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

The Ethical Matrix in Digital Innovation Projects in Higher Education

Higher educational institutions incorporate projects into their curricula, in which students, together with educators, researchers and professionals from practice, try to find solutions for real, societal problems, to develop relevant skills. Because such solutions are increasingly digital with high impact on society, ethical responsibility is an important part of these skills. In this study, we analyze two cases of digital innovation projects in higher education in which the concept of the Ethical Matrix is adapted and integrated in a Value Sensitive Design approach and applied by educators (case 1) and by students (case 2). We find that an adapted version of the Ethical Matrix supports educators and students in taking values of different types of stakeholders into account which leads to different design choices

Copyright Enforcement in the Dutch Digital Music Industry

There is a lack of interest and empirical analysis in the existing literature on composers’ relations with their publishers and the role of Collective Management Organizations (CMOs) within the system of music copyright. The purpose of this paper is to explore and understand the influence of digitization within the music industry on the copyright enforcement in the Netherlands and on rights holders and the CMOs. Also to explore and understand how their mutual relationships are affected by digitization of the music industry. A qualitative analysis was done by reviewing scientific literature, performing a documents analysis and doing open interviews. In the existing economics of copyright literature, the main focus is set on transaction costs, efficiency and welfare topics. The findings can be used to understand and model how rights holders and CMOs cope with the digitization and contribute to the policy makers and economic actor’s discussion about future improvement of the copyright enforcement system

Effective IT Use Among Residential Caregivers: The Role of Autonomy, Competence and Relatedness

Technological innovation in the healthcare sector is increasing, but integration of information technology (IT) in the care process is difficult. Healthcare workers are important agents in this IT integration. The purpose of this study is to explore factors that feed motivation to use IT. Self-determination theory (SDT) is applied to study how motivational factors impact effective IT use among frontline caregivers in residential care settings. As the team is very important to these caregivers, the team is our unit of analysis. In an embedded single case study design, interviews were conducted with all nine members of a team effectively using IT. All three basic psychological needs from SDT - autonomy, competence and relatedness - were found to have impact on effective IT use, though autonomy was primarily experienced at team level. Conversely, the effective use of an IT collaboration tool influences relatedness

Business Customer eXperience Alignment Framework: Improving Customer Satisfaction

Globalization and technological innovation has led to an increasing competition between telecommunication service providers and has eroded traditional product- and service-based differentiation. One way to gain a competitive advantage is to create distinctiveness by improving customer experience in such a manner that it leads to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty. One of the drivers to improve the customer experience is the service interface. To improve this service interface, organizations must get insight into their customer interaction process. The amount of data about customers and the service provider processes is increasing and becoming more readily available for analysis. Process mining is a technique to provide insight into these processes. In this paper, a framework is presented to improve the customer satisfaction by alignment of the business service delivery process and the customer experience by applying process mining

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

Improving IS Functions Step by Step: the Use of Focus Area Maturity Models

With new technologies developing rapidly and becoming more common, organizations need to keep up their IS capabilities. Maturity models are designed as a means to support capability development. The existing literature is strongly dominated by studies of fixed-level maturity models, i.e. maturity models that distinguish a limited set of generic maturity levels, such as the well-known CMM. We argue that, while fixed-level maturity models may be well-suited to assessing the maturity of IS capabilities, another form of maturity model, the focus area maturity model, is better suited to supporting incremental improvement. In this paper we define the concept of focus area maturity model. We use a design-science research method, basing our work on both extensive industry experience and scientific investigation

ON COURSE, BUT NOT THERE YET: ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE CONFORMANCE AND BENEFITS IN SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT

Various claims have been made regarding the benefits that Enterprise Architecture (EA) delivers for both individual systems development projects and the organization as a whole. This paper presents the statistical findings of a survey study (n=293) carried out to empirically test these claims. First, we investigated which techniques are used in practice to stimulate conformance to EA. Secondly, we studied which benefits are actually gained. Thirdly, we verified whether EA creators (e.g. enterprise architects) and EA users (e.g. project members) differ in their perceptions regarding EA. Finally, we investigated which of the applied techniques most effectively increase project conformance to and effectiveness of EA. A multivariate regression analysis demonstrates that three techniques have a major impact on conformance: carrying out compliance assessments, management propagation of EA and providing assistance to projects. Although project conformance plays a central role in reaping various benefits at both the organizational and the project level, it is shown that a number of important benefits have not yet been fully achieved