Alignment Framework in Enterprise Architecture Development

The challenge of business-IT alignment, the increasing complexity of organizations’ operations and supporting organization transformation are the main drivers for organizations to adopt Enterprise Architecture (EA) concept. Despite the rapid interest in the EA, organizations are facing challenge to realize organizational value out of it. This challenge can be rooted to the lack of the stakeholders needs and concerns consideration in the final developed architecture which result in low utilization or no acceptance of EA. The enterprise architects and the stakeholders are the main players in the development phase of EA. Literature highlighted the need of alignment framework that can support the enterprise architects to align the development of EA with the stakeholders’ expectations. Furthermore, there is a scarcity of academic studies that shed the light on the alignment between the enterprise architects and the stakeholders during the development of EA. Hence, the purpose of this study is to develop a framework that supports the alignment between the enterprise architects and the stakeholders in EA development to ensure a mutual understanding and agreement. The study is guided by the interpretive paradigm to address the research gap through the utilization of a qualitative methodology. The research is using the case study approach to build in-depth understanding of the relationship between the enterprise architects and stakeholders in EA development. The understanding from Multiple Perspectives Theory is used to develop the initial research model to provide initial guidance in data collection and analysis. Currently, the research is at the analysis stage of case study data. The developed framework is expected to support the practitioners in the EA development by uncovering the factors influencing the alignment between the enterprise architects and the stakeholders during the development process. Additionally, the study is building a comprehensive understanding on how the enterprise architects consider the stakeholders needs and concerns in the development of EA

Enterprise Architects’ Logics across Organizational Levels: A Case Study in the Norwegian Hospital Sector

In this paper, we report about a multilevel case study on the introduction of enterprise architecture (EA) in the Norwegian hospital sector. We utilize institutional logics as a theoretical lens, focusing on the enterprise architects’ logics that are underexplored in information systems research. We have col-lected empirical evidence at national (macro), regional (meso), and local (micro) levels. The findings are classified into nine categories with illustrative statements from the informants, demonstrating their reasoning about the contributions of EA. Furthermore, we identify tensions between enterprise archi-tects and managers and between enterprise architects and medical actors, which indicate the co-existence of multiple competing institutional logics. The most prominent tension is the paradox of EA—demands for local flexibility and autonomy at the micro level versus the predefined rules and standardization that EA imposes across all levels—which makes the institutionalizing process chal-lenging. The enterprise architect logics demonstrate similarities and differences across the various levels, indicating heterogeneity. We conclude this paper with a suggested persona of the enterprise architect, which illustrates the empirical findings

Insights from a Study on Decision Making in Enterprise Architecture

Abstract. Although there are many frameworks for Enterprise Architecture (EA), they focus mainly on the holistic structure of an enterprise and rarely take decision making into account. This is surprising, given the large role that (design) decision making seems to play in EA. A lack of empirical work offering insight into decision making in practice might be the cause of this. To address this knowledge gap we report on some first insights from an empirical study on how the practice of decision making in EA is perceived by professional enterprise architects. We sketch an outline of designing and decision making in contemporary EA, including a high level of politicization, emotional decision making, and subordination to business management. We discuss the implications of these findings for further research and work centered around EA

Enterprise Architecture Management: Toward a Taxonomy of Applications

Despite the growing interest in enterprise architecture management, researchers and practitioners lack a shared understanding of its applications in organizations. Building on findings from a literature review and eight case studies, we develop a taxonomy that categorizes applications of enterprise architecture management based on three classes of enterprise architecture scope. Organizations may adopt enterprise architecture management to help form, plan, and implement IT strategies; help plan and implement business strategies; or to further complement the business strategy-formation process. The findings challenge the traditional IT-centric view of enterprise architecture management application and suggest enterprise architecture management as an approach that could support the consistent design and evolution of an organization as a whole

Enterprise Engineering and Management at the Crossroads

The article provides an overview of the challenges and the state of the art of the discipline of Enterprise Architecture (EA), with emphasis on the challenges and future development opportunities of the underlying Information System (IS), and its IT implementation, the Enterprise Information System (EIS). The first challenge is to overcome the narrowness of scope of present practice in IS and EA, and re-gain the coverage of the entire business on all levels of management, and a holistic and systemic coverage of the enterprise as an economic entity in its social and ecological environment. The second challenge is how to face the problems caused by complexity that limit the controllability and manageability of the enterprise as a system. The third challenge is connected with the complexity problem, and describes fundamental issues of sustainability and viability. Following from the third, the fourth challenge is to identify modes of survival for systems, and dynamic system architectures that evolve and are resilient to changes of the environment in which they live. The state of the art section provides pointers to possible radical changes to models, methodologies, theories and tools in EIS design and implementation, with the potential to solve these grand challenges.Griffith Sciences, School of Information and Communication TechnologyNo Full Tex

Arquitectura de IOT como soporte para el monitoreo, visualización y toma de decisiones de variables climáticas en entornos urbanos para Biciusuarios

Trabajo de InvestigaciónDesarrollo un prototipo de Arquitectura, con el fin de integrarlo al proyecto de investigación Prototipo de Plataforma Tecnológica Colaborativa como soporte para la Medición y Estimación de la Calidad del Aire en Ambientes Móviles, con el objeto de garantizar que la recolección, análisis y visualización de datos ambientales se realice de manera óptima. Los resultados obtenidos demuestran las dimensiones de la arquitectura en función de integración de negocios, tecnología, datos y aplicaciones.INTRODUCCIÓN 1. GENERALIDADES 2. REQUERIMIENTOS DEL SERVICIO 3. PROPUESTA ARQUITECTURAL 4. PLANIFICACIÓN DEL PROYECTO 5. CONCLUSIONES 6. TRABAJOS FUTUROS BIBLIOGRAFÍAPregradoIngeniero de Sistema

The proposed alignment framework in enterprise architecture development for the Omani public sector

The misalignment between Enterprise Architecture (EA) development and stakeholders’ goals plays a vital role in the low acceptance of EA in organizations and governments. Literature has highlighted the need for an alignment framework to support enterprise architects to align the development process of EA with the stakeholders’ goals. Hence, this research developed an alignment framework to align the EA development process with the stakeholders to produce an agreed architecture that supports the architects. Multiple Perspectives Theory (MPT) was used to develop a preliminary research model that provided the initial guidance in data collection and analysis. The research employed a qualitative case study approach to build an in-depth understanding of EA development process, enterprise architects and stakeholders’ roles, as well as the factors influencing the alignment between them. The Government Architecture Framework (GAF) of the Omani public sector was used as the case study that included GAF documentation review, and interviews with architects and stakeholders who participated in the development of GAF. The findings showed that twelve alignment factors influenced the development of GAF which are standardization, development scope, principles, governance, top management support, culture, commitment, awareness, communication, value of EA, change management capability and experience. These factors were used as the base to develop the alignment framework followed by a focus group session with GAF architects was organized to validate the final framework. As a conclusion, the study has shown that the alignment framework provides a comprehensive understanding for practitioners and academicians about the factors and their influences at each EA development step

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