Institutional perspective on introducing enterprise architecture : The case of the Norwegian hospital sector

Paper I, II, and III are not available as a part of the dissertation due to the copyright.The findings from this thesis point to the incongruence between the characteristics of EA and the healthcare domain as specific tensions among the EA logic and different professional logics as a source of deviation. The incongruence comes from the long-term plan-driven EA approach versus healthcare traditions and needs for ad-hoc initiatives. Other themes stem from the EA logic of process standardisation, which poses challenges in gaining acceptance and trust that the processes dinscribe appropriate clinical knowledge and provide support for local variations. Moreover, the EA vision of data integration across organisational units and across IS has implications for concerns about privacy and protection of sensitive data, but this can collide with the healthcare view on patient safety and the need for mission-critical data. This dissertation makes several contributions to research and practice. First, it augments the EA research stream by offering rich insights and specific implications related to challenges of EA institutionalisation in healthcare. A description of the enterprise architects’ logics and the EA logic supplements the EA knowledge base. Likewise, it presents a model of a predicted evolution of the EA initiatives through the phases of optimism, resistance, decline and finally, reconsolidation of the most persistent ones, unless firm mandates are established from the start. Furthermore, the study provides a model that illustrates how coexisting institutional logics maintain their distinct character while allowing compromises that shape EA operationalisation. The model shows a set of scenarios for settling tensions in project decisions. In these scenarios, EA is foregrounded, blended with other available institutional logics or suppressed. Second, this dissertation contributes to an enhanced theoretical and empirical understanding of EA institutionalisation, where regulative, normative and culturalcognitive elements create and maintain EA as an institution, and unsurprisingly, the organisational response impedes the institutionalisation process. The organisational response can be explained by selective activated institutional logics among the actors. However, with targeted institutional work from the actors that want EA to be institutionalised, the process can be reinforced. This thesis also offers some practical suggestions at the national policy level. First, financial arrangements should be assessed to encourage broader involvement from the sub-organisations. Second, through active ownership, they can address the need for enhanced EA understanding and should secure the education of the actors, not the least at the executive level, together with the targeted hires. Furthermore, the need for organisational changes related to EA is under-communicated. The thesis also makes practical suggestions to deal with the challenges, the incongruence and the consequent tensions, mainly by finding solutions that balance between the institutional logics of EA and of healthcare.publishedVersio

From Enterprise Modelling to Architecture-Driven IT Management - A Design Theory

Enterprise architectures (EA) are considered promising approaches to reduce the complexities of growing information technology (IT) environments while keeping pace with an ever-changing business environment. However, the implementation of enterprise architecture management (EAM) has proven difficult in practice. Many EAM initiatives face severe challenges, as demonstrated by the low usage level of enterprise architecture documentation and enterprise architects' lack of authority regarding enforcing EAM standards and principles. These challenges motivate our research. Based on three field studies, we first analyze EAM implementation issues that arise when EAM is started as a dedicated and isolated initiative. Following a design-oriented paradigm, we then suggest a design theory for architecture-driven IT management (ADRIMA) that may guide organizations to successfully implement EAM. This theory summarizes prescriptive knowledge related to embedding EAM practices, artefacts and roles in the existing IT management processes and organization

Exploring the roles of different artefacts in enterprise architecture practice

Enterprise architecture (EA) is a coherent whole of principles, standards and models for designing business processes, information systems and IT infrastructure in large organizations. Enterprise architecture consists of multiple EA artefacts that describe and/or model various aspects of an organization including high-level abstract principles, business processes and technical specifications to be used by both IT and business stakeholders for the purposes ranging from strategic planning to IT systems implementation. Using EA artefacts is expected to bring numerous benefits to organizations including improved strategic alignment, increased returns on IT investments and reduced costs of IT operations. The development of EA artefacts requires significant investments of time and money. However, the organizational investments in developing EA artefacts often do not bring the expected benefits because of the usability issues associated with these EA artefacts. For instance, the U.S. Federal Government invested hundreds of millions of dollars in developing EA, but the resulting EA artefacts were largely unable to facilitate better decision-making. These common failures of EA efforts call for an investigation into the specific roles of different types of EA artefacts in an EA practice. The role of an EA artefact can be specified based on its informational contents, regular users, typical use cases and resulting organizational benefits. Despite the theoretical and practical importance of studying EA artefacts, the current EA literature offers no comprehensive theories explaining the practical roles of EA artefacts. In order to address this problem, this thesis develops a descriptive theory that explicates the roles of different types of EA artefacts in the context of an EA practice and explains the influence of various organizational and environmental factors on these roles. This exploratory study followed a “case studies-based grounded theory” approach to develop an inductive theory of the roles of EA artefacts. The theory-building process is accomplished via analysing five in-depth case studies of large organizations with established EA practices. In the five cases, 31 semi-structured interviews were undertaken with different EA practitioners and stakeholders, and samples of 39 different types of EA artefacts were studied. The data were analysed using the iterative grounded theory methodology. The practical aspects of the resulting theory were then discussed with ten additional EA experts, including EA practitioners and EA academics, who confirmed its validity and practical utility. The resulting theory articulates six primary roles fulfilled by EA artefacts metaphorically titled as Context Setters, Instrument Providers, Knowledge Repositories, Project Implementers, Strategic Aligners and Value Estimators. Each of these roles is further explained in terms of supporting artefacts, informational contents, involved users, associated use cases and resulting benefits. For example, Context Setters include EA artefacts such as principles, maxims and policies that senior business leaders and architects use to lay out the basic rules, values and aims governing information systems planning for the whole enterprise to ensure consistency of decision-making. Similarly, Value Estimators include EA artefacts such as solution overviews and conceptual architectures used by architects and business leaders to assess the business value of proposed IT initiatives, make informed funding decisions and thereby improve efficiency of IT investments. These six highly EA-specific roles provide a comprehensive explanatory view of the practical roles of EA artefacts and offer an in-depth, detailed and context-specific theoretical understanding that advances the common view of EA artefacts as boundary objects between business and IT communities and elements of an actor-network representing an EA practice. Moreover, the resulting theory explains the relationships between the six identified roles of EA artefacts as well as the impact of internal and external environmental factors on these roles. The results of this exploratory study contribute to the EA discipline a theory describing the roles of EA artefacts that helps refocus future EA research from studying EA as a whole to studying specific types of EA artefacts. The results of this study also provide evidence-based conceptual solutions to the most typical practical problems associated with using EA and can help organizations get more value from EA artefacts. Additionally, this study makes an empirical contribution to the EA discipline by demonstrating important empirical facts that question established theories, assumptions and beliefs existing in the EA discipline