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PublicationDynamics of Control Mechanisms in Enterprise Architecture Management: A Sensemaking Perspective( 2018-12-13)Enterprise architecture management (EAM) has long been considered a governance means to impose enterprise-wide objectives to local information systems development projects. This perspective on EAM inevitably brings about formal control mechanisms with the aim of enforcing enterprise-wide objectives in a top-down fashion. This study takes a complementary perspective by investigating the portfolio of control mechanisms with and beyond formal control mechanisms. We examine control portfolios and their dynamics over time. We employ control theory to capture the portfolio of control mechanisms, and an organizational sensemaking perspective, to capture its dynamics. The longitudinal analysis of a financial service company over a decade reveals that EAM’s portfolio of control mechanisms emerges in an ongoing sensemaking process. In this process, various stakeholders continuously interpret cues in their environment and take actions in response to these cues. Further, we demonstrate that control portfolios are constantly (re)configured, through different combinations of formal and informal mechanisms.
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PublicationIntroducing a Coordination Perspective to Enterprise Architecture Management Research(IEEE Computer Society, 2017-10-10)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.
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PublicationA Learning Perspective on Enterprise Architecture Management(Association for Information Systems, 2016-12-11)
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PublicationDesigning an Artifact for Informal Control in Enterprise Architecture Management( 2019-12-16)
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PublicationTheories to Understand the Dynamic Nature of Enterprise Architecture(IEE Computer Society, 2018-10-16)Understanding and dealing with the dynamic nature of Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a key challenge in successfully guiding its long-term evolution. While a considerable number of publications offer prescriptive knowledge on the design of Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM), explanations and descriptions of the dynamic nature of EA are rare. This is surprising, as an improved understanding on the dynamic nature of EA could enhance the tools and guidelines used in EAM. This paper aims at systematically identifying, discussing and comparing theories that have been applied to better to understand, explain and deal with the dynamic nature of EA. Based on a literature review, five distinct theories are identified and analyzed through a framework covering the main aspects of dynamics in EA. The resulting overview may support academics in identifying suitable theoretical lenses and motivates for a multi-theoretical perspective on the dynamic nature of EA.
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PublicationIntroducing Archetype Theory to Information Systems Research: A Literature Review and Call for Future Research(Association for Information Systems, 2017-02-12)Studying organizational configurations on the one hand and the dynamics of organizational change on the other hand are dominant topics of interest in the information systems (IS) discipline. Studies in each of these research streams take advantage of various well-established theoretical lenses from reference disciplines such as management science. In this study, we take a closer look at archetype theory, which combines these two research streams and which eventually provides a dynamic perspective on organizational configurations. Through a literature review, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of archetype theory (i.e., its constitutive constructs and assumptions) as well as on its application in studying dynamics of configurations. In introducing archetype theory to IS research, we discuss the explanatory power of the respective theory for investigating IS phenomena as well as the methodological and theoretical implications of employing the theory in IS research.
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PublicationEnterprise Architecture Assimilation: An Institutional Perspective(Association for Information Systems, 2018)
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PublicationA Case Study of Stakeholder Concerns on EAM(IEEE Computer Society, 2017-10-10)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.
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PublicationArchitectural Coordination of Enterprise TransformationArchitectural coordination of enterprise transformation (ACET) integrates and aggregates local information and provides different viewpoints, such as financial, structural, or skill perspectives to the respective stakeholder groups, with the aim of creating a consensus and shared understanding of an enterprise transformation among the stakeholders. Its core purpose is to inform decision-makers with both local and enterprise-wide concerns so that the overall transformation goals can be successfully pursued, i.e. reducing inconsistencies and including local decisions in the overarching goals. This book consists of three major parts, framed by an introduction and a summary. To enable readers to gain a better understanding of the issues involved in real-world enterprise transformations as well as the possible role of architectural coordination and the associated challenges, Part I provides an analysis of status quo of corporate ACET practice. Part II then continues with an exploration of the challenges facing ACET from a theoretical perspective. Based on these challenges, Part III then presents a collection of components for a possible design theory for ACET. Instead of an integrated method, this collection of components constitutes method fragments that can be arranged in different ways depending on the perspective taken, the actual enterprise architecture management approach, the enterprise transformation type and the transformation’s context.