Mapping the European e-Competence Framework on the domain of Information Technology: a comparative study

In the field of IT, many competence frameworks exist. An important framework is the European e-Competence Framework (e-CF) that quite recently has been appointed as a standard by the European Committee for Standardization CEN. In this paper we define quality characteristics for competence frameworks and show how the e-CF has been mapped on descriptions of the IT domain. Our conclusion is that the e-CF does comply almost fully with the formulated quality standards. According to our mappings, the e- CF covers the IT domain, albeit on some topics better than on others. To overcome the deficiencies identified, we advise to add to the e-CF a more explicit mentioning of attitude aspects and of the contexts in which the various competences are to be employed

E-learning activities in educating e-business: a pilot with a process-oriented e-learning environment

Current e-learning tools offer a multitude of possibilities for the exchange of various types of documents and for communication between students as well as between students and teacher(s). But education is intrinsically process-oriented – and current technology in the field of elearning offers no support for the activities which form the core of learning. In this paper the possibilities and limits of current technology as used in an extensive program (a minor) on e-business, are demonstrated. Furthermore, a first impression of a new, activity-based tool is given, which has been used in one of the courses of the program.Education for the 21 st century - impact of ICT and Digital Resources ConferenceRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

A STUDY INTO THE CLASSIFICATION OF ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE BENEFITS

While many authors have published on the subject, the question about the value of Enterprise Architecture (EA) remains unanswered. Using the four perspectives of the Balanced Scorecard as a starting point, 36 subcategories of organizational goals where benefits of EA could be expected were derived from literature. To validate these subcategories, an online Delphi study has been carried out. With the help of the experts contributing to the study, 24 subcategories of organizational goals are identified where the contribution of EA is assessed in the range from ‘moderate’ to ‘very much’. The contribution allocated to these subcategories is more or less in line with other publications on the subject, with the notable exception of subcategories in the Customer perspective of the Balanced Scorecard. In our study these subcategories were deemed more important than in previous studies. In the same Delphi study, we tried to differentiate between development-, implementation- and exploitation activities of EA with respect to the contribution of EA to these 24 subcategories, but the results are as yet inconclusive

Introducing Competencies in Organizations

In the fast-changing world of IT, relevant competencies are getting more important as these determine how successful you can function in practice. As a consequence, organizations are introducing competency frameworks like the European e-Competence Framework (e-CF, 2014) in their IT departments. However, for many organizations it is unclear what good practices and pitfalls are when introducing such a framework. In this paper this topic is studied by analysing 13 interviews with IT- and HR-managers who are (or recently have been) involved in a transition towards the use of competencies with their IT-staff

A Virtual World as an Introduction to Green IT Awareness

This paper describes a project to explore the possibilities of virtual worlds in educating Green IT. In the project, a virtual world has been created with various assignments to create awareness on sustainability aspects of IT. The world (and the assignments) will be incorporated in a course for first-year IT students. In order to measure the effects of the course, a questionnaire has been developed which can be used before and after the course to measure the change in attitude towards green IT

PERCEIVED BENEFITS FROM ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE

Enterprise Architecture has been developed in order to optimize the alignment between business needs and the (rapidly changing) possibilities of information technology. But do organizations indeed benefit from the application of Enterprise Architecture according to those who are in any way involved in architecture? To answer this question, a model has been developed (the Enterprise Architecture Value Framework) to organize the benefits of Enterprise Architecture. Based on this model, a survey has been conducted among the various types of stakeholders of Enterprise Architecture, such as architects, project managers, developers and business or IT managers. In the survey the respondents were asked to what extent they perceive various benefits of Enterprise Architecture in their organization. The results of this survey (with 287 fully completed responses) are analyzed and presented in this paper. In all categories of the framework benefits are perceived, though to different extent. Very few benefits are perceived in relation to the external orientation of the organization. Few statistically significant correlations were found in relation to the background of the respondents: the overall view on benefits of Enterprise Architecture appeared independent of the role of the respondents, the economic sector and the number of years of experience with architectur

E-learning activities in educating e-business: a pilot with a process-oriented e-learning environment

Current e-learning tools offer a multitude of possibilities for the exchange of various types of documents and for communication between students as well as between students and teacher(s). But education is intrinsically process-oriented – and current technology in the field of elearning offers no support for the activities which form the core of learning. In this paper the possibilities and limits of current technology as used in an extensive program (a minor) on e-business, are demonstrated. Furthermore, a first impression of a new, activity-based tool is given, which has been used in one of the courses of the program.Education for the 21 st century - impact of ICT and Digital Resources ConferenceRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

The Enterprise Architecture Value Framework

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a discipline aimed at managing the complex interrelationships of business processes and IT in the continuous changing environment of organizations. Despite this ambitious agenda of EA, it is not clear what exactly constitutes the value of EA for an organization or which activities architects should initiate to maximize their effectiveness. In this paper, we present the Enterprise Architecture Value Framework (EAVF). The EAVF is a framework for classifying benefits and costs of EA along the dimensions of organizational goals and EA-related activities. It is derived from definitions of its underlying concepts and is independent of methods, techniques and tools used by architects. The framework is validated both theoretically and by mapping other frameworks on the EAVF. Results support the hypothesis that it offers a framework on which all EA benefits and costs can be mapped uniquely, thus providing a means to unite previous and future research on EA benefits. The development of the EAVF is a first step in creating a measurement instrument for EA benefits and costs. It can be used in practice to align the activities of architects with the goals of the organization, thereby optimizing their effect on the performance of the organization

PERCEIVED BENEFITS FROM ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE Complete Research

Abstrac

Toepassen van virtualisering in het onderwijs: Hoe virtuele omgevingen bij kunnen dragen aan duurzaam leren

Projectverslag Hogeschool Utrecht, Instituut voor ICT. In dit document wordt een onderzoek beschreven naar de mogelijkheid om een virtuele wereld in te zetten voor het onderwijs over duurzaamheid voor (eerstejaars) ICT studenten. Hierbij zijn de volgende produkten opgeleverd: - Een verslag van een onderzoek naar bestaande virtuele omgevingen waarinn duurzaamheid centraal staat, naar competenties voor duurzaamheid en naar de toetsing van gedragsaspecten. - Een lijst competenties met betrekking tot duurzaamheid die eerstejaarsstudenten ICT zouden moeten verwerven. - Een virtuele wereld (GreenIT op het Virtyou grid in OpenSIM)) waarin opdrachten door studenten uitgevoerd kunnen worden. Deze wereld zal overigens in de komende maanden buiten het kader van dit project nog verder uitgebreid worden. Uit het uitgevoerde onderzoek naar de effecten op attitude en gedrag van studenten, blijkt een positief effect op studenten die intensief met duurzaamheid bezig zijn Het doel van het project is daarmee naar het oordeel van betrokkenen royaal gehaald. Zij willen in het bijzonder de leden van de SIG Virtuality bedanken voor hun enthousiasme en inzet