The IT-CMF: A Practical Application of Design Science

The IT-Capability Maturity Model [IT-CMF] is a high-level process capability maturity framework for managing the IT function within an organization. The purpose of this paper is to explore and explain the IT-CMF as a “ method meta-model” for IT management, emphasizing the novel approach to addressing the application of design processes and design artifacts by means of a very structured use of engaged scholarship and open innovation techniques to the ongoing challenge of managing organization’s IT capability

IT Governance Maturity: Developing a Maturity Model Using the Delphi Method

To advance in maturity, organizations should pay attention to both the hard and soft sides of IT governance (ITG). The hard side is related to processes and structure, the soft side to social aspects like behavior and organizational culture. This paper describes a study to develop an ITG maturity model (MM) that includes both. Our research method is based on literature study, the Delphi method and makes use of a Group Decision Support System. We chose to design a focus area MM. In this type of MM maturity is determined by a set of focus areas. The study reveals one MM as being appropriate for hard ITG. For soft ITG we found no single model appropriate. Soft governance needs more specific capabilities defined for each focus area individually. Based on knowledge from literature and experts we selected models for each focus area. Three alternatives for informal organization need further research

Designing a Business Intelligence and Analytics Maturity Model for higher education: A design science approach

Business Intelligence and Analytics (BIA) systems play an essential role in organizations, providing actionable insights that enable business users to make more informed, data-driven decisions. However, many Higher Education (HE) institutions do not have accessible and usable models to guide them through the incremental development of BIA solutions to realize the full potential value of BIA. The situation is becoming ever more acute as HE operates today in a complex and dynamic environment brought forward by globalization and the rapid development of information technologies. This paper proposes a domain-specific BIA maturity model (MM) for HE–the HE-BIA Maturity Model. Following a design science approach, this paper details the design, development, and evaluation of two artifacts: the MM and the maturity assessment method. The evaluation phase comprised three case studies with universities from different countries and two workshops with practitioners from more than ten countries. HE institutions reported that the assessment with the HE-BIA model was (i) useful and adequate for their needs; (ii) and contributed to a better understanding of the current status of their BIA landscape, making it explicit that a BIA program is a technology endeavor as well as an organizational development.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Understanding the Role of Organizational Culture for Design and Success of Enterprise Architecture Management

Enterprise architecture management is considered a valuable means to guide the consistent design and evolution of increasingly complex information systems. Despite existing research on EAM methods and models, organizations often face serious difficulties making EAM effective. The paper proposes to take organizational culture as a highly aggregated construct describing the context of EAM initiatives for building situational - or for that matter culture sensitive EAM methods - into account. We find that organizational culture significantly moderates the impact of EAM’s design on EAM’s success. In group culture, hierarchical culture and developmental culture it is essential to develop EAM from a passive into an actively designing approach to make it effective. Particularly in group culture it is rewarding to strive for an EAM approach that impacts stakeholders outside the IT department

The Development of an IT Governance Maturity Model for Hard and Soft Governance

To be able to advance in maturity, organizations should pay attention to both the hard and soft aspects of governance. Current literature on IT governance (ITG) is mostly directed at the hard part of governance, focusing on structures and processes. The soft part of governance is related to social aspects like human behavior and organizational culture. This part of governance receives much less attention in the literature. The goal of the study is to design a model which covers hard and soft governance and can be used as a basis for a maturity model (MM). We adopted a research method based on a combination of design science and a Delphi study using the Spilter Group Decision Support System. In this paper we build upon a systematic literature study we conducted. In this study we did not find a MM for ITG that covers the hard and soft part of governance. We thus designed a new maturity ITG (MIG) model using knowledge from literature and experts. As the first step we designed an initial model using literature. This initial model was discussed and improved with experts from practice during a Delphi study with four rounds. The result was a MM with four domains and a context of the organization. The four domains are ‘Collaboration’, ‘Structure’, ‘Process’ and ‘Behavior’. Within each domain focus areas were defined based on knowledge from literature and experts. The focus areas ‘Culture’ and ‘Internal organization’ from the initial model were moved to the context component because they could be seen as value free. They belong in the situational part of the MM and not in the maturity grid. The contributions of this paper are twofold: n1) a description of the focus areas of the MIG model, i.e. an ITG MM which covers both hard and soft governance: this is of value because such a model for ITG does not exist and is needed in practice; 2) a description of the design process of the MM: this is of value because the procedures and methods that led to current MMs have only been documented very sketchily or implicitl

WHAT MAKES A USEFUL MATURITY MODEL? A FRAMEWORK OF GENERAL DESIGN PRINCIPLES FOR MATURITY MODELS AND ITS DEMONSTRATION IN BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT

Since the Software Engineering Institute has launched the Capability Maturity Model almost twenty years ago, hundreds of maturity models have been proposed by researchers and practitioners across multiple application domains. With process orientation being a central paradigm of organizational design and continuous process improvement taking top positions on CIO agendas, maturity models are also prospering in business process management. Although the application of maturity models is increasing in quantity and breadth, the concept of maturity models is frequently subject to criticism. Indeed, numerous shortcomings have been disclosed referring to both maturity models as design products and the process of maturity model design. Whereas research has already substantiated the design process, there is no holistic understanding of the principles of form and function – that is, the design principles – maturity models should meet. We therefore propose a pragmatic, yet well-founded framework of general design principles justified by existing literature and grouped according to typical purposes of use. The framework is demonstrated using an exemplary set of maturity models related to business process management. We finally give a brief outlook on implications and topics for further research

On the Use of Experiments in Design Science Research: A Proposition of an Evaluation Framework

Although experiments are considered a valid scientific method for evaluating the outcome of design science research (DSR), only minimal procedural guidelines or standards exist that help researchers in the setup and conduct. To take advantage of and encourage researchers to include design experiments as an inherent part of their build and test cycle, this study proposes a set of guidelines. In order to get a broad overview of how researchers currently apply the experimental method in DSR and to detect potential drawbacks, an extensive review of the extant literature was conducted. On this basis, we propose an evaluation framework that complements the general design science research guidelines of Hevner and colleagues. The purpose of this framework is to assist researchers, reviewers, editors, and readers in understanding possible pitfalls as well as to ask the right questions which need to be answered in the conduct of design experiments

The Further Education Maturity Model: Development and Implementation of a Maturity Model for the Selection of Further Education Offerings in the Field of IT Management and IT Consulting

The permanently changing information and communication technology (IT) makes it inevitable for IT professionals to keep up-to-date. However, the market for further education presents itself as being diversified and opaque at the same time. Especially for young professionals, the selection of the “right” training offering is difficult. This entails the necessity to develop methods and models to create the further education market in a more comprehensible and transparent way. This article describes the development of the Further Education Maturity Model (FEMM). It enables users to assign IT training offerings to certain maturity levels and consequently to make decisions about the quality of the further education offering. A proven procedure is used to develop the FEMM, implement it into an online tool, and evaluate it. Results show the appropriateness of the proposed model

THE IMPACT OF NATIONAL CULTURE ON BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE MATURITY MODELS

Maturity level modeling has been a well-established and important stream of IS research. Maturity models have played a significant role in guiding organizational process improvements in many areas. It is therefore surprising that maturity model design and development methodologies have not yet been scrutinized from cross-cultural and international perspectives. In this research, we have prescribed a rigorous approach to identifying, validating and calibrating maturity models constructs for cross-cultural application. We have employed this new methodology in the context of widely accepted business intelligence maturity model that has been initially developed in Germany. Our current effort involves following our proposed methodology to target and calibrate those nationally specific model components that need modification and calibration for application in the US. We report on our progress, and we discuss implications in terms of both findings relevant to culture in IS research, maturity model methodology research and BI maturity model research

When situativity meets objectivity in peer-production of knowledge:the case of the WikiRate platform

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to further the debate on Knowledge Artefacts (KAs), by presenting the design of WikiRate, a Collective Awareness platform whose goal is to support a wider public contributing to the generation of knowledge on environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of companies.Design/methodology/approachThe material presented in the paper comes from the first-hand experience of the authors as part of the WikiRate design team. This material is reflexively discussed using concepts from the field of science and technology studies.FindingsUsing the concept of the “funnel of interest”, the authors discuss how the design of a KA like WikiRate relies on the designers’ capacity to translate general statements into particular design solutions. The authors also show how this funnelling helps understanding the interplay between situativity and objectivity in a KA. The authors show how WikiRate is a peer-production platform based on situativity, which requires a robust level of objectivity for producing reliable knowledge about the ESG performance of companies.Originality/valueThis paper furthers the debate on KAs. It presents a relevant design example and offers in the discussion a set of design and community building recommendations to practitioners