Enterprise Architecture in Healthcare Networks: A Systematic Literature Review

Healthcare organizations collaborate, share knowledge, and need to be accountable to each other. Therefore, healthcare organizations manage a dynamic information system landscape. Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a management tool for aligning these landscapes to the primary information needs that healthcare organizations have. EA is of value in some environments, but it seems to be not well suited to the dynamics of healthcare. Despite the publication of several systematic literature reviews on EA in healthcare, a systematic literature study comparing EA applicability at various levels of cooperation (intra, inter, and network collaboration) is lacking. Therefore, we posed the following research question: To what extent is EA researched within healthcare organizations in the context of intra, inter and network collaboration? A systematic literature review was used to select 94 scientific publications for evaluation. These studies make explicit the EA elements at three levels of collaboration in the context of healthcare. The findings show that EA is most frequently studied in relation to a single healthcare organization with a wide range of topics. IT governance and EA implementation are the subjects of the majority of EA network level studies (17 out of 94 studies), followed by building/developing EA, EA acceptance, EA issues and root causes, and EA modeling. Although numerous EA frameworks are discussed in studies at the intra- and interorganizational levels, they are rarely referenced in studies at the network level. Additionally, the EA benefits, success factors, and challenges are comparable at high level, but details differ per level. These findings demonstrate that EA is researched within the healthcare sector context. The majority of knowledge on EA is focused on a single healthcare organization, but little is known about EA in a networked healthcare environment. To learn more about how EA might be used in a healthcare network setting, a research agenda has been set up based on the results

Network Governance in Healthcare:A Systematic Literature Review

The typical structure of the healthcare sector involves (specialist) intertwined practices co-occurring in formal or informal networks. These practices must answer to the concerns and needs of all related stakeholders. Multimorbidity and the need to share knowledge for scientific development are among the driving factors for collaboration in healthcare. To establish and keep up a permanent collaborative link, it takes effort and understanding of the network characteristics that must be governed. It is not hard to find practices of Network Governance (NG) in a variety of industries. Still, there is a lack of insight in this subject, including knowledge on how to establish and maintain an effective healthcare network. Consequently, this study's research question is: How is network governance organized in the healthcare sector? A systematic literature study was performed to select 80 NG articles. Based on these publications the characteristics of NG are made explicit. The findings demonstrate that combinations of governance style (relational versus contractual governance) and governance structure (lead versus shared governance) lead to different network dynamics. Furthermore, the results show that in order to comprehend how networks in the healthcare sector emerge and can be regulated, it is vital to understand the current network type. Additionally, it informs us of the governing factors.</p

Approaches for Documentation in Continuous Software Development

It is common practice for practitioners in industry as well as for ICT/CS students to keep writing – and reading ­– about software products to a bare minimum. However, refraining from documentation may result in severe issues concerning the vaporization of knowledge regarding decisions made during the phases of design, build, and maintenance. In this article, we distinguish between knowledge required upfront to start a project or iteration, knowledge required to complete a project or iteration, and knowledge required to operate and maintain software products. With `knowledge', we refer to actionable information. We propose three approaches to keep up with modern development methods to prevent the risk of knowledge vaporization in software projects. These approaches are `Just Enough Upfront' documentation, `Executable Knowledge', and `Automated Text Analytics' to help record, substantiate, manage and retrieve design decisions in the aforementioned phases. The main characteristic of `Just Enough Upfront' documentation is that knowledge required upfront includes shaping thoughts/ideas, a codified interface description between (sub)systems, and a plan. For building the software and making maximum use of progressive insights, updating the specifications is sufficient. Knowledge required by others to use, operate and maintain the product includes a detailed design and accountability of results. `Executable Knowledge' refers to any executable artifact except the source code. Primary artifacts include Test Driven Development methods and infrastructure-as-code, including continuous integration scripts. A third approach concerns `Automated Text Analysis' using Text Mining and Deep Learning to retrieve design decisions

From Expert Discipline to Common Practice: A Vision and Research Agenda for Extending the Reach of Enterprise Modeling

The benefits of enterprise modeling (EM) and its contribution to organizational tasks are largely undisputed in business and information systems engineering. EM as a discipline has been around for several decades but is typically performed by a limited number of people in organizations with an affinity to modeling. What is captured in models is only a fragment of what ought to be captured. Thus, this research note argues that EM is far from its maximum potential. Many people develop some kind of model in their local practice without thinking about it consciously. Exploiting the potential of this “grass roots modeling” could lead to groundbreaking innovations. The aim is to investigate integration of the established practices of modeling with local practices of creating and using model-like artifacts of relevance for the overall organization. The paper develops a vision for extending the reach of EM, identifies research areas contributing to the vision and proposes elements of a future research Agenda

Scaffolding Stakeholder-Centric Enterprise Model Articulation

Part 2: Regular PapersInternational audienceInvolving stakeholders in enterprise modeling, besides rendering valid models, also helps stakeholders articulate and align their views on their organization. This requires that stakeholders are able to understand and actively perform conceptual modeling for representing their views on enterprise structure and behavior. The specific skills required for this should not be taken for granted and need to be developed explicitly. Scaffolding is an educational concept that allows to embed learning support mechanisms in operative modeling processes. The present article introduces a framework that makes it possible to view scaffolding as an integral part of stakeholder-centric modeling activities. The framework is validated with respect to its descriptive and discriminatory power by an ex-post analysis of the design and application of an existing modeling method

Freezing language : conceptualisation processes across ICT-supported organisations

Contains fulltext : 19372__freela.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)The thesis concerns an aspect of the development and design of computerised information systems: the language aspect. Information systems make intensive use of natural language for human-to-human communication. We focus on the specification of ‘language items’ (mostly words and phrases) that are to be built into information systems, thus becoming ‘means for languaging’ made available to the user. ‘Natural’ language use typically involves continuous adaptation of language to its context of use. If the language requirements vary or change, the supporting means for languaging should be altered to match them. This adaptive process involves linguistic meta-communication. Means for languaging provided through computerised information systems are often not aligned very well to language needs of users, or with agreements about language that hold between them. As static language specifications and standards are often inadequate if built into information systems, adaptive approaches to language specification are required. We developed a theory that enables us to directly relate language use and development to language description activities as occur in the use and development of information systems. On the basis of the theory we developed a coherent analytical framework and a method. Our method has been shaped as a so-called architecture viewpoint: an analytical and communicative instrument that is dedicated to a particular aspect of systems architecture. We have also provided a proof of concept of the method by means of a case study in a real organisation.IX, 342 p

Approaches for Documentation in Continuous Software Development

It is common practice for practitioners in industry as well as for ICT/CS students to keep writing – and reading ­– about software products to a bare minimum. However, refraining from documentation may result in severe issues concerning the vaporization of knowledge regarding decisions made during the phases of design, build, and maintenance.  In this article, we distinguish between knowledge required upfront to start a project or iteration, knowledge required to complete a project or iteration, and knowledge required to operate and maintain software products. With `knowledge', we refer to actionable information. We propose three approaches to keep up with modern development methods to prevent the risk of knowledge vaporization in software projects. These approaches are `Just Enough Upfront' documentation, `Executable Knowledge', and `Automated Text Analytics' to help record, substantiate, manage and retrieve design decisions in the aforementioned phases. The main characteristic of `Just Enough Upfront' documentation is that knowledge required upfront includes shaping thoughts/ideas, a codified interface description between (sub)systems, and a plan. For building the software and making maximum use of progressive insights, updating the specifications is sufficient. Knowledge required by others to use, operate and maintain the product includes a detailed design and accountability of results. `Executable Knowledge' refers to any executable artifact except the source code. Primary artifacts include Test Driven Development methods and infrastructure-as-code, including continuous integration scripts. A third approach concerns `Automated Text Analysis' using Text Mining and Deep Learning to retrieve design decisions

CAISE'08 Workshop on Regulations Modelling and Deployment, ReMoD'08. CEUR-Workshop Proceedings 342

International audienceno abstrac