Context: Enterprise architecture (EA) is a description of an enterprise from an integrated busine... more Context: Enterprise architecture (EA) is a description of an enterprise from an integrated business and IT perspective. EA is typically defined as a comprehensive blueprint of an organization covering its business, data, applications and technology domains and consisting of diverse EA artifacts. EA has numerous potential stakeholders and usage scenarios in organizations. However, the existing EA literature does not offer any consistent theories explaining the practical roles of individual EA artifacts and fails to explain how exactly different types of EA artifacts are used in practice. Objective: This study intends to explore the roles of different EA artifacts in organizations and develop a generic descriptive theory explaining these roles. The theory purports to cover various properties of EA artifacts as well as the relationships between them. Method: The research method of this study follows two consecutive phases: theory construction and theory validation. First, theory construction is based on the qualitative in-depth analysis of five case organizations with established EA practices. Next, theory validation includes confirmatory interviews with ten EA experts. Results: This study develops a descriptive theory explaining the roles of different EA artifacts in an EA practice. The resulting theory defines six general types of EA artifacts (Considerations, Standards, Visions, Landscapes, Outlines and Designs, CSVLOD) and explains their type-specific practical roles, including their informational contents, typical usage, ensuing organizational benefits and interrelationships with each other. Conclusions: This study presents the first systematic theory describing the usage of EA artifacts in organizations. Our theory facilitates better theoretical understanding of the concept of EA and also provides evidence-based solutions to the commonly reported practical problems with EA. This study suggests that the EA research community should focus on studying individual EA artifacts instead of studying EA in general and calls for further research on EA artifacts and their usage as part of EA practices.
In the heavy engineering industrial sector numerous technical standards, ISO (International Stand... more In the heavy engineering industrial sector numerous technical standards, ISO (International Standards Organisation) in particular, exist which invariably contain a glossary of terms providing definition within the context of the standard. However, there is a high level of ambiguity surrounding common terminology and limited consistency across these standards. Our case study company Silcar Pty Limited (Silcar) has recognised the opportunity to strategically expand its business into the provision of high value services to assist clients with the management of large and complex technical assets in heavy industry and essential service utilities. The strategic development of a knowledge management capability enables Silcar to take-on larger scale, higher value added and more flexible asset performance management propositions across a diverse range of industry, client and geographical situations. This research paper explores the concepts that support this capability and discusses the appr...
PurposeInformation architecture (IA) is often understood as a comprehensive master plan for organ... more PurposeInformation architecture (IA) is often understood as a comprehensive master plan for organizational data assets and is widely considered as an essential component of broader enterprise architecture (EA). However, the status and practical operationalization of IA still remain largely unclear. In order to clarify these questions, this paper investigates what instruments related to IA are actually employed in organizations.Design/methodology/approachThis study builds on the analysis of architecture practices in 27 diverse organizations. Based on the semi-structured interviews with architects and the examination of utilized architectural documents, we explore IA-related instruments with their usage scenarios that have been adopted in the studied organizations.FindingsThe authors identify 12 distinct instruments used in the industry and analyze in detail their features, properties and relationships. This paper analysis shows that these instruments are rather diverse and largely in...
There is a fundamental shift in the economic environment of developed nations away from tangible ... more There is a fundamental shift in the economic environment of developed nations away from tangible manufactured goods towards value added services. This has facilitated the emergence of knowledge management as a business discipline at the turn of the twentieth century. A review of the literature developed the knowledge management process model. This model identified the processes of generation of knowledge, representation of knowledge, access to knowledge and transfer of knowledge as dependent variables. Further, the independent variables of organisational structure, organisational culture and technology infrastructure were identified as inhibitors or enablers of the knowledge management process. A number of success factors related to organisational culture that inhibit or enable knowledge management were identified as being: responsibility for knowledge; knowledge resources; knowledge performance measures and staff development. Success factors related to organisational culture were i...
Enterprise architecture (EA) is a description of an enterprise from an integrated business and IT... more Enterprise architecture (EA) is a description of an enterprise from an integrated business and IT perspective consisting of multiple diverse documents, or artifacts. However, the existing EA literature does not offer any comprehensive theories explaining the practical usage and roles of individual EA artifacts constituting EA. To address this gap, based on five case studies of established EA practices and confirmatory interviews with ten EA experts, we develop a descriptive theory explaining the roles of different EA artifacts in an EA practice. The resulting theory articulates six general types of EA artifacts (Considerations, Designs, Landscapes, Outlines, Standards and Visions) and explains their type-specific practical roles, including their informational contents, typical usage scenarios and ensuing organizational benefits. This paper presents the first available theory describing the usage of EA artifacts in organizations and suggests that EA scholars should switch their focus...
Business-IT alignment describes the consistency between the business strategy and processes and I... more Business-IT alignment describes the consistency between the business strategy and processes and IT strategy and processes. Enterprise architecture (EA) is a collection of artifacts describing various aspects of an organization from an integrated business and IT perspective intended to facilitate information systems planning and improve business-IT alignment. Effective engagement between business and IT stakeholders has long been recognized as one of the major critical success factors of EA practice enabling the realization of business-IT alignment which in turn, contributes to higher organizational performance. However, the stakeholder engagement in EA practice received only limited attention in the literature and factors that facilitate or impede effective engagement are still unclear. To address this gap, this research-in-progress paper explores in detail how organizations enhance stakeholder engagement in EA practice to achieve business-IT alignment. Based on an ongoing in-depth ...
Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), 2020
Enterprise architecture (EA) is a set of documents describing various aspects of an organization ... more Enterprise architecture (EA) is a set of documents describing various aspects of an organization from an integrated business and IT perspective. EA facilitates information systems planning and helps improve business and IT alignment. Traditionally, the concept of EA was closely coupled with the business strategy and mainstream EA methodologies recommend starting the EA effort from documenting the business strategy and then using it as the basis for defining the required structure of information systems. This conceptual paper discusses in detail four practical problems with the business strategy that question its value as the basis for EA initiatives. The presence of these problems challenges one of the most cherished beliefs or even axioms of the EA discipline: that EA should be based on the business strategy. This paper raises a number of questions regarding the information inputs necessary for the EA effort and calls for further research in respective directions.
Context: Enterprise architecture (EA) is a description of an enterprise from an integrated busine... more Context: Enterprise architecture (EA) is a description of an enterprise from an integrated business and IT perspective. EA is typically defined as a comprehensive blueprint of an organization covering its business, data, applications and technology domains and consisting of diverse EA artifacts. EA has numerous potential stakeholders and usage scenarios in organizations. However, the existing EA literature does not offer any consistent theories explaining the practical roles of individual EA artifacts and fails to explain how exactly different types of EA artifacts are used in practice. Objective: This study intends to explore the roles of different EA artifacts in organizations and develop a generic descriptive theory explaining these roles. The theory purports to cover various properties of EA artifacts as well as the relationships between them. Method: The research method of this study follows two consecutive phases: theory construction and theory validation. First, theory construction is based on the qualitative in-depth analysis of five case organizations with established EA practices. Next, theory validation includes confirmatory interviews with ten EA experts. Results: This study develops a descriptive theory explaining the roles of different EA artifacts in an EA practice. The resulting theory defines six general types of EA artifacts (Considerations, Standards, Visions, Landscapes, Outlines and Designs, CSVLOD) and explains their type-specific practical roles, including their informational contents, typical usage, ensuing organizational benefits and interrelationships with each other. Conclusions: This study presents the first systematic theory describing the usage of EA artifacts in organizations. Our theory facilitates better theoretical understanding of the concept of EA and also provides evidence-based solutions to the commonly reported practical problems with EA. This study suggests that the EA research community should focus on studying individual EA artifacts instead of studying EA in general and calls for further research on EA artifacts and their usage as part of EA practices.
In the heavy engineering industrial sector numerous technical standards, ISO (International Stand... more In the heavy engineering industrial sector numerous technical standards, ISO (International Standards Organisation) in particular, exist which invariably contain a glossary of terms providing definition within the context of the standard. However, there is a high level of ambiguity surrounding common terminology and limited consistency across these standards. Our case study company Silcar Pty Limited (Silcar) has recognised the opportunity to strategically expand its business into the provision of high value services to assist clients with the management of large and complex technical assets in heavy industry and essential service utilities. The strategic development of a knowledge management capability enables Silcar to take-on larger scale, higher value added and more flexible asset performance management propositions across a diverse range of industry, client and geographical situations. This research paper explores the concepts that support this capability and discusses the appr...
PurposeInformation architecture (IA) is often understood as a comprehensive master plan for organ... more PurposeInformation architecture (IA) is often understood as a comprehensive master plan for organizational data assets and is widely considered as an essential component of broader enterprise architecture (EA). However, the status and practical operationalization of IA still remain largely unclear. In order to clarify these questions, this paper investigates what instruments related to IA are actually employed in organizations.Design/methodology/approachThis study builds on the analysis of architecture practices in 27 diverse organizations. Based on the semi-structured interviews with architects and the examination of utilized architectural documents, we explore IA-related instruments with their usage scenarios that have been adopted in the studied organizations.FindingsThe authors identify 12 distinct instruments used in the industry and analyze in detail their features, properties and relationships. This paper analysis shows that these instruments are rather diverse and largely in...
There is a fundamental shift in the economic environment of developed nations away from tangible ... more There is a fundamental shift in the economic environment of developed nations away from tangible manufactured goods towards value added services. This has facilitated the emergence of knowledge management as a business discipline at the turn of the twentieth century. A review of the literature developed the knowledge management process model. This model identified the processes of generation of knowledge, representation of knowledge, access to knowledge and transfer of knowledge as dependent variables. Further, the independent variables of organisational structure, organisational culture and technology infrastructure were identified as inhibitors or enablers of the knowledge management process. A number of success factors related to organisational culture that inhibit or enable knowledge management were identified as being: responsibility for knowledge; knowledge resources; knowledge performance measures and staff development. Success factors related to organisational culture were i...
Enterprise architecture (EA) is a description of an enterprise from an integrated business and IT... more Enterprise architecture (EA) is a description of an enterprise from an integrated business and IT perspective consisting of multiple diverse documents, or artifacts. However, the existing EA literature does not offer any comprehensive theories explaining the practical usage and roles of individual EA artifacts constituting EA. To address this gap, based on five case studies of established EA practices and confirmatory interviews with ten EA experts, we develop a descriptive theory explaining the roles of different EA artifacts in an EA practice. The resulting theory articulates six general types of EA artifacts (Considerations, Designs, Landscapes, Outlines, Standards and Visions) and explains their type-specific practical roles, including their informational contents, typical usage scenarios and ensuing organizational benefits. This paper presents the first available theory describing the usage of EA artifacts in organizations and suggests that EA scholars should switch their focus...
Business-IT alignment describes the consistency between the business strategy and processes and I... more Business-IT alignment describes the consistency between the business strategy and processes and IT strategy and processes. Enterprise architecture (EA) is a collection of artifacts describing various aspects of an organization from an integrated business and IT perspective intended to facilitate information systems planning and improve business-IT alignment. Effective engagement between business and IT stakeholders has long been recognized as one of the major critical success factors of EA practice enabling the realization of business-IT alignment which in turn, contributes to higher organizational performance. However, the stakeholder engagement in EA practice received only limited attention in the literature and factors that facilitate or impede effective engagement are still unclear. To address this gap, this research-in-progress paper explores in detail how organizations enhance stakeholder engagement in EA practice to achieve business-IT alignment. Based on an ongoing in-depth ...
Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), 2020
Enterprise architecture (EA) is a set of documents describing various aspects of an organization ... more Enterprise architecture (EA) is a set of documents describing various aspects of an organization from an integrated business and IT perspective. EA facilitates information systems planning and helps improve business and IT alignment. Traditionally, the concept of EA was closely coupled with the business strategy and mainstream EA methodologies recommend starting the EA effort from documenting the business strategy and then using it as the basis for defining the required structure of information systems. This conceptual paper discusses in detail four practical problems with the business strategy that question its value as the basis for EA initiatives. The presence of these problems challenges one of the most cherished beliefs or even axioms of the EA discipline: that EA should be based on the business strategy. This paper raises a number of questions regarding the information inputs necessary for the EA effort and calls for further research in respective directions.
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Papers by Rod Dilnutt