The Standardization of Supporting Tools: Advantage Competitive for Collaborative Networks

doi: 10.1016/j.proeng.2013.08.277Traditionally, manufacturing companies, the gateway for information technology (IT) have been implementing business management tools, tools typically enterprise resource planning (ERP) focused exclusively on internal processes manufacturing and remaining largely isolated from the rest of the elements of the value chain (suppliers, customers, etc.). The objective of this paper is to propose action lines to solve the problems inherent in collaborative knowledge management related technological barrier by implementation project business management tools. As mist relevant contribution are both the search for standardization and the application of techniques in Project Management to try to achieve success in the implementation and establishing of collaborative networks.The authors thank the Consejería de Economía, Innovación y Ciencia of the Junta de Andalucía and to the European Union for their incentives for the training of teaching staff and pre-doctoral researchers in deficient areas of knowledge (2009 Edict) co-financed by the Fondo Social Europeo (FSE). Thanks also to the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Design at the University of Cadiz School of Engineering

An evaluation of the goal-oriented approaches for modelling strategic alignment concept

Several frameworks have been proposed in Requirements Engineering (RE) discipline that use goal-oriented approach to model the concept of strategic alignment. Understanding the concept of strategic alignment from the perspective of Management Information Systems (MIS) discipline and evaluating goal-oriented approaches in the context of strategic alignment appear to be the fundamental weakness in the RE frameworks that claim to model strategic alignment. In this research we developed a list of constructs by analysing the concept of strategic alignment embedded in strategy map which is one of the widely used frameworks to develop strategic alignment in MIS discipline. In this regard we analysed details of a case study conducted to develop strategic alignment. Against the identified list of constructs we evaluated five well-known goal-oriented approaches and presented their level of effectiveness to model the concept of strategic alignment. © 2011 IEEE

Assessing Business-It Alignment Maturity on Multiple Organizational Levels

Close collaboration and harmony between IT and business are crucial to succeeding with efficient and effective digitalization. This is encapsulated in the concept of Business-IT alignment (BITA). Much has been written in the research literature regarding what BITA entails, how to assess BITA, and how to improve BITA. However, none of these frameworks or theories provide a practical framework that treats BITA as a multi-leveled, co-evolving process between business and IT. The purpose of this paper is thus to provide a Multi-Level BITA framework, for assessing BITA on multiple-organizational levels. The framework is constructed based on an analysis of the existing BITA frameworks and is applied to an empirical case, to evaluate its applicability to practice. The analysis shows how the BITA maturity in the case company varies and decreases along with the organizational levels and how it is assessed higher by IT than by business. An in-depth reasoning behind the BITA maturity scores is provided by in-depth interviews. The Multi-Level BITA framework thus demonstrates its applicability in assessing and visualizing BITA maturity on multiple organizational levels and identifying the underlying causes for the assessment

A Needs-ICTD Strategy Alignment Foundation for the Measurement of ICTD Impact: Three Case Studies in South Africa

Access to ICTD projects has increased over the years; however, they have not significantly changed the lives of the targeted communities. This discrepancy relates to the gap that exists between the reality of the community, its needs and the ICTD strategy of the project. This research paper presents a Needs-ICTD strategy alignment framework to support the alignment of ICTD strategy, and the development and promotion of contextual needs of marginalized areas. The framework also contributes to the identification of preliminary impact indicators, which can support impact assessment. Through a multi-case study investigation of the Siyakhula Living Lab and the SAP Living Labs, key findings indicate that a lack of involvement of local stakeholders in the development and alignment of ICTD strategy has negative implications. These include failing to understand the holistic needs of the community with available resources, and the inability to provide appropriate information on opportunities for the general development of the community

Goal modelling for strategic dependency analysis in destination management

Purpose: The paper suggests goal modelling as a method for the strategic analysis in tourism destinations. Destination management is quite complex and challenging and requires deep understanding of the intentions, the roles and the strategies of the various stakeholders. Methods: This paper identifies the challenges and major issues of destination management, evaluates the capacity of goal modelling to address them and demonstrates the use of goal modelling for stakeholder and strategic analysis. Results: The paper provides a holistic, multi-level modelling approach that begins with stakeholder analysis, continues with the analysis of strategic dependencies between stakeholders and ends with the analysis of the strategic alignment of the Destination Management Systems. Goal modelling is used for the analysis of the roles and functions of stakeholders, the analysis of the interdependencies between stakeholders in terms of goals, tasks and resources, the selection between alternative business configurations, and the business model and strategic analysis. Implications: Three important issues of destination management are addressed: stakeholder analysis, strategic dependency analysis, and strategic alignment of information systems. The formalism of goal modelling can provide rigor and visualization in the analysis of the complex relationships in destination management

Toward an Adaptive Enterprise Modelling Platform

For the past three decades, enterprise modelling (EM) has been emerging as a significant yet complex paradigm to tackle holistic systematic enterprise analysis and design. With a high fluctuation in the global economy, industrial stability and technology shift, the necessity of such paradigms becomes crucial in determining the decisions that an enterprise can make for surviving in such a highly dynamic business ecosystem. EM practices have focused for a long time, on the design-time of enterprise systems. Recently, there has been a rapid development in data analytics, machine learning and intelligent systems from which an EM platform can benefit. EM needs to cope with the new changes in both business and technology; it should also help architects to determine optimum decisions and reduce complexity in technical infrastructure. In this paper, the author discusses several challenges facing enterprise modelling practices and offers an architectural notion for future development focusing on the requirements of a platform that can be called intelligent and adaptive

Towards an Approach for Analysing the Strategic Alignment of Software Requirements using Quantified Goal Graphs

Analysing the strategic alignment of software requirements primarily provides assurance to stakeholders that the software-to-be will add value to the organisation. Additionally, such analysis can improve a requirement by disambiguating its purpose and value, thereby supporting validation and value-oriented decisions in requirements engineering processes, such as prioritisation, release planning, and trade-off analysis. We review current approaches that could enable such an analysis. We focus on Goal Oriented Requirements Engineering methodologies, since goal graphs are well suited for relating software goals to business goals. However, we argue that unless the extent of goal-goal contribution is quantified with verifiable metrics, goal graphs are not sufficient for demonstrating the strategic alignment of software requirements. Since the concept of goal contribution is predictive, what results is a forecast of the benefits of implementing software requirements. Thus, we explore how the description of the contribution relationship can be enriched with concepts such as uncertainty and confidence, non-linear causation, and utility. We introduce the approach using an example software project from Rolls-Royce.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1211.625

Conceptual modeling for the design of intelligent and emergent information systems

A key requirement to today's fast changing economic environment is the ability of organizations to adapt dynamically in an effective and efficient manner. Information and Communication Technologies play a crucially important role in addressing such adaptation requirements. The notion of `intelligent software' has emerged as a means by which enterprises can respond to changes in a reactive manner but also to explore, in a pro-active manner, possibilities for new business models. The development of such software systems demands analysis, design and implementation paradigms that recognize the need for ‘co-development’ of these systems with enterprise goals, processes and capabilities. The work presented in this paper is motivated by this need and to this end it proposes a paradigm that recognizes co-development as a knowledge-based activity. The proposed solution is based on a multi-perspective modeling approach that involves (i) modeling key aspects of the enterprise, (ii) reasoning about design choices and (iii) supporting strategic decision-making through simulations. The utility of the approach is demonstrated though a case study in the field of marketing for a start-up company