Now showing 1 - 10 of 13
  • Publication
    Introducing a Coordination Perspective to Enterprise Architecture Management Research
    (IEEE Computer Society, 2017-10-10) ; ; ;
    Hallé, Sylvain
    ;
    Dijkman, Remco
    ;
    Lapalme, James
    Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) is a prominent discipline for purposefully guiding the complex, co-evolutionary business-IT relationships in organizations. Means to realize such guidance are, among others, mechanisms to coordinate heterogeneous and potentially conflicting stakeholder concerns. Yet, organizations face challenges to successfully leverage their EAM initiatives, often as a result of coordination mechanisms that only reach specific stakeholders or selected contexts. In the paper at hand, we aim at introducing coordination as a research lens for analyzing and designing EAM approaches. To this end, we substantiate the abstract notion of coordination through its underlying formal and informal mechanisms, which are implemented by artifacts, as well as through artifact modalities in an analysis framework. For illustrative purposes, we apply the developed analysis framework to The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF). We find informal mechanisms (lateral relations, communication, and socialization) comparably underrepresented, which limits not only coordination effects but may also limit the success of the overall EAM approach. Our findings call for an extended and more comprehensive perspective on coordination in EAM, motivating the complementarity of informal mechanisms as an avenue for future research.
  • Publication
    A Case Study of Stakeholder Concerns on EAM
    (IEEE Computer Society, 2017-10-10)
    Hacks, Simon
    ;
    ; ;
    Hallé, Sylvain
    ;
    Dijkman, Remco
    ;
    Lapalme, James
    As a result of growing complexities in business processes, information systems, and the technical infrastructure, a key challenge for enterprise architecture management (EAM) is to guide stakeholders from different hierarchical levels with heterogeneous concerns. EA deliverables, such as models or frameworks, are often highly comprehensive and standardized. However, these can hardly be applied without greater adaption. Although the literature selectively covers approaches for tailoring EA deliverables closer to the concerns of affected stakeholders, these approaches are often vague or not very differentiated. In the paper at hand, we aim at introducing a stakeholder perspective to EAM research that considers stakeholder concerns on EAM across hierarchical levels. To this end, we conduct a case study: Our results show homogenous concerns among stakeholders on EA deliverables. In turn, we found different concerns on the role of EAM in applying these deliverables, dependent on the hierarchical level of stakeholders. These findings stress the necessity for a more differentiated understanding of stakeholder concerns on EAM. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for an exemplary EAM approach.
  • Publication
    Motivation for Coordination: A Complementary Approach to Enterprise Architecture Management Research
    (IEEE, 2016-09-09) ;
    Dijkman, Remco
    ;
    Pires, Luís Ferreira
    ;
    Rinderle-Ma, Stefanie
    Scopus© Citations 5
  • Publication
    A Learning Perspective on Enterprise Architecture Management
    (Association for Information Systems, 2016-12-11) ; ; ;
    Enterprise architecture management (EAM) has long been propagated in research and practice as an approach for keeping local information systems projects in line with enterprise-wide, long-term objectives. EAM literature predominantly promotes strictly governed and centralized coordination mechanisms to achieve the promised alignment contributions. Notwithstanding the increasing maturity levels in practice, organizations still struggle with the successful establishment of EAM, mainly due to the inherent challenges of a firmly centralized approach in complex organizational settings. This study opts for cooperative learning as a theoretical lens to afford a distinctive, non-centralized conceptualization of EAM. We empirically demonstrate EAM as a stage-wise learning process in which knowledge acquisition and cooperative interactions among individuals contribute to project performance on the local level. Projects that benefit from this particular learning process, in turn, are found to significantly leverage enterprise-wide performance.
  • Publication
    Themes of Coordination in IS Reference Theories
    Due to ever-growing investments in information systems (IS) in organizations, IS literature promotes an enterprise-wide perspective to keep local, short-term investments in line with global, long-term in-tentions. One of the central discourses in realizing an enterprise-wide perspective is the necessity of coordinating IS change and development efforts across organizational units. Notwithstanding its criti-cality, there is a lack of coherent body of theory about coordination. This study hence seeks to spot-light coordination as a lens by investigating prominently used reference theories in IS that implicitly consider coordination. Through conducting thematic analysis and synthesizing the reflection of coor-dination in IS reference theories, this study identifies four theory-grounded themes of coordination namely, informing, controlling, legitimating, and socializing. The identified themes guide prospective research in investigating IS phenomena through the lens of coordination.
  • Publication
    The Institutional Logic of Harmonization: Local vs. Global Perspectives
    (Springer Nature, 2019) ; ; ; ;
    Aveiro, David
    ;
    Guizzardi, Giancarlo
    ;
    Guerreiro, Sérgio
    ;
    Guédria, Wided
    Perspectives in organizations differ to which extent information systems (IS) should be tailored towards local (e.g., business unit) needs or toward organi-zation-wide, global goals (e.g., synergies, integration). For contributing to overall IS performance success, the harmonization of different perspectives becomes essential. While many scholars have highlighted the role of IS management approaches, institutional studies argue that harmonization is not solely the result of managerial action, but a consequence of institutional pressures that guide organizational decision-making. In the paper at hand, we follow the call for adopting institutional theory on the intra-organizational level of analysis and study the logic of attaining harmoniza-tion along institutional pressures. By means of a revelatory case study, we find harmonization attained in a dynamic interplay between different institu-tional pressures. Mimetic pressures influence normative pressures, which in turn influence coercive pressures. Our findings as well as our implications for enterprise engineering guide prospective research in studying the attain-ment of harmonization through an institutional lens.
    Scopus© Citations 5
  • Publication
    A Literature Review of Coordination Mechanisms: Contrasting Organization Science and Information Systems Perspectives
    (Springer Nature, 2017) ; ; ; ;
    Aveiro, David
    ;
    Pergl, Robert
    ;
    Guizzardi, Giancarlo
    ;
    Almeida, Jose
    ;
    Magalhães, Rodrigo
    ;
    Lekkerkerk, Hans
    Information systems (IS) research has long been promoting the necessity of aligning local IS investments in organizations with their enterprise-wide objectives. One of the prominent means to realize such an alignment are mechanisms that coordinate various stakeholders in different organizational entities. Despite its prominent origins and manifold translations from organization science (OS), there is no coherent body of coordination theory. The research at hand con-ducts a literature review of coordination mechanisms to offer a more coherent understanding of coordination for prospective IS research. To this end and structured in eight categories of mechanisms, we contrast a reflection of coordination in OS and IS research. We also discuss how IS studies follow and complement OS research, outlining implications for future research.
    Scopus© Citations 2
  • Publication
    Extending CCM4DSR for Collaborative Diagnosis of Socio-Technical Problems
    (Springer, 2017-05-23) ; ; ; ; ;
    Maedche, Alexander
    ;
    Brocke, Jan vom
    ;
    Hevner, Alan
    The identification of a problem, its causes and its consequences are integral parts of designing useful solutions in Design Science Research (DSR). Many problems addressed in DSR are of a socio-technical nature, and they are collaboratively solved in multidisciplinary teams. Accordingly, analysis techniques are needed which integrate diverse perspectives of problem analysis. Colored Cognitive Mapping for DSR (CCM4DSR) is such a technique. By applying CCM4DSR to an exemplary socio-technical problem, this paper reports on observed challenges and offers four extensions to CCM4DSR. These extensions provide guidance in adequately stating the problem, considering path dependencies, explicating different stakeholder perspectives, and integrating dif-ferent perspectives through a comprehensive process.
    Scopus© Citations 6