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Enterprise Architecture Institutionalization: A Tale of Two Cases

The purpose of this research is to examine why organizations with similar objectives and environments at the beginning obtain different outcomes when implementing enterprise architecture (EA) projects and how EA institutionalization process occurs. We conduct a qualitative multiple-case study using the lens of institutional theory through the analysis of intra-organization relations. The results show that the institutional logic of stakeholders can drive EA projects in different directions during the process of EA institutionalization, and thus organizations obtain different project outcomes ultimately. We contribute by extending the knowledge on EA institutionalization from a micro-level perspective, understanding and explaining how the organizational structure was shaped and influenced by stakeholders’ relations, as well as providing insight into stakeholders’ behaviors and activities during the process of EA institutionalization so that practitioners may improve the success rate of EA projects, particularly in the public sector.

Modeling Contextual Concerns in Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise Architecture approaches are used to provide rigorous descriptions of the organization-wide environment, manage the alignment of deployed services to the organization’s mission, end ensure a clear separation of the concerns addressed in an architecture. Thus, an effective Enterprise Architecture approach assists in the management of relations and dependencies of any components of the organization environment and supports the integration and evolution of the architecture. However, the quality of that approach is strongly influenced by the precision of the architecture context description, a fact which is not always recognized. This paper focuses on the architecture context description and addresses the gap between the stakeholders’concerns and the resulting architecture. Based on a combination of established references and standards, we show how an explicit integration of the architecture context into the architecture model improves the linking of concerns and key elements of the architecture vision. We apply our approach to a subject of increasing concern in the Information Systems area: longevity of information. Digital preservation is an interdisciplinary problem, but existent initiatives address it in a very domain-centric way, making it impossible to integrate documented knowledge into an overall organization architecture. We analyze several references and models and derive a description of the architecture context and a capability model that supports incremental development through an explicit distinction between systems and their capabilities. The presented approach allows not just any organization to assess their current digital preservation awareness and evolve their architectures to address this challenge, but in particular demonstrates the added value of an explicit architecture context model in an Enterprise Architecture approach.

An Exploration of Enterprise Architecture Research

Management of the enterprise architecture has become increasingly recognized as a crucial part of both business and IT management. Still, a common understanding and methodological consistency seems far from being developed. Acknowledging the significant role of research in moving the development process along, this article employs different bibliometric methods, complemented by an extensive qualitative interpretation of the research field, to provide a unique overview of the enterprise architecture literature. After answering our research questions about the collaboration via co-authorships, the intellectual structure of the research field and its most influential works, and the principal themes of research, we propose an agenda for future research based on the findings from the above analyses and their comparison to empirical insights from the literature. In particular, our study finds a considerable degree of co-authorship clustering and a positive impact of the extent of co-authorship on the diffusion of works on enterprise architecture. In addition, this article identifies three major research streams and shows that research to date has revolved around specific themes, while some of high practical relevance receive minor attention. Hence, the contribution of our study is manifold and offers support for researchers and practitioners alike.

Model-enabled design and engineering of organisations and their enterprises

This editorial is concerned with the need for an integrated approach to the design and engineering of organisations and their enterprises. Organisational Design originates from the organisational sciences, while the notion of Enterprise Engineering results from the engineering sciences (most notably information systems engineering, business (process) engineering, business process optimisation, and enterprise architecture). The Organisational Design and Enterprise Engineering journal (ODEE) is built on the premise that there should not be an either-or relation between Organisational Design and Enterprise Engineering, but rather an integrated approach that brings out the best of the two. A driver for the creation of the journal was the observation that the either-or mindset was (and still is) a major obstacle to the development of organisational thinking, and that this artificial divide must be abolished. In achieving more integration between Organisational Design and Enterprise Engineering, we suggest to take a model-enabled approach, where models should act as boundary objects between the social processes involved in organisational design processes, and the more analytical and rational side of enterprise engineering.

Collaborative Business Process Management – A Literature-based Analysis of Methods for Supporting Model Understandability

Due to the growing amount of cooperative business scenarios, collaborative Business Process Management (cBPM) has emerged. The increased number of stakeholders with minor expertise in process modeling leads to a high relevance of model understandability in cBPM contexts. Despite extensive works in the research fields of cBPM and model understandability in BPM, there is no analysis and comprehensive overview of methods supporting process model understandability in cBPM scenarios. To address this research gap, this paper presents the results of a literature review. The paper identifies concepts for supporting model understandability in BPM, provides an overview of methods implementing these concepts, and discusses the methods’ applicability in cBPM. The four concepts process model transformation, process model visualization, process model description, and modeling support are introduced. Subsequently, 69 methods are classified and discussed in the context of cBPM. Results contribute to revealing existing academic voids and can guide practitioners in cBPM scenarios.

Three Schools of Thought on Enterprise Architecture

Three schools of thought on enterprise architecture exist, each with its own belief system (definitions, concerns, assumptions, and limitations). A novel taxonomy of these schools creates a starting point for resolving terminological challenges to help establish enterprise architecture as a discipline.