliance efforts of small and medium publicly traded companies may differ from that of large companies. Most small companies have taken SOX seriously and complied with the requirements mandated by the legislation by implementing the controls that demonstrate that the organization has reasonable assurance of governance over the company’s IT function. Still other small companies have chosen to use SOX as a catalyst for systemic change throughout the company’s IT function. While the latter may seem the logical progression of a company’s IT governance effort, that is not always the case. This study seeks to understand the reasons behind why some companies extend compliance efforts to invoke positive systemic change while others only do enough to comply with regulatory requirements. Using a multiple-case methodology, this study attempts to build upon the existing body of IT governance research by examining how the aforementioned IT governance concepts discussed by Weill and Ross are manifest in small and medium publicly traded companies. Additionally, the reason(s) why or why not those concepts may be present is examined using the theoretical lens of institutional theory. Findings of the study include an identification of differences small and medium publicly traded companies and large publicly traded companies in establishing enterprise-wide IT governance