An Integrated Enterprise Architecture Framework for Business-IT Alignment

When different businesses want to integrate part of their processes and IT, they need to relate their enterprise architecture frameworks. An enterprise architecture framework (EAF) is a conceptual framework for describing the architecture of a business and its information technology (IT), and their alignment. In this paper we provide an integration among some well-known EAFs (Zachman, Four-domain, TOGAF and RM-ODP) and produce an integrated EAF (IEAF) that can be used as common framework to communicate about EAFs of differrent businesses and relate them to each other

Assessing Business-IT Alignment Maturity

Strategic alignment focuses on the activities that management performs to achieve cohesive goals across the IT (Information Technology) and other functional organizations (e.g., finance, marketing, H/R, manufacturing). Therefore, alignment addresses both how IT is in harmony with the business, and how the business should, or could be in harmony with IT. Alignment evolves into a relationship where the function of IT and other business functions adapt their strategies together. Achieving alignment is evolutionary and dynamic. It requires strong support from senior management, good working relationships, strong leadership, appropriate prioritization, trust, and effective communication, as well as a thorough understanding of the business and technical environments. Achieving and sustaining alignment demands focusing on maximizing the enablers and minimizing the inhibitors that cultivate alignment. The strategic alignment maturity assessment provides organizations with a vehicle to evaluate these activities. Knowing the maturity of its strategic choices and alignment practices make it possible for a firm to see where it stands and how it can improve. This paper discusses an approach for assessing the maturity of the business-IT alignment. Once maturity is understood, an organization can identify opportunities for enhancing the harmonious relationship of business and IT

Value-Based Business-IT Alignment in Networked Constellations of Enterprises

Business-ICT alignment is the problem of matching ICTservices with the requirements of the business. In businesses of any significant size, business-ICT alignment is a hard problem, which is currently not solved completely. With the advent of networked constellations of enterprises, the problem gets a new dimension, because in such a network, there is not a single point of authority for making decisions about ICT support to solve conflicts in requirements these various enterprises may have. Network constellations exist when different businesses decide to cooperate by means of ICT networks, but they also exist in large corporations, which often consist of nearly independent business units, and thus have no single point of authority anymore. In this position paper we discuss the need for several solution techniques to address the problem of business-ICT alignment in networked constellations. Such techniques include: -RE techniques to describe networked value constellations requesting and offering ICT services as economic value. These techniques should allow reasoning about the matching of business needs with available ICT services in the constellation. - RE techniques to design a networked ICT architecture that supports ICT services required by the business, taking the value offered by those services, and the costs incurred by the architecture, into account. - Models of decision processes about ICT services and their architecture, and maturity models of those processes.The techniques and methods will be developed and validated using case studies and action research

Facing Business-IT-Alignment in Healthcare

The ongoing reform efforts and an aftermath of increasing regulation in the Swiss healthcare sector make it imperative for hospitals to develop strategies to work more efficiently and have better control over their medical, nursing, and administrative processes. These endeavors make hospitals to enhance and integrate concepts of Business-IT-Alignment and IT Governance, IT Risk management, and IT Compliance (IT GRC). This paper proposes a novel method for the management of IT with respect to closely-meshed organizational and social structures within hospitals. One key contribution of this method is its hybrid approach to combine collective know-how of the CObIT 5 framework with an iterative process model approach. The application of this method under real-world conditions within different Swiss hospitals has led to a positive outcome whereby all hospitals concurred that the method allows for the adoption of IT GRC principles while taking into consideration the individual styles and patterns of behavior

BUSINESS-IT ALIGNMENT, THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES

Business and IT alignment continues to be a challenge for business which seek to maximise value of and from the IT function. Research has covered the wider Business-IT alignment points from mainly a macro-level viewpoint, such as, structural, dynamic and functional alignment. However, both research and practice still consider Business and IT alignment to be a challenge. In this research, we seek to uncover part of the reasons why Business and IT alignment is challenging to organisations. We note the factors in the literature which emphasise Business-IT alignment, such as, shared understanding, communication, management commitment, IT investment evaluation, innovation and rewards, strategic planning of IS, and strategic agility. The results of this study show that even if organisations address these alignment factors, IT projects could still end up failing. We also note the opposing misalignment factors in practice, such as, human tensions and strained work relationships, knowledge silos, self-centred management, technology does not matter, organisational change resistance, technology as a burden, and resources inflexibility. We conclude that organisations need to address both alignment and misalignment factors

Towards a business-IT alignment maturity model for collaborative networked organizations

Aligning business and IT in networked organizations is a complex endeavor because in such settings, business-IT alignment is driven by economic processes instead of by centralized decision-making processes. In order to facilitate managing business-IT alignment in networked organizations, we need a maturity model that allows collaborating organizations to assess the current state of alignment and take appropriate action to improve it where needed. In this paper we propose the first version of such a model, which we derive from various alignment models and theories

Validating adequacy and suitability of business-IT alignment criteria in an inter-enterprise maturity model

Aligning requirements of a business with its information technology is currently a major issue in enterprise computing. Existing literature indicates important criteria to judge the level of alignment between business and IT within a single enterprise. However, identifying such criteria in an inter-enterprise setting – or re-thinking the existing ones – is hardly addressed at all. Business-IT alignment in such settings poses new challenges, as in inter-enterprise collaborations, alignment is driven by economic processes instead of centralized decision-making processes. In our research, we develop a maturity model for business-IT alignment in inter-enterprise settings that takes this difference into account. In this paper, we report on a multi-method approach we devised to confront the validation of the business-IT alignment criteria that we included in the maturity model. As independent feedback is critical for our validation, we used a focus group session and a case study as instruments to take the first step in validating the business-IT alignment criteria. We present how we applied our approach, what we learnt, and what the implications were for our model

Considering Structural Properties of Inter-organizational Network Fragments during Business-IT Alignment

Value exchange models can be used to reason about possible networked business constellations. Such inter-organizational business settings are determined in most cases solely from a financial point of view, i.e. by assessing the economic sustainability of the constellation. In this paper we discuss also other criteria that are relevant and should additionally be considered, namely the structural properties of the inter-organizational constellation itself. The multitude of possible interorganizational business constellations – and underlying systems constellations respectively – makes it a necessary requirement to split such constellations into recurring structural patterns, which we call fragments. The structural properties are helping the designer to reason about quality related issues of the inter-organizational network, and may have an influence on design choices to be made. The paper suggests to design new e-business constellations not only on the basis of financial criteria, but to consider also quality issues of the inter-organizational network

Enterprise Model Library for Business-IT-Alignment

The knowledge of the world is passed on through libraries. Accordingly, domain expertise and experiences should also be transferred within an enterprise by a knowledge base. Therefore, models are an established medium to describe good practices for complex systems, processes, and interconnections. However, there is no structured and detailed approach for a design of an enterprise model library. The objective of this work is the reference architecture of a repository for models with function of reuse. It includes the design of the data structure for filing, the processes for administration and possibilities for usage. Our approach enables consistent mapping of requirements into models via meta-data attributes. Furthermore, the adaptation of reference architectures in specific use cases as well as a reconciliation of interrelationships is enabled. A case study with industry demonstrates the practical benefits of reusing work already done. It provides an organization with systematic access to specifications, standards and guidelines. Thus, further development is accelerated and supported in a structured manner, while complexity remains controllable. The presented approach enriches various enterprise architecture frameworks. It provides benefits for development based on models