Marne de Vries

Exploring the future of enterprise architecture : a Zachman perspective

Abstract Today, and for the foreseeable future, organizations will face ever-increasing levels of complexity and uncertainty. Many believe that enterprise architecture (EA) will help organizations address such difficult terrain by guiding the design of adaptive and resilient enterprises and their information systems. This paper presents the “Grand Challenges” that we believe will challenge organizations in the future and need to be addressed by enterprise architecture. As a first step in using enterprise architecture as a solution for overcoming identified challenges, the Zachman Enterprise Architecture Framework is used to guide and structure the discussion. The paper presents the “Grand Challenges” and discusses promising theories and models for addressing them. In addition, current advances in the field of enterprise architecture that have begun to address the challenges will be presented. In conclusion, final thoughts on the future of enterprise architecture as a research field and a profession are offered.

A framework for the identification of reusable processes

A significant challenge that faces IT management is that of aligning the IT infrastructure of an enterprise with its business goals and practices, also called business-IT alignment. A particular business-IT alignment approach, the foundation for execution approach, was well-accepted by practitioners due to a novel construct, called the operating model (OM). The OM supports business-IT alignment by directing the coherent and consistent design of business and IT components. Even though the OM is a popular construct, our previous research detected the need to enhance the OM, since the OM does not specify methods to identify opportunities for data sharing and process reuse in an enterprise. In this article, we address one of the identified deficiencies in the OM. We present a process reuse identification framework (PRIF) that could be used to enhance the OM in identifying process reuse opportunities in an enterprise. We applied design research to develop PRIF as an artefact, where the development process of PRIF was facilitated by means of the business-IT alignment model (BIAM). We demonstrate the use of the PRIF as well as report on the results of evaluating PRIF in terms of its usefulness and ease-of-use, using experimentation and a questionnaire.

Extending the enterprise evolution contextualisation model

ABSTRACT Enterprise engineering (EE) emerged as a new discipline to encourage comprehensive and consistent enterprise design. Since EE is multidisciplinary, various researchers study enterprises from different perspectives, which resulted in a plethora of applicable literature and terminology, but without shared meaning. Previous research specifically focused on the fragmentation of knowledge for designing and aligning the information and communication technology (ICT) subsystem of the enterprise in order to support the business organisation subsystem of the enterprise. As a solution for this fragmented landscape, a business-IT alignment model (BIAM) was developed inductively from existing business-IT alignment approaches. Since most of the existing alignment frameworks addressed the alignment between the ICT subsystem and the business organisation subsystem, BIAM also focused on the alignment between these two subsystems. Yet, the emerging EE discipline intends to address a broader scope of design, evident in the existing approaches that incorporate a broader scope of design/alignment/governance. A need was identified to address the knowledge fragmentation of the EE knowledge base by adapting BIAM to an enterprise evolution contextualisation model (EECM), to contextualise a broader set of approaches, as identified by Lapalme. The main contribution of this article is the incremental development and evaluation of EECM. We also present guiding indicators/prerequisites for applying EECM as a contextualisation tool.

Towards an enterprise evolution contextualisation model

Enterprises that exist today came into being mostly in an ad-hoc manner rather than being systematically designed. A piece-meal design of enterprise components led to a lack of coherence and consistency between numerous components of the enterprise. At present, both researchers and practitioners acknowledge the need for an overall view of the enterprise, as well as a new paradigm to understand and redesign the enterprise.

The nature of the enterprise engineering discipline

Enterprise engineering originated as a practice with most publications focusing on the practical facets without the underlying scientific foundation. Foundational works emerged from different authors in recent years, including Dietz, Hoogervorst and Giachetti. According to Gregor, the bodies of knowledge or theories encompassed in a discipline need to address questions related to four classes namely: the domain, structural or ontological, epistemological, and socio-political. As a departure point for setting a research agenda for EE, we argue that the four classes of questions could also serve as a basis to determine an EE research agenda. In this paper we argue that a research agenda for EE should start with the first class of questions, concerning the domain of the discipline and suggest that an existing model, the Enterprise Evolution Contextualisation Model (EECM), could be used to define the domain of the EE discipline.

Towards a holistic customer experience management framework for enterprises

Presented at the 27th annual conference of the Southern African Institute for Industrial Engineering (SAIIE), held from 27-29 October 2016 at Stonehenge in Africa, North West, South Africa

A farm site development method: Creating a roadmap towards site saturation

Agricultural engineering applies existing knowledge to provide for humanity’s greatest need: food for survival. This article presents an opportunity to augment existing agricultural engineering practices with industrial engineering techniques, with the aim of encouraging financial control during the expansion of assets on farms. Facility planning techniques are combined with a well-known enterprise engineering technique, the transformation roadmap, to develop a Farm Site Development Method (FSDM). The purpose of the FSDM is to provide method guidance in developing a facilities master plan to evolve farm facilities in a phased approach towards a future/saturation state. The article also presents an evaluation of the FSDM, via a practical demonstration at Waterfall Farm.

The Enterprise Engineering Domain

Enterprise engineering (EE) is emerging as a new discipline to address the design of the enterprise in a holistic way. Although existing knowledge on enterprise design is dispersed and fragmented across different disciplines and approaches, previous research presented an enterprise evolution contextualisation model (EECM) as a representation of the existing EE body of knowledge. Since EECM was developed inductively from existing design/alignment/governance approaches, EECM was also proposed as a representation of the EE domain within the emerging EE discipline. We used a questionnaire to gather the views of EE and enterprise architecture (EA) researchers and practitioners on the EE domain. The main contributions of this article include: (1) the validation results of the proposed boundaries of the EE domain, and (2) a prioritisation of the phenomena of interest and core problems or topics of interest within the EE domain.

Modelling Electricity Generation from Sugarcane Production System Using Systems Dynamics

Current global energy systems have proven unsustainable amid effects of the cumulative greenhouse emissions and climate change. The drive towards a low carbon future has precipitated the consideration of alternative energy sources. Among these sugar cane, grown widely in African countries, is known to be one of the most productive species in terms of its conversion of solar energy to chemical potential energy. However the supply of feedstock is limited to the harvest or crop season. More-so the sugarcane industry is faced with a plethora of threats and challenges. This paper seeks to broaden the understanding of the complexity in bio-electricity generation through a systems dynamics model. The model provides certain considerations for optimization of the energy value in sugarcane production systems. Among these is the use of trash as additive feedstock, and improvement in feedstock productions through enhanced sugarcane production systems. Apart from illustrating some of the policy considerations on land use change, sugarcane production, and improved technological efficiency the paper provides the effect on emission avoidance.

Demonstrating Approach Design Principles during the Development of a DEMO-based Enterprise Engineering Approach.

Enterprise engineering (EE) aims to address several phenomena in the evolution of an enterprise. One prominent phenomenon is the inability of the enterprise as a complex socio-technical system to adapt to rapidly-changing environments. In response to this phenomenon, many enterprise design approaches (with their own methodologies, frameworks, and modelling languages) emerged, but with little empirical evidence about their effectiveness. Furthermore, research indicates that multiple enterprise design approaches are used concurrently in industry, with each approach focusing on a sub-set of stakeholder concerns. The proliferating design approaches do not necessarily explicate their conditional use in terms of contextual prerequisites and demarcated design scope; and this also impairs their evaluation. Previous work suggested eleven design principles that would guide approach designers when they design or enhance an enterprise design approach. The design principles ensure that researchers contribute to the systematic growth of the EE knowledge base. This article provides a demonstration of the eleven principles during the development of a DEMO-based enterprise engineering approach, as well as a discussion to reflect on the usefulness of the principles.