Abstract
The emerging field of enterprise engineering provides a promising outlook for positioning relevant research. Enterprise Architecture frameworks which are frequently used in practice, but are often criticized from a research perspective, can be positioned in this field. The challenge for the enterprise engineering field is to provide a framework to improve such frameworks using a rigorous scientific approach. This paper aims to contribute to addressing this challenge by proposing components for a research framework which focuses on applying engineering insights to enterprise architecture. It first explores how current enterprise architecture frameworks handle issues relevant for engineering (i.e., complexity, change and integration). It then introduces additional components which could contribute towards a more systematic approach. These components are derived from the way the Normalized Systems Theory was developed, and successfully introduced engineering standards into the design software architecture.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Henderson, J.C., Venkatraman, N.: Strategic alignment: leveraging information technology for transforming organizations. IBM Syst. J. 32, 4–16 (1993)
Anderson, J.C., Narks, J.A.: Capturing the value of supplementary services. Harvard Business Review 73(1), 75–83 (1995)
Lehman, M.: Programs, life cycles, and laws of software evolution. Proceedings of the IEEE 68, 1060–1076 (1980)
Eisenhardt, K.M., Martin, J.A.: Dynamic capabilities: What are they? Strategic Management Journal 21(10/11), 1105–1121 (2000)
Teece, D.J., Pisano, G., Shuen, A.: Dynamic capabilities and strategic management. Strategic Management Journal 18(7), 509–533 (1997)
Maier, M.W., Emery, D., Hilliard, R.: Ansi/ieee 1471 and systems engineering. Systems Engineering 7(3), 257–270 (2004)
Sowa, J.F., Zachman, J.A.: Extending and formalizing the framework for information systems architecture. IBM Systems Journal 31(3), 590–616 (1992)
Bernus, P., Nemes, L., Smidth, G.: Handbook on Enterprise Architecture. In: International Handbooks on Information Systems. Springer (2003)
Martin, R., Robertson, E.: A comparison of frameworks for enterprise architecture modeling. In: Song, I.-Y., Liddle, S.W., Ling, T.-W., Scheuermann, P. (eds.) ER 2003. LNCS, vol. 2813, pp. 562–564. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)
Ross, J.W., Weill, P., Robertson, D.C.: Enterprise Architecture as Strategy – Creating a Foundation for Business Execution. Harvard Business School Press, Boston (2006)
Zarvic, N., Wieringa, R.J.: An integrated enterprise architecture framework for business-it alignment. In: Latour, T., Petit, M. (eds.) Proceedings of Workshops and Doctoral Consortium of the 18th International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE 2006), pp. 262–270. Namur University Press, Luxembourg (2006)
The Open Group: The open group architecture framework (togaf) version 9 (2009), http://www.opengroup.org/togaf/
Korhonen, J.J., Hiekkanen, K., Lähteenmäki, J.: Ea and it governance — a systemic approach. In: Proceedings of the European Conference on Management, Leadership and Governance (ECMLG) (2009)
Lawrence, P.R., Lorsch, J.W.: Differentiation and integration in complex organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly 12(1), 1–47 (1967)
Hicks, H.G., Gullet, C.R.: Organizations: Theory and Behaviors. McGraw-Hill, New York (1975)
Gortner, H., Mahler, J., Nicholson, J.: Organization Theory: A Public Perspective. Dorsey Press (1987)
Gregor, S., Hart, D., Martin, N.: Enterprise architectures: enablers of business strategy and is/it alignment in government. Information Technology & People 20(2), 96–120 (2007)
Schöenherr, M.: Towards a common terminology in the discipline of enterprise architecture. In: Feuerlicht, G., Lamersdorf, W. (eds.) ICSOC 2008. LNCS, vol. 5472, pp. 400–413. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)
Wegmann, A.: The systemic enterprise architecture methodology (seam) - business and it alignment for competitveness. In: International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems 2003 (ICEIS 2003), pp. 483–490 (2003)
Op ’t Land, M., Proper, E., Waage, M., Cloo, J., Steghuis, C.: Enterprise Architecture: Creating Value by Informed Governance, 1st edn. The Enterprise Engineering Series. Springer (December 2008)
Zachman, J.A.: A framework for information systems architecture. IBM Systems Journal 26(3), 276–292 (1987)
Schekkerman, J.: Trends in enterprise architecture: How are organizations progressing? Technical report, Institute For Enterprise Architecture Developments (2005)
Fatolahi, A., Shams, F.: An investigation into applying uml to the zachman framework. Information Systems Frontiers 8(2), 133–143 (2006)
Council, C.: A practical guide to federal enterprise architecture (2001)
Pereira, C.M., Sousa, P.: A method to define an enterprise architecture using the zachman framework. In: SAC 2004: Proceedings of the 2004 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, pp. 1366–1371. ACM, New York (2004)
Buckl, S., Ernst, A.M., Matthes, F., Ramacher, R., Schweda, C.M.: Using enterprise architecture management patterns to complement togaf. In: IEEE International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference, pp. 34–41. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos (2009)
Mannaert, H., Verelst, J.: Normalized Systems—Re-creating Information Technology Based on Laws for Software Evolvability, Koppa, Kermt, Belgium (2009)
Mannaert, H., Verelst, J., Ven, K.: The transformation of requirements into software primitives: Studying evolvability based on systems theoretic stability. Science of Computer Programming 76(12), 1210–1222 (2011)
Mannaert, H., Verelst, J., Ven, K.: Towards evolvable software architectures based on systems theoretic stability. Software: Practice and Experience 42(1), 89–116 (2011)
Van Nuffel, D.: Towards Designing Modular and Evolvable Business Processes. PhD thesis, University of Antwerp (2011)
Huysmans, P.: On the Feasibility of Normalized Enterprises: Applying Normalized Systems Theory to the High-Level Design of Enterprises. PhD thesis, University of Antwerp (2011)
Baldwin, C.Y., Clark, K.B.: Design Rules. The Power of Modularity, vol. 1. MIT Press Books. The MIT Press (January 2000)
Richardson, G.L., Jackson, B.M., Dickson, G.W.: A principles-based enterprise architecture: lessons from texaco and star enterprise. MIS Quarterly 14(4), 385–403 (1990)
Lindstrom, A.: On the syntax and semantics of architectural principles. In: Proceedings of the 39th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2006), vol. 8, p. 178b (2006)
Weinberg, G.M.: An Introduction to General Systems Thinking. Wiley-Interscience (1975)
Bertalanffy, L.V.: General Systems Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications. George Braziller, New York (1968)
Bunge, M.: Treatise on Basic Philosophy. Ontology II: A World of Systems, vol. 4. Reidel, Boston (1979)
Gero, J.S., Kannengiesser, U.: The situated function-behaviour-structure framework. Design Studies 25(4), 373–391 (2004)
Sutcliffe, A.G., Maiden, N.A.M.: Domain modeling for reuse. In: Frakes, W.B. (ed.) Third International Conference on Software Reuse, pp. 169–177. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos (1994)
Smith, H.E.: Modularity in contracts: Boilerplate and information flow. American Law & Economics Association Annual Meetings Paper 46 (2006)
Yin, R.K.: Case Study Research: Design and Methods, 3rd edn. Sage Publications, Newbury Park (2003)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Huysmans, P., Verelst, J. (2013). Towards an Engineering-Based Research Approach for Enterprise Architecture: Lessons Learned from Normalized Systems Theory. In: Franch, X., Soffer, P. (eds) Advanced Information Systems Engineering Workshops. CAiSE 2013. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 148. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38490-5_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38490-5_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-38489-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-38490-5
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)