Exact Requirements Engineering for Developing Business Process Models

Process modeling is a suitable tool for improving the business processes. Successful process modeling strongly depends on correct requirements engineering. In this paper, we proposed a combination approach for requirements elicitation for developing business models. To do this, BORE (Business-Oriented Requirements Engineering) method is utilized as the base of our work and it is enriched by the important features of the BDD (Business-driven development) method, in order to make the proposed approach appropriate for modeling the more complex processes. As the main result, our method eventuates in exact requirements elicitation that adapts the customers' needs. Also, it let us avoid any rework in the modeling of process. In this paper, we conduct a case study for the paper submission and publication system of a journal. The results of this study not only give a good experience of real world application of proposed approach on a web-based system, also it approves the proficiency of this approach for modeling the complex systems with many sub-processes and complicated relationships.Comment: (IEEE) 3th International Conference on Web Researc

Artifacts, Activities, Benefits and Blockers: Exploring Enterprise Architecture Practice in Depth

Enterprise architecture (EA) is a collection of artifacts describing an organization from an integrated business and IT perspective and intended to improve business and IT alignment. The purpose of this study is to identify benefits and blockers associated with specific EA-related activities and respective artifacts. Most existing studies discuss the benefits and problems of EA practice in general without relating them to specific activities constituting EA practice. This study is based on 18 interviews with architects and leverages the grounded theory approach. As a result of our analysis, we identify eight consistent activity areas constituting EA practice. Each activity area implies certain activities supported by some EA artifacts leading to specific benefits often impeded by some blockers. Our analysis indicates that EA practice includes many diverse activities usually, though not always, closely associated with specific types of EA artifacts. Moreover, benefits and blockers of EA practice are also very activity-specific

Research Perspective in Enterprise Architecture

The challenges of aligning IT with business triggered the attention towards Enterprise Architecture (EA). Despite the increase interest of academic scholars in EA, there is scarcity of studies that provide an up to date comprehensive research perspective view. The purpose of this study is to examine the research methodologies and theories utilized in EA studies from 2010 to 2016. The study employed Systematic Literature Review (SLR) as method to explore and analyze the literature of EA. The study revealed the research approaches and data collection methods utilized in EA. It shows that case study approach and interviews are the highly used compared to other research approaches and data collection instruments. Furthermore, it pointed out the low employment of theories in EA studies. The study is contributing to the body of knowledge by providing a foundation for novice researchers in the area of EA through detailed discussions of research methodologies and theories which are expected to support them in designing future studies

Navigating Enterprise Architecture (EA) Definition: A Story of EA Adoption in a Public Sector Organization

Enterprise architecture (EA) is a strategic approach to manage the digital transformation processes in large-scale organizations. Organizations aim at providing a holistic view of business, technology, and information by adopting EA. Although EA is now well established as a practical digital transformation facilitator, some organizations fail to achieve its benefits. Due to its diverse nature, a lack of shared understanding of EA is one highly cited challenge in its literature. Indeed, during the EA adoption, each actor tries to define EA in a way that fulfills her/his own interests. Therefore, there is a risk of failing to achieve the organizational holistic view in this condition. Through a case study in one large-scale public-sector organization in Norway, we illustrate how different EA stakeholders influence EA\u27s understanding. In addition, by adopting the organizational influence process theory, we explain the reason why EA failed in the studied case

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history

Architecting the Future: A Model for Enterprise Integration in the Metaverse

Although it has a history that goes back about three decades, Metaverse has grown to be one of the most talked-about subjects today. Metaverse gradually increased its influence in the realm of business discourse after initially being restricted to discussions about entertainment. Before getting deep into the Metaverse, it should be noted that failure and deviating from the business path are highly likely for an enterprise that relies heavily on information technology (IT) because of improper use and thinking about IT. The idea of enterprise architecture (EA) emerged as a management strategy to address this issue. As the first school of thought of EA, it sought to transform IT from an unnecessary burden in an enterprise to a guiding and supporting force. Then an extended EA model is suggested as a result of the attempt made in this paper to use the idea of EA to steer virtual enterprises on Metaverse-based platforms. Finally, to evaluate the conceptual model and demonstrate that the Metaverse can support businesses, three case studies Decentraland, Battle Infinity, and Rooom were utilized.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 3 table

Entrepreneurship Education in Iranian Higher Education: The Current State and Challenges

Entrepreneurship has long been considered a significant factor for socioeconomic growth and development because it provides millions of job opportunities, offers a variety of consumer goods and services, and generally increases national prosperity and competitiveness. Due to this positive impact of entrepreneurship, recent decades have seen a tremendous rise in entrepreneurship education at various universities and colleges around the globe, including in Iran. In the middle of this expansion remains the challenges and problems of development and changes for entrepreneurship.This paper investigates the state, trends, challenges and solutions in entrepreneurship education in Iran which emerged from an extensive review of literature. The literature reviewed indicates that entrepreneurship education in Iranian higher education faces with economic, political, social, and cultural challenges. Also this article offers some approaches and recommendations for resolving the challenges as well as encouraging and fostering entrepreneurship in higher education. The findings of this study provide valuable insights for policy makers, educators, students and graduate entrepreneurs. Stakeholders could use this study to make better choices in relation to the improvement of entrepreneurship education in Iranian higher education system

Digital Transformation and Social Business: A Practice-Based Pathway Framework for SMEs

This research focuses on the lessons learnt from case studies involving the digital transformation of three London SMEs. The companies adopted social technologies to renovate operations, develop new sets of skills and capabilities and remodel customer value propositions. The transformation processes had common elements that fed through to the companies’ strategies. We conceptualised our research as a network, regarding roles and interventions as network effects, to analyse the adoption process and dynamically link the technology and social context with digital transformation strategy. The lessons learned were distilled into a framework whose two-fold aim is to (a) support organisations through digital transformation and (b) inform organisational strategy. The framework is modular with components that assist and guide the various phases of designing, deploying, implementing and sustaining this transition

Enterprise architecture alignment

An Enterprise Architecture (EA) is an instrument that focuses on coherence between business processes, information distribution, and technology infrastructure of an organization. In practice, we see that architects are not well equipped to manage the interrelationship between architectural business-, information- and technology-aspects in an integrated fashion. EA frameworks are mostly informal by nature, and there is a lack of knowledge and tools to support architects to check alignment formally. Due to the volume and complexity of holistic enterprise spanning architecture, it is increasingly challenging for organizations to maintain overview and coherence of architectural elements. This research enables automated, rule-based monitoring consistency and coherence between elements within an EA. It does so by creating an artifact that provides architects with the capability of monitoring validity within ArchiMate EA models. We validate models against formalized rules specified in Relation Algebra with which coherence can be mathematically proven. We also plot a set of applied rules onto a quality framework that calculates an overall alignment score of an EA model. Every single rule violation that influences the score is explicitly identified. Monitoring EA quality using formalized rules enables organizations to manage and control the process of EA change and thus contributes to Business/IT-alignment