Enterprise architecture development and implementation in public sector: The Malaysian perspective

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is gaining the attention from the public sector as a solution to improve the function of e-Government. However, public sector agencies are having difficulties with its development and implementation due to inflexibility and complexity of the agencies’ business function and information technology structures. The objective of this paper is to identify the challenges faced by the Malaysian public sector agencies that are in development and implementation phase of EA. In order to get the holistic perspective of EA development and implementation scenario in each organisation, a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) approach is applied. A multiple case study research approach is utilized to achieve this study objective. Data were collected through interviews with the agencies EA team, general observation during the EA workshops as well as review of EA related documents. The result shows there are twenty challenges identified which is consistent with other challenges stated in literature except for talent management issue. Thus, this provides a new insight on how the public sector should implement their EA as compared to any other organisation

A Bi-Directional Approach for Developing Data Warehouses in Public Sectors

Data warehouse is proclaimed as the latest decision support technology. As data warehouses require a significant amount of organizational resources to develop, more research have been devoted to identifying the critical success factors and the formulas for assured investment return from data warehouses. This study proposes a bi-directional development approach for data warehouses in public sectors. The primary rationale for the proposed approach is the fundamentally different organizational goals of public sector organizations from private sector organizations. Whereas the ultimate goal of private sector organizations is profit making, public sector organizations have a set of conflicting goals including different social and political objectives. The star schema as a dimensional data model for data warehouse is not totally suitable for data warehouses that demand the analyses of both quantitative and qualitative measures. Using the data warehouse in the College of Business Administration at the California State University, Sacramento as a case study, we illustrate how the QQ (Quantitative and Qualitative) data schema accommodates the need of capturing both quantitative and qualitative information. In addition, we show the bidirectional top-down/bottom-up initiative, the formal/informal information collection, and the enterprise data warehouse/subject data mart architecture for the data warehouse

Enterprise Architecture Implementation Is a Bumpy Ride: A Case Study in the Norwegian Public Sector

Enterprise architecture (EA) is a widespread approach for the development of new digital solutions in a planned and controlled way for large and complex organisations. EA is also viewed as a prerequisite for the digitalisation of the public sector. However, public sector organisations struggle to implement EA programmes, and research has demonstrated that organisational and managerial issues are critical obstacles to EA implementation. This study aims to increase our understanding of EA implementation in the public sector by investigating the central challenges for EA initiatives and to trace the progress of current EA initiatives in the Norwegian public sector. An additional goal is to disclose some ways to improve the situation. We conducted three interpretive case studies in the hospital, higher education, and labour and welfare sectors. We have identified 28 challenges to the EA initiatives. We find that organisational and technical complexities, as well as a limited understanding of EA and lack of formal EA governance mechanisms, are significant obstacles. Among others, the lack of understanding of EA and its methodology will lead to problems with anchoring the EA approach in the organisation and facilitating the necessary EA arrangements to induce the promised benefits of EA, which are necessary requirements to establish the EA initiative’s legitimacy and foster the organisation’s willingness to implement change. Our study provides four lessons learned for planning and implementing EA initiatives, as follows: #1. It is advisable to take small steps. #2. The use of external consultants should be carefully considered. #3. Formal architectural governance mechanisms are important for legitimacy and enforced use. #4. Executive commitment and understanding of EA are crucial for achieving a sustainable EA initiative. Finally, we find a common evolution of the EA initiatives through the phases of optimism, resistance, decline and finally, reconsolidation of the most persistent ones.publishedVersio

Exploring knowledge management integration through EAI in local government domain

Information Technology (IT) infrastructure integration and knowledge management share communal objectives e.g. to make organisations more effective and efficient, agile and innovative, and more responsive to market changes. Such association when assimilates bona fide knowledge management philosophy, it offers the IT departments a headship opportunity for organisational transformation in affiliation with the rest of the establishment. Notwithstanding, in the context of Local Government Authorities (LGAs), the non-integrated nature of the IT infrastructure is associated with inefficient data and knowledge exchange and reduction in LGA services’ quality. Therefore, numerous data inconsistencies and redundancies occur that impact LGA services to their citizenry. LGAs have deployed Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) technological solutions to integrate their legacy with new developed Information Systems (IS). Literature indicates that EAI achieves integration at five layers namely: (a) connectivity, (b) transportation, (c) transformation, (d) process integration and (e) knowledge integration. This research adapts a Revised Model for Integration Layers (REAL) and tests through a case study in a local authority. The results indicate that cases leading to data inconsistencies and replication can be prevented by integrating knowledge through EAI

Industrial policy for the medium to long-term

This report reviews the market failure and systems failure rationales for industrial policy and assesses the evidence on part experience of industrial policy in the UK. In the light of this, it reviews options for reshaping the design and delivery of industrial policy towards UK manufacturing. These options are intended to encourage a medium- to long-term perspective across government departments and to integrate science, innovation and industrial policy

The proposed alignment framework in enterprise architecture development for the Omani public sector

The misalignment between Enterprise Architecture (EA) development and stakeholders’ goals plays a vital role in the low acceptance of EA in organizations and governments. Literature has highlighted the need for an alignment framework to support enterprise architects to align the development process of EA with the stakeholders’ goals. Hence, this research developed an alignment framework to align the EA development process with the stakeholders to produce an agreed architecture that supports the architects. Multiple Perspectives Theory (MPT) was used to develop a preliminary research model that provided the initial guidance in data collection and analysis. The research employed a qualitative case study approach to build an in-depth understanding of EA development process, enterprise architects and stakeholders’ roles, as well as the factors influencing the alignment between them. The Government Architecture Framework (GAF) of the Omani public sector was used as the case study that included GAF documentation review, and interviews with architects and stakeholders who participated in the development of GAF. The findings showed that twelve alignment factors influenced the development of GAF which are standardization, development scope, principles, governance, top management support, culture, commitment, awareness, communication, value of EA, change management capability and experience. These factors were used as the base to develop the alignment framework followed by a focus group session with GAF architects was organized to validate the final framework. As a conclusion, the study has shown that the alignment framework provides a comprehensive understanding for practitioners and academicians about the factors and their influences at each EA development step

Pro-growth small businesses: learning 'architecture'

Internationally, a certain market failure has become apparent in terms of the effective engagement of small business owner-managers in business support programs, and in the wider concept of life long learning. There exists a cultural gap between support agencies and the small business sector's perceptions of the utility of formal support and learning interventions to the business performance of their business. Therefore, this paper extends knowledge and understanding within this context relative to what constitutes small business owner-managers' learning disposition, means, obstacles and organisation to be confronted and what form of new 'architecture' needs to be designed to support learning. A theoretical framework supports the analysis of findings from a research project based in Melbourne, Australia, which serves to illuminate pertinent issues towards informing more sensitised support interventions with respect to pro-growth small businesses. Specifically, the attribute of a learning culture was identified as a factor contributing to growth in small businesses, and may represent a distinguishing characteristic between effective and non-effective economic performers

An Approach to Transform Public Administration into SOA-based Organizations

Nowadays, Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) is widely spread in private organizations. However, when transferring this knowledge to Public Administration, it is realized that it has not been transformed in terms of its legal nature into organizations capable to operate under the SOA paradigm. This fact prevents public administration bodies from offering the efficient services they have been provided by different boards of governments. A high-level framework to perform this transformation is proposed. Taking it as starting point, an instance of a SOA Target Meta-Model can be obtained by means of an iterative and incremental process based on the analysis of imperatives and focused on the particular business context of each local public administration. This paper briefly presents a practical experience consisting in applying this process to a Spanish regional public administration.Junta de Andalucía TIC-578

An exploratory study of enterprise architecture practices in Malaysia

This study was an exploratory investigation of the practice of the enterprise architecture (EA) in private and public enterprises in Malaysia. The Zachman Framework was used to evaluate the practice of EA in these enterprises. Ten enterprises from public and private sector participated in the study. Multiple sources including interviews, documents and survey were used as the data sources of the study. The findings presented in this paper were exploratory in our attempt to gain an insight of the EA practices in Malaysia. The paper would give the general outlook of the current practices of EA in Malaysian enterprises