Emergent Changes in Enterprise Architectures: Framework and Case Study

We suggest an emergent change framework for enterprise architecture. Drawing on Leavitt’s Change Model of Organizations, our framework focusses on socio-technical changes in tasks, structures, actors, and technologies. By applying the framework to a medium-sized company from the media industry and drawing on a relatively unique panel data set (2014, 2016, 2018), we demonstrate the amount of emergent changes and confirm three patterns of change. These findings help to advance the study of change and its propagation across different components of an enterprise over time

Telemedicine in Intensive Care Units: Protocol for a Scoping Review

Background: Telemedicine has been deployed to address issues in intensive care delivery, as well as to improve outcome and quality of care. Implementation of this technology has been characterized by high variability. Tele-intensive care unit (ICU) interventions involve the combination of multiple technological and organizational components, as well as interconnections of key stakeholders inside the hospital organization. The extensive literature on the benefits of tele-ICUs has been characterized as heterogeneous. On one hand, positive clinical and economical outcomes have been shown in multiple studies. On the other hand, no tangible benefits could be detected in several cases. This could be due to the diverse forms of organizations and the fact that tele-ICU interventions are complex to evaluate. The implementation context of tele-ICUs has been shown to play an important role in the success of the technology. The benefits derived from tele-ICUs depend on the organization where it is deployed and how the telemedicine systems are applied. There is therefore value in analyzing the benefits of tele-ICUs in relation to the characteristics of the organization where it is deployed. To date, research on the topic has not provided a comprehensive overview of literature taking both the technology setup and implementation context into account. Objective: We present a protocol for a scoping review of the literature on telemedicine in the ICU and its benefits in intensive care. The purpose of this review is to map out evidence about telemedicine in critical care in light of the implementation context. This review could represent a valuable contribution to support the development of tele-ICU technologies and offer perspectives on possible configurations, based on the implementation context and use case. Methods: We have followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist and the recommendations of the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews. The scoping review and subsequent systematic review will be completed by spring 2021. Results: The preliminary search has been conducted. After removing all duplicates, we found 2530 results. The review can now be advanced to the next steps of the methodology, including literature database queries with appropriate keywords, retrieval of the results in a reference management tool, and screening of titles and abstracts. Conclusions: The results of the search indicate that there is sufficient literature to complete the scoping review. Upon completion, the scoping review will provide a map of existing evidence on tele-ICU systems given the implementation context. Findings of this research could be used by researchers, clinicians, and implementation teams as they determine the appropriate setup of new or existing tele-ICU systems. The need for future research contributions and systematic reviews will be identified. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/1969

Hemodynamic changes during physiological and pharmacological stress testing in patients with heart failure: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Although disease etiologies differ, heart failure patients with preserved and reduced ejection fraction (HFpEF and HFrEF, respectively) both present with clinical symptoms when under stress and impaired exercise capacity. The extent to which the adaptation of heart rate (HR), stroke volume (SV), and cardiac output (CO) under stress conditions is altered can be quantified by stress testing in conjunction with imaging methods and may help to detect the diminishment in a patient’s condition early. The aim of this meta-analysis was to quantify hemodynamic changes during physiological and pharmacological stress testing in patients with HF. A systematic literature search (PROSPERO 2020:CRD42020161212) in MEDLINE was conducted to assess hemodynamic changes under dynamic and pharmacological stress testing at different stress intensities in HFpEF and HFrEF patients. Pooled mean changes were estimated using a random effects model. Altogether, 140 study arms with 7,248 exercise tests were analyzed. High-intensity dynamic stress testing represented 73% of these data (70 study arms with 5,318 exercise tests), where: HR increased by 45.69 bpm (95% CI 44.51–46.88; I2 = 98.4%), SV by 13.49 ml (95% CI 6.87–20.10; I2 = 68.5%), and CO by 3.41 L/min (95% CI 2.86–3.95; I2 = 86.3%). No significant differences between HFrEF and HFpEF groups were found. Despite the limited availability of comparative studies, these reference values can help to estimate the expected hemodynamic responses in patients with HF. No differences in chronotropic reactions, changes in SV, or CO were found between HFrEF and HFpEF. When compared to healthy individuals, exercise tolerance, as well as associated HR and CO changes under moderate-high dynamic stress, was substantially impaired in both HF groups. This may contribute to a better disease understanding, future study planning, and patient-specific predictive models. Systematic Review Registration: [https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/], identifier [CRD42020161212]

Electrification of granular systems of identical insulators

Insulating particles can become highly electrified during powder handling, volcanic eruptions, and the wind-blown transport of dust, sand, and snow. Measurements in these granular systems have found that smaller particles generally charge negatively, while larger particles charge positively. These observations are puzzling, since particles in these systems are generally chemically identical, and thus have no contact potential difference. We show here that simple geometry leads to a net transfer of electrons from larger to smaller particles, in agreement with these observations. We integrate this charging mechanism into the first quantitative charging scheme for a granular system of identical insulators, and show that its predictions are in agreement with measurements. Our theory thus seems to provide an explanation for the hitherto puzzling phenomenon of the size-dependent charging of granular systems of identical insulators.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, published in Physical Review

REFRAMING THE GOVERNANCE DEBATE: A MULTILEVEL PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT APPROACH BASED ON CAPABILITIES

Conventional IT planning approaches, which are based on applications, begun to be disputed with the rising interest in service-oriented architectures. But, given the status-quo of the IT landscapes in most companies IT management faces a dilemma. Should IT governance for transformation projects remain at the application-level or should services become the heart of the transformation? In this paper we reframe the ongoing debate on IT governance by introducing a multilevel approach centered on capabilities. In particular, we present an information model, aggregation mechanisms to support performance management based on the model and a planning procedure that guides IT managers and enterprise architects on how to apply our method. Finally, we introduce an example and a prototype to contextualize our method. First findings suggest its usefulness in supporting large enterprise transformation projects

Weighting of Integration Qualities in IS Architectures: A Production Case

We suggest a method that conceptualizes a company’s IS architecture—its set of information systems (IS) and integrations—as a weighted and directed graph. Going beyond an undifferentiated treatment of integration qualities, we present a scoring model to assign integration weights to integration links. Thereupon, we introduce weighted centrality measures from network analysis to identify important systems in the architecture with respect to their architectural embeddedness. Drawing on the case of a production company, we demonstrate our approach by concentrating on selected systems and integrations, such as the close and complex integration of an ERP and a product lifecycle management (PLM) system. Focusing on the technical challenges of enterprise transformations, our work contributes to enterprise architects’ toolbox as it enables a more fine-grained understanding of critical systems with high change complexity

The Path Biography Methodology: Analyzing Self-Reinforcing Mechanisms on Technical and Organizational Levels

While studies on self-reinforcing mechanisms in information systems (IS) research rely on methodologies that focus on the technical level without fully accounting for such effects on the organizational level, management research relies on methodologies that concentrate researchers’ efforts on the organizational level. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Path Biography Methodology, a qualitative approach that helps researchers capture and analyze self-reinforcing mechanisms on and between technical and organizational levels. By synthesizing insights from IS and management research, we develop four principles that researchers should consider when applying the Path Biography Methodology. Using a path biography study of a university and its information system, we illustrate how researchers may apply this methodology to analyze self-reinforcing mechanisms. Overall, this paper lays the groundwork for a research methodology that enables researchers to capture and analyze self-reinforcing mechanisms on and between technical and organizational levels

Business-managed IT: A Conceptual Framework and Empirical Illustration

Research on Shadow IT is facing a conceptual dilemma in cases where previously “covert” systems developed by business entities (individual users, business workgroups, or business units) are integrated in the organizational IT management. These systems become visible, are therefore not “in the shadows” anymore, and subsequently do not fit to existing definitions of Shadow IT. Practice shows that some information systems share characteristics of Shadow IT, but are created openly in alignment with the IT department. This paper therefore proposes the term “Business-managed IT” to describe “overt” information systems developed or managed by business entities. We distinguish Business-managed IT from Shadow IT by illustrating case vignettes. Accordingly, our contribution is to suggest a concept and its delineation against other concepts. In this way, IS researchers interested in IT originated from or maintained by business entities can construct theories with a wider scope of application that are at the same time more specific to practical problems. In addition, value-laden terminology is complemented by a vocabulary that values potentially innovative developments by business entities more adequately. From a practical point of view, the distinction can be used to discuss the distribution of task responsibilities for information systems

Growth, Complexity, and Generativity of Digital Platforms: The Case of Otto.de

We study the growth, complexity, and generativity of a digital platform—Otto.de. Through a longitudinal analysis of the company’s 65 GitHub open source repositories over a period of 6.5 years, we find a) support for a superlinear growth pattern, b) a structural split in the platform into two clusters, and c) indication that more active repositories will be more generative and in turn more popular. These findings have implications for scholars studying platform evolution as well as for companies opening up their internal IT platforms