On the Systemic Enterprise Architecture Methodology (SEAM)

This paper presents an original methodology for Enterprise Architecture. Enterprise Architecture is the discipline whose purpose is to align more effectively the strategies of enterprises together with their processes and their resources (business and IT). Enterprise architecture is complex because it involves different types of practitioners with different goals and practices. Enterprise Architecture can be seen as an art; it is largely based on experience but does not have strong theoretical foundations. As a consequence, it is difficult to teach, to apply, and to support with computer-aided tools. This paper presents how system sciences, by defining the concept of the systemic paradigm, can provide these necessary theoretical foundations. Thanks to our systemic paradigm, the enterprise architects can improve their understanding of the existing methodologies and thus find explanations for the practical problems they encounter. This paper then gives a concrete example of the application of the systemic paradigm: the Systemic Enterprise Architecture Methodology (SEAM) - an original methodology. With SEAM, architects can use a methodology that alleviates most of their practical problems and that can be supported by a tool

From 'Security for Privacy' to 'Privacy for Security'

This article envisions the use of context-awareness to improve single sign-on solutions (SSO) for mobile users. The attribute-based SSO is expected to increase users' perceived ease of use of the system and service providers' authentication security of the application. From these two features we derive two value propositions for a new business model for mobile platforms. The business model can be considered as an instantiation of the privacy-friendly business model pattern presented in our previous work, reinforcing our claim that privacy-friendly value propositions are possible and can be used to obtain a competitive advantage

Can IT Resources Lead to Sustainable Competitive Advantage?

Gaining sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) is a desire for almost every organization; however, acquiring such advantage is not an easy task. Many organizations implement information technology (IT) systems to be competitive in the market, and many researchers have examined the link between IT and SCA. Organizations need to focus not only on IT resources but also on how to manage these resources to be competitive in the marketplace. In this paper, a new model is proposed based on resource-based view and strategic alignment model. By linking strategic IT resources to alignment mechanisms, this model shows the ability of IT as a facilitator in gaining competitive advantage

An Approach to Relate Viewpoints and Modeling Languages

The architectural design of distributed enterprise applications from the viewpoints of different stakeholders has been proposed for some time, for example, as part of RM-ODP and IEEE 1471, and seems now-a-days to gain acceptance in practice. However, much work remains to be done on the relationships between different viewpoints. Failing to relate viewpoints may lead to a collection of viewpoint models that is inconsistent, and may therefore lead to an incorrect implementation. This paper defines an approach that helps designers to relate different viewpoints to each other. Thereby, it helps to enforce the consistency of the overall design. The results of this paper are expected to be particularly interesting for Model Driven Architecture (MDA) projects, since the proposed models can be used for the explicit definition of the models and relationships between models in an MDA trajectory

Consistency in Multi-Viewpoint Architectural Design of Enterprise Information Systems

Different stakeholders in the design of an enterprise information system have their own view on that design. To help produce a coherent design this paper presents a framework that aids in specifying relations between such views. To help produce a consistent design the framework also aids in specifying consistency rules that apply to the view relations and in checking the consistency according to those rules. The framework focuses on the higher levels of abstraction in a design, we refer to design at those levels of abstraction as architectural design. The highest level of abstraction that we consider is that of business process design and the lowest level is that of software component design. The contribution of our framework is that it provides a collection of basic concepts that is common to viewpoints in the area of enterprise information systems. These basic concepts aid in relating viewpoints by providing: (i) a common terminology that helps stakeholders to understand each others concepts; and (ii) a basis for defining re-usable consistency rules. In particular we define re-usable rules to check consistency between behavioural views that overlap or are a refinement of each other. We also present an architecture for a tool suite that supports our framework. We show that our framework can be applied, by performing a case study in which we specify the relations and consistency rules between the RM-ODP enterprise, computational and information viewpoints

A Rigorous Approach to Relate Enterprise and Computational Viewpoints

Multiviewpoint approaches allow stakeholders to design a system from stakeholder-specific viewpoints. By this, a separation of concerns is achieved, which makes designs more manageable. However, to construct a consistent multiviewpoint design, the relations between viewpoints must be defined precisely, so that the consistency of designs from these viewpoints can be verified. The goal of this paper is to make the consistency rules between (a slightly adapted version of) the RM-ODP enterprise and computational viewpoints more precise and to make checking the consistency between these viewpoints practically applicable. To achieve this goal, we apply a generic framework for relating viewpoints that includes reusable consistency rules. We implemented the consistency rules in a tool to show their applicability

Examining the practice of enterprise architecture in Universiti Utara Malaysia: A case study

Knowledge on organization current and future capabilities is an important ingredient to enable organization to effectively implementing new technologies in response to changing mission needs.Enterprise Architecture (EA) is an area within Information Management that deals with the alignment of information technology and business in an organization.It provides a strategic approach for enabling better strategies for organization to be more effective with its processes and resources. This paper presents the findings on a study of the practice of EA in Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM).The paper provides insights into EA activities in an organization.It embarks on the following objectives:(1) to assess EA activities in UUM; and (2) to evaluate the implementation of EA in UUM. In the study, we observed the following issues: (1) Business Architecture; (2) Information Architecture; (3) Application Architecture; and (4) Technology Architecture.The contribution of this paper is in the discovery of knowledge on EA activities in UUM which can be used by others in order to enable better implementations of EA

Motivation-oriented Architecture Modelling for e-Healthcare Prosumption

The enterprise architecture (EA) is a coherent and consistent set of principles and rules that guide system design. In EA modelling methods, an enterprise is identified with institution, business or administrative unit, a firm or an industrialized region. Enterprise architecture is also considered as strategic information assets, which determine the business mission, the technology necessary to perform the mission, the transitional processes for implementing new technologies in response to the changing mission needs. In this paper, the human i.e., stakeholders\u27 roles are emphasized as well as the motivation orientation in the enterprise architecture development is discussed. The following questions are formulated: who is the stakeholder of the EA, who is accountable and responsible for EA development, and what goals, constraints, and values are realized in the stakeholder activities\u27 processes for the organization mission and vision by example of e-healthcare prosumption system