David Raber

Situational Business Intelligence Maturity Models: An Exploratory Analysis

Maturity models (MMs) are an established instrument to identify strengths and weaknesses of certain domains. Having constructed such a maturity model for the domain of Business Intelligence (BI) in prior research, we explore the influence of contextual factors on the evolution of BI maturity in organizations in this paper. Therefore, four different BI maturity models were constructed on the basis of two contextual factors company size and environment. Analyzing the four models, we found that both factors strongly affect the evolution of BI maturity in organizations.

A Conceptual Framework for Analysing Enterprise Engineering Methodologies

For the design and engineering of enterprises, several methodologies are available that successfully address certain aspects of design problems in enterprises or certain domains. In real-world design problems it is essential to choose the right means to reach the desired ends. Often it is not apparent which methodology is best chosen in order to reach desired ends. Additionally, real-world design problems often require several such methodologies to be combined because multiple aspects have to be covered and/or the problem combines characteristics of several domains. In order to allow for a systematically understanding and comparison of methodologies and for a facilitation of their composition (if necessary), we propose a general conceptual framework. The framework allows analysing the essential concepts and constituent parts of enterprise engineering methodologies. The resulting analysis supports decisions making concerning which methodology or which combinations of methodologies to apply to the given design problem. To demonstrate its usefulness, we first analyse the concepts and building blocks of two design and engineering methodologies on that basis. Second, we show how these two methodologies, which are based on very similar concepts -- as resulted from the analysis by applying the conceptual framework -- can be combined in order to derive at a complete solution for a given design problem.

Closing the Loop: Evaluating a Measurement Instrument for Maturity Model Design

To support the systematic improvement of business intelligence (BI) in organizations, we have designed and refined a BI maturity model (BIMM) and a respective measurement instrument (MI) in prior research. In this study, we devise an evaluation strategy, and evaluate the validity of the designed measurement artifact. Through cluster analysis of maturity assessments of 92 organizations, we identify characteristic BI maturity scenarios and representative cases for the relevant scenarios. For evaluating the designed instrument, we compare its results with insights obtained from in-depth interviews in the respective companies. A close match between our models quantitative maturity assessments and the maturity levels from the qualitative analyses indicates that the MI correctly assesses BI maturity. The applied evaluation approach has the potential to be re-used in other design research studies where the validity of utility claims is often hard to prove.