Feature Models as Support for Business Model Implementation of Cyber-Physical Systems

From a business perspective Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) can contribute to process innovation, product innovation or business model innovation. In this paper, the focus is on business model innovation based on CPS, i.e. we take the perspective of enterprises using CPS as basis for new customer services. In order to create viable CPS solutions, stakeholders from different enterprise functions should be involved, including business perspective and technical perspective. However, the business-related stakeholders often do not understand the technical possibilities and the technology-related stakeholders do understand the business opportunities. The paper proposes to use feature models as mediation support between business-oriented and technology-oriented stakeholders. Feature models conventionally are used for controlling variability, i.e. as a means for engineers to plan and design features for configuration and implementation. We propose to use them as a way to identify value propositions based on features. The main contributions of the paper are (a) to identify the potential feature models for alignment of business and technology-related stakeholders, (b) to propose feature model “slices” as support for business model development of CPS, and (c) an industrial case illustrating feasibility and utility of the approach

Robotic Process Automation in Small Enterprises: An Investigation into Application Potential

Substantial application potential in enterprises is commonly attributed to Robotic Process Automation (RPA). This potential encompasses automation of routine tasks, improvement of data quality, improvement of process stability, or reduction of monotonous tasks. However, our observation from projects with enterprises is that this potential is visible in bigger companies, but not so obvious in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs often show a lower readiness to invest time and resources in new technologies and, thus, hesitate to explore new technology applications unless they see a clear business case. This article investigates the application potential of RPA in SMEs by trying to identify typical application scenarios with potentially high benefits that SMEs should focus on. The application potential is primarily addressed from a qualitative perspective, i.e., the aim is not to quantify the potential but to qualify the application fields. The contributions of this article are (1) a structured literature review of the state of RPA use in SMEs, (2) RPA application scenarios visible in the literature and functionality of RPA platforms to support these scenarios, and (3) experiences from implementing three SME-focused use cases with off-the-shelf RPA tools and a concluding evaluation by experts

Enterprise Architecture for Integration of Demand-Responsive Services in Public Transport

The popularity of new mobility services (NMS), like car sharing, urban bikes or e-scooters, is increasing in many urban areas. In comparison to traditional supply-oriented public transport with defined timetables and transportation routes, NMS are demand-responsive services aiming to meet the ad-hoc needs of users. NMS have started to influence the way people move in urban areas, and they also have an impact on public transport operators which begin to offer their own NMS or integrate the services of established NMS operators. This article investigates the changes implied by NMS for the enterprise architecture (EA) of public transport operators. The paper presents and evaluates an EA approach for integrating demand-responsive services into traditional supply-oriented public transport. We propose a partial enterprise architecture as an extension of the established ITVU core model, which is an established reference model in the public transportation domain. Although EA management is recognised as relevant for public transport companies, there is a lack of such an extension addressing NMS integration. The contribution of this article are to (1) offer an overview of the state of research in enterprise architectures for public transport, (2) make a case study for illustrating the challenges and requirements of NMS integration, (3) provide a first version of the partial (core) reference EA for integration of NMS including an initial evaluation

How Digital Transformation affects Enterprise Architecture Management – a case study

Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, cyber-physical systems and other recent technological innovations offer new opportunities for enterprises in the context of Digital Transformation (DT) but also cause new challenges for Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM), which traditionally deals with enterprise-IT planning and coordination. Based on an industrial case of a power garden products manufacturer that is exploring potentials and facing challenges in DT, this article investigates the integration of product-IT into EAM. Product-IT includes the embedded IT-systems in physical products and services, components for operations, maintenance or evaluation purposes. In this article we discuss product-IT and enterprise-IT integration in the context of EAM observed in the industrial practice. The main contributions are (1) positioning of the product-IT in the field of EAM, and (2) identification of the challenges from real-world case regarding integration of product-IT into EAM

How Digital Transformation affects Enterprise Architecture Management – a case study

Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, cyber-physical systems and other recent technological innovations offer new opportunities for enterprises in the context of Digital Transformation (DT) but also cause new challenges for Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM), which traditionally deals with enterprise-IT planning and coordination. Based on an industrial case of a power garden products manufacturer that is exploring potentials and facing challenges in DT, this article investigates the integration of product-IT into EAM. Product-IT includes the embedded IT-systems in physical products and services, components for operations, maintenance or evaluation purposes. In this article we discuss product-IT and enterprise-IT integration in the context of EAM observed in the industrial practice. The main contributions are (1) positioning of the product-IT in the field of EAM, and (2) identification of the challenges from real-world case regarding integration of product-IT into EAM

Towards A Method for Developing Reference Enterprise Architectures

In most economic sectors organizations face rapid environmental changes like regulations. Such changes can force them to adjust both their organizational and operational structure. For instance, in the energy utility sector numerous developments moved German Public Utilities (PUs) towards a liberalized market. Nowadays PUs have to stay competitive while managing a heterogeneous information technology (IT) landscape. We address this demand for aligning business and IT by combining the holistic perspective of Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) with the characteristic of reference modeling to reuse knowledge in a problem domain. Therefore, we utilize configurative reference modeling within Design Science Research (DSR). The artefact at hand is a method for developing a Reference Enterprise Architecture (R-EA), which is applied in the problem domain of PUs. Our contributions are the (i) adaptation of Configurative Reference Modelling (CRM) to develop a R-EA and (ii) a procedure how to elicit knowledge for R-EA development method

Orchestrating Economic, Socio-Technical and Technical Validation Using Visual Modelling

The paper presents an approach for orchestrating validation of project results from different perspectives by using visual modelling techniques. The context for the paper is the FP6 project MAPPER. Validation in MAPPER covers economic, socio-technical and technical viewpoints. The economic viewpoint mainly focuses on business value and coherence with business drivers like reduced lifecycle time or increased flexibility. Sustainable collaboration for joint value creation of various units in a networked organisation is the main aspect of the socio-technical viewpoint. From a technical point of view, usability of IT-infrastructure and services is a key aspect. The MAPPER Validation Framework includes and orchestrates approaches and methodologies from these three viewpoints and defines the validation actions to be performed. The main contributions of the paper to research in the field are (1) the structure of the MAPPER Validation Framework integrating different validation perspectives, (2) experiences from using a visual modelling environment for framework development and (3) experiences from orchestrating different validation perspectives

Enterprise Composition Architecture for Micro-Granular Digital Services and Products

The digitization of our society changes the way we live, work, learn, communicate, and collaborate. This defines the strategical context for composing resilient enterprise architectures for micro-granular digital services and products. The change from a closed-world modeling perspective to more flexible open-world composition and evolution of system architectures defines the moving context for adaptable systems, which are essential to enable the digital transformation. Enterprises are presently transforming their strategy and culture together with their processes and information systems to become more digital. The digital transformation deeply disrupts existing enterprises and economies. Since years a lot of new business opportunities appeared using the potential of the Internet and related digital technologies, like Internet of Things, services computing, cloud computing, big data with analytics, mobile systems, collaboration networks, and cyber physical systems. Digitization fosters the development of IT systems with many rather small and distributed structures, like Internet of Things or mobile systems. In this paper, we are focusing on the continuous bottom-up integration of micro-granular architectures for a huge amount of dynamically growing systems and services, like Internet of Things and Microservices, as part of a new digital enterprise architecture. To integrate micro-granular architecture models to living architectural model versions we are extending more traditional enterprise architecture reference models with state of art elements for agile architectural engineering to support the digitalization of services with related products, and their processes

Full Paper: Neural Text Generators in Enterprise Modeling: Can Chatgpt be Used as Proxy Domain Expert?

Enterprise modeling is concerned with the systematic development of a comprehensive and holistic representation of an enterprise (an enterprise model) to support organisational initiatives. Domain experts have an essential role in enterprise modeling projects (EM), as they provide the required domain knowledge or specifics of the organisation under consideration. The paper investigates if neural text generators (large language models) can reduce the dependency on domain experts for certain tasks in enterprise modeling. The main contributions of this paper are (1) a systematic literature analysis on neural text generator use in EM, (2) the identification of potential for applying large language models in EM, and (3) findings from quasi-experiments comparing output of ChatGPT and domain experts for the same EM task

On the Effect of Digitalization of Products and Services on Enterprise Architectures

Digitalization of products and services commonly causes substantial changes in business models, operations, organization structures and IT-infrastructures of enterprises. Motivated by experiences and observations from digitalization projects, the paper investigates the effects of digitalization on enterprise architectures (EA). EA models serve as representation of business, information system and technical aspects of an enterprise to support management and development. By comparing EA models before and after digitalization, the paper analyzes the kinds of changes visible in the EA model. The most important finding is that newly created digitized products and the associated (product)- and enterprise architecture are no longer properly integrated into the overall architecture and even exist in parallel. Thus, the focus of this work is on showing these parallel architectures and proposing derivations for a better integration