Developing a taxonomy for the understanding of business and it alignment paradigms and tools

The alignment of information technology with business objectives tends to be a managerial priority in modern organisations. Thus, practitioners and researchers have proposed different approaches to assess this relationship, some following similar approaches whilst others proposing different ones. The variety of approaches proposed, however, has created confusion about the applicability and context in which these approaches can be used. Thus, aiming to tackle this challenge, this paper proposes a taxonomy that organises and compares studies of alignment assessment in terms of their theoretical constructors and their practical use. The taxonomy is build around two research sources: a) a review of the literature of alignment and b) a framework for comparing IS methodologies. The structure of the taxonomy permits insights into studies by means of six theoretical (objective, nature of strategy, paradigm, dimension, type of measurement, model) and six practical constructors (audience, scope, output, techniques, product, target). The taxonomy is then applied to six assessment studies. The benchmarking analysis of these helped to identify their theoretical basis and its practical use, and confirms the need for more practical mechanisms to assess alignment. Additionally, it becomes apparent that process perspectives and social understanding of alignment are the two main paradigms for alignment

Using tactical and operational factors to assess strategic alignment: an SME study

The strategic use of Information Technology (IT), better known as strategic alignment, has significantly increased, as a result of the strong dependence of organisational activity on Information Systems (IS) and their related technologies. Strategic alignment is considered as a key element to improve performance on organisations, enhance efficiency and allow organisations to be more competitive in their respective industry. One of the first steps towards achieving strategic alignment is to have adequate means to measure it. Current assessment approaches, though, are mainly focused at the strategic level but provide little insight at tactical and operational levels, which are recognized as important areas for achieving strategic alignment. Furthermore, most of the existing approaches are tested in large organisations and there is little research on assessing the effectiveness of these approaches for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). This paper proposes an alternative instrument that rather than focusing only at the strategic level it aims to have a better understanding by measuring alignment at tactical and operational levels. Finally this paper presents the findings of applying this instrument on an SME

Comparing alignment factors in SMEs and large organizations: a planning integration perspective

Measurement of the alignment between business strategies and information systems (IS) has demonstrated positive impact for the organizational performance. The factors that have proved relevant when assessing the maturity level of alignment are: communication, competency/value measurement, governance, partnership, architecture & scope, and skills. Existing research, however, has focused on the assessment of these factors on large organizations and has barely explored their impact on Small and Medium Enterprises (SME). This paper uses the data provided by 127 participants from large and SMEs in order to identify whether the aforementioned factors are also relevant for assessing the level of alignment maturity in SMEs. The results from this research suggest that there are not significant differences between large organizations and SMEs when assessing those factors. In addition, this research also explored the relation between different planning integration of alignment (independent, sequential and simultaneous) in order to measure the perceived relevance of the factors. The results suggest that the planning integration identified on SMEs and large organizations has a positive correlation on how these factors are ranked. For both SMEs and large organizations where the formulation is simultaneous, the relevance of the factors is higher perceived than it is for those where the formulation is independent or sequential

Sparse Linear Models applied to Power Quality Disturbance Classification

Power quality (PQ) analysis describes the non-pure electric signals that are usually present in electric power systems. The automatic recognition of PQ disturbances can be seen as a pattern recognition problem, in which different types of waveform distortion are differentiated based on their features. Similar to other quasi-stationary signals, PQ disturbances can be decomposed into time-frequency dependent components by using time-frequency or time-scale transforms, also known as dictionaries. These dictionaries are used in the feature extraction step in pattern recognition systems. Short-time Fourier, Wavelets and Stockwell transforms are some of the most common dictionaries used in the PQ community, aiming to achieve a better signal representation. To the best of our knowledge, previous works about PQ disturbance classification have been restricted to the use of one among several available dictionaries. Taking advantage of the theory behind sparse linear models (SLM), we introduce a sparse method for PQ representation, starting from overcomplete dictionaries. In particular, we apply Group Lasso. We employ different types of time-frequency (or time-scale) dictionaries to characterize the PQ disturbances, and evaluate their performance under different pattern recognition algorithms. We show that the SLM reduce the PQ classification complexity promoting sparse basis selection, and improving the classification accuracy

Anodized aluminium pressure sensitive paint: effect of paint application technique

The porous surface of the Anodized Aluminium Pressure Sensitive Paint (AA-PSP) is what differentiates it from conventional sol–gel based PSPs, leading to a faster response time of the paint. The objective of the current study is to examine the effect of the paint application technique, i.e., whether the AA substrate is dipped or sprayed, on the pressure and temperature sensitivity. A more practical procedure for preparing the AA samples is also presented. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images are acquired together with the calibration of the AA-PSP at various temperatures and pressures to determine the effectiveness of each application technique. The results revealed that the AA sample which was dipped in the PSP solution shows a higher pressure sensitivity than the sprayed one. The SEMs show that spraying leads to the covering up of the micropores created on the surface and undermining the benefit of anodization