Janne J. Korhonen

Research paradigms and topics in Enterprise Engineering analysis of recent conferences and workshops

Enterprise Engineering (EE) is about purposeful design of enterprises and their transformative activities. It is an interdisciplinary domain, which draws largely on information systems and organizational science. Not unlike these fields, EE would benefit from a variety of research approaches to study the engineering of socio-technical systems. To analyze the prevalence of different research paradigms and the composition of research topics in the EE field, we examined 115 research papers in the field as presented in four pertinent conferences in 2009-2013: the Practice-Driven Research on Enterprise Transformation (PRET), Enterprise Engineering Working Conference (EEWC) as well as relevant tracks in the Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems (MCIS) and in the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS). As per this analysis, the social aspect seems to be under-investigated and the interpretive paradigm under-represented in the EE research, while there seems to be a bias towards technical focus and the functionalist paradigm. The analysis ascertained the need for further evolvement of the EE discipline through more attention to social aspects and a more balanced variety of research approaches. We view that this will balance the course of advancing EE theories with the integration of gathered insights. With this paper, we want to instill a debate on the need for alternative research paradigms and for research on social aspects in the field of EE.

Aligning Alignment with Strategic Context: A Literature Review

The alignment of business and IT has been a persistent topic of discussion in the past decades. As information systems have evolved from an administrative support function to an integral part of business fabric, the classic “internal” perspective adopted by the bulk of alignment research falls short in accounting for the dynamic business network context and continuous evolution with the environment. The information systems planning and strategy discourse should transcend the notion of “alignment” and bring out the strategy-shaping role of IT. This paper presents a classification of business–IT alignment approaches vis-a-vis respective schools of thought in strategic management. Both disciplines are seen to co-evolve with the increasingly complex “strategic context”. The approach is meant to help contextualize extant and future work in terms of underlying assumptions and thereby make more conscious statements about the practical applicability of research topics, methods and results in varying contexts. As relatively simple, static and mechanistic conceptualizations of strategy and business-IT alignment render inadequate, concepts such as dynamic capabilities, co-evolution and organizational ambidexterity represent a more adaptive and more encompassing approach to make sense of the increasingly complex strategic context.

Architects' Perceptions on EA Use -- An Empirical Study

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is increasingly being utilized by organizations as an approach to manage the complexity of business processes, information systems and technical infrastructure. Although EA is generally regarded as an effective management tool, its full benefits can be realized only when it is incorporated into day-to-day operations of the organization. In the Finnish public sector, the use of EA has recently been mandated by the newly passed Act on Information Management Governance in Public Administration. The aim of the legislation is to achieve more efficient, integrated and cost-efficient public services. This article describes the results of a survey aimed to identify perceptions on actual EA work among Finnish public sector participants currently undertaking EA initiatives. The results highlight potential issues related to successful EA adoption.

Collaboration Infrastructure for the Learning Organization

Human Interaction Management (HIM) is a holistic theory of human collaborative work that provides management principles and patterns for business processes focused on knowledge work. The Human Interaction Management System (HIMS) is the associated software technology for process design, execution and management. Goal-Oriented Organization Design (GOOD) is the associated change management methodology. In this paper, we suggest that HIM, the HIMS, and GOOD provide the basis for a collaboration infrastructure that is conducive to the Learning Organization and that exemplifies good socio-technical design.

Enterprise Modeling Facilitating Business and IT Alignment Along the Social Dimension: Stakeholder Intentions for Model-Based Communication and Coordination

Business -- IT alignment calls for coordination between IT and business (non-IT) parts of an organization along different dimensions: strategic, structural, social, and cultural. The focus of this conceptual paper is on the social dimension of alignment -- the mutual understanding of business and IT stakeholders on the business and IT objectives and activities. In the face of an increasingly complex strategic context, growing coordination needs must be matched with respective coordination capabilities. We argue that business -- IT alignment at different organizational levels and for different stakeholders requires qualitatively different coordination capabilities, which pose distinct demands for the use of enterprise models. Using 4EM as an example, we investigate how enterprise models support these coordination capabilities as well as which intentions different IT and non-IT stakeholders have for enterprise modeling at different organizational levels.

Enterprise Architecture for Digital Transformation

Digital transformation requires an altogether new institutional logic and effective response at a requisite organizational level. Sensing and seizing fleeting market opportunities and reconfiguring the business in line with the shifting value proposition requires increasingly specialized resources, more dynamic capabilities, and in-built resilience in the face of change. While Enterprise Architecture (EA) has been suggested to facilitate enterprise transformation, the focus has traditionally been on process standardization and integration rather than on continuous adaptation to the changing business and technological landscape. For EA to have a desired impact, more adaptive conceptualizations of EA that address the requirements of the new digital environment are called for. In this conceptual paper, we explore the implications of digital transformation on enterprise architecture. In particular, we note that existing approaches to EA address integration and coherence within a single organization but typically fall short in the face of complexities pertaining to digital ecosystems. We suggest a vertical typology of organizational capabilities and postulate that todays digital environment increasingly requires adaptive capabilities that transcend the traditional notion of dynamic capabilities. We then investigate how EA can help build flexibility and resilience in the organization.

Degrees of Change in Enterprises

Enterprise change can be seen to have different degrees, each of which is progressively wider in scope and different in nature, varies in type of intervention, and absorbs an increasing amount of environmental complexity. In this chapter, three degrees of enterprise change are identified. The first degree of change is about restructuring in an operational scope with focus on reliability, cost containment, and efficiency. The second degree is broader in scope, more dynamic in nature, and focused on value creation through reengineering. The third degree of change is complex, strategic, and aimed at fundamental rethinking and value innovation. It is argued that each successive degree of change addresses a progressively more complex environmental context and calls for increasingly developed information technology capability.