Information Requirements in Enterprise Transformations: An ...FILE/dis4356.pdfGERAM Generalized...

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Acknowledgements i

Acknowledgements

This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of many people.

First of all, I wish to thank my advisor, Prof. Dr. Robert Winter. I greatly appreciate

his input and support during the last three and a half years – both in terms of scientific

and practice-oriented work. He created a structured but still open working environment

that enabled me to write and finish this thesis on time. I also wish to thank Prof. Dr.

Henderik A. Proper for co-supervision, his advice, and the many solid discussions we

had in terms of the thesis and the ACET project.

However, without great colleagues, more than three years can turn out to be a hard

time. Luckily, I never had to face such problems. I would like to thank Prof. Dr.

Stephan Aier for his feedback on many parts of my research and for being a project

manager who is able to balance the goals of the institution with those of the Ph.D. stu-

dent. I also wish to say thanks to all colleagues (both in St.Gallen and Luxembourg)

and alumni, many of whom became friends during the last years. I will always remem-

ber how often we solved the essential problems of the world in just one single lunch

break.

Practice-driven research is not possible without practitioners who engage in coopera-

tion with the university. For that reason, I would like to thank the many people I was

able to conduct interviews with and those who gave valuable feedback for my work.

Especially, I would like to thank the partners in the Competence Center Corporate In-

telligence. I would also like to thank Prof. Dr. Axel Uhl and the team of the Business

Transformation Academy for offering me a broad perspective on business transfor-

mation management.

Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends who have supported me in every

possible way. They have contributed greatly to the completion of this thesis.

Nils Labusch

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Papers iii

Papers

Paper A: Labusch, N., and Winter, R. 2013. "Towards a Conceptualization of Ar-

chitectural Support for Enterprise Transformation," in ECIS 2013 Pro-

ceedings, Utrecht, The Netherlands, Paper 137.

Paper B: Labusch, N., Aier, S., Rothenberger, M., and Winter, R. 2014. "Architec-

tural Support of Enterprise Transformations: Insights from Corporate

Practice," in Tagungsband Multikonferenz Wirtschaftsinformatik 2014, D.

Kundisch, L. Suhl, and L. Beckmann (eds.), Paderborn, Germany,

pp. 1048-1060.

Paper C: Labusch, N. 2014. "Information Requirements for Enterprise Transfor-

mations," in Architectural Coordination of Enterprise Transformation,

H.A. Proper, R. Winter, S. Aier, and S. de Kinderen (eds.),

accepted for publication, forthcoming.

Paper D: Labusch, N., Aier, S., and Winter, R. 2014. "A Reference Model for the

Information-Based Support of Enterprise Transformations," in Proceed-

ings of 9th International Conference on Design Science Research in In-

formation Systems and Technologies (DESRIST 2014), M.C. Tremblay,

D. van der Meer, M. Rothenberger, A. Gupta, and V. Yoon (eds.), Miami,

FL, United States of America, pp. 194-208.

Paper E: Labusch, N., Aier, S., and Winter, R. 2013. "Beyond Enterprise Architec-

ture Modeling – What are the Essentials to Support Enterprise Transfor-

mations?," in Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Enter-

prise Modelling and Information Systems Architectures (EMISA 2013),

R. Jung, and M. Reichert (eds.), St. Gallen, Switzerland,

pp. 13-26.

Paper F: Labusch, N., and Aier, S. 2014. "Information Provision as a Success Fac-

tor in the Architectural Support of Enterprise Transformations," in Pro-

ceedings of the 8th TEE Workshop in conjunction with the 16th IEEE

Conference on Business Informatics, D. Aveiro, M. Bjekovic, A. Caetano,

A. Fleischmann, L. Heuser, S. de Kinderen, M.M. Komarov, Y. Kou-

cheryavy, S.V. Maltseva, W. Molnar, A. Oberweis, H.A. Proper, M. Rap-

pa, W. Schmidt, F. Schönthaler, J.-S. Sottet, C. Stary, and G. Vossen

(eds.), Geneva, Switzerland, pp. 141-148.

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Summary of Contents v

Summary of Contents

Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ i

Papers ........................................................................................................................... iii

Summary of Contents .................................................................................................... v

Table of Contents ........................................................................................................ vii

List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................. xiii

List of Figures .............................................................................................................. xv

List of Tables ............................................................................................................. xvii

Abstract ...................................................................................................................... xix

Kurzfassung ............................................................................................................... xxi

Part A – Summary of the Thesis .................................................................................. 1

1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 1

2 Foundations ................................................................................................... 9

3 State of the Art ............................................................................................ 17

4 Summary of the Contribution ................................................................... 24

5 Discussion and Outlook .............................................................................. 32

Part B – Papers of the Thesis ...................................................................................... 48

Paper A – Towards a Conceptualization of Architectural Support for Enterprise

Transformation ............................................................................................................ 48

Paper B – Architectural Support of Enterprise Transformations: Insights from

Corporate Practice ...................................................................................................... 62

Paper C – Information Requirements for Enterprise Transformations ................ 77

Paper D – A Reference Model for the Information-Based Support of Enterprise

Transformations .......................................................................................................... 90

Paper E – Beyond Enterprise Architecture Modeling – What are the Essentials to

Support Enterprise Transformations? .................................................................... 105

Paper F – Information Provision as a Success Factor in the Architectural Support

of Enterprise Transformations ................................................................................. 120

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vi Summary of Contents

References .................................................................................................................. 137

Curriculum Vitae ...................................................................................................... 159

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Table of Contents vii

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ i

Papers ........................................................................................................................... iii

Summary of Contents .................................................................................................... v

Table of Contents ........................................................................................................ vii

List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................. xiii

List of Figures .............................................................................................................. xv

List of Tables ............................................................................................................. xvii

Abstract ...................................................................................................................... xix

Kurzfassung ............................................................................................................... xxi

Part A – Summary of the Thesis .................................................................................. 1

1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 1

1.1 Motivation of the Research ............................................................................ 1

1.2 Problem Statement ......................................................................................... 2

1.3 Research Goals and Research Questions ....................................................... 3

1.4 Research Approach and Thesis Structure ....................................................... 5

2 Foundations ................................................................................................... 9

2.1 Enterprise Transformation Management ........................................................ 9

2.2 Enterprise Architecture Management ........................................................... 12

2.3 Reference Models of Information Requirements ......................................... 13

3 State of the Art ............................................................................................ 17

3.1 Requirements of Enterprise Transformation Managers ............................... 17

3.2 Enterprise Architecture Management Support of Enterprise Transformation

Management ................................................................................................. 19

3.3 Design Objectives for the Solution Artifact ................................................. 21

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viii Table of Contents

4 Summary of the Contribution ................................................................... 24

4.1 Conceptual Design ....................................................................................... 24

4.2 Summary of Papers ...................................................................................... 25

4.2.1 Paper A: Towards a Conceptualization of Architectural Support for

Enterprise Transformation ....................................................................... 25

4.2.2 Paper B: Architectural Support of Enterprise Transformations: Insights

from Corporate Practice ........................................................................... 27

4.2.3 Paper C: Information Requirements for Enterprise Transformations ...... 28

4.2.4 Paper D: A Reference Model for the Information-Based Support of

Enterprise Transformations ...................................................................... 29

4.2.5 Paper E: Beyond Enterprise Architecture Modeling – What are the

Essentials to Support Enterprise Transformations? ................................. 30

4.2.6 Paper F: Information Provision as a Success Factor in the Architectural

Support of Enterprise Transformations .................................................... 31

5 Discussion and Outlook ............................................................................. 32

5.1 Evaluation of the Solution Artifact .............................................................. 32

5.1.1 Evaluation 1 ............................................................................................. 33

5.1.2 Evaluation 2 ............................................................................................. 34

5.1.3 Evaluation 3 ............................................................................................. 38

5.1.4 Evaluation 4 ............................................................................................. 40

5.2 Critical Reflection ........................................................................................ 42

5.3 Implications and Future Work ..................................................................... 44

Part B – Papers of the Thesis ..................................................................................... 48

Paper A – Towards a Conceptualization of Architectural Support for Enterprise

Transformation ............................................................................................................ 48

A.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 49

A.2 Related Work ............................................................................................... 50

A.3 Research Approach ...................................................................................... 51

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Table of Contents ix

A.4 Results .......................................................................................................... 53

A.4.1 ETM Activities and Inputs ....................................................................... 53

A.4.2 EAM Outputs ........................................................................................... 56

A.4.3 EAM Inputs for ETM Activities .............................................................. 57

A.5 Discussion .................................................................................................... 59

A.6 Summary & Implications ............................................................................. 60

Paper B – Architectural Support of Enterprise Transformations: Insights from

Corporate Practice ...................................................................................................... 62

B.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 63

B.2 Related Work ................................................................................................ 64

B.3 Research Design ........................................................................................... 65

B.3.1 Data Collection ......................................................................................... 65

B.3.2 Coding ...................................................................................................... 66

B.3.3 Literature Validation ................................................................................ 67

B.3.4 Aggregation and Mapping ........................................................................ 68

B.3.5 Response Saturation ................................................................................. 68

B.4 Results .......................................................................................................... 68

B.4.1 The EAM Perspective .............................................................................. 68

B.4.2 The ETM Perspective ............................................................................... 70

B.4.3 Fitting EAM and ETM ............................................................................. 71

B.4.3.1 Fit 1: Design of IT Components ........................................................... 71

B.4.3.2 Fit 2: Governance ................................................................................. 71

B.4.3.3 Fit 3–5: Transformation Planning ........................................................ 72

B.4.3.4 Partial Fit 6: Project Management ........................................................ 73

B.4.3.5 Partial Fit 7–8: Analysis of Design Options......................................... 73

B.4.3.6 Partial Fit 9: Design of Business Components ..................................... 73

B.4.3.7 Partial Fit 10: Change Management ..................................................... 74

B.4.3.8 Non-Fits: Controlling and External Relations Management ................ 74

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x Table of Contents

B.5 Discussion .................................................................................................... 74

B.6 Summary & Outlook .................................................................................... 75

Paper C – Information Requirements for Enterprise Transformations ............... 77

C.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 77

C.2 State of the Art ............................................................................................. 78

C.3 Dimensions of Information Requirements ................................................... 80

C.3.1 People: Consumers of the Information .................................................... 80

C.3.2 Structure: Organizational Scope of the Information ................................ 81

C.3.3 Task: Purpose of the Information ............................................................. 82

C.3.4 Technology: Detail of the Information .................................................... 82

C.4 Information Processing during Enterprise Transformations ........................ 82

C.5 Information Provision in the Context of ACET ........................................... 84

C.6 Summary and Discussion ............................................................................. 88

Paper D – A Reference Model for the Information-Based Support of Enterprise

Transformations .......................................................................................................... 90

D.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 90

D.2 Related Work ............................................................................................... 92

D.3 Research Approach ...................................................................................... 93

D.3.1 Identification of Contingency Factors and Information Requirements ... 93

D.3.2 Empirical Analysis ................................................................................... 94

D.4 Design Process ............................................................................................. 95

D.4.1 Identification of Enterprise Transformation Types .................................. 95

D.4.2 Design of an Enterprise Transformation Information Model .................. 98

D.5 Demonstration: EAM as a Configurable Information Provider for Enterprise

Transformations ......................................................................................... 100

D.6 Summary, Limitations & Outlook.............................................................. 103

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Table of Contents xi

Paper E – Beyond Enterprise Architecture Modeling – What are the Essentials to

Support Enterprise Transformations? .................................................................... 105

E.1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 106

E.2 Related Work .............................................................................................. 107

E.3 Research Design ......................................................................................... 108

E.3.1 Research Setting ..................................................................................... 109

E.3.2 Design Process ....................................................................................... 110

E.4 Towards a Framework for the Architectural Support of Enterprise

Transformations .......................................................................................... 113

E.4.1 Overall Structure .................................................................................... 113

E.4.2 Framework Application .......................................................................... 117

E.5 Discussion .................................................................................................. 117

E.6 Summary & Conclusion ............................................................................. 118

Paper F – Information Provision as a Success Factor in the Architectural Support

of Enterprise Transformations ................................................................................. 120

F.1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 120

F.2 Related Work .............................................................................................. 122

F.3 Research Approach ..................................................................................... 124

F.3.1 Overall Research Project ........................................................................ 124

F.3.2 Identification of Items ............................................................................ 124

F.3.3 Questionnaire Design ............................................................................. 125

F.3.4 Pilot Phase .............................................................................................. 125

F.3.5 Roll-Out .................................................................................................. 126

F.3.6 Resulting Dataset .................................................................................... 126

F.4 Results ........................................................................................................ 127

F.4.1 General Findings about ETs ................................................................... 127

F.4.2 Available Information and ET Success .................................................. 128

F.5 Discussion .................................................................................................. 131

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xii Table of Contents

F.5.1 Impact of Information Availability on ET Success ............................... 131

F.5.2 Architectural Support of Enterprise Transformations ............................ 133

F.6 Summary & Conclusions ........................................................................... 135

References .................................................................................................................. 137

Curriculum Vitae ...................................................................................................... 159

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List of Abbreviations xiii

List of Abbreviations

CIRRM Configurative Information Requirements Reference Model

DODAF Department of Defense Architecture Framework

DR Design Research

EA Enterprise Architecture

EAM Enterprise Architecture Management

ET Enterprise Transformation

ETM Enterprise Transformation Management

GERAM Generalized Enterprise Reference Architecture and Methodology

IS Information System

IT Information Technology

OIPT Organizational Information Processing Theory

RM Reference Model

RQ Research Question

SCOR Supply Chain Operations Reference

TOGAF The Open Group Architecture Framework

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List of Figures xv

List of Figures

Figure 1: Overview of the research process (see Peffers et al. (2007, p. 54) and

Ahlemann and Gastl (2007, p. 82)) ............................................................ 6

Figure 2: Dimensions of change (see Greenwood and Hinings (1996, p. 1024)) ... 10

Figure 3: Requirements in different ET phases (see Stiles et al. 2012) ................... 17

Figure 4: Evaluations in design research (see Sonnenberg and vom Brocke

2012) ........................................................................................................ 32

Figure 5: ETM activities and necessary information needs ..................................... 55

Figure 6: Consolidated EAM content elements ....................................................... 56

Figure 7: Example of ETM information needs and related EAM content

elements .................................................................................................... 57

Figure 8: EAM support for ETM information needs ............................................... 58

Figure 9: Information provision by EAM ................................................................ 69

Figure 10: Information inputs needed by ETM ......................................................... 70

Figure 11: Organisational scopes of information ...................................................... 81

Figure 12: Information characteristics ....................................................................... 85

Figure 13: Information processing steps and EAM support (based on Corner et al.

1994) ......................................................................................................... 86

Figure 14: Information demands in the different clusters.......................................... 96

Figure 15: ET reference information model .............................................................. 99

Figure 16: EAM system support differentiated by ET type..................................... 103

Figure 17: Example of an activity ............................................................................ 116

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List of Tables xvii

List of Tables

Table 1: Research questions ......................................................................................... 4

Table 2: EAM contributions to ETM ......................................................................... 19

Table 3: Solution design objectives ............................................................................ 22

Table 4: Contribution summary .................................................................................. 25

Table 5: Evaluation 1 .................................................................................................. 34

Table 6: Evaluation 2 .................................................................................................. 37

Table 7: Clarity of type description ............................................................................ 38

Table 8: Robustness of clusters .................................................................................. 39

Table 9: Evaluation 3 .................................................................................................. 40

Table 10: Evaluation 4 .................................................................................................. 41

Table 11: Bibliographical information of paper A ....................................................... 48

Table 12: Bibliographical information of paper B ....................................................... 62

Table 13: Bibliographical information of paper C ....................................................... 77

Table 14: EAM support of ETs: Reduction of the information processing need ......... 87

Table 15: EAM support of ETs: Increase of the information processing capability .... 88

Table 16: Bibliographical information of paper D ....................................................... 90

Table 17: Overview of participating industries ............................................................ 95

Table 18: EAM support of ETs .................................................................................. 101

Table 19: Bibliographical information of paper E ..................................................... 105

Table 20: Design partners ........................................................................................... 109

Table 21: Design process ............................................................................................ 112

Table 22: Overall relation ........................................................................................... 114

Table 23: Bibliographical information of paper F ...................................................... 120

Table 24: Surveyed industries .................................................................................... 126

Table 25: Guiding departments .................................................................................. 128

Table 26: Information availability and influence on ET success ............................... 129

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xviii List of Tables

Table 27: Architectural support .................................................................................. 135

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Abstract xix

Abstract

Enterprises must occasionally go through radical and fundamental changes (oftentimes

referred to as enterprise transformations). Many of these enterprise transformation

(ET) efforts fail for different reasons – they run over budget, miss deadlines or do not

deliver functionalities or other required results. Managing ETs is a multi-faceted prob-

lem that is dealt with by responsible ET managers. These ET managers need to be

supplied with manifold information in order to manage the ET.

A discipline that claims the ability to provide valuable input to ET management

(ETM) is enterprise architecture management (EAM). However, EAM is currently not

often considered as a valuable partner in managing ETs. For this reason, this research

focuses on information requirements of ETM and the supply of information by EAM.

In a first step, the cumulative thesis explores the field of information provision during

ETs. In a second step, the gathered results are consolidated into a reference model.

This model aims at substantiating the discussions about the EAM support of ETs, and

provides guidance on the practice implementation. In a third step the model and its

constituents are evaluated.

To achieve this purpose, the thesis consists of six papers that analyze the relation be-

tween EAM and ETM using qualitative, quantitative and literature-based methods.

Furthermore, they describe and present the design of the reference model as guided by

the well-established design research process and address the evaluation of the designed

reference model. The reference model can be used as a foundation for methods that

aim at supporting ETs. To increase its applicability, different types of ET are identified

based on the required information.

The designed reference model provides a solid foundation for EAM practitioners to

analyze how they can contribute to occurring ETs and tailor existing EAM frame-

works. It further provides a foundation for ET managers to identify gaps in their in-

formation gathering. The result contributes to the research body of knowledge by tak-

ing an ETM perspective on EAM. It further enables future research by providing a

condensed and structured view on the field of ET research and the architectural sup-

port of ETs in terms of information requirements and ET types.

Keywords: Enterprise Architecture Management, Enterprise Transformation

Management, Information Requirements

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Kurzfassung xxi

Kurzfassung

Unternehmen müssen sich gelegentlich grundlegend und radikal verändern. Dies wird

oftmals als Unternehmenstransformation (UT) bezeichnet. Viele dieser Anstrengungen

scheitern: Budgetgrenzen werden ignoriert, Fertigstellungstermine verpasst oder ver-

einbarte Ergebnisse nicht zufriedenstellend erbracht. UTs durchzuführen ist ein viel-

schichtiges Problem, mit dem sich die verantwortlichen Manager auseinandersetzen

müssen. Dazu sind sie auf eine funktionierende Informationsversorgung angewiesen.

Eine Disziplin, die zunehmend davon ausgeht wertvolle Beiträge zum UT-

Management (UTM) liefern zu können, ist das Unternehmensarchitektur-Management

(UAM). Von Seiten des UTM wird UAM allerdings häufig noch nicht als wertvoller

Partner angesehen. Aus diesem Grund analysiert die vorliegende Arbeit die Beziehung

zwischen den beiden Disziplinen und fokussiert dabei auf die Informationsbedarfe des

UTM und deren Erfüllung durch UAM.

In der vorliegenden kumulativen Arbeit wird zunächst das Feld der Informationsbe-

reitstellung in UTs analysiert. In einem zweiten Schritt werden die Erkenntnisse in

einem Referenzmodell konsolidiert, welches auf eine Substantiierung der Diskussion

sowie eine Vereinfachung der Implementierung von UAM-Unterstützung von UTM

abzielt. In einem dritten Schritt folgt die Evaluierung des vorgestellten Modells.

Die Arbeit besteht aus sechs einzelnen Beiträgen, die das Verhältnis von UAM und

UTM mit Hilfe qualitativer, quantitativer und literaturbasierter Forschung analysieren.

Das entwickelte Referenzmodell kann als Grundlage für Methoden eingesetzt werden,

die das Management der UT zum Ziel haben. Um die Anwendbarkeit zu steigern, wer-

den verschiedene Typen von UT auf Basis der Informationsbedarfe identifiziert und

als Konfigurationsmöglichkeiten in das Referenzmodell integriert.

Das entwickelte Referenzmodel hilft Verantwortlichen für UAM bei der Analyse, wie

ihre Disziplin zum Erfolg der Transformation beitragen kann. Des Weiteren kann es

den Verantwortlichen für UTM als Instrument dienen, um Lücken in der eigenen In-

formationsversorgung zu erkennen. Die Arbeit trägt zum wissenschaftlichen Fort-

schritt durch eine UTM-Perspektive auf UAM bei. Durch die Zusammenfassung und

Strukturierung der relevanten wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten sowie der Ableitung von

Informationsbedarfen und UT-Typen werden weitergehende Forschungen ermöglicht.

Stichworte: Management Unternehmensarchitektur, Transformationsmanagement,

Informationsbedarfe

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Part A: Introduction 1

Part A – Summary of the Thesis

1 Introduction

1.1 Motivation of the Research

Enterprises (see section 2.1) must occasionally go through major transformations that

are characterized as fundamental and radical changes, as opposed to simple, routine

change. These changes substantially alter an organization’s relationships with its key

constituencies (Rouse 2005a, p. 279). Examples are transformations of the business

model (Aspara et al. 2011), mergers and acquisitions (Johnston and Madura 2000) or

introductions and replacements of enterprise-wide information technology (IT) sys-

tems (see section 1.4) (Bhattacharya et al. 2010; Hock-Hai Teo et al. 1997; Sarker and

Lee 1999).

However, many enterprise transformation (ET) efforts fail. They run over budget, miss

deadlines, do not deliver functionalities, or other required results (Janssen et al. 2013,

p. 121). Ward and Uhl (2012, p. 30) identify 30% of all ETs to be total failures while

just 30% are considered to be a total success. Other sources consider nearly 70% of all

ET projects as being a failure (Kitching and Roy 2013, p. 6).

The reasons for failure are manifold. ETs heavily involve different stakeholders, disci-

plines and topic areas and therefore foster a great amount of complexity and uncertain-

ty (Elliot 2011; Lengnick-Hall and Beck 2005). Oftentimes, a sense of urgency is not

established, a powerful leadership team does not exist, a vision is not created or com-

municated, improvements are not consolidated, new approaches are not institutional-

ized or planning is conducted insufficiently (Kotter 1995). Dietz et al. (2013, p. 92)

identify a lack of coherence and consistency among the various components of an en-

terprise as a reason of failure. In addition, information about the enterprise is needed in

different dimensions to create transparency and allow for holistic coordination of the

ET (Abraham et al. 2012a, p. 9).

The failure reasons above show that managing ETs is a multi-faceted problem in

which different stakeholders and corporate functions need to be involved. While some

are steering the ET, others are affected (Kotter 1995, p. 60). Managers in the enterprise

that steer the ET depend on the supply of different resources by many other involved

stakeholders. Recently, the role of ET management (ETM) was brought to the discus-

sion (see Paper C). This discipline is supposed to have the best overview about the

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2 Part A: Problem Statement

supply requirements that occur during ETs. To be successful, managers that are related

to this group need to understand the demands appropriately and be able to take suitable

actions to ensure successful ETs (Stiles et al. 2012, p. 20).

A discipline that more often claims the ability to address this problem and to provide

valuable input to ETs and especially ETM is enterprise architecture management

(EAM) (Asfaw et al. 2009, p. 18). Enterprise architecture (EA) is understood as (1) the

fundamental organization of an enterprise (or parts of it), either as a whole, or together

with partners, suppliers and customers as well as (2) the principles governing its de-

sign and evolution (see The Open Group 2011; Winter and Fischer 2007, p. 1). EAM

deals with the establishment and continuous development of EA. As such, the notion

of EAM goes beyond EA modeling and includes the management tasks of planning

and controlling business change from an architectural perspective (Aier et al. 2011,

p. 645; The Open Group 2011). Enterprise architects are oftentimes organized in a

corporate EAM function that conducts these tasks (Van der Raadt and Van Vliet 2008,

p. 105).

Many enterprise architects and consultancies that deal with EAM claim to be able to

support ETM. However, they regularly focus on software introductions and IT matters

(Gardner et al. 2012, p. 287) instead of discussing non-IT related support that EAM

could provide today or in the future. Asfaw et al. (2009, p. 20) claim that EAM has an

“image” problem, since as soon as people use the word enterprise architecture, “eyes

start to roll.” Lankhorst et al. (2013, p. 305) consider the term “architecture” and the

role of the architect as seriously overloaded and inflationary. Similar to IT artifacts

(Benbasat and Zmud 2003, p. 187), EAM only seems to add value to the ET when be-

ing a partner of ETM. Currently, there seems to be a chasm between EAM offers and

ET managers’ requirements.

1.2 Problem Statement

The relation between EAM and ETM is multi-faceted. ETM poses many requirements,

some of which can be fulfilled by EAM. EAM can be involved during ETs (Asfaw et

al. 2009; Winter et al. 2013) but does, in addition, provide resources to other stake-

holders that are not necessarily relevant to ETM (e.g. managers of locally restricted

projects). EAM support of ETM can occur in different ways (see section 3.2). The ar-

chitect can act as a boundary spanner who connects different stakeholders (Abraham et

al. 2013a, p. 38; Levina and Vaast 2005), EAM can actively manage ETs, and EAM

can be responsible for the governance provision during the ET (Harmsen et al. 2009;

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Part A: Introduction 3

Op’t Land et al. 2009). Very often, however, EAM rather acts as an information pro-

vider that enables planning and the achievement of transparency about the organiza-

tion (Bradley et al. 2012, p. 104; Bricknall et al. 2006, p. 6; Espinoza 2007, p. 33).

This information provision is mentioned as an important factor to conduct successful

ETs (Galbraith 1974, p. 28).

When steering an ET, a high number of decisions, some of them with major implica-

tions, have to be taken (McGinnis 2007, p. 127). To take these decisions on a sound

basis, a lot of information is required by responsible managers (Fry et al. 2005, p. 850;

Tichy 1983, p. 56). According to Laudon and Laudon (2006, p. 14), information is

“data that have been shaped into a form that is meaningful and useful to human be-

ings”. An information requirement describes information that is needed by a user to

achieve an objective (see Paper C).

The availability of information at the right time to monitor and troubleshoot the ET is

described as a major success factor during ETs (Kitching and Roy 2013, p. 17). Deal-

ing with information is one of the major tasks of EAM (Boh and Yellin 2007, p. 175;

Strano and Rehmani 2007, p. 386). The role of the enterprise architect is considered

“one of making order out of chaos by taking the overwhelming amount of information

available and presenting it in a manner that enables effective decision-making” (Strano

and Rehmani 2007, p. 392).

While governance structures or business processes tend to change often, information

remains more stable in their structure (Winter 2011a, p. 24). However, managerial in-

formation oftentimes falls short (Fredenberger et al. 1997, p. 717; Watson et al. 1997,

p. 21f). So far, there is no model or method that puts the focus on information re-

quirements other than financial information (see paper C) during an ET. Such an arti-

fact would allow an improvement in analyzing and understanding the information re-

quirements that ET managers pose and would be a solid foundation to discuss and de-

sign the possible EAM support.

1.3 Research Goals and Research Questions

The main goal of this thesis is to enable the architect to identify information require-

ments that can be provided by EAM to ETM. In addition, the research conducted is

supposed to allow ET managers to better understand information requirements that

occur during ETs and those that EAM can provide.

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4 Part A: Research Goals and Research Questions

Due to the complexity of the phenomenon, guiding methods are difficult to design.

Methods are usually based on different artifacts (such as method fragments or models)

that help to achieve the desired goal (Winter et al. 2009, p. 6). For this reason, the the-

sis aims at designing a reference model (RM) as a foundation for a method to provide

EAM support during ETs. Based on the objective to derive such an RM, the following

research questions (RQs) are derived and categorized (Table 1), as guided by Österle

et al. (2011).

Table 1: Research questions

1. Analysis

RQ1a Which information requirements of ETM could be met by EAM?

RQ1b Which information requirements of ETM are currently met by EAM?

RQ1c What are conceptual foundations for information provision during ETs?

2. Design

RQ2a How can ET types be distinguished from an information requirements

perspective?

RQ2b How can a reference model for the determination of information

requirements during ETs be constructed?

3. Evaluation

RQ3a Is the conducted problem analysis concerning the EAM support for ETs

comprehensive and consistent?

RQ3b Does the taken design approach meet the derived design objectives?

RQ3c Does the instantiated solution meet the design approach?

RQ3d Is the instantiated artifact applicable and useful in practice?

Most related work (see sections 2.1 and 3.1) addresses ETM as a single block and does

not explicate sub-activities and information requirements that belong to it. Thus, relat-

ed work is not detailed enough to design an RM. Therefore, an analysis about the in-

formation requirements of ETs (or ETM as a representative discipline) is necessary.

Furthermore, EAM’s information offerings need to be identified to gather a common

understanding of EAM for this thesis. Therefore, the current research in both fields

needs to be surveyed. This issue is resolved by RQ1a. Apart from the potential sup-

port, it is also important to cover how EAM and ETM already work together in prac-

tice. This is addressed by RQ1b. RQ1c aims at further elaborating the information per-

spective on ETs to understand related management mechanisms and how they could be

supported in practice. Based on RQ1a-c, objectives are derived for the following de-

sign steps.

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Part A: Introduction 5

RQ2a and RQ2b aim at the design of the artifact. RQ2a addresses the identification of

different ET types. Since ETs are a complex phenomenon and information require-

ments differ, it is necessary to distinguish different types to provide appropriate guid-

ance (see section 3.1). To finalize the design step, RQ2b addresses the design of an

RM that fulfills the objectives identified in RQ1a-c and can be configured according to

the ET types identified in RQ2a. This artifact is referred to as configurative infor-

mation requirements RM (CIRRM).

After artifact design an evaluation needs to be conducted. RQ3a intends to evaluate the

problem perspective and thus is positioned already before starting the design step in

the overall research process (see section 1.4). RQ3b addresses whether the design ap-

proach addresses the derived design objectives. RQ3c addresses the general applicabil-

ity of the RM, while RQ3d addresses its usefulness in practice.

1.4 Research Approach and Thesis Structure

In order to enable EAM to be a valuable support of ETM, a shared understanding

(Johnson and Lederer 2005; Preston and Karahanna 2009) between the two manage-

ment disciplines needs to be created. Since many ETs include technology-related as-

pects (Lucas et al. 2013, p. 372) and are comprised of “wicked problems” (Hevner et

al. 2004, p. 81) such as huge complexity and interacting organizational components,

DR provides a valuable perspective on solving the problem.

In general, information systems (IS) research deals with IT, IT infrastructures and IT-

enabled business solutions as much as the immediate antecedents and consequences of

these IS (Benbasat and Zmud 2003, p. 184). Thus, the discipline is positioned at the

“confluence of people, organizations, and technology” (Hevner et al. 2004, p. 75).

Typically, two types of research are distinguished: behavioral and design research

(Hevner et al. 2004, p. 76). While the first stream aims at understanding organizations

and explaining their behavior (Van Aken and Romme 2009, p. 7), the design research

(DR) stream aims at utility or, in other words, “at the construction and evaluation of

generic means–ends relations” (Winter 2008, p. 470). The descriptive knowledge lo-

cated in the knowledge base and generated by behavioral research is a valuable input

for the prescriptive solution design in terms of resulting artifacts (Gregor and Hevner

2013, p. 344). The research in the thesis at hand is aiming at providing a more appro-

priate solution for the information provision during ETs and thus positioned in the im-

provement quadrant (Gregor and Hevner 2013, p. 346) of DR. It targets achieving in-

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6 Part A: Research Approach and Thesis Structure

strumental relevance by influencing real-world decisions (Nicolai and Seidl 2010,

p. 1266)

Peffers et al. (2007) and Hevner (2007) provide guidance on how to conduct DR pro-

jects while Ahlemann and Gastl (2007, p. 82) guide the RM construction. According to

Peffers et al. (2007), the general process is distinguished into phases of problem identi-

fication and motivation, objective definition, design and development, demonstration,

evaluation and, finally, communication. The phases of RM design are very similar (see

comparison in Figure 1).

Figure 1: Overview of the research process

(see Peffers et al. (2007, p. 54) and Ahlemann and Gastl (2007, p. 82))

To provide solid problem identification and a foundation for the design step, RQ1a is

treated with a structured literature analysis following guidance provided by Webster

and Watson (2002) and vom Brocke et al. (2009). This process allows covering a

broad perspective on the current knowledge existing in both the EAM and ETM do-

mains. In addition, qualitative research is applied to answer RQ1b by conducting in-

terviews with experts of the domain. Respective methods are especially valuable if the

number of informants is rather small, but the informants are highly knowledgeable.

(Eisenhardt and Graebner 2007, p. 28). According to Cao et al. (2006) and Van Aken

and Romme (2009), combining DR with techniques that are well-known in behavioral

research is possible and a valuable approach. RQ1c addresses conceptual foundations

of information requirements based on literature and aims at clarifying the terms and

possible understandings. Furthermore, the question aims at understanding how infor-

mation is processed in enterprises and what changes occur during ETs.

To answer RQ2a and RQ2b the results from RQ1a and RQ1b are used as a foundation

for quantitative analysis and design. The identified information requirements are con-

solidated in a questionnaire and provided to ET managers. The resulting data is used to

identify different types of ETs based on the information requirements with the help of

a hierarchical cluster analysis. The CIRRM is constructed based on the identified types

and the identified design objectives (see section 3.3) to provide a model that strikes a

RQ3a, RQ3b, RQ3c, RQ3dRQ2a, RQ2bRQ1a, RQ1b, RQ1c

Identify

Problem &

Motivate

Define

Objectives of

a Solution

Design &

Development

Demon-

stration

Evaluation

Problem

Identification

Planning Model Construction Validation Practical

Testing

Docu-

mentation

Communi-

cation

RM

Construction

DR

Process

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Part A: Introduction 7

balance between (economic) ‘one size-fits-all’ solutions and (most effective) problem-

specific solutions (Winter 2011b, p. 22).

To deal with the evaluation (RQ3a-d), the process provided by Sonnenberg and vom

Brocke (2012) is applied. It extends the general understanding of Peffers et al. (2007)

by distinguishing different types of evaluation. It ensures an early but valuable dissem-

ination of results (Sonnenberg and vom Brocke 2012, p. 392) and thus supports the

cumulative design of the thesis. For the purpose of the evaluation, additional studies

are conducted. The data is processed with regression techniques and an additional

cluster analysis. Furthermore, an approach is applied that is based on “Collaborative

Design Science Research,” as discussed by Otto and Österle (2012). Different work-

shops with practitioners are conducted that lead to an accumulation of knowledge.

Communication is ensured by publication of intermediary results and with the thesis at

hand. The thesis is structured in two main parts.

Part A summarizes foundations, state of the art, findings, evaluation and critical reflec-

tion: Section 2 introduces foundations of the thesis. The phenomenon of ET is ex-

plained and embedded in the research context. EAM is defined and explained as a

managerial discipline. The section closes with an explanation of RM configuration and

information requirements models. Section 3 addresses the state of the art. First, an

analysis of requirements that ET managers pose is conducted and the shortcomings are

explicated. This is succeeded by a discussion of the current EAM support of ETs. The

section closes with deriving design objectives for the artifact based on the sections be-

fore. Section 4 provides a summary of the findings of the thesis at hand and summariz-

es the motivation, content, research approach and findings of the single papers. Section

5 contains an evaluation of the developed artifact and a critical reflection of the con-

ducted research. It provides implications for practice and future research.

Part B is comprised of the six papers that represent the foundation of this cumulative

thesis. The papers address the research questions stated above. Five papers are already

published in proceedings of international conferences, one is accepted for publication

as book chapter. The papers are consistently formatted for the publication in this the-

sis. A common citation style is applied; tables and figures are numbered consecutively.

References, tables and figures are summarized in consolidated directories. The list of

abbreviations only considers part A to avoid inconsistencies. The language of the pa-

pers is maintained. Papers A, B, D, E, F are written in American English and Paper B

is written in British English. Due to this reason the summary paper is also written in

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8 Part A: Research Approach and Thesis Structure

American English. Each paper is introduced by bibliographical information and its

rating according to VHB-JOURQUAL 2.1 ranking (Verband der Hochschullehrer für

Betriebswirtschaft 2011).

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Part A: Foundations 9

2 Foundations

The following section provides an overview of ETM (2.1), EAM (2.2) and the founda-

tions of RMs, especially concerning information requirements models (2.3).

2.1 Enterprise Transformation Management

Change in general is the “movement away from a present state towards a future state”

(George and Jones (1995) in Fox-Wolfgramm (1998, p. 87)). In academic research,

change is oftentimes distinguished based on two paradigms (Lyytinen and Newman

2008, p. 593).

On the one hand, evolutionary views assume that organizational change is incremental

and continuous. Fundamental differences result from the accumulation of small chang-

es over long periods (Wischnevsky and Damanpour 2005, p. 208). The paradigm is

rooted in the idea of Darwinian mutations (Lyytinen and Newman 2008, p. 593). Even

universal change like the creation of a new species takes place through small additive

steps (Gersick 1991, p. 16). On the other hand, punctuated equilibrium models

(Gersick 1991, p. 11) assume that fundamental organizational change occurs in short

periods of discontinuous, revolutionary change, which punctuate long eras of relative

stability (Romanelli and Tushman 1994, p. 1141). Greenwood and Hinings (1996,

p. 1024) distinguish dimensions revolutionary vs. evolutionary and convergent vs. rad-

ical. The research about ET is rooted in the revolutionary and radical research stream

and thus, according to Rouse (2005a, p. 279), refers to major changes that are not rou-

tine, but instead fundamental, and substantially alter an organization’s relationships

with its key constituencies. It can involve new value propositions or change the inner

structure of the enterprise. Further, ET could involve old value propositions provided

in fundamentally new ways. In Figure 2 the dimensions of Greenwood and Hinings

(1996, p. 1024) are summarized and ET is positioned according to the above definition

in the upper right quadrant of revolutionary, radical change.

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10 Part A: Enterprise Transformation Management

Figure 2: Dimensions of change (see Greenwood and Hinings (1996, p. 1024))

According to the Open Group (2011, p. 5), an enterprise is any organization that has a

common set of goals (e.g. a government agency, a whole corporation, a division of a

corporation, a single department, or a chain of geographically distant organizations

linked together by common ownership). This definition excludes larger collaborative

networks, which is followed in the thesis to keep the scope of the research managea-

ble. The concept of ET is also known as “business transformation” (Ash and Burn

2003; Ashurst and Hodges 2010; Daniel and Wilson 2003; Davidson 1993) or “organi-

zational transformation” (Dixon et al. 2010; Hock-Hai Teo et al. 1997; Orlikowski

1996; Romanelli and Tushman 1994) in literature. However, the prefix “enterprise”

emphasizes a design and system theoretical perspective on the topic (e.g. Rouse

2005a); it implies purposeful design of the organization (Dietz 2008, p. 4) rather than

unmanaged evolution.

The enterprise is seen as a complex system that is, according to Simon (1962, p. 486),

“[…] made up of a large number of parts that interact in a non-simple way.” Such a

system can be distinguished in different layers, where a second layer (managerial sys-

tem) controls and designs a first layer (work system). First order change is related to

changes in the work systems (production, operational processes, but also operational

management) and considered to be rather incremental (e.g. by continuous process im-

provements). Second order change, however, is related to changes in the building sys-

tem/managerial layer (Bartunek and Moch 1987, p. 483; Lyytinen and Newman 2008,

p. 592). The environment of the organization is seen as a third layer where the others

are located in. To be considered as an ET, a change has to spread over the various lev-

revolutionary(swiftly, all parts of the

organization at the same

time)

evolutionary(slowly, gradually)

convergent(fine tuning of the

existing orientation)

radical(busting loose from an

existing orientation)

Enterprise

Transformation

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Part A: Foundations 11

els (Lyytinen and Newman 2008, p. 592). This categorization may help to interpret

terms like “fundamentally” or “substantially” that are dependent on the context – what

might be a radical change for one enterprise may possibly be routine change for anoth-

er.

Romanelli and Tushman (1994, p. 1150-1155) consider ETs to be conducted in a peri-

od of about two years, even if this number is not fixed and might be considered differ-

ently. In line with the discussion above, they identify an ET when enterprises conduct

strategy changes (e.g. concerning product lines), structure changes (in terms of general

reorganizations) and power distribution changes (e.g. high turnover of senior execu-

tives). Whenever all of these happened at the same time within two years, a transfor-

mation is considered to be revolutionary. Otherwise, if still substantial change occurs

in the above stated domains, the change is considered as transformation but a non-

revolutionary one.

In the thesis at hand, ET is understood as revolutionary and radical change. However,

due to pragmatic reasons, this understanding is handled less strictly by also consider-

ing non-revolutionary transformations. The implication of this constraint for the con-

ducted research project is discussed in section 0. All considered ETs incorporate sec-

ond layer changes apart from changes of the work system only.

According to Lahrmann et al. (2012, p. 265) and Kotnour and Bollo (2011, p. 259),

holistic and integrated approaches that cover a variety of management disciplines and

topic areas of ET are especially suitable for ETs: Österle and Winter (2003a) propose

the Business Engineering approach, the Business Transformation Academy proposes

the Business Transformation Management Methodology (Stiles and Uhl 2012); further

approaches are provided by various authors (e.g. Dixon et al. 2010; Keller and Price

2011; Kotnour and Bollo 2011; Nightingale and Mize 2002). However, these ap-

proaches do not differentiate between ET types.

Typologies of ETs can be built based on different criteria. Baumöl (2005; 2008) pro-

vides a configurative method that discriminates based on applied techniques. Once a

situation is identified (e.g. “Strategy Change or Extension”), Baumöl’s method pro-

vides guidance on how to deal with such an ET program. Safrudin et al. (2014) distin-

guish ETs by their degree of visibility to external parties and the degree of transforma-

tional change. Lahrmann et al. distinguish different types of ETM (Lahrmann et al.

2012). However, none of the above described approaches seem to be concrete enough

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12 Part A: Enterprise Architecture Management

and suitable to guide the EAM support of ETM due to a lack of concreteness concern-

ing the required information.

2.2 Enterprise Architecture Management

Architecture is defined as the “fundamental organization of a system, embodied in its

components, their relationships to each other and the environment, and the principles

governing its design and evolution” (International Standards Organization 2000).

Thus, EA is understood as (1) the fundamental organization of an enterprise (or parts

of it), either as a whole, or together with partners, suppliers and customers as well as

(2) the principles governing its design and evolution (see The Open Group 2011;

Winter and Fischer 2007, p. 1).

EAM is concerned with the establishment and continuous development of EA to con-

sistently respond to business and IT goals, opportunities, and necessities (Aier et al.

2011). Thus, the notion of EAM goes beyond EA modeling and includes the manage-

ment tasks of planning and controlling business and IT change from an enterprise-wide

perspective (Aier et al. 2011, p. 645; The Open Group 2011).

EAM is a management discipline (Aier et al. 2012, p. 15) that makes use of different

types of models, principles and reports. These can be deposited in terms of special

modeling languages, or in textual form. The models can especially be used to docu-

ment current states and expected future to-be states. As described in Abraham et al.

(2012a, p. 9), EA principles allow for coordination by providing guidelines and rules

that help actors to take decisions that ensure consistency when implementing a strate-

gy. Principles could be defined based on knowledge, experience, and opinions of vari-

ous stakeholders in an organization. These stakeholders are the target audience of the

principles (Proper and Greefhorst 2010, p. 62). The restriction of design freedom by

the provision of principles is occasionally even regarded as the essence of architecture

(Dietz and Hoogervorst 2008, p. 575).

To guide the management of the EA and to establish EAM, different frameworks exist.

As the father of EAM frameworks, the Zachman framework (Sowa and Zachman

1992; Zachman 1987) is usually mentioned. It contains dimensions like data, time,

people, location, etc. that are presented in models addressing different stakeholders

like designers, business owners, planners, etc. Among other frameworks like the De-

partment of Defense Architecture Framework (DODAF) (Department of Defense

2012) or the Generalized Enterprise Reference Architecture and Methodology (GE-

RAM) (IFIP-IFAC 2003), more recent approaches focus on an integration of the dif-

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Part A: Foundations 13

ferent perspectives and views. An example of this approach is the TOGAF framework

that provides a whole method on how to establish EAM in an organization. The EAM

research from St. Gallen also aims at covering a holistic perspective (e.g. Aier et al.

2009).

EAM occurs in research contributions in different facets. Some would rather consider

it an IT-related discipline (Allen and Boynton 1991; Bradley et al. 2012; Ross 2003)

and others as management-oriented (Asfaw et al. 2009; Espinoza 2007; Radeke 2011;

Simon et al. 2014; The Open Group 2011; Winter and Fischer 2007). In corporate

practice, Aier et al. (2011) identify three types of EAM: a balanced and active ap-

proach (neither focused on IT nor business, but to a certain degree on both), a busi-

ness-oriented approach, and an IT-oriented but rather passive approach.

Summarized, EAM became an established discipline in current enterprises that emerg-

es more and more apart from its former IT focus. In section 3.2 its contribution to ET

management is discussed.

2.3 Reference Models of Information Requirements

Currently, two understandings of the term model exist; some consider models to be

direct representations of reality while others consider a model to be a construction by

one or more modelers (Ahlemann 2009, p. 20). As emphasized by most IS researchers,

the second perspective is taken as a foundation in this thesis. In this regard, models are

considered to be a resulting artifact of conducted DR processes (Gregor and Hevner

2013, p. 341; March and Smith 1995, p. 253).

Models in IS research describe processes (Becker et al. 2000), applications (Schaeffer

et al. 1993), data (Inmon 2000), information requirements (Jaffe 1979), and many

more aspects of an organization. Models are core vehicles to analyze, design, and de-

ploy IS (Becker et al. 1995; Fettke and Loos 2003, p. 35). Ahlemann (2009, p. 20) dis-

tinguishes models that focus on the business problem rather than on technical aspects,

models that describe larger, technical building blocks, and models that are closely re-

lated to software programming.

The model that is developed in the thesis contains information requirements of ETs.

Information requirements are one side of a coin, while fulfilling them by information

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14 Part A: Reference Models of Information Requirements

supply is the other.1 The model type is strongly related to information models de-

scribed in the IDEF0 method (National Bureau of Standards 1993) and is understood

as a model that presents information needed in an organization. However, since some

confusion exists about the term “information model” (e.g. Becker and Delfmann

(2007) also use it for process models), in this thesis, the term information requirements

model is used. Such models are widely used, for example, with a focus on marketing

(Jaffe 1979) or accounting (Roy et al. 2011) issues.

Compared to models that are used in a single context for a certain purpose, reference

models (RM) are meant to be more generic (Luiten et al. 1993, p. 3) and thus enable

the reuse of generic designs (vom Brocke 2003, p. 36). Examples of these models are

the ISO OSI layer model (Zimmermann 1980), the Supply Chain Operations Refer-

ence (SCOR) model (Supply Chain Council 2009), and RMs for project management

(Ahlemann 2009). While Thomas (2006, p. 491) considers RMs as being used “for

supporting the construction of other models,” Fettke and Loos (2007, p. 2) consider

them to be conceptual frameworks that can be used as a draft for IS design and devel-

opment. Vom Brocke (2007, p. 49) considers an RM to be a special information model

that serves to be reused in the design process of other information models (definition

based on vom Brocke (2003, p. 38)). Thus, RMs aim at accelerating the design of IS,

reducing costs, helping to communicate innovation and best practices, reducing the

risk of failure (Ahlemann 2009, p. 20), or transferring domain knowledge in compa-

nies (Becker et al. 2010, p. 36). Apart from these economic advantages, RMs fulfill a

scientific purpose for the IS discipline by explicating knowledge and representing the-

ory in terms of models (vom Brocke 2003, p. 37).

Two major processes can be identified concerning RMs: the construction process and

the application process (Ahlemann and Gastl 2007, p. 79). While the first aims at the

development of the RM itself, the latter aims at the development of enterprise-specific

models based on the RM. Vom Brocke (2003, p. 231) further distinguishes the con-

struction process into the construction of different RM components that can be com-

posed into a final RM (thus, the author adds an intermediary step before deriving the

enterprise-specific model to allow for a distributed RM construction).

1 For the sake of comprehensibility and based on the primary goal to research the EAM

support of ETs, the thesis will refer only to information requirements in the following

sections. This also includes potential information provided by EAM.

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Part A: Foundations 15

Ahlemann and Gastl (2007), based on others (e.g. Schlagheck 2000; Schütte 1998;

vom Brocke 2003), summarize a process to construct RMs (see also section 1.4). They

start with planning the RM project, which includes problem identification and plan-

ning in a narrower sense. Planning is related to the model itself (problem domain), the

inter model relationships, the applied methods, organizational aspects, technological

planning and project planning. The next step is the model construction itself. This in-

cludes capturing existing domain knowledge, constructing a frame of reference, con-

ducting a first empirical inquiry and constructing the initial model. The third step is the

validation. It is comprised of planning and executing a second empirical inquiry and

refining the model. The fourth step is practical testing, which includes an RM applica-

tion in practice and further refinement. The fifth and the final step is documentation.

To be useful, RMs need to be adaptable to different situations in an efficient manner

and thus need to provide guidance on their adaptation (Becker et al. 2007a, p. 29). To

achieve this goal, different mechanisms of reuse can be applied to adapt the RM to the

specific conditions of a situation (Becker et al. 2007b, p. 3). Becker et al. (2007b,

p. 3f) differentiate analogy construction, specialization, and configuration as possible

means concerning RMs. Thereby, analogy construction describes using parts of the

model in situations that differ from the original model purpose. Specialization is sup-

ported when the RMs have a higher degree of abstraction than the models that are used

in the company. Configuration addresses modifying parts of the RM based on pre-

defined rules that refer to specific situations. Vom Brocke (2007, p. 58-64), in addi-

tion, considers instantiation (integration of concrete enterprise-specific models into

placeholders in the generic RM) and aggregation (combining different RM compo-

nents into a new RM or combining different RMs to an enterprise-specific model) as

suitable means to adapt and construct RMs.

All of these techniques are relevant concerning the development of enterprise-specific

models, but also concerning the construction of new RMs based on existing RM com-

ponents. As a general problem, the conflict between effort to construct the RM (or RM

component) and the effort to adapt it has to be balanced. The different adaptation tech-

niques pose different challenges. Configuration, for example, is seen as cost-efficient

when it comes to adaptation since different situations are already intended by the RM

designer. The costs of adaptation are lower, the higher the fit of the intended situation

of the RM with the reality is. In addition, the semantic accuracy is ensured because

parts of the reference model transferred to the enterprise-specific model in a one-to-

one manner (vom Brocke and Buddendick 2006, p. 23f). Such RMs have a tendency to

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16 Part A: Reference Models of Information Requirements

become smaller and easier to handle (vom Brocke 2003, p. 315). However, the tech-

nique is mostly useful when final constructs can be foreseen during the build-time of

the RM (or RM component) and stay mostly stable over time (vom Brocke 2003,

p. 315). Aggregation (or composition, as a special form of it), as another example, de-

scribes the combination of different reference models to fulfill an overall purpose (e.g.,

providing an enterprise specific model). When this technique is supposed to be ap-

plied, the situation and purpose of the reused model do not need to be predefined.

However, integrating the components without changing them is a difficult task that

requires a lot of effort when it comes to the model reuse (vom Brocke 2003, p. 290).

The RM that is developed in this thesis incorporates the configuration concept to pro-

vide efficient guidance on necessary information requirements in ETs. Thus, it is uni-

versal and provides pre-configured types for configuration that can be further special-

ized. Configuration is the preferred means if the application domain can be described

fully in design time, including all relevant adaptations that have to be considered (vom

Brocke 2007, p. 69). Due to the many involved parts of the enterprise during ETs, fur-

ther specialization is necessary in the practice application (vom Brocke 2007, p. 69).

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Part A: State of the Art 17

3 State of the Art

The following section provides an overview of requirements that ET managers have

during ETs (3.1), introduces how related literature describes the EAM support of ETs

(3.2), and finally derives design objectives for a solution artifact (3.3).

3.1 Requirements of Enterprise Transformation Managers

ET managers have to deal with many requirements during the ET. Since change is rad-

ical in nature, requirements need to be fulfilled for many different stakeholders in a

short time period. Since ET managers cannot fulfill all of these requirements on their

own, they need to delegate them to other stakeholders in the organization, coordinate

other stakeholders, and take a man-in-the middle role (Stiles et al. 2012, p. 20). Specif-

ically, ET managers identify requirements from ET stakeholders, convert and forward

these requirements to supporting disciplines, while keeping the responsibility for the

overall process (Stiles et al. 2012, p. 20). In other words, ET managers need to align

the interests and requirements of the different stakeholders of an ET.

Surprisingly, the set of requirements that ET managers pose is not well defined or

clearly communicated in current research. Basole et al. (2013, p. 331) claim that or-

ganizations need to focus on “organizations, people, knowledge, information, process-

es, strategy, and technology.” Stiles et al. (2012, pp. 17-19) identify requirements that

need to be considered in different phases of the ET (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Requirements in different ET phases (see Stiles et al. 2012)

Figure 3 indicates that a major differentiator of managing ETs, compared to incremen-

tal changes, is the significant effort in analysis and planning. As implied by the radical

nature of an ET, a lot of information needs to be available quickly and cannot first be

EnvisionCreate case for change, sense of urgency, strategy/vision

Requirements:

• Analytical capability

• Creativity

• Foresight

EngageEmpower people to act on the vision and plan the effort.

Requirements:

• Detailed planning

• Alignment with business functions

TransformOptimize

Change behavior, processes, technology, culture, values.

Requirements:

• people’s understanding and commitment

• changing the IT successfully

Enhance transformation capability.

Requirements:

• Internalize, institutionalize, and optimize

transformation

• create stability.

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18 Part A: Requirements of Enterprise Transformation Managers

collected in single projects or survey initiatives. Kotnour and Bollo (2011, p. 258) con-

firm this finding by stating that conducting a successful transformation planning and

scenario assessment are of major importance. Disciplines like business engineering

(Österle and Winter 2003b) or enterprise engineering (Dietz et al. 2013) aim at such a

planning-driven ET management. Both approaches incorporate principles from engi-

neering disciplines like the idea of purposefully designing organizations (Simon 1969,

p. 166), while at the same time incorporating social aspects (Dietz et al. 2013, p. 94).

Usually, the planned changes are operationalized in terms of projects and thus coordi-

nated by program or portfolio management. However, these approaches focus on re-

quirements concerning budget or resource availability (Project Management Institute

2004). In consequence, they are prone to local optimizations (since project managers

often only see the benefit of their own project), instead of striving for global optimiza-

tion. Methods applied in project management like critical path or chain calculations

(Leach 1999) only address the problem from a resource perspective, but do not take

into account additional dependencies or redundancies. Aside from the project perspec-

tive, distinct departments like human resource management or management accounting

tend to focus on functional silos instead of taking a holistic perspective (Rouse 2005b).

The ET manager needs to be able to overcome this shortcoming and apply an integrat-

ed approach that covers the entire enterprise and not just local units during the ET

(Kotnour and Bollo 2011, p. 258).

To ensure such a holistic perspective, ET managers need to be supplied with infor-

mation that is relevant for the ET. Such information concentrates on managerial as-

pects (see section 2.1) instead of day-to-day operational information processing. If in-

formation provision is dysfunctional, for example by purposefully withholding infor-

mation, a successful ET is hardly possible (Kilmann 1995, p. 176).

When reflecting on these stated requirements, focusing on information requirements of

ETs is a reasonable perspective. However, the detailed analysis (Paper C) shows that

past approaches are scarce, mostly focus on financial information, and lack a sufficient

degree of detail. This gap needs to be closed to design a meaningful artifact.

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Part A: State of the Art 19

3.2 Enterprise Architecture Management Support of Enter-

prise Transformation Management

Many EAM practitioners and scientists discuss the suitability of EAM concerning its

support to guide, steer or support ETs (Abraham et al. 2013b; Asfaw et al. 2009;

Simon 2009; Winter et al. 2012a). The potential that EAM can unfold concerning ETs

is seen differently.

Recently, EAM is seen as a comprehensive capability that is embedded as an organiza-

tional function (Lange et al. 2012). According to Gartner (2011, p. 12), the EAM func-

tion in organizations is increasingly acknowledged and adapted with a broader scope

than IT only. It is explicitly considered to be a function that applies methods to guide

effective transformations. Table 2 summarizes aspects of ET support that could be

provided by EAM according to the related literature.

Table 2: EAM contributions to ETM

Support Aspect Summary

Alignment/

Coherence

Business-to-IT alignment, which implies using IT according to

the business goals, is a traditional task of EAM. More recently,

alignment between other organizational components is also in

focus.

Transparency By using models of the current state, EAM can provide holistic

transparency for an organization that is a foundation for the

planning and controlling of dependencies.

Planning By using models and roadmaps, EAM can support the

planning process.

Assessment Enriching models with further information enables EAM to

conduct different assessments, e.g. of risks.

Communication EA artifacts can be used to appropriately communicate the ET.

Boundary

Spanning

The architect as a person with a strong network can act as a

facilitator of the ET.

Governance Provided that EAM is institutionalized in an appropriate

manner, it can act as a governance body.

Coordination While incorporating some of the above aspects, EAM can

contribute as a coordination mechanisms during the ET.

EAM is typically considered an IT topic aiming mostly at aligning IT landscapes with

business processes and strategy (Simon et al. 2014, p. 6). While this task is still con-

sidered important, the view on alignment has changed. Wagter et al. (2012, p. 79) pro-

pose the term “enterprise coherence” to describe an alignment that goes beyond busi-

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20 Part A: Enterprise Architecture Management Support of Enterprise Transformation

Management

ness to IT but includes business processes, organizational culture, product portfolio,

human resources, etc.

Related to the alignment is the creation of transparency. Bradley (2012) describes IT-

driven transformation in the health care industry where many different IT solutions

exist. To deal with these during the transformation process, an overview of the land-

scape needs to be achieved. Bricknal et al. (2006) describe a similar transformation,

where EAM is used to provide an overview of the application landscape and the trans-

formation’s influence on the data flows between the applications. Apart from applica-

tions, transparency can also be achieved for other parts of the organization. EAM is

able to provide transparency about the complexity of the organization and to accom-

plish enterprise-wide goals, instead of (conflicting) local optimizations (Foorthuis et

al. 2010, p. 4). This is achieved by having an overview of many projects instead of a

local (e.g. project manager’s) perspective and knowing about the dependencies be-

tween them. Further, EAM is considered to be aware of interdependencies between the

culture and structure of the organization (Espinoza 2007, p. 33).

Another core strength that EAM can provide during ETs is planning. The to-be de-

signs and change project roadmaps that EAM creates, are seen as an especially im-

portant input for ETM (Winter et al. 2013, p. 225) and help stakeholders to imagine

the future enterprise (Espinoza 2007, p. 33).

Simon et al. (2014, p. 32) see a high potential for EAM to support transformations

through assessments of the organization’s transformation readiness. Other authors see

risk assessments (Innerhofer-Oberperfler and Breu 2006) as an important contribution

of EAM.

EAM can be a facilitator of communication by providing artifacts that are understood

by different communities (Abraham et al. 2013a, p. 33; Espinoza 2007, p. 33). The

applied means are principles that document fundamental choices in an accessible form,

and thus facilitate communication with all affected stakeholders (Proper and

Greefhorst 2010, p. 59).

Architects often see themselves as moderators that connect the different stakeholders

who are involved in the transformation (Labusch et al. 2013, p. 113). When architec-

ture models and principles are not automatically applied, architects need to foster their

use and overcome communication defects. This is referred to as being boundary span-

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Part A: State of the Art 21

ners that actively communicate with many communities’ practices during the ET

(Abraham et al. 2013a, p. 38; Levina and Vaast 2005).

Oftentimes, EAM’s ability to provide governance during ETs is discussed. This means

that EAM is supposed to support necessary decision processes on multiple hierarchical

levels (Asfaw et al. 2009, p. 27). In some companies, architects are involved in trans-

formation governance boards to analyze conformance with company standards or re-

spective qualitative goals (Op’t Land et al. 2009; Winter and Schelp 2008). EAM

functions might even have the opportunity to initiate transformation projects (Schmidt

and Buxmann 2011). The applied means are usually principles. They ensure that the

EA is future directed, and guide design decisions, while preventing overly complex

analysis by focusing on the essence (Proper and Greefhorst 2010, p. 59).

Related to the governance is the ability of EAM to support the coordination during an

ET. EAM provides information that enable groups to interpret related issues for their

purposes (Pulkkinen et al. 2007, p. 1609). EA principles allow for coordination by

providing guidelines that help actors to take decisions and lead the enterprise in the

same direction of action (Abraham et al. 2012a, p. 3; The Open Group 2011). In addi-

tion, EAM enables the coordination efforts in organizations by providing solid docu-

mentation of standards and principles (Abraham et al. 2012a, p. 9).

The section above shows that EAM is able to support ETM in many different ways.

However, related literature stays on a rather vague level without showing in detail how

the ET could be supported by EAM. This gap needs to be closed by focusing on cer-

tain aspects of the ET support and analyzing those more in detail. This is done for the

information provision in the thesis at hand. The perspective of information provision is

especially related to planning, transparency and communication steps. The perspective

is in the scope of the thesis, since it connects especially well with the planning de-

mands of ETM illustrated in section 3.1.

3.3 Design Objectives for the Solution Artifact

Based on the sections above, objectives are derived that the solution artifact should

fulfill. According to Hevner et al. (2004, p. 80), DR needs to incorporate relevance and

rigor. Thus, the design objectives are distinguished in these two dimensions (see Table

3).

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22 Part A: Design Objectives for the Solution Artifact

Table 3: Solution design objectives

Relevance O1 Appropriate coverage of the phenomenon

O2 Appropriate level of detail

O3 Incorporated “customer” perspective

O4 Understandability for users

O5 Situational adaptability

Rigor O6 Empirically and theoretically grounded research process

O7 Structured design process

O8 Inclusion of model quality criteria

The appropriate scope (O1) addresses the core goal of leveraging EAM support of

ETM. This requirement addresses the current vagueness of what ET relevant infor-

mation EAM is able to provide and what information the ET manager requires (see

sections 3.1 and 3.2). Thus, this objective aims at identifying what needs to be de-

scribed in the artifact from both perspectives. So, the artifact should not only contain

requirements but also information delivery opportunities and incorporate a holistic

perspective (Kotnour and Bollo 2011, p. 259; Lahrmann et al. 2012, p. 265).

An appropriate level of detail (O2) is important to fulfill the purpose of bridging the

gap between ETM and EAM. An overly detailed description of information require-

ments could be confusing, while a certain level of detail is necessary for appropriate

analysis. This requirement is rooted in the current shortcomings of research to describe

EAM support of ETs in detail (see section 3.2).

To understand how EAM can support ETs, a “customer,” (i.e., an ETM perspective),

needs to be taken (O3). Information requirements should not be guessed by architects

but instead be confirmed or directly included based on ET manager’s perceptions.

The intended users (thus architects and ET managers) need to understand the artifact to

use it in a valuable manner (O4).

The discussion about requirements of ETM shows that these are not clearly defined

and occur in different shades (section 3.1). Thus, it is necessary to distinguish different

types of ETs based on the occurring information requirements (O5).

Objectives O6 – O8 are related to the rigor of the design process. In consequence, the

designed artifact is supposed to incorporate an empirically and theoretically grounded

research process (O6) lisle outlined in section 1.4. Further, the development of the

model should be handled in a structured process (O7). This includes involving poten-

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Part A: State of the Art 23

tial users of the RM as much as experts of the domain under consideration (Ahlemann

and Gastl 2007, p. 78). The research further needs to include established quality crite-

ria (O8) on models in general and RMs in particular (e.g. Becker et al. 1995;

Rosemann and Schütte 1997).

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24 Part A: Conceptual Design

4 Summary of the Contribution

In the following section the conceptual design is introduced and a summary of the pa-

pers included in the thesis is provided.

4.1 Conceptual Design

The thesis aims at designing a CIRRM that can be used as the foundation of a method

to support ETM by means of EAM. To achieve this goal, the RQs stated in section 1.3

are addressed by the design research process like illustrated in section 1.4. The papers

that are part of the thesis contribute to different parts of this overall research process.

RQ1a addresses the potential support of EAM during ETs. Section 3.2 discusses the

potential support in an abstract way, while Paper A provides a detailed analysis of the

field and identifies concrete information requirements and supply opportunities. An

additional, literature-based discussion is provided in Papers B (additional overview of

the field) and C (focus on processing mechanisms). RQ1b (current support in practice)

is completely addressed by Paper B that provides interviews with experts of both dis-

ciplines. Conceptual foundations are provided in Paper C and chapter 2. Based on the

first RQs, design objectives for the artifact are stated in section 3.3.

The design of the artifact incorporates the information requirements and potentially

supplied information identified in papers A and B. These are necessary for the type

identification in RQ2a that is actually conducted in Paper D. The design of the CIRRM

and the CIRRM itself are also presented in Paper D.

The evaluation is presented as a coherent process in section 5.1. Paper E provides a

detailed description of the consortium which participated in many evaluation steps.

Paper F provides a part of the second evaluation addressed in RQ3b. Paper D includes

demonstration steps that contribute to RQ3c.

The design research process described in section 1.4 is completely addressed by the

papers that are included in the thesis and part A of the summary paper. An overview of

the coverage is provided in Table 4.

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Part A: Summary of the Contribution 25

Table 4: Contribution summary

Analysis Design Evaluation

Pote

nti

al

Pra

ctic

e

Foundat

ion

ET

Ty

pes

Des

ign

Ev

al 1

Ev

al 2

Ev

al 3

Ev

al 4

# Paper Title RQ

1a

RQ

1b

RQ

1c

RQ

2a

RQ

2b

RQ

3a

RQ

3b

RQ

3c

RQ

3d

A Towards a Conceptualization of Architectural

Support for Enterprise Transformation

B Architectural Support of Enterprise Trans-

formations: Insights from Corporate

Practice

C Information Requirements for Enterprise

Transformations

D A Reference Model for the Information-

Based Support of Enterprise Transformations

E Beyond Enterprise Architecture Modeling –

What are the Essentials to Support Enterprise

Transformations?

F Information Provision as a Success Factor in

the Architectural Support of Enterprise

Transformations

Thesis Part A

RQ not covered All RQ aspects covered partially

Single RQ aspects covered in detail All RQ aspects covered fully

4.2 Summary of Papers

The following section provides a brief summary of the papers that are part of the cu-

mulative thesis. The summary is guided by the motivation, the paper content and re-

search approach, and the paper results in the context of the overall thesis.

4.2.1 Paper A: Towards a Conceptualization of Architectural Support

for Enterprise Transformation

Motivation

A thorough survey of the detailed information requirements of ET management is

needed since it does not exist in current research (see section 3.1). ET managers re-

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26 Part A: Summary of Papers

quire information, and enterprise architects are able to provide information. However,

when talking to the latter, they often do not clearly know how to support ET managers

and which information is exactly needed. The other way round, many ET managers are

not aware, how EAM might support their effort or how EAM could be further extend-

ed to do so. While current research usually analyses in an abstract way, how EAM can

support ETM (see section 3.2), the paper needs to examine this relation in more detail.

Content and Approach

To gain a broad perspective on the information requirements of ET managers, a litera-

ture review is considered to be the most appropriate means because it avoids reinvesti-

gation of what is already known (Webster and Watson 2002) and increases the rigor

and relevance of the research (vom Brocke et al. 2009). Information requirements of

ET managers are derived and grouped into eight overall groups: ET Meta Manage-

ment, ET Performance Management, ET Strategy Management, ET Execution Man-

agement, ET Human Resource Management, ET Information Technology Manage-

ment, ET Structure Management, and ET Relationship Management.

In a second step, information that EAM could provide is identified based on the

TOGAF content meta model (The Open Group 2011) and additional sources.

In a third step, both ETM information requirements and information possibly provided

by EAM, are compared to each other. Afterwards, the ET literature is checked to de-

termine if the information provided by EAM is sufficient to satisfy the information

requirement, or if additional information sources besides EAM need to be used. The

need for additional sources is rated on a five point scale ranging from one, which sig-

nifies “ET activity nearly not supported by EAM,” to five, which states, “full support”.

Results

A detailed, state-of-the-art analysis concerning information requirements by ET man-

agers and potential support by EAM based on literature sources is provided. In addi-

tion, discussions regarding ET activities that can potentially be well supported and

those that can rather not be supported by EAM are delivered. The research in Paper A

provides one part of the foundation for the development of the CIRRM. Paper A is

thus mostly related to RQ1a, but also provides input to RQ2a and b.

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Part A: Summary of the Contribution 27

4.2.2 Paper B: Architectural Support of Enterprise Transformations:

Insights from Corporate Practice

Motivation

More detail about the current practice of EAM supporting ETM is needed to confirm

and extend the findings of Paper A. The perceptions of practitioners may add valuable

knowledge that is not documented in current literature. Since the field of research is

not well-structured so far, a qualitative study is considered to be most suitable to solve

the research problem and understand the social phenomenon of ET support (Myers

2002).

Content and Approach

In the study, information obtained from two groups of experts, who have experience in

either EAM (ten informants) or ETM (eight informants), is compared. Two semi-

structured interview questionnaires (one for the EAM experts and one for the ET ex-

perts) comprised of open-ended questions are developed. Interviews are conducted via

phone or face-to-face.

The EAM experts’ and the ETM experts’ responses are coded into two separate lists:

Potential contributions of EAM and the needs of ETM, with each distinct item on

these lists representing one code (open coding (Miles and Huberman 1994; Strauss and

Corbin 1990)). These two lists represent potential EAM contributions to ET, as viewed

by the EAM experts, and information that is required to conduct ETs, as viewed by the

ETM experts.

The ET and EAM codes are grouped based on their semantic similarity (Bailey 1994).

Guided by the codes and the underlying statements of the informants, the EAM inputs

to the ETM information requirements are mapped. A great fit is identified concerning

the design of IT components, governance, and transformation planning. Results indi-

cate partial fits concerning project management, analysis of design options, design of

business components and change management. Results indicate no fit concerning

management accounting (controlling) and external relations management.

Results

Paper B provides a mapping of the EAM information provision and ETM requirements

in current corporate practice. In addition, it provides an analysis of the fits between

both. Paper 2 mostly refers to RQ1b. In addition, the codes that are generated during

the interview analysis are input for the CIRRM design (RQ2a and b).

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28 Part A: Summary of Papers

4.2.3 Paper C: Information Requirements for Enterprise

Transformations

Motivation

The information perspective needs to be understood and analyzed in detail. To consid-

er the perspective appropriately, a definition of information requirements and an anal-

ysis of related dimensions is necessary. Furthermore, the management mechanisms

related to information processing during ETs need to be understood to better apply the

CIRRM in this context.

Content and Approach

Paper C is based on explorative literature analysis on the topics of information re-

quirements and the related organizational information processing theory (OIPT).

It becomes apparent that information is needed during ETs, but details are not explicit-

ly stated. Instead, existing frameworks and related literature concerning information

requirements provide a rather financials-oriented perspective and seldom focus explic-

itly on ETs.

Different dimensions of information requirements are described. First, stakeholders of

information are identified and described concerning their requirements during an ET.

The most important stakeholder that is considered is the ET manager. Second, the

scope of the information is introduced. This relates to the described extent, such as

single stakeholders, groups, organization, transformation, or environment. Third, the

purpose of the information during the ET is described. Here, the distinction between

information for steering and those for decision input is considered important. Fourth,

the degree of detail is distinguished.

The OIPT and its management mechanisms is introduced and discussed in relation to

EAM. Organizations regularly process information. During an ET, the information

processing need increases and has to be handled by the ET manager. The theory pro-

vides different mechanisms about how the information processing need can be handled

or reduced. An analysis is provided on how and if EAM can support these mecha-

nisms.

Results

Paper C provides definitions and classifications that are helpful to design the RM and

to describe its scope. Further, Paper C provides insight, how the information provided

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Part A: Summary of the Contribution 29

by EAM and denoted in the CIRRM is embedded in the overall ET management pro-

cess. Thus, it contributes to answering research questions RQ1a and RQ1c.

4.2.4 Paper D: A Reference Model for the Information-Based Support

of Enterprise Transformations

Motivation

To present the results of the above papers in a comprehensive, compact form, a

CIRRM is an appropriate means (see section 2.3). In addition, different types of ET

based on the information requirements of ET managers and the information potentially

provided by EAM need to be incorporated to support configuration of the model. The

types need to be based on information requirements because the key perspective is the

information provision by EAM (see section 1.3).

Content and Approach

First, relevant contingency factors and information requirements (as much as infor-

mation potentially provided by EAM)2 are identified to design a questionnaire and

provide it to domain experts. The questionnaire is comprised of three parts: the envi-

ronment of the ET (“the organization”), the ET itself (goals, reasons, figures, etc.) and

the information requirements of ET managers. While the first and the second parts are

derived from a structured literature review, the information requirements are based on

a consolidated list derived from papers A and B. The respondents are asked which in-

formation was important in their ET.

Based on the answers concerning the importance of the information, a hierarchical

cluster analysis is conducted. The clusters (and thus ET types) are described by incor-

porating the questionnaire part of the ET itself.

The analysis revealed four different types of ETs. These are: Strategic Alignment,

Market Alignment, Management Driven and Operational Optimization. The four types

imply different information requirements that are illustrated in the CIRRM.

Furthermore, Paper D provides a discussion on how the model could be used, e.g., to

tailor EAM to the needs of a certain type of ET. For this purpose, a matching is con-

ducted that reveals different support for all of the four clusters, e.g., very low support

probability for EAM in the Management Driven cluster, because transformations of

this type do not request much information.

2 The paper uses the term “information items” for both.

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30 Part A: Summary of Papers

Results

Paper D identifies different types of ET and provides the actual design step in the re-

search project. It provides a CIRRM as a resulting artifact. In addition, the paper

demonstrates how the model could be used to analyze if EAM could provide infor-

mation that is actually required. Thus, the paper refers to RQ2a, RQ2b and RQ3c.

4.2.5 Paper E: Beyond Enterprise Architecture Modeling – What are

the Essentials to Support Enterprise Transformations?

Motivation

The evaluation of the CIRRM requires input from practice to learn about its applicabil-

ity, advantages and disadvantages. For this reason, the model is presented in a group of

practitioners that deals with the topic (see section 5.1). The paper aims at introducing

the group and providing an overview of the working mode.

Content and Approach

In Paper E, a consortium research approach is taken that involves a group of practi-

tioners. In the group, the topic of supporting ETM with EAM is discussed and ideas

are developed on how the support could be conducted. The group aims at developing a

framework for the EAM support of ET managers; the information perspective that is

considered in the thesis at hand is part of this endeavor.

Paper E describes exemplarily, how the group of practitioners works and gathers new

findings. As an example, the group analyzes areas of action, where EAM potentially

can support ETs. This results in four major areas (1) roles, skills and communication,

(2) governance and control, (3) planning and requirements management and (4) organ-

izational culture.

Statements and findings from the described process are applied to evaluate the CIRRM

(section 5.1).

Results

Paper E highlights the relevance of the problem perspective. In addition, the paper de-

scribes the group of practitioners that is referred to in the evaluation of the CIRRM.

Further, it describes the work that is conducted in this group. Thus, the paper provides

input to RQ3a-d and is related to the evaluation of the CIRRM.

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Part A: Summary of the Contribution 31

4.2.6 Paper F: Information Provision as a Success Factor in the

Architectural Support of Enterprise Transformations

Motivation

The CIRRM is designed based on information requirements that are considered im-

portant by ET managers. An analysis on whether these information requirements are

appropriate, i.e., if they contribute to the success of an ET, is missing. This knowledge

would provide input to the evaluation of the model and the overall approach by show-

ing that its parts are valuable.

Content and Approach

In the questionnaire that is used in Paper D, two additional questions are asked: first, if

the ET was, or most probably will be successful, and second, if each of the information

requirements was or is fulfilled. These two questions are used to conduct analysis

based on linear regressions to identify which information, when being available, is

related to the ET success.

Strongest influences can be attributed to information about business requirements,

business functions, projects, communications strategy, trainings, ET history, qualita-

tive and quantitative success measures, master agreements, risk assessments, legal

regulations, and internal guidelines/standards. A discussion is provided if the infor-

mation that contributes strongly to the success of the ET can be provided by EAM.

The data shows that an EAM that supports ETs needs to focus on business aspects ra-

ther than on IT architecture.

Results

Paper F analyzes the relation between the availability of information and the influence

on the ET success. The significant relations confirm the assumption that availability of

information contributes to ET success. Further the paper shows the suitability of the

considered information requirements since none of them has negative influence on the

ET success. The results contribute to RQ3b and thus are part of the evaluation process.

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32 Part A: Evaluation of the Solution Artifact

5 Discussion and Outlook

This section evaluates the designed artifact and discusses the lessons learned for the

next step (5.1), critically reflects the research process (5.2) and extracts implications

for practice and research (5.3).

5.1 Evaluation of the Solution Artifact

Evaluation is an important part of any DR project (Peffers et al. 2007). While early

work on DR emphasizes evaluation as one block, targeting the practical application of

the artifact (Hevner et al. 2004), more recent research distinguishes ex ante and ex post

evaluations of the design (Klecun and Cornford 2005, p. 230; Pries-Heje et al. 2008).

Based on this understanding, Sonnenberg and vom Brocke (2012), provide different

evaluation steps during the DR process (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: Evaluations in design research (see Sonnenberg and vom Brocke 2012)

For each of the evaluations, the authors state criteria and necessary outputs that depend

on these criteria. The framework is applied in the following section for the evaluation

of the CIRRM. Thus, criteria that the authors especially relate to the evaluation of

models (based on March and Smith (1995)) are primarily considered but complement-

ed by further ones that Sonnenberg and vom Brocke introduce. The final artifact that is

considered for the evaluation is the CIRRM.

Gregor and Hevner (2013) discuss different goals for DR. The research in the thesis at

hand is positioned in the improvement cluster because it aims at improving the infor-

Ex Ante Evaluation

Ex Post Evaluation

Identify

Problem

Evaluation

1

Design

Construct

Evaluation

2

Evaluation

3

Use

Evaluation

4

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Part A: Discussion and Outlook 33

mation supply during ETs. The evaluation needs to show that an improvement com-

pared to existing approaches is achieved. This step is already included in evaluation 1.

5.1.1 Evaluation 1

Sonnenberg and vom Brocke (2012, p. 394) state that in the beginning of a DR project,

the researcher needs to demonstrate the importance of the problem for practice, its

novelty and the appropriateness of the constructs that are supposed to be used.

The importance of the handled problem is outlined in sections 1.1 and 1.2. ETs often-

times fail due to their high complexity and the lack of overview that ET managers

have over this complexity. The support of ETM by EAM is a comparably new phe-

nomenon compared to other research that deals with transformations ((e.g. Jackson

1978; Jenkins 1977; Tichy 1983; Zald and Denton 1963)). It is highly relevant for

practice as can be seen by many practitioner initiatives that are conducted by consul-

tancy companies or industry groups (e.g. Detecon 2013; IBM 2014; The Open Group

2014)). In addition, academic and practitioner publications deal with the topic (e.g.

Gardner et al. 2012; Winter et al. 2013). The interest of architects in the topic can es-

pecially be seen in the group of practitioners introduced in Paper E, which is com-

prised of researchers and practitioners who are working on the EAM support of ETs.

Still, many ETs fail (see section 1.1) and an improvement of their management would

thus be desirable.

A lot of research discusses the topic in rather abstract terms (see sections 3.1 and 3.2).

Explicitly considering details in terms of a demand (ETM) and supply (EAM) perspec-

tive takes the relation of the two disciplines into consideration. Taking an information

perspective on this topic is rather novel. Information perspectives on ETM were al-

ready taken (see Paper C) but do not have a holistic perspective (they rather focus on

singular aspects like financials). EAM frameworks specify information that can be

provided in general (e.g., the TOGAF Content Meta Model). However, a combined

perspective does not exist.

The design objectives for the artifact are summarized in section 3.3. These are derived

based on the shortcomings identified in the sections before. The design objectives have

not been directly evaluated by an explicit interview or focus group. However, in the

group of practitioners (see Paper E), design objectives concerning a similar framework

(that not only aims at taking an information perspective, but aims at being more holis-

tic) have been discussed.

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34 Part A: Evaluation of the Solution Artifact

Table 5 summarizes the applied evaluation criteria and rates whether they have been

fulfilled completely, partially, or have not been applicable.

Table 5: Evaluation 1

Output Criteria Summary

Justified

problem

statement

Importance () Review of practitioner initiatives and the expert per-

ceptions of ET managers show the importance of the

research for practice.

Justified

research

gap

Novelty () Related work has not addressed the EAM support of

ETs on a detailed level but rather in terms of abstract

discussions. No artifact for this purpose existed.

Justified

design

objectives

Suitability ()

Economic

Feasibility ()

Applicability ()

The design objectives lack an explicit evaluation,

e.g. by means of interviews or studies. They can still

be considered suitable, feasible and applicable since

they are derived from shortcomings identified before

and incorporate best practices of design research.

() Criterion fulfilled () Criterion partially fulfilled () Criterion not applicable

Based on evaluation 1 further improvements would have been possible concerning the

research project. An analysis of existing RMs related to the CIRRM might have re-

vealed further design objectives or input to the overall design process. Such new and

the design objectives stated in the thesis could have been evaluated by means of expert

discussions or structured surveys to provide a more solid foundation for the following

design step. Another analysis could have been taken, if the considered “demand vs.

supply” or “requirements vs provision” perspective is suitable. Furthermore, the con-

sidered construct of “information” could have been compared with other possible ones

in a structured way. Thus, more learnings about the taken perspective and the compo-

sition of the design objectives could have been derived from evaluation 1 for the re-

search process.

5.1.2 Evaluation 2

Evaluation 2 checks if the stated design objectives (see section 3.3) are appropriately

considered by the design specification. The artifact as such is not yet instantiated and

thus, the stated design objectives are briefly compared with the planned means to

achieve them (Sonnenberg and vom Brocke 2012, p. 394).

The CIRRM is specified as the foundation for a method that is appropriate to imple-

ment the stated design objectives. The RM design is based on the information re-

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Part A: Discussion and Outlook 35

quirements of ETM and the information that EAM is able to supply as identified in

papers A and B. It can be configured for different ET types. The design objectives are

discussed below and evaluation 2 is summarized in Table 6.

Design objective O1 is achieved when the RM is designed based on foundations that

incorporate the large body of knowledge about the phenomenon. To achieve as much

completeness as possible, saturation needs to be accomplished in the empirical work or

in literature searches. This saturation is finally reached in the papers that are provided

in the thesis:

In expert interviews (Paper B) enough responses have been collected to reach a

point at which it is unlikely that further responses would yield additional results

(Eisenhardt 1989, p. 545).

In the quantitative study (Paper D) the “additional” item has been added to care for

missing items. No statement was made that could not be mapped to one of the ex-

isting items.

Another evaluation step was conducted in Paper F to determine if the considered

information requirements are relevant concerning the success of the ET. Evidence

of the paper shows that this is the case for most of them.

O2 refers to the appropriate level of detail. The information requirements need to be

represented in the CIRRM in a way that is neither too generic nor overly detailed (see

section 2.3). Since both EAM and ETM are disciplines that cover a wide range of top-

ics (see sections 3.1 and 3.2), a broad coverage of information requirements is pre-

ferred over aiming for a very detailed investigation. However, whether or not this

completely fulfills the design objective is not further evaluated due to a lack of addi-

tional research, e.g. interviews.

Design Objective O3, incorporating a “customer” perspective has been addressed

mostly by the selection of interview partners and informants in the surveys. ET man-

agers (see Paper B, Paper D, and Paper F) have been interviewed whenever the ETM

perspective should be incorporated. To further integrate the customer perspective

(Frank 2007, p. 127), the configuration types of the model are not designed based on

information requirements that were available in the ET but instead based on those that

ET managers perceive as important. Thus, customer orientation is supposed to be pro-

vided.

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36 Part A: Evaluation of the Solution Artifact

O4 aims at the understandability of the artifact for its potential users (Frank 2007,

p. 129). On the one hand (and most important in the thesis), these are architects that

plan to further emerge their discipline towards the support of ETs. Architects are keen

on modeling in general, and thus, a high affinity to understand an RM can be assumed.

To cover the understandability for ET managers, a pre-study of the model question-

naire (see Paper D) was conducted with ET managers employed with one enterprise.

Criticisms that came up in the discussion were mostly related to wording issues and

could be resolved quickly.

Design objective O5 is addressed in Paper D where different types of ETs are derived

based on the information requirements. RMs allow for the integration of such classifi-

cation via configuration mechanisms (see section 2.3).

O6 is incorporated by applying a DR process as described by Peffers et al. (2007).

Such a process is very similar to the design processes of RMs as shown in section 1.4.

Further discussion of the research process is provided in section 5.2.

O7 is incorporated by applying the approach for the design of situational methods pro-

vided by Winter (2012). Since both method design and reference modeling have much

in common and may be considered “two sides of a coin” (Winter et al. 2009), the ap-

proach is adapted for the RM design and the distinction of different ET types in this

context.

O8, the inclusion of model quality criteria, is partially covered by taking an approach

that incorporates different levels of abstraction and uses a simple graphical representa-

tion. However, systematic requirements concerning the optical representation have not

been considered and could be taken into consideration in future design iterations.

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Part A: Discussion and Outlook 37

Table 6: Evaluation 2

Output Criteria Summary

Validated

design

specification

Completeness

(/)

The design specification almost incorporates the

complete set of design objectives, thus the complete-

ness criterion is almost fulfilled.

Level of detail

()

An RM is able to implement the design objectives up

to the intended level of detail.

Internal

consistency

()

The internal consistency of the planned model ele-

ments (thus, the identified information requirements)

is basically given due to a research process with mul-

tiple researchers coding the findings. However, even

stronger results could have been achieved by an addi-

tional study.

Understandability

()

Understandability should be given for the target

groups since they have been involved in the research

steps before.

Justified de-

sign tool/

methodology

Economic

Feasibility

()

Approach is feasible since preparation work at that

stage of the DR process has already been conducted

(Paper A and B).

Operationality

()

RMs are established concepts that have many ad-

vantages (see section 2.3) that are valuable for the

research goals.

Applicability

()

Type identification based on Winter´s method applied

multiple times, effort can be estimated.

Accessibility ()

Simplicity ()

Elegance ()

Clarity ()

Focus in this iteration of the design process is rather

on model content than on representation. Thus criteria

that refer to representational aspects are out of scope.

() Criterion fulfilled () Criterion partially fulfilled () Criterion not applicable

Based on evaluation 2 further improvements would have been possible concerning the

research project. The research about the relation between ET success and provided

information (related to O1) could have been extended and would have provided an

even higher applicability of the CIRRM. Furthermore, representational aspects related

to the CIRRM could have been incorporated by testing these aspects. In addition, al-

ternatives to an RM could have been explicitly evaluated, e.g. by expert discussions.

Thus, learnings that could be derived from this evaluation step are twofold. First, the

design specification should be explicated to identify gaps. Second, the search for the

artifact type should be conducted based on this specification.

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38 Part A: Evaluation of the Solution Artifact

5.1.3 Evaluation 3

The third evaluation activity aims at investigating, how well the artifact performs

when being confronted with single organizational elements. In addition, the evaluation

step is supposed to evaluate whether or not the artifact instance is consistent with the

specification (Sonnenberg and vom Brocke 2012, p. 395).

To identify if users are able to distinguish between the identified ET types, the descrip-

tions that are provided in Paper D have been handed out to the audience of a practi-

tioner conference, mostly comprised of enterprise architects and project managers

(N=69). The practitioners have been asked to rate on a 5-point Likert scale (Likert

1932) how appropriately the clusters describe their ET. Multiple clusters could be se-

lected at the same time. A hierarchical clustering has been conducted based on the

types that the respondents selected for their ET – aiming at identifying a one-to-one

mapping of the clusters used in the RM and those chosen by the respondents. In an

ideal case, each ET described by a respondent would map with one single cluster of

the RM (as shown in the left part of Table 7). The real as-is result is shown in the right

part of Table 7.

Table 7: Clarity of type description

Illustrative “to-be” Empirical “as-is”

T1 T2 T3 T4 T1 T2 T3 T4

Strategic Alignment 5.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 3.9 3.7 3.0 4.8

Market Alignment 1.0 5.0 1.0 1.0 2.2 4.4 2.0 4.1

Management Driven 1.0 1.0 5.0 1.0 1.9 3.2 4.1 4.1

Operations Optimization 1.0 1.0 1.0 5.0 3.8 1.9 2.7 4.6

The table illustrates that the results do not fully match with the illustrative to-be case.

The clearest result can be seen in type T3 that best matches to the “management driv-

en” type. T2 and T3, however, are mapping to two clusters at the same time while T4

matches almost all. At least all of the original clusters could be mapped. In conse-

quence, the cluster descriptions need to become more sophisticated and better under-

standable. How this could be achieved is discussed in section 5.3.

Since the types could not clearly be identified, it is necessary to analyze their robust-

ness. The classification that realizes the design goal of different types was conducted

based on a set of 19 ETs. An additional 19 cases could be collected to conduct the

clustering again with a sample of 38 ETs. In this step it is of major interest to find out

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Part A: Discussion and Outlook 39

if the previous results can be reproduced. The applied procedure is the same as provid-

ed in Paper D. A four and five cluster solution was compared with the former clusters;

five performed better concerning the similarity. The results based on the squared Eu-

clidian distances (the lower the number, the closer the clusters to each other) show that

four clusters are very similar (N1 to N4) and one new one emerged (N5). The clusters

are comprised of cases out of the former data (applied in Paper D) and the additional

data. Only N2 is still comprised of cases from the original dataset only. This explains

the distance value of 0. See Table 8 for the details, grey fields refer to the closest dis-

tance between clusters.

Table 8: Robustness of clusters

New Clusters (N=38)

N1 N2 N3 N4 N5

Clusters

Paper D

(N=19)

Strategic Alignment 0.9 39.7 7.2 12.5 24.2

Market Alignment 5.9 84.4 15.1 1.4 8.1

Management Driven 50.5 0.0 53.5 92.1 95.8

Operations Optimization 6.1 74.2 3.2 5.6 27.3

The findings show that the identified clusters are suitable from an information re-

quirements perspective. However, the occurrence of the fifth cluster raises the assump-

tion that even more clusters are available.

Paper D demonstrates that the model is suitable (Frank 2007, p. 126) for its purpose .

In this paper a first discussion based on the model is conducted, how EAM can support

different types of ETs. Further, the model is used to configure the framework that is

developed by the practitioner group described in Paper E.

A summary of the evaluation concerning the relevant criteria is provided by Table 9.

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40 Part A: Evaluation of the Solution Artifact

Table 9: Evaluation 3

Output Criteria Summary

Validated

artifact

instance

in an

artificial

setting

Fidelity with

real world

phenomenon

()

Fidelity with real world phenomenon is given at a high

level of abstraction. More details are almost impossible

to cover in a single overview model.

Operationality

()

Evaluated by testing if types could be identified: this

was successful for two types only and needs to be im-

proved.

Robustness

(/)

Robustness of types evaluated by adding more data.

Additional type occurred, former ones stay robust.

Suitability

()

Model applied for discussion of EAM support

(Paper D/ group of practitioners)

Feasibility ()

Instantiation feasible since it was conducted as de-

scribed in evaluation 2.

Effectiveness ()

Efficiency ()

Ease of use ()

Effectiveness is very similar to suitability; no additional

evaluation is conducted. Efficiency evaluation would

require comparison with other very similar solutions,

which is not possible due to novelty. Ease of use par-

tially covered by operationality evaluation, no further

focus on this aspect.

() Criterion fulfilled () Criterion partially fulfilled () Criterion not applicable

Based on evaluation 3 further improvements would be possible concerning the re-

search project by refining the identified clusters and increasing their understandability

for the prospective users.

5.1.4 Evaluation 4

The fourth evaluation activity shows that the artifact is both applicable and useful in

practice. It is supposed to use the artifact in a real organizational setting (Sonnenberg

and vom Brocke 2012, p. 395).

The evaluation of the fourth type is difficult to conduct due to restrictions in time and

resources. Some implications about the practice utility are drawn based on discussions

with experts. Findings are discussed below and summarized in Table 10.

In the group of practitioners (see Paper E) the CIRRM was introduced to derive a con-

figuration of the ET support framework that this group currently develops. Thus, the

CIRRM is influencing practice design work and poses relevance. In the discussions

with the practitioners, important utility for practice was seen. Since the group of prac-

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Part A: Discussion and Outlook 41

titioners was mostly comprised of architects, they considered the model a means to

provide “self-marketing” for EAM services. They considered the different types as

valuable, to competently talk to ET managers. However, the group agreed that this

would only be the first step. To apply the framework that they develop, a more de-

tailed typology of ETs would be required

For architects, the CIRRM is useful to reflect their activities in the company and to

identify which type of ET they can support and which not. Gaps between the external

and internal perception of EAM services can be identified and discussed. The partici-

pants considered it important that the CIRRM is based on successful ETs (which is the

case, the average rating is “almost successful”).

The practitioner discussions further revealed hints on increasing the applicability of

the model artifact. The presented types (see Paper D) were considered too abstract to

appropriately understand them. In a second workshop, a distinction based on discrimi-

nators like amount of affected employees or ET triggers was considered to be more

suitable.

The group further agreed that considering information as unimportant as stated in Pa-

per D is not suitable. Rather a prioritization should be taken. Concretely, this means

that e.g. the model in Paper D should not contain information requirements that are

considered “not important” but rather “less important.”

Table 10: Evaluation 4

Output Criteria Summary

Validated

artifact in-

stance in a

naturalistic

setting

Applicability () Applicability, e.g. for the purpose of be-

ing input to larger methods or frame-

works possible.

Fidelity with real world

Phenomenon ()

Applied in discussion in the context of

EAM support of ETM. No critiques

about the content collected.

Internal

consistency ()

Internal consistency not criticized, speci-

fication implemented almost one to one.

Generality ()

Effectiveness ()

Efficiency ()

Impact on artifact

environment and user ()

External consistency ()

Criteria could not be assessed due to lim-

ited amount of interviews or real practice

application.

() Criterion fulfilled () Criterion partially fulfilled () Criterion not applicable

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42 Part A: Critical Reflection

Based on evaluation 4 further improvements would be possible concerning the re-

search project by further increasing the applicability as a stand-alone model that can be

used directly in an ET. Further it needs to be applied in such a setting to gather more

learnings about its design and reiterate the research process.

5.2 Critical Reflection

Due to the application of a DR design right from the beginning, the research process

applied in the thesis at hand is considered stringent. The evaluation above shows that

the findings are valuable and relevant. The RQs stated in section 1.3 are answered ap-

propriately by the parts of the thesis. However, DR projects are affected by risks and

shortcomings (Baskerville et al. 2008). If not already discussed during the evaluation,

they should be reflected in this section.

A concern may be raised about the chosen research perspective. The considered unit of

analysis is the transformation. In consequence, the information requirement-based

clustering assumes different types of ETs as the resulting unit. To describe the infor-

mation requirements that occur in these different ETs, ET managers were interviewed

(see a discussion about the role in Paper C). This group of informants is considered

capable to describe the information demands that occur in the different ETs. However,

it could be argued that different perceptions of managers rather than information de-

mands of transformations were researched. To reduce this bias, ET managers have

been asked to not state their own requirements but those of the ET in total.

The ET understanding in the thesis refers to ET as revolutionary and radical change

but also considers non-revolutionary transformations for pragmatic reasons (e.g. find-

ing enough informants for the research). A critical question could be, what changes, if

this understanding is handled differently. When also considering incremental changes,

the effort that is taken to document and manage the ET might be higher than local

planning. Thus, the general necessity of holistic information provision could be ques-

tioned. If only revolutionary transformations are considered, the EAM support may be

limited in providing rules, standards or information about current structures. In this

case, EAM should be used to provide information about the as-is state because the to-

be state might be so much different from the current as-is, that information is not that

necessary, and instead, a gut-feeling is applied.

The determined ET types are based on information requirements that have been identi-

fied during an explorative study with coding steps. They were grouped into infor-

mation areas by two independent coders who achieved an agreement and were further

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Part A: Discussion and Outlook 43

consolidated by the same coders afterwards. Due to the amount of collected question-

naires, it was not possible to test the determined groups (e.g. a factor analysis could

not be conducted). Thus, the eleven information groups are prone to be subjective. To

mitigate this problem, the ET types were determined based on a total clustering of all

identified (50) information requirements.

Criticisms could also be raised concerning the cluster variables. The transformations

are clustered based on the information that was requested. However, the perspective

taken is considered the most suitable for the purpose of the model. The main subject

under investigation is the support of EAM for ETM. Thus, it is considered important to

know if the target group of ETM requests the information. Asking if the requested in-

formation really contributes to the ET success is considered subordinate for this pur-

pose. However, in the evaluation, the success contribution of the information items has

been researched to provide more adequate input to ET managers.

The evaluation of the CIRRM is limited in some dimensions (see the discussion in sec-

tion 5.1). Evaluation 4 was especially not possible to be conducted to the full extent

due to limited opportunities to apply the designed model in a practice setting. Howev-

er, it is questionable if such a one-to-one application and evaluation is possible anyway

due to the context dependency of all ETs.

The focus of the research at hand is on how EAM can support ETM. In addition, ET

managers could use the research to identify which information requirements their col-

leagues state and check, if they forgot relevant information requirements for managing

their ET. However, the focus of the research is limited, in a way, because it assumes a

dedicated ETM function, and a dedicated EAM function. Yet, in reality, both ETM

and EAM may transcend various organizational units and functions. Recent work on

EAM, for example about the concept of “architectural thinking”, postulates a partici-

pation of all stakeholders in EAM (Winter 2014).

Questions could also be raised about the different degrees of abstraction of the infor-

mation requirements. One could argue that e.g. “assessed risks” and “projects” differ

in the level of abstraction. However, for two reasons it seems to be unsuitable, if not

impossible, to align the level of abstraction. First, to determine if the level of abstrac-

tion is the same, clear criteria would be needed. These criteria would need to allow

comparison between the different requirements. It already seems to be a research pro-

ject on its own determining such criteria. Second, the information requirements should

be described as similar to the descriptions that ET managers and EA managers used in

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44 Part A: Implications and Future Work

the explorative interviews. This was supposed to increase the understandability by the

stakeholder groups. Thus, the different levels of abstraction exist, but this is a trade-off

intentionally made to stay closer to the language of the target groups of the CIRRM.

5.3 Implications and Future Work

Based on empirical work that explicitly incorporates the information requirements of

ET managers, a CIRRM was developed to analyze how EAM can support ETs in gen-

eral and different types of ETs in particular. The CIRRM can be applied as part of a

method to analyze information requirements and potential information provision or as

a fragment of larger methods and frameworks.

The presented research deals with a problem relevant for practice. Thus, some implica-

tions for the support of ETs by EAM can be derived. The model can be used for differ-

ent tasks. EAM departments can use it as a foundation to identify which information

they are able to provide. They can use it as a tool to determine how they want to de-

velop their EAM in the future. In addition, the model could be used by ET managers to

analyze if they considered all information requirements that their colleagues in similar

situations also considered important. They can further use the research to analyze if the

information that they consider important is actually related to the ET success. The

CIRRM can be applied by following the subsequent steps:

Determine the type of the ET and configure the CIRRM concerning this type.

Information requirements that the model highlights should be discussed with ex-

perts from the organization where it should be applied to make sure that the fit of

the CIRRM with the concrete corporate environment is given.

Once this step is conducted, both ETM and EAM experts can use the result to ana-

lyze where gaps occur, what information they are able to provide by themselves

and what needs to be gathered elsewhere. Furthermore, the CIRRM can be used to

configure other frameworks that do not allow for configuration by themselves (as

described in evaluation 4 in section 5.1.4).

Finally, determine which management mechanisms are applied concerning the in-

formation processing in the concrete ET, and determine where and how the identi-

fied relevant information should be supplied (see Paper C).

Summarized, EAM needs to provide business-related and detailed information to sup-

port ETM. Good candidates are documented risks and business requirements that are

requested oftentimes and contribute to the ET success.

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Part A: Discussion and Outlook 45

Different implications can be derived from the presented research for the scientific

community and future research. A foundation for research concerning the EAM sup-

port of ETs and especially ETM is provided, based on a more detailed level than relat-

ed literature has provided so far. The CIRRM can be taken as a fruitful foundation for

research (Aier and Fischer 2011, p. 153). For example, it can be used to analyze, how

and if other IS like ERP systems can support ETs.

The presented work shows a first attempt to identify different types of ET based on an

information requirements and provision perspective. The evaluation showed that the

clusters identified in Paper D remain robust but can only partially be identified by the

expected user group. Further analysis during the evaluation showed that ET size

(measured in full time equivalents of affected employees) and the trigger have a strong

impact on the information requirements. This finding is intended to be a part of future

work and needs to be confirmed or corrected.

Managers have different working styles that influence the design of IS (Mayer et al.

2012). This finding could be incorporated in future research concerning the relation

between EAM and ETM. Research questions could be: Which ET managers consider

EAM? How do different ET managers use EAM?

The model and the identified ET types can become a foundation for a maturity model,

showing the maturity level of EAM regarding ET support on the one hand, and the

level of understanding of ET managers regarding their information requirements on

the other hand For example, such a model could be designed based on the approach by

Lahrman et al. (2011) and could identify which information requirement is difficult to

fulfill and which is rather simple. Such a maturity model should incorporate the idea of

“architectural thinking” (e.g. Ross and Quaadgras 2012; Winter 2014) and aim at es-

tablishing the concepts and ideas of EAM in every decision maker’s mind. Future re-

search should analyze how this concept influences ET managers and the general ways

to approach ETs.

The thesis contributes to the grounding of ETM support by EAM in information-

related theory, concretely the OIPT. Paper C provides a discussion, in which the theo-

retical framework EAM could contribute to the ET success. Further detailed research

that relates the different information requirements to the identified mechanisms (Paper

C) should be conducted.

The CIRRM covers a broad perspective on the architectural support of ETs and shows

the partial aspects that belong to the field. Such a consolidated overview is one of the

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46 Part A: Implications and Future Work

major contributions of the thesis. The CIRRM and the related research in the thesis

provide a foundation to further dive into the detailed parts of managing ETs. The

CIRRM enables two different types of research concerning this aspect. First, research-

ers can investigate single aspects of the model in more detail (e.g., information about

risks). Second, researchers can conduct research about the connections between the

information requirements. Such research was not possible due to a lack of a broad and

detailed overview of the field so far.

In addition, the thesis provides a user- or customer-oriented view on EAM. Research

conducted from an ETM perspective oftentimes did not consider EAM at all. In con-

trast, EAM research deals with ET support but oftentimes does not consider the user’s

(in this case ETMs) perspective. The thesis at hand is a foundation for such a user-

driven perspective on the architectural support of ETs.

This user-driven perspective provides the foundation for research concerning the archi-

tectural support of ETs that goes beyond information modeling. Rather, researchers

should analyze how EAM can safeguard the coordination that is necessary in ETs and

how local and global interests can be balanced.

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48 Paper A – Introduction

Part B – Papers of the Thesis

Paper A – Towards a Conceptualization of Architectur-

al Support for Enterprise Transformation

Table 11: Bibliographical information of paper A

Title Towards a Conceptualization of Architectural Support for Enter-

prise Transformation

Authors &

Affiliations Labusch, Nils

University of St.Gallen, Institute of Information Management

Mueller-Friedberg-Str. 8, 9000 St.Gallen, CH

[email protected]

Winter, Robert

University of St.Gallen, Institute of Information Management,

Mueller-Friedberg-Str. 8, 9000 St.Gallen, CH

[email protected]

Publication

Outlet

ECIS 2013 Proceedings, Utrecht, Netherlands, Paper 137.

Year 2013

Rating B

Abstract Enterprise architecture management (EAM) is supposed to be a

helpful means to support the management of enterprise transfor-

mations, i.e., fundamental changes. However, in current corporate

practice, there seems to be no regular application of EAM as leading

authority or support service for enterprise transformation. Thus, we

examine, which activities need to be conducted in order to manage

enterprise transformation. We further identify the needed infor-

mation inputs for these activities. Based on this foundation, we ana-

lyze, which of the information inputs can be provided by EAM. We

identify eight major activity areas of enterprise transformation man-

agement (ETM). We further identify information inputs that these

ETM activities need. Additionally, we identify content elements that

EAM can provide by analyzing EAM meta models. Comparing the

demand by ETM and the supply by EAM shows that EAM in gen-

eral provides valuable inputs to the ETM activities but shows weak-

nesses when it comes to information about individual actors or envi-

ronmental information. ETM information needs that are strongly

supported are e.g. organizational goals, roles and actors. ETM in-

formation needs that are weakly supported are e.g. organizational

culture, resistances or organizational rituals.

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Part B – Towards a Conceptualization of Architectural Support for Enterprise

Transformation

49

A.1 Introduction

While enterprise architecture (EA) describes the fundamental structures of an enter-

prise (e.g. company, government agency), EA management (EAM) is concerned with

the establishment and coordinated development of EA in order to consistently respond

to business and IT goals, opportunities, and necessities. According to the Open Group

(2011), the notion of EAM goes beyond EA modeling and includes the management

tasks of planning and controlling business and IT change from the afore mentioned

enterprise-wide perspective.

From time to time, enterprises need to pass through major transformations that are not

routine “but fundamental change that substantially alters an organization’s relation-

ships with one or more key constituencies (Rouse 2005b)”. Enterprise transformation

(ET) can involve new value propositions or change the inner structure of the enter-

prise. Further, ET could involve old value propositions provided in fundamentally new

ways (Rouse 2005b). Examples are significant mergers & acquisitions, replacements

of legacy IT systems or business model changes (Uhl and Gollenia 2012).

EAM is believed to support the management of such ET`s (Asfaw et al. 2009) by guid-

ing the necessary coordination efforts (Abraham et al. 2012a; Harmsen et al. 2009;

Pulkkinen et al. 2007) and providing information for top management support or strat-

egy development (Asfaw et al. 2009). EAM can further prove useful as a discipline

that provides necessary support for communication during transformations since it can

provide EA models and principles that are understandable by manifold stakeholders

(Asfaw et al. 2009). EAM is also supposed to support necessary decision processes on

manifold hierarchical levels (Asfaw et al. 2009) and is able to provide design princi-

ples that safeguard the transformation process and restrict design freedom in a pur-

poseful manner (Greefhorst and Proper 2011; Hoogervorst 2009).

However, in current corporate practice, there seems to be no regular application of

EAM as leading authority or support service for transformations – even more, Lank-

horst (2009a) considers the term ‘architecture’ and the role of the ‘architect’ as heavily

overloaded and facing serious inflation. Asfaw et al. (2009) state that EAM has kind of

an “image” problem, since as soon as people use the word enterprise architecture,

“eyes start to roll”. Possible reasons are that EAM is considered to be a discipline that

is located in the IT departments and mostly about IT (Winter et al. 2012a). In addition,

the coordination support by EAM currently performs worse than expected (Abraham

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50 Paper A – Related Work

et al. 2012a). Concluding, there seems to be a difference between the information that

EAM offers and the demand that transformation managers have.

When talking to architects, we often experience that, on the one hand, architects do not

clearly know how to support ET managers – and on the hand these managers are not

aware, how EAM might support their effort. While current research usually analyses,

how EAM can support ET, we first need to understand, what ET managers need as

inputs for their decisions in order to lead transformations. Subsequently, we can ana-

lyze, if EAM can offer this information and thus provide a first step towards a detailed

conceptualization of EAM support for ET. This leads to the research question:

RQ: Which management activities of enterprise transformation can be supported by

EAM?

In order to answer the question, we proceed as follows. We first introduce related work

and go on with illustrating our research approach. We present the results and provide a

discussion. We close with a summary and implications.

A.2 Related Work

Many partial problems within ET can be addressed by EAM. Harmsen et al. (2009)

propose to use EAM as a governing function for ET since a portfolio of transformation

steps needs to be well aligned in order to be successful and EAM has the potential to

ensure this. The authors see potentials especially in areas like strategic direction (in-

vestigate alternatives), gap analysis, tactical planning (identify intermediate mile-

stones), operational planning, selection of partial solutions e.g. based on standards

(Boh and Yellin 2007) or solution crafting (identify tasks for projects). Radeke (2011)

discusses, how EAM can contribute to the strategic change process. He claims poten-

tials of EAM to improve the strategic fit with the market environment, business-IT

alignment and the preparedness for change by standardization and modularization of

parts of the enterprise. According to Pulkkinen et al. (2007) who are focusing on the

coordination capability of EAM, “EA enables groups to interpret the related issues for

their purposes. The guidelines and EA principles agreed on and mediated with the col-

laborative EA work facilitate plans and designs for interoperability and synergy of sys-

tems.” Lankhorst (2009a) points out that due to IT-driven transformation the scope of

EAM changes from single enterprises to a business network point of view which fos-

ters concentrating on roles rather than actors and linkages between the network part-

ners. Therefore, the architect needs to be firm with communication and negotiation

with different stakeholders in order to be beneficial for the enterprise.

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Part B – Towards a Conceptualization of Architectural Support for Enterprise

Transformation

51

There is a certain stream of research that discusses benefits of enterprise architecture

without a focus on ET. Foorthuis et al. (2010) identify for example benefits when it

comes to the achievement of key business goals, management of organizational com-

plexity, integration and standardization, communication or project success. Lange et

al. (2012) identify artifact quality, infrastructure quality, service quality, culture and

use of EA as major success factors. However, they do not distinguish, which of these

benefits are explicitly linked to transformation.

In order to provide a more holistic overview of the ET support by EAM, Asfaw et al.

(2009) divides ET into three categories (communications, management support and

structure as much as process). Within these categories they identify success factors

like communications, stakeholder involvement and guided application development.

However, the authors conclude that architecture as such cannot cope with all challeng-

es and e.g. change management is also needed. Winter et al. (2012a) discuss how

EAM and ET management (ETM) differ and what both have in common. Especially

the to-be designs and change project roadmaps that EAM creates, are seen as an inte-

grated implementation component and input for ET. However, neither Asfaw et al.

(2009) nor Winter et al. (2012a) identify necessary management activities that guide

transformations before analyzing its support by EAM.

Summarized, related work focusses on how EAM can support ETM from an EAM

point of view (e.g. Harmsen et al. 2009; Lankhorst et al. 2009b; Pulkkinen et al. 2007).

The demand perspective (e.g. transformation managers) of ET is not available in the

current discussion. We investigate, which information inputs the demand side needs

and elaborate, if current EAM is able to provide them.

A.3 Research Approach

In order to assess, which ETM activities can be supported by EAM, we need to identi-

fy those. Since no existing source explicitly provided the activities and the necessary

information inputs, we applied a structured literature search process. We applied the

guidance given by Webster and Watson (2002) in order to avoid reinvestigation of al-

ready known and thus increasing rigor and relevance of the research (vom Brocke et

al. 2009). In line with Elliot (2011) we had to be strict with our search terms since a

huge body of literature from academic and non-academic sources is available in the

topic area. Hence, we concentrated our search on top journals of information systems,

management and organizational science based on the Jourqual ranking (Schrader and

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52 Paper A – Research Approach

Hennig-Thurau 2009) and the AIS basket of eight in order to include the mature and

established knowledge. We further conducted a database search in the major manage-

ment databases (Web of Knowledge, Springerlink, Ebsco) to include more recent or

practise-based sources. We further added specific journals and conferences (e.g.

“Journal of Enterprise Transformation” or the PRET conference proceedings) to the

survey. We identified articles in the journals based on the title keyword “transfor-

mation” and in the databases based on the title search term “(organizational OR strate-

gic OR business OR enterprise OR corporate OR large-scale) AND transformation

AND management”. Based on the abstract we decided if the article was relevant con-

cerning the research goal. Our search revealed 561 articles in total and 85 articles for

further analysis.

We started with the identified research papers and used the software ATLAS.ti to as-

sign codes for identified ETM activities. We consolidated 271 codes during multiple

iterations based on their semantic similarity (Bailey 1994). We further identified in-

formation objects that are input of these groups. We reflected our consolidated activi-

ties using two ETM frameworks (Baumöl 2008; Uhl and Gollenia 2012) to ensure va-

lidity and reliability. When the frameworks added activities or information inputs that

did not emerge from the other data, we added those.

In a second step, we conceptualized the information inputs that EAM can provide to

the ETM activities. We started our conceptualization with the content meta-model of

TOGAF (The Open Group 2011) because it is a mature industry standard that on the

one hand is maintained by companies and research partners and on the other hand is

used as a foundation for many corporate EAM frameworks. The meta-model provides

a conceptual overview of the information that EAM can provide without being on the

level of detailed individual reports (like capability maps or application landscapes) and

thus allows for a more generic discussion. Again we ensured reliability and validity by

comparing the identified content elements with other meta-models like ARCHIMATE

(The Open Group 2012), GERAM (Bernus and Noran 2010), Zachman (Chen and

Pooley 2009), DODAF (Department of Defense 2012) and IEEE (IEEE 2000). We

further conducted an additional literature review in order to include latest develop-

ments of EAM. We considered the same sources like in the first step (including addi-

tional EAM specific journals) but applied the keywords “(enterprise or business) and

architecture” in the journal title search and “Abstract: (literature or survey or review)

and Title: (enterprise or business) and architecture” in the database search. In the latter

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Part B – Towards a Conceptualization of Architectural Support for Enterprise

Transformation

53

we focused on literature surveys on EAM in order to efficiently identify relevant con-

cepts. The search revealed 55 relevant articles for further analysis.

After identifying the needed information inputs of ET and the available information

outputs of EAM, we mapped both in a third step. Major challenges were the different

languages apparent in both disciplines that inhibited a straightforward one-to-one

mapping. Therefore, we first decided based on the meta-model specification and addi-

tional literature, which of the information that EAM can provide is part an ETM in-

formation need. We afterwards analyzed by checking back with the ET literature, if

the information provided by EAM is sufficient to satisfy the requested information

input of the activity or if additional information besides EAM is necessary. We rated

this on a five point scale ranging from one “ET activity almost not supported by

EAM” to five “full support”.

A.4 Results

A.4.1 ETM Activities and Inputs

We identified eight major groups of ETM activities: ET Meta Management includes

the management of the ET itself. It includes activities like managing the overall pro-

cess and governance, identifying transformation drivers, managing risks and commu-

nication (Kotnour and Bollo 2011). ET Performance Management includes the finan-

cial performance but also additional progress and performance control (Ward et al.

2012). The ET Strategy Management deals with the conformance of the ET with the

corporate strategy (Uhl et al. 2012). The ET Execution Management includes the over-

all project and program management of the ET (Rosemann et al. 2012). Furthermore,

identifying unplanned issues and stable intermediate steps is part of this group

(Baumöl 2008). ET Human Resource Management is concerned with managing the

employee’s skills and concerns (Fry et al. 2005) during the ET. It needs to take care

about cultural issues (Morgan and Ogbonna 2008) and training of necessary skills

(Pimmer et al. 2012). ET Information Technology Management takes care of managing

the transformation of the IT landscape (Basole et al. 2012), while ET Structure Man-

agement is concerned about the horizontal structure in terms of processes (Caverlee et

al. 2007) and the vertical structure in terms of the hierarchy (Hellström and Peterson

2006). ET Relationship Management is concerned with including customers (Madu

and Kuei 1994) and suppliers (Ashurst and Hodges 2010) into the ET.

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54 Paper A – Results

In Figure 1 we illustrate the different activity groups and information needs of ETM.

Whenever it is not especially mentioned the inputs are related to the transformation

(e.g. “strategy” is the transformation strategy while “organizational strategy” is the

overall corporate strategy).

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Part B – Towards a Conceptualization of Architectural Support for Enterprise

Transformation

55

Figure 5: ETM activities and necessary information needs

A.

ET

Me

ta M

an

ag

em

en

t Applicable methods (Baumöl

2008, Kotnour and Bollo 2011)

Barriers to change

(Kotnour and Bollo 2011)

Benefits (Ward et al. 2012,

Stiles and Uhl 2012b)

Budget (Uhl et al. 2012)

Current organizational roles

(Baumöl 2008)

Customers

(Kotnour and Bollo 2011)

Degrees of freedom

(Baumöl 2008)

Employee skills

(Kotnour and Bollo 2011)

Generic strategy process

(Baumöl 2008)

Goals (Stiles and Uhl 2012a)

KPIs (Stiles and Uhl 2012a)

Organizational processes

(Kotnour and Bollo 2011)

Organizational capabilities

(Borgers et al. 2009)

Organizational culture

(Kotnour and Bollo 2011)

Organizational products

(Kotnour and Bollo 2011)

Organizational services

(Kotnour and Bollo 2011)

Organizational structure

(Kotnour and Bollo 2011)

Period under consideration

(Baumöl 2008)

Promoters (Uhl et al. 2012,

Lawrence et al. 2012)

Responsibilities

(Ward et al. 2012)

Stakeholder affectedness

(Uhl et al. 2012)

1. Manage Overall Transformation Process

Organizational

capabilities

(Borgers et al. 2009)

Pitfalls

(Furneaux et al. 2012)

Risk drivers

(Furneaux et al. 2012)

4. Manage Risks

Communication channels

(Baumöl 2008)

Existing communication

material (Kohnke et al. 2012)

Stakeholders (Baumöl 2008)

5. Manage Communication

Benefits (Kohnke et al. 2012)

Effects of former transformations

(Harmsen et al. 2009)

Organizational principles

(Cross et al. 1997)

Current organizational roles

(Baumöl 2008)

Scope (Kohnke et al. 2012)

Stakeholders

(Romanelli and Tushman 1994)

Strategy (Kohnke et al. 2012)

2. Manage Transformation Principles & Governance

Capability gaps

(Baumöl 2008)

Internal capabilities

(Baumöl 2008)

Market information

(Ashurst and Hodges

2010)

3. Identify Transformation Drivers

B.

ET

Pe

rfo

rma

nce

Man

ag

em

en

t Budget (Cross et al. 1997)

Business case (Ward et al. 2012)

Duration (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Actual costs (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Program plans (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Organizational business model

(Aspara et al. 2011)

KPIs

(Ward et al. 2012, Kotnour and Bollo

2011, Aspara et al. 2011)

1. Ensure a Transformation Supporting Management Accounting

Actions conducted and outstanding

(Ward et al. 2012)

Benefits (Ward et al. 2012)

Deliverables (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Goals (Kohnke et al. 2012)

Incentives

(Kohnke et al. 2012,

Swapna and Raja 2012)

Long-term objectives

(Rosemann et al. 2012)

Milestones (Kohnke et al. 2012)

Program activities

(Rosemann et al. 2012)

Project results (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Projects (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Quality metrics (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Roles (Kohnke et al. 2012)

Skills (Kohnke et al. 2012)

Stakeholders (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Strategy (Rosemann et al. 2012)

2. Measure Transformation Performance & Progress

D.

ET

Exe

cu

tio

n

Ma

na

ge

me

nt

Benefits (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Organizational goals

(Uhl et al. 2012, Kotnour and Bollo 2011)

Organizational strategy (Uhl et al. 2012)

Customer needs (Kotnour and Bollo 2011)

Organizational capabilities (Uhl et al. 2012)

Organizational structure (Baumöl 2008)

Stakeholders (Baumöl 2008)

1. Define Goals of the Transformation and Establish Vision

Activities (Cross et al. 1997)

Business model (Baumöl 2008)

Drivers (Uhl et al. 2012)

Market information (Uhl et al. 2012)

2. Analyze Core Value Proposition of own Company

Assumptions (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Benefits (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Budget (Cross et al. 1997)

Constraints (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Contracts (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Costs (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Deliverables (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Dependencies (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Employees (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Current frame agreements

(Rosemann et al. 2012)

Locations (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Goals (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Invoices (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Milestones (Baumöl 2008)

Objectives (Kotnour and Bollo 2011)

Program plans (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Resources (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Skills (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Duration (Rosemann et al. 2012)

Applicable methods

(Rosemann et al. 2012)

Transformation strategy

(Rosemann et al. 2012)

Unplanned events

(Rosemann et al. 2012)

1. Conduct Overall Project Management

G.

ET

Str

uctu

re

Man

ag

em

en

t

Communication channels

(Baumöl 2008)

Current organizational roles

(Baumöl 2008)

Employees (Baumöl 2008)

Limiting factors (Baumöl 2008)

Organizational rituals (Baumöl 2008)

Resistances (Baumöl 2008)

2. Manage Unplanned Issues and Stabilizing Factors

E.

ET

HR

Ma

na

ge

me

nt

Benefits (Baumöl 2008)

Communication plan (Ash and Burn 2003)

Drivers (Uhl et al. 2012)

Incentives (Armenakis et al. 2007)

Organizational context (Armenakis et al. 2007)

Promoters (Uhl et al. 2012

Lawrence et al. 2012, Kohnke et al. 2012)

Stakeholder agenda (Baumöl 2008)

Stakeholder relations (Lawrence et al. 2012)

Strategy (Ash and Burn 2003)

1. Explain the Transformation

Common language

(Lawrence et al. 2012)

Feelings about work

(Dehler and Welsh 1994)

Feelings of work

(Dehler and Welsh 1994)

Goals (Cross et al. 1997)

Organizational principles

(Baumöl 2008)

Resistances (Fry et al. 2005,

Clemons and Hann 1999)

Stakeholders (Baumöl 2008)

Top managers (Dixon et al. 2010)

Roles (Daniel and Wilson 2003)

3. Manage Emotions & Leader Support

Compensations (Roskies et al. 1988)

External capabilities (Cross et al. 1997)

Future organizational roles

(Pimmer et al. 2012)

Goals (Pimmer et al. 2012)

Locations (Pimmer et al. 2012)

Mentors & Trainers (Swapna and Raja 2012)

Organizational capabilities (Baumöl 2008)

Organizational roles (Pimmer et al. 2012)

Organizational structure

(Pimmer et al. 2012)

Skills

(Cross et al. 1997, Pimmer et al. 2012

Sitalaksmi and Zhu 2010, Beer 1997)

Successful business units

(Beer 1997, Aspara et al. 2011)

Successful change leaders (Beer 1997)

Successful practices (Beer 1997)

4. Manage Skill Training

Business network

(Hock-Hai Teo et al. 1997)

Organizational processes

(Hock-Hai Teo et al. 1997)

Organizational change history

(Morgan and Ogbonna 2008)

Organizational context

(Beer 1997)

Organizational structure

(Hock-Hai Teo et al. 1997,

Dixon et al. 2010)

Relationships between

Stakeholders

(Ashurst and Hodges 2010)

Stakeholder ideologies

(Breu 2001)

Organizational strategy

(Hock-Hai Teo et al. 1997)

2. Manage Culture Readiness

Applications (Winter et al. 2012c)

Organizational processes (Basole et al. 2012)

Data (Basole et al. 2012)

IT inventory (Basole et al. 2012)

IT principles (Winter et al. 2012c)

Organizational strategy (Basole et al. 2012)

1. Manage IT Transformation

Organizational processes

(Caverlee et al. 2007)

Current business rules (vom Brocke et al. 2012)

Common language (vom Brocke et al. 2012)

Constraints (vom Brocke et al. 2012)

Enabling technology (vom Brocke et al. 2012)

Goals (vom Brocke et al. 2012)

KPIs (vom Brocke et al. 2012)

Organizational units (vom Brocke et al. 2012)

Process objects (vom Brocke et al. 2012)

Process owner (vom Brocke et al. 2012)

Risks (vom Brocke et al. 2012)

Organizational roles (vom Brocke et al. 2012)

Requirements (Kotnour and Bollo 2011)

Scope (vom Brocke et al. 2012)

Used media (vom Brocke et al. 2012)

1. Manage Organizational Processes

Locations (Romanelli and Tushman 1994)

Organizational structure (Romanelli and Tushman 1994)

Responsibilities (Hellström and Peterson 2006)

Roles (Uhl et al. 2012)

2. Manage Organizational Structure

Customers (Baumöl 2008)

Customer needs (Baumöl 2008, Madu and Kuei 1994)

2. Manage Customer Relations

Contracts (Baumöl 2008)

Interfaces (Ash and Burn 2003)

Practices (Ashurst and Hodges 2010)

Standards (Cross et al. 1997)

Suppliers (Cross et al. 1997)

1. Manage Supplier Relations

C.

ET

Str

ate

gy

Ma

n.

F.

ET

IT

Man

.

H.

ET

Re

latio

nship

Ma

na

ge

me

nt

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56 Paper A – Results

A.4.2 EAM Outputs

After identifying the information inputs for the ETM activities, we illustrate, which

information EAM can provide by following the basic structure of the TOGAF content

meta-model (The Open Group 2011). It contains general elements that are connected

to all other elements in the meta-model in a one-to-one manner. The other elements are

differentiated into business, data, application and technology architecture. We summa-

rize the consolidated content elements in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Consolidated EAM content elements

The general layer contains principles. Further it contains constraints like standards

(Bradley et al. 2012) or common vocabulary (Van der Beek et al. 2012). Included are

assumptions that need to be taken, if validated information or objectives are not avail-

able at that point of time (The Open Group 2011). Requirements express specific

needs, based on their character. This also includes “critical success factors” that are

explicitly modeled in the Zachman framework`s meta-model (Chen and Pooley 2009).

The concept of gaps needs to be understood in wider terms – according to the TOGAF

definition, a gap provides “a statement of difference between two states (The Open

Group 2011)”. Thus, it includes further concepts like time, states, plans (Chen and

Pooley 2009) or scenarios (Van der Raadt and Van Vliet 2008). We replace the con-

cept of work packages by undertakings in order to cover different aggregation levels

that other authors explicitly provide (e.g. projects (Bernus and Noran 2010; Van der

Raadt and Van Vliet 2008) or programs (Winter and Fischer 2007)). Capabilities are

“a business-focused outcome that is delivered by the completion of one or more work

packages (The Open Group 2011)” and aggregated into “domains”.

Principle

Constraint

Assumption

Requirement

Concern

Gap

Undertaking

Capability

General Layer

Meaning

Value

Product

Business service

Service Quality

Contract

Driver

Goal

Vision

Mission

Objective

Measure

Organizational Unit

Actor

Role

Skill

Location

Function

Process

Control

Event

Business Object

Business Architecture

Data Entity

Logical Data Component

Physical Data Component

Data Architecture

Information System Service

Logical Application Component

Physical Application Component

Application Architecture

Platform Service

Logical Technology Component

Physical Technology Component

Technology Architecture

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Transformation

57

The business architecture contains the TOGAF content elements product, business

service, service quality, contract, driver, goal, objective, measure, organizational unit

(includes further organizational refinements (Chen and Pooley 2009)), actor, role (also

covers stakeholders (IEEE 2000) or performers (Department of Defense 2012)), loca-

tion, function, process (including activities (Chen and Pooley 2009)), control (includ-

ing authority (Chen and Pooley 2009)) and event. Based on the analysis of further

sources we added vision (Chen and Pooley 2009), mission (Chen and Pooley 2009),

meaning (The Open Group 2012), value (De Kinderen et al. 2012; The Open Group

2012) and skill (Chen and Pooley 2009). Further information objects like business

model and strategy (Mikaelian et al. 2011) or decisions (Chen and Pooley 2009) are

covered implicitly by combinations of existing objects.

The data architecture contains according to TOGAF (The Open Group 2011) high-

level data entities, logical data components and physical data components. The appli-

cation architecture contains physical application components, logical application

components and the information system service that directly automates parts of the

business service. The technology architecture contains the physical technology compo-

nents, logical technology components and the platform service.

A.4.3 EAM Inputs for ETM Activities

Based on the descriptions in the EAM meta-models and the ETM sources, we analyzed

for each ETM information need the extent to which it can be provided by EAM. Dur-

ing this analysis, it became apparent that some ETM information needs can be (almost)

fully provided by EAM, some almost not. A huge group can be provided partially. In

Figure 7 we provide an example for an ETM information need of each of the three

groups (please contact the authors for additional material that could not be presented

for space reasons).

Figure 7: Example of ETM information needs and related EAM content elements

EAM Content

Element

ETM Information

Need

Princip

le

Constr

ain

t

Assum

ptio

n

Requirem

ent

Concern

Gap

Undert

akin

g

Capabili

ty

Meanin

g

Valu

e

Pro

duct

Busin

ess S

erv

ice

Serv

ice Q

ualit

y

Contr

act

Driver

Goal

Vis

ion

Mis

sio

n

Obje

ctiv

e

Measure

Org

aniz

atio

nal U

nit

Acto

r

Role

Skill

Locatio

n

Functio

n

Pro

cess

Contr

ol

Event

Busin

ess O

bje

ct

Data

Entit

y

Logic

al D

ata

Com

ponent

Physic

al D

ata

Com

ponent

Info

rmatio

n S

yste

m S

erv

ice

Logic

al A

pplic

atio

n C

om

ponent

Physic

al A

pplic

atio

n C

om

ponent

Pla

tform

Serv

ice

Logic

al T

echnolo

gy C

om

ponent

Physic

al T

echnolo

gy C

om

ponent

Organizational rituals

Promoters x x x

Process owner x x x

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58 Paper A – Results

Organizational rituals like illustrated above are not part of the content provided by

EAM since they are usually hidden within the organization (Baumöl 2008). Thus,

EAM support for this information input is not possible. In order to identify promoters,

EAM can partially support this process since it is able to provide potential actors, roles

and skills that potential promoters need to have as an input for further in-depth analy-

sis. However, it lacks information about the character of promoters and thus is not able

to provide information about the final adequacy of the person (Kohnke et al. 2012;

Lawrence et al. 2012). The situation is different with inputs like process owners (vom

Brocke et al. 2012) – here EAM can fully provide the requested input. In Figure 8 we

summarize the findings of the mapping process, focusing on the information needs that

can be well supported (rated five during the analysis) by EAM and those that can be

less supported (rated one or two during the analysis).

Figure 8: EAM support for ETM information needs

Transferred to the identified activity groups (figure 1), the conducted analysis shows

that EAM can contribute to each of them. However, the intensity differs (like illustrat-

ed in Figure 7). Based on the meta-model descriptions, the areas ET IT Management,

ET Structure Management and ET Performance Management are well supported and

most of the necessary inputs can be provided by EAM. In the other areas we need to

differentiate more: The ET Meta Management is well supported concerning govern-

ance, principles and drivers but rather weak supported when it comes to communica-

tion management. Managing the overall ET process is well supported, however many

necessary inputs are generated by other ET activities. The situation is similar for ET

Strategy Management were EAM can provide central corporate goals and vision but

additional information e.g. about culture is needed. In comparison to the former ones,

ET Execution, HR and Relationship Management are less strongly supported. While in

Applications

Benefits

Common language

Contracts

Current organizational roles

Data

Deliverables

Drivers

Employee skills

Employees

Goals

Interfaces

Internal capabilities

IT inventory

IT principles

KPIs

Locations

Long-term objectives

Mentors & Trainers

Milestones

Objectives

Organizational capabilities

Organizational goals

Organizational principles

Organizational processes

Organizational products

Organizational services

Organizational structure

Organizational units

Process objects

Process owner

Program activities

Program plans

Project results

Projects

Quality metrics

Requirements

Responsibilities

Roles

Scope

Skills

Standards

Suppliers

Top managers

Major Support by EAM

Applicable methods

Communication channels

Compensations

Customer needs

Effects of former transformations

Enabling technology

Existing communication material

External capabilities

Feelings about work

Feelings of work

Generic strategy process

Incentives

Invoices

Organizational context

Organizational culture

Organizational rituals

Practices

Relationships between

stakeholders

Resistances

Stakeholder affectedness

Stakeholder agenda

Stakeholder ideologies

Stakeholder relations

Unplanned events

Used media

Minor Support by EAM

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Part B – Towards a Conceptualization of Architectural Support for Enterprise

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59

ET Execution Management the project management is well supported, there are lacks

in identifying unplanned issues and stabilizing factors. In ET HR Management the ac-

tivities about management and training of skills are very well supported, however,

gaps are apparent when it comes to explaining the transformation, ensuring leadership

support or ensuring organizational culture readiness (e.g. when ideologies of stake-

holders need to be known). In the area of ET Relationship Management, EAM can

contribute by providing e.g. lists of the stakeholders. Gaps occur when it comes to

concrete relations or practices that emerged over the time.

We based the former results on investigating if the meta-model elements contribute to

providing the necessary ETM activity input. This reveals some meta-model elements

that are more important for ET support than others. Especially knowledge about actors,

roles and processes is needed for almost half of all transformation activities that we

identified. Sometimes they are directly requested (e.g. in terms of employee lists),

sometimes in combination with the general EAM elements like principles or con-

straints. Elements that are less often needed are constructs like drivers, meaning or the

especially IT-related elements like physical application or technology components.

However, how often the elements are used does not imply information about their im-

portance.

A.5 Discussion

The findings in general show that EAM has the potential to support the management of

ET or even to manage parts of ET by itself. This support is not limited to the tradition-

al area of business-IT alignment but rather focused on the general layer and the busi-

ness architecture (see Figure 6). Our results further show that there are some infor-

mation components that EAM can provide with comparably low efforts since the rele-

vant information output exists directly and is maintained regularly (e.g. goals or roles).

Other information inputs need more analysis by the architects in order to be a valuable

input to the requesting ETM activity.

Activities that are well supported by EAM share some commonalities: First, they do

not focus on individuals (e.g. individual agenda, resistances) but cover a broad per-

spective (e.g. IT landscape, skillset within the enterprise). Activities that take a nar-

rower focus would be better supported by other disciplines like human-focused man-

agement or psychology. Second, the activities have a strong focus to the internal per-

spective of the enterprise. They are about the hierarchies, structures, existent IT foun-

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60 Paper A – Summary & Implications

dation, etc. Therefore, information that needs to be collected outside the company like

market opportunities, enabling IT opportunities, external capabilities offered by out-

sourcing providers, etc. are not part of the current EAM portfolio. Such external in-

formation is comparably hard to collect for EAM (due to the limitations in the meta-

models) and thus should be rather conducted by other disciplines like corporate mar-

keting departments or special projects that sense for such information. Third, EAM

mostly supports ETM activities that are based on formal requirements. Inputs that are

related to informal or cultural aspects are usually not supported and provided by EAM.

Having these theoretical potentials, the identified mismatch of EAM supply and ETM

information demands surprises. The reasons might be that the theoretical potentials of

EAM are not yet realized in practice (thus EAM departments are focusing on aspects

that are not that much relevant for ET). Further, we were surprised that the meta-model

does not include an element like “methods” that formalizes the method support and

guidance which EAM could provide to ETM. We would expect that enterprise archi-

tects can especially provide this input to the ETM because they are familiar with mani-

fold methods and frameworks. Furthermore, explicit communication channels are not

part of the EAM meta-models. Therefore, on the one hand, the architect is considered

to be in need of communicating the transformation (Asfaw et al. 2009; Winter et al.

2012a). On the other hand such communication is difficult since the formal support in

the method is weakly given.

A.6 Summary & Implications

We discussed which ETM activities EAM can support. We contribute a detailed litera-

ture survey to identify ETM activities and the needed information inputs in order to

understand, what ET actually is comprised of and to provide a solid foundation for

further research in the topic area. We further provide a consolidated overview of EAM

outputs. The results of our comparison show that EAM in general is well-suited to

support the different ETM activities (especially concerning ET performance manage-

ment, ET IT management and ET structure management). However, EAM is lacking

support when it comes to activities that need input focusing on stakeholders` individu-

al needs or activities that need inputs that deal with the environment (e.g. market or

regulation) of the transforming enterprise.

Some limitations became apparent during the research project. The meta-models re-

flect the information that current EAM can provide but do not integrate specific further

potentials for topic areas that EAM could additionally cover. We took mitigation steps

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Part B – Towards a Conceptualization of Architectural Support for Enterprise

Transformation

61

for this limitation by including additional EAM literature during the mapping proce-

dure. Further, we considered EAM as much as ETM as two monolithic blocks and did

neither differentiate different types of ET (e.g. business model change vs. large-scale

IT replacement) nor different types of EAM (e.g. strategic vs. IT-driven). We also did

not compare ETM and EAM based on the relations between the activities or infor-

mation components. In the paper at hand, we concentrated on the core concepts by

themselves. Therefore, the paper at hand is a foundation for further iterations that in-

clude the differentiation of different ET situations and relations. We concentrated on

EAM`s potentials to support ETM and did not discuss the question, if the inputs cur-

rently are provided by EAM, or why they are not provided. Now that we reduced the

overall complexity of the field by identifying the potentially supported activities and

providing the conceptual foundations in this paper, further research can be conducted

in terms of surveys that elaborate on the actual EAM support of ET as much as success

and hindering factors.

The inputs that EAM can successfully provide should be maintained by architects with

priority when striving after supporting ET. The ET manager further should request

such information from the company’s architects since they can provide it with relative-

ly low efforts. In contrast, architects should carefully consider whether to provide in-

formation inputs that EAM supports less strong. It might make more sense to concen-

trate on the strengths in order to shape the service of EAM within the company.

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62 Paper B – Summary & Implications

Paper B – Architectural Support of Enterprise Trans-

formations: Insights from Corporate Practice

Table 12: Bibliographical information of paper B

Title Architectural Support of Enterprise Transformations:

Insights from Corporate Practice

Authors &

Affiliations Labusch, Nils

University of St.Gallen, Institute of Information Management

Mueller-Friedberg-Str. 8, 9000 St.Gallen, CH

[email protected]

Aier, Stephan

University of St.Gallen, Institute of Information Management

Mueller-Friedberg-Str. 8, 9000 St.Gallen, CH

[email protected]

Rothenberger, Marcus

University of Nevada Las Vegas, Lee Business School

4505 S. Maryland Pkwy, Las Vegas, NV, United States

[email protected]

Winter, Robert

University of St.Gallen, Institute of Information Management,

Mueller-Friedberg-Str. 8, 9000 St.Gallen, CH

[email protected]

Publication

Outlet

Tagungsband Multikonferenz Wirtschaftsinformatik 2014,

D. Kundisch, L Suhl, and L Beckmann (eds.), Paderborn, pp.

1048-1060.

Year 2014

Rating D

Abstract Enterprise architecture management (EAM) is considered a

means to contribute to fundamental change (enterprise transfor-

mations) in organizations. Based on qualitative interview data,

we investigate how EAM contributes to meeting the information

needs of transformation managers during an enterprise transfor-

mation (ET). We identify the type of information EAM can pro-

vide to ET management. We further identify the activities con-

ducted during ETs that foster information needs. Our results dif-

ferentiate between information that EAM can provide, can par-

tially provide, or cannot provide, to an ET effort.

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Part B – Architectural Support of Enterprise Transformations: Insights from Corporate

Practice

63

B.1 Introduction

Organizations go regularly through major transformations that represent fundamental

changes substantially altering their relationships with their key constituencies (e.g.,

customers, suppliers, regulators). These enterprise transformations (ET) may result in

new value propositions, they may provide old value propositions in fundamentally new

ways, or they may change the inner structure of the enterprise (Rouse and Baba 2006).

Examples for such fundamental changes are transformations of the business model

(Aspara et al. 2011), mergers & acquisitions (Johnston and Madura 2000), or introduc-

tions and replacements of large enterprise information systems (Sarker and Lee 1999).

The concept is also known as “business transformation” (Ash and Burn 2003) or “or-

ganizational transformation” (Hock-Hai Teo et al. 1997). However, many transfor-

mations fail for a variety of reasons (Kotter 1995; Sarker and Lee 1999). Flyvbjerg et

al. (2012) recently found that large IT projects have an average cost overrun of 27%.

In addition, one in six IT projects exceeds estimated cost by about 200% for reasons

like underestimated technical complexity, or shortcomings in either portfolio or bene-

fits planning.

When transforming an enterprise, a many decisions, some of them with major implica-

tions, have to be taken. In order to make such decisions diligently, manifold infor-

mation needs to be collected and consolidated (Klein and Krcmar 2003; Singh et al.

2011; Tichy 1983). Processing information and achieving transparency of organiza-

tional dependencies is considered a major task of enterprise architecture management

(EAM) (Boh and Yellin 2007). While enterprise architecture (EA) describes the fun-

damental structures of an enterprise, EAM is concerned with the establishment and

coordinated development of EA in order to consistently respond to business and IT

goals, opportunities, and necessities (The Open Group 2011). Thus, EAM is often

found to support the management of ETs (Asfaw et al. 2009; Dorsch and Haeckel

2012) by guiding the necessary efforts (Abraham et al. 2012a; Harmsen et al. 2009).

EAM is considered a valuable source for top management information support and for

strategy development (Asfaw et al. 2009; Venkatesh et al. 2007). EAM is also sup-

posed to support ET decision processes on various hierarchical levels (Asfaw et al.

2009).

However, in current corporate practice, there seems to be no regular application of

EAM as a leading authority or as a support service for ETs (Asfaw et al. 2009;

Lankhorst et al. 2009a). This mismatch might be a major inhibitor to EAM’s efficacy

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64 Paper B – Related Work

to support ETs. In order to investigate the interplay between the two disciplines and

identify their points of contact, we pose the following research question:

RQ: How does enterprise architecture management contribute to the management of

enterprise transformations?

To investigate this issue, we employ a qualitative research design. The paper is struc-

tured as follows: In the next section we discuss related work about the relation of

EAM and ETM. Then, we illustrate our research design, present results, and discuss

the findings. Finally, we provide a summary and outlook.

B.2 Related Work

There is little prior work that investigates the relation between ET and EAM in detail.

Harmsen et al. (2009) propose the use of EAM as a governing function for ET, be-

cause a set of transformation steps needs to be well aligned in order to be successful

and EAM has the potential to ensure this alignment. The authors see potential in areas

such as strategic direction (investigate alternatives), gap analysis, tactical planning

(identify intermediate milestones), operational planning, selection of partial solutions

e.g. based on standards (Boh and Yellin 2007) or solution crafting (identify tasks for

projects). Radeke (2011) discusses how EAM can contribute to the strategic change

process. He claims potentials of EAM to improve the strategic fit with the market en-

vironment, business/IT alignment and the preparedness for change by standardization

and modularization of parts of the enterprise. Simon et al. (2014) also see a high po-

tential of EAM to support transformations, by assessing the organizational transfor-

mation readiness. In order to provide a more holistic overview of the ET support by

EAM, Asfaw et al. (2009) divide ET into three categories (communications, manage-

ment support and structure, and process). Within these categories they identify success

factors such as communications, stakeholder involvement and guided application de-

velopment. However, the authors conclude that EAM as such cannot cope with all

challenges and that other means such as change management are also needed.

In summary there is evidence that EAM can successfully support ET. However, related

work either focusses on very specific parts of EAM and ET or surveys the relationship

in an explorative way.

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Part B – Architectural Support of Enterprise Transformations: Insights from Corporate

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65

B.3 Research Design

In order to investigate how EAM can contribute to an ET effort, we have conducted a

qualitative study that compares information obtained from two groups of experts, with

experience in either EAM or ETM.3 The results from both perspectives are further tri-

angulated using information from the literature. Finally, the two result sets are consol-

idated into a list of items that detail the fit of what EAM and ETM experts agree on.

B.3.1 Data Collection

The empirical part of this research contributes to elaborating on existing theory. Partic-

ipants are included through purposeful selection, rather than through random sampling

(Miles and Huberman 1994; Seawright and Gerring 2008). The participants were se-

lected for their expertise in EAM and ET, respectively.

We interviewed eight transformation managers in the insurance industry based on per-

sonal contacts of the researchers and additional snowball sampling (thus, participants

recommended further contacts for interviews that have been included whenever they

provided the necessary qualification) (Noy 2007). We decided to limit participants to

the insurance industry, as this industry currently faces extensive transformation issues,

and thus, responses obtained from this industry are based on the most recent experi-

ences, which makes it most suited for our investigation. All informants are located in

departments that allow for a broad overview of the transformation and hold positions

like strategy coordinator, member of the board or head of business engineering. We

refer to these informants with the abbreviations InETM1 to InETM8.

From a supplier perspective, we aim to identify the information that EAM can contrib-

ute to ETM from participants working in multiple industries; this inclusive approach

ensures that we do not miss those information processing capabilities that EAM can

provide, but currently does not provide in the insurance industry, thus allowing for

new insights. The EAM experts were identified by searching social business networks

3 Results that were derived based on interviews with a part of the ETM experts are also

published in (Labusch and Winter 2012). Results that were derived based on the inter-

views with EAM experts are also published in (Labusch et al. 2013). The full literature

review is published in (Labusch and Winter 2013). The original contribution of this

paper is to analyze qualitatively, how both perspectives fit together.

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66 Paper B – Research Design

(XING and LinkedIn) using the search terms “Enterprise Architect” and “Transfor-

mation Architect”. After analyzing the profiles, 68 potential informants in German

speaking countries remained, ten agreed to participate in the study. Our informants

hold positions such as enterprise architect, business architect, and IT architect. We re-

fer to these experts with the abbreviations InEAM1 to InEAM10. Details of the re-

search process and a first evaluation of this data set is also available in (Labusch et al.

2013; Labusch and Winter 2012).

Two semi-structured interview questionnaires (one for the EAM experts and one for

the ET experts) comprised of open-ended questions have been developed. The design

of the questionnaires was informed by related literature. While basing a questionnaire

on existing literature may be contradicting the early practice in grounded theory re-

search (Glaser and Strauss 1967), more recently, this clean slate approach to theory-

building research has been succeeded by the understanding that prior theory should

inform the interview questions (Eisenhardt 1989; Strauss and Corbin 1990). Hereby,

the use of open ended questions and a flexible interview questionnaire that permits the

interviewees to contribute additional themes to the results, allows for additional find-

ings to emerge that were not part of prior literature (Eisenhardt 1989). Participants

were assured confidentiality of their own and their company’s identities in order to

allow for honest answers. More than 16 hours of interviews were recorded and tran-

scribed.

B.3.2 Coding

Two researchers independently coded the EAM experts’ and the ETM experts’ re-

sponses into two separate lists: Potential contributions of EAM, and the needs of ETM,

with each distinct item on these lists representing one code. Codes were not defined in

advance, but they emerged based on the information provided in the interview data

(open coding) (Miles and Huberman 1994; Strauss and Corbin 1990). After the two

researchers had completed the coding step, they consolidated their results by resolving

any differences in their coding. Occurring discrepancies were resolved after one round

of discussion, resulting in agreement between the two coders. This process resulted in

two separate lists representing potential EAM contributions to ET, as viewed by the

EAM experts, and information that is needed in order to conduct ETs, as viewed by

the ETM experts. Only those codes were added that occurred in at least two interviews

of the respective group (ET or ETM experts).

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Part B – Architectural Support of Enterprise Transformations: Insights from Corporate

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67

B.3.3 Literature Validation

In the next step, the results were triangulated with findings from the ETM and EAM

literature. We have included this step to ensure that the ET as much as the EAM codes

are consistent with a common understanding of both disciplines. Such consistent ter-

minology is important, since we are interested in investigating the common fit between

both. Further this ensured to reduce potential biases that might have been induced by

focusing our investigation on the insurance industry. Thus, we have conducted a sys-

tematic literature search. In line with Elliot (2011) we had to be strict concerning our

search terms since a large body of literature from academic and non-academic sources

is available in both of the topic area of EAM and ET. Hence, we focused our search on

well-regarded journals in information systems, management and organizational sci-

ence. We further conducted a database search in the major management databases

(Web of Knowledge, Springerlink, Ebsco) to include more recent or practice-based

sources. We further added specific journals and conferences (e.g. “Journal of Enter-

prise Transformation” or the ICIS and ECIS conference proceedings) to the survey.

We identified articles based on the title keyword “transformation” and in the databases

based on the title search term “(organizational OR strategic OR business OR enterprise

OR corporate OR large-scale) AND transformation AND management”. Based on the

abstract we decided if the article was relevant concerning the research goal. Our search

revealed 561 articles in total and 85 articles for further analysis. In addition, we have

conducted a literature review in the topic area of EAM. We considered the same

sources like in the ET literature review (including additional EAM specific journals)

but applied the keywords “(enterprise or business) and architecture” in the journal title

search and “Abstract: (literature or survey or review) and Title: (enterprise or business)

and architecture” in the database search. In the latter we focused on literature surveys

on EAM in order to efficiently identify relevant concepts. The search revealed 55 rele-

vant articles for further analysis. We used the identified ET and EAM articles for a

triangulation with the empirical data (Jick 1979) in a later step. The results of the liter-

ature search were also used in (Labusch and Winter 2013).

Whenever we could match a code from either the list of EAM and ET with at least two

sources from this literature pool, we considered it as a common and well-known part

of the discipline.

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68 Paper B – Results

B.3.4 Aggregation and Mapping

In order to keep the mapping manageable, the ET and EAM codes were grouped based

on their semantic similarity (Bailey 1994). This grouping was again conducted by two

independent researchers and consolidated in the first iteration. Based on the codes

within the groups and the underlying statements of the informants, the two researchers

independently mapped the EAM inputs to the ET information needs. The results were

almost identical; two of the groups needed further discussion. After one iteration, an

agreement among the researchers was achieved.

B.3.5 Response Saturation

In qualitative research with multiple respondents that incrementally contribute towards

one result set, it must be determined whether a sufficient number of responses were

collected, so that all important information has been captured. While it is impossible to

ensure that every potential response has been obtained, such research seeks to include

enough responses to reach a point at which it is unlikely that additional responses

would yield additional results (Eisenhardt 1989). We achieved such saturation with

both expert groups. After processing two thirds of the interviews in each group, addi-

tional interviews added almost no new codes. Thus, both coders independently con-

cluded that the set of codes was saturated.

B.4 Results

B.4.1 The EAM Perspective

Figure 9 summarizes the results of the EAM interviews. The information that EAM

experts process or provide to ET have been grouped into eight categories using the

process described earlier.

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69

Figure 9: Information provision by EAM

IT transparency that EAM provides to ET is one group. This includes information

about data, applications, IT infrastructure and security aspects. The second information

group is governance. The third group provides the general target description. The spe-

cific target description in the fourth group covers details, such as business require-

ments, solution designs, and cost. The fifth group provides cross-cutting transparency,

i.e. information about redundancies and dependencies. This is usually considered one

of the strengths of EAM. The sixth group highlights the method competences that ar-

chitects have. Architects can provide insights on the application of EA methods (e.g.

process modeling) or can apply such methods e.g. in order to allow for sourcing sup-

port. However, this information cannot be provided ad-hoc but needs processing be-

forehand. EAM can further provide business transparency (EAM7) and thus infor-

mation about business processes, capabilities and the business strategy. It is important

here to mention that architects agree that EAM is not developing the strategy but has a

profound knowledge about strategy. The last block highlights the communicative na-

ture of EAM. Often EAM is able to provide information about acting stakeholders and

can provide them to ETM. It further is able to establish a common language by provid-

ing artifacts that are used by many stakeholders (e.g. process models, capability maps,

etc.).

EAM3: General Target

Description

• Target

Architecture

(Schmidt and

Buxmann 2011)

• Roadmaps

(Tamm et al. 2011)

EAM4: Specific Target

Description

• Business

Requirements

(Boh and Yellin 2007)

• Solution Design

(Tamm et al. 2011)

• Costs

(Foorthuis et al. 2010)

EAM7: Business

Transparency

• Business

Processes

(Tamm et al. 2011)

• Capabilities

(Bradley et al. 2012)

• Business Strategy

(Bradley et al. 2012)

EAM1: IT Transparency

• Data

(Bradley et al. 2012)

• Applications

(Boh and Yellin 2007)

• IT Infrastructure

(Boh and Yellin 2007)

• Security

(Tamm et al. 2011)

EAM5: Cross Cutting

Transparency

• Redundancies

(Schmidt and

Buxmann 2011)

• Dependencies

(Schmidt and

Buxmann 2011)

EAM2: Governance

• Principles

(Bricknall et al. 2006)

• Standards

(Bradley et al. 2012)

• Governance

(Tamm et al. 2011)

EMA6: EA Method

Competence

• EA Methods

(Tamm et al. 2011)

• Sourcing Support

(Winter and Fischer

2007)

EAM8: Lateral

Coordination Services

• Stakeholder

Coordination

(Schmidt and

Buxmann 2011)

• Common

Language

(Peristeras and

Tarabanis 2000)

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70 Paper B – Results

B.4.2 The ETM Perspective

Similar to the EAM groups, we identified nine groups of activities that ET is com-

prised of and that need different information inputs. These are summarized in Figure

10.

Figure 10: Information inputs needed by ETM

A major part of ET is transformation planning. This includes necessary information

about the intended target state, the priorities, clear goals, requirements and legal re-

quirements. The second important group is change management – thus, focusing on

the individual’s perspective of the transformation. This includes stakeholder analysis,

change management in the narrower sense, change in the culture, an established com-

mon language, a detailed communication strategy and training, e.g. of changed tasks.

Project management (ETM3) includes all aspects of actually conducting the transfor-

mation in form of a project portfolio. This includes coordination of the stakeholders,

the projects, dependencies between them, ownership definitions, roles and skills that

employees in the projects need. In order to design IT components, ETM is interested in

data as much as applications. Another part of ETM is the analysis of design options.

This is comprised of outsourcing potentials, technology assessments and potential for

ETM6: Design of Business

Components

• Design of Organizational

Structure

(Hock-Hai Teo et al. 1997)

• Business Processes

(Daniel and Wilson 2003)

• Products (Newman 2000)

ETM9: Governance

• Standards (Cross et al. 2000)

• Governance

(Singh et al. 2011)

ETM3: Project Management

• Stakeholder Coordination

(Singh et al. 2011)

• Projects (Cross et al. 2000)

• Dependencies

(Lawrence et al. 2012)

• Ownership (Elliot 2011)

• Roles (Lawrence et al. 2012)

• Skills (Cross et al. 2000)

ETM2: Change Management

• Stakeholder Analysis

(Thorogood et al. 2010)

• Change Management

(Ash and Burn 2003)

• Cultural Change (Tichy 1983)

• Common Language

(Elliot 2011)

• Communication Strategy

(Beer 1997)

• Training

(Thorogood et al. 2010)

ETM5: Analysis of Design

Options

• Outsourcing Potentials

(Ash and Burn 2003)

• Technology Assessment

(Rosenbloom 2000)

• Consolidations

(Daniel and Wilson 2003)

ETM8: Controlling

• Benefits Measurement

(Tichy 1983)

• Costs (Singh et al. 2011)

ETM1: Transformation

Planning

• Target State

(Lawrence et al. 2012)

• Priorities

(Klein and Krcmar 2003)

• Goal Clarification

(Cross et al. 2000)

• Requirements

(Singh et al. 2011)

• Legal Requirements

(Newman 2000)

ETM4: Design of IT

Components

• Data (Ash and Burn 2003)

• Applications

(Cross et al. 1997)

ETM7: External Relations

Management

• Partnering

(Ash and Burn 2003)

• Customer (Newman 2000)

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Part B – Architectural Support of Enterprise Transformations: Insights from Corporate

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71

consolidations. The next group is the actual design of business components, which in-

cludes the design of the organizational structure, the business processes and the prod-

ucts of the enterprise. External relations management describes cooperation with part-

ners and dealing with customers. Group eight describes the controlling of transfor-

mations, including benefits measurement and cost control. The last group is govern-

ance, which includes governance in its narrower sense (like decision boards) and

standards that need to be followed during the transformation.

B.4.3 Fitting EAM and ETM

Based on the groups introduced above and the statements of our informants, we have

analyzed the fit between the provided information of EAM and the needed information

of ETM. This analysis yields three classes of fit: information needs that EAM fulfills,

information needs that EAM partially fulfills, and those that EAM does currently not

fulfill.

B.4.3.1 Fit 1: Design of IT Components

The analysis shows that EAM is very capable to provide necessary transparency when

it comes to IT topics and new IT components that need to be designed (F1). The con-

cerns that ET managers most frequently pointed out are related to applications and da-

ta. Transformation managers in the business departments also see the complexity that

these impose, e.g. in a complex application landscape with many applications it can

happen that dependencies are not completely visible.

Enterprise architects can provide almost perfectly fitting solutions, be it in form of a

documentation of the application landscape (InEAM4), the status of data flows and

data stores (InEAM7), further information about the IT infrastructure (InEAM3), or IT

security (InEAM2). For that reason, we consider the information demand for the design

of IT components as fulfilled by the IT transparency part of EAM.

B.4.3.2 Fit 2: Governance

A second fit is prevalent between the governance groups on both sides. Experts in both

groups considered standards as a necessary means in order to ensure appropriate gov-

ernance (InEAM1, InEAM2, InETM2). For some transformations, standardization is

even the most important reason to actually conduct the transformation and establish

cost-savings. Our informant InETM2 was involved in a large software standardization

project where processes and procedures needed to be standardized. Many stakeholders

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72 Paper B – Results

were involved in order to develop the common standards. On the EAM side, the in-

formant InEAM1 was involved in a similar transformation where EAM supported the

achievement of a global audit standard. These examples illustrate that the information

processing need concerning governance can be fulfilled by EAM.

B.4.3.3 Fit 3–5: Transformation Planning

Further fits occur between ETM and EAM about transformation planning. Architects

consider planning as one of their core competences. For that reason two subgroups

emerged during the coding and consolidation procedure: General (F3) and specific

target description (F4). Also involved is cross cutting transparency realization by EAM

(F5). From our informants in the ET area, we learned that planning of the transfor-

mation is a very important first step. For example, needs to clarify goals and other stra-

tegic issues (InETM6). Furthermore, having rough ideas of the target state in the be-

ginning is necessary in order to see, how single projects contribute to its achievement

(InETM8). The architects used different wording but referred to the same task by dis-

cussing roadmaps (InEAM9).

EAM can also provide necessary information for detailed planning. The topic area is

especially concerned with requirements. On the ET side these are seen as major drivers

for success and need to be handed in early (InETM4). Especially legal requirements

need to be considered (InETM3). For the enterprise architects, requirements are a well-

known artifact. Requirements are seen as a means to overcome misunderstandings be-

tween business and IT (InEAM7). Another part of EAM is the provision of cross cut-

ting transparency. This means to illustrate, where dependencies or redundancies in the

IT systems but also in processes and capabilities of different units occur (InEAM2,

InEAM3, InEAM10). This is important for the former mentioned draft of the target

state and the priority setting and goals. The architect InEAM2 could support the ET by

investigating systems and practices that already existed in other subsidiaries and could

be reused.

Based on the statements of our informants and the evidence given above, we can con-

clude that ET planning can be also well supported by the architects.

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Part B – Architectural Support of Enterprise Transformations: Insights from Corporate

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73

B.4.3.4 Partial Fit 6: Project Management

The cross-cutting transparency is also valuable in order to fulfill parts of the infor-

mation needs that project management has. Especially when transformations are not

locally bounded but globally (InETM8), it is important that interaction occurs and de-

pendencies as much as redundancies get eliminated. However, project management

cannot fully be supported by EAM since further aspects are necessary. These are for

example ownership clarification (InETM1) or staffing options concerning the needed

skills (InETM2).

B.4.3.5 Partial Fit 7–8: Analysis of Design Options

In the group “analysis of design options” we summarize the ETM activities like as-

sessing outsourcing potentials or technology options as much as potential consolida-

tions of organizational units or systems. Such activities can be supported by the cross

cutting transparency and EA method competence. The information contained in cross-

cutting transparency can be directly provided while those prevalent in EA method

competence (e.g. methods that provide sourcing support or support the post-merger

integration) need further inputs. For example, when first thinking about outsourcing,

EAM could provide already valuable information which parts of the IT systems and

which organizational units might be affected (InEAM2). It can also provide more di-

rect guidance through method knowledge (e.g. by assisting in process modeling (InE-

AM5) or guiding through workshops (InEAM7)). Thus, for this area of ETM we can

identify partial support by EAM. Further information e.g. about legal issues would be

necessary and are out of EAM’s scope.

B.4.3.6 Partial Fit 9: Design of Business Components

Once the analysis is completed, new business components need to be designed (includ-

ing the organizational structure, business processes, and products). The supporting ac-

tions of EA can be found mostly in the area of business transparency. Here EA is able

to quickly provide information about capabilities (InEAM4), business processes (InE-

AM3, InEAM5) or the business strategy (InEAM1). However, the actual design of new

business components requires more than these information artifacts. For example

products cannot be designed by EAM (even not in the insurance sector) and further

information for that is necessary.

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74 Paper B – Discussion

B.4.3.7 Partial Fit 10: Change Management

Change management, “including all the soft aspects” (InETM8) is another important

part of transformation management. It is about influencing the culture (InETM1), in-

volving the stakeholders (InETM4), explaining the change (InETM8), communication

(InETM8) or training (InETM7). Can a discipline like EAM contribute information to

this sector? Our data shows, that EAM can indeed contribute. On the EAM side we

call the information cluster “lateral coordination services”. This includes information

about stakeholders and their areas of expertise. Architects know many people in the

organization and can bring those people together. It is part of the work to make sure

that these people talk to each other and move in the same direction (InEAM4).

Further information can be provided by offering a common language, which some-

times is a necessity of EAM. When, e.g., process models are designed that should be

valid for the whole organization, common language is necessary to have consistent

models (InEAM4). Since such language is also a requirement of the ETM, a good fit

exists. However, further information that EAM cannot provide is necessary for change

management (e.g. knowledge about the culture). Hence, the fit is only a partial one.

B.4.3.8 Non-Fits: Controlling and External Relations Management

Two of the ETM groups have no (or almost no) information inputs from EAM. First, is

controlling. ETM informants were always very keen about costs (e.g. InETM5), in

most cases that was the driver for transformations. Some also considered benefits or

their measurement (e.g. InETM2). However, the EAM informants did not consider this

topic. The second group with no inputs is the external relations management. In this

group ETM deals with relations with the organization’s customers (InETM1) and their

satisfaction (that should not be affected by the transformation). Further partnering with

other companies is a topic in this area (InETM7). Again, EAM’s focus rather seems to

be an internal perspective. Environmental analysis is provided by other disciplines.

B.5 Discussion

In the previous section we have identified specific information needs that occur during

ETs. We further identified areas, where EAM provides this information or supports

creating and processing it. Our initial question was how EAM contributes to ET.

We are aware that EAM in practice differs in extent and scope in each individual or-

ganization. While some organizations focus their EAM function on IT issues only,

others also assign business-related planning and information gathering activities to

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Part B – Architectural Support of Enterprise Transformations: Insights from Corporate

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75

EAM. In some organizations architects also have authority to give directions without

further consultation with other line managers. However, no matter what scope the

EAM function has, they all contribute to successful transformations. In general the IT-

related architecture can provide the necessary input about applications and data, the

business-related one even more to business planning and project management.

There seem to be some areas where EAM could extend its usefulness when it wants to

be a transformation oriented discipline. It might be a good idea, to first focus on areas

that already have partial fits. In these areas an extension of the service seems to be eas-

ier and the risk of collision with other disciplines that are prevalent in each organiza-

tion is lower. When this extension is done, people responsible for EAM may think

about an extension in areas where there is currently (almost) no EAM application. Can

EAM contribute to controlling? Can EAM contribute to manage external relations?

There may be overlaps, especially concerning modeling techniques or governance ex-

perience that could extend the range of EAM.

B.6 Summary & Outlook

In this paper we have investigated the potential of enterprise architecture management

contributing to the management of enterprise transformation. We have conducted a

qualitative study to get insights as to how EAM can contribute to the management of

ETs. Our results show ten fits between EAM and ET concerning the information need-

ed and the information provided. Three of these fits, those relating to the design of IT

components, governance, and transformation planning are particularly strong. Further,

the analysis revealed ET information needs that cannot be met by EAM. These are re-

lated to controlling and the management of external relations in particular.

Some limitations of our study need to be addressed. We focused on one direction of

information flow: how EAM can contribute to ET. We did not consider the other di-

rection of information flow or other disciplines apart from EAM that contribute to ET

(e.g. controlling, financials, etc.). Further, ET experts interviewed for our study all be-

long to the insurance sector. Other industries might have other practices concerning

transformations than the ones our informants stated. However, during our triangulation

of the identified codes with literature, no such industry bias became apparent.

In future work, we aim at building design research artifacts based on the findings

above. We aim at designing approaches for EAM that explicitly support transfor-

mations. In order to conduct such research, it is important to understand, what EAM is

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76 Paper B – Summary & Outlook

currently able to achieve and where the most appropriate potentials for further devel-

opment are. This study provides a foundation for that.

Acknowledgement

This work has been funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

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Part B – Information Requirements for Enterprise Transformations 77

Paper C – Information Requirements for Enterprise

Transformations

Table 13: Bibliographical information of paper C

Title Information Requirements for Enterprise Transformations

Authors &

Affiliations Labusch, Nils

University of St.Gallen, Institute of Information Management

Mueller-Friedberg-Str. 8, 9000 St.Gallen, CH

[email protected]

Publication

Outlet

Architectural Coordination of Enterprise Transformation,

H.A. Proper, R. Winter, S. Aier, and S. de Kinderen (eds.),

accepted for publication, forthcoming.

Year 2014

Rating Not rated

Abstract Considering an information perspective during an ET is a neces-

sary task. The paper analyses different dimensions of information

requirements and highlights related work that deals with infor-

mation processing in ETs. In addition, the organizational infor-

mation processing theory (OIPT) is introduced as a foundation

for the information handling during the ET. Based on this theoret-

ical foundation, the paper further discusses how EAM can in-

crease the information processing capability and reduce the in-

formation processing need.

C.1 Introduction

Transformation managers are concerned with many challenges (Labusch and Winter

2013; Uhl and Gollenia 2012; Ward and Uhl 2012) that are oftentimes induced by the

complexity of the transformation task (Purchase et al. 2011), the uncertainty involved

(Huy 1999), and the high amount of decisions that need to be taken during the cause of

the enterprise transformation (ET) (McGinnis 2007). In order to deal with these chal-

lenges, ET managers need to be provided with different inputs of which they need to

be aware. One of those inputs is information. An appropriate information provision

enables dealing with complexity and uncertainty by purposefully providing infor-

mation to take necessary decisions.

According to Laudon and Laudon (2006, p. 14), information is “data that have been

shaped into a form that is meaningful and useful to human beings.” In contrast, data

“are streams of raw facts representing events occurring in organizations or the physical

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78 Paper C – State of the Art

environment before they have been organized and arranged into a form that people can

effectively understand and use” (Laudon and Laudon 2006, p. 14). Thus, when refer-

ring to information in this section, the understanding is not limited to technical aspects

of information processing. A requirement is defined by the IEEE (1990, p. 62) as “(1)

A condition or capability needed by a user to solve a problem or achieve an objective.

(2) A condition or capability that must be met or possessed by a system or system

component to satisfy a contract, standard, specification, or other formally imposed

documents. (3) A documented representation of a condition or capability as in (1) or

(2).” In consequence, an information requirement describes information that is needed

by a user to achieve an objective. The most substantial objective in terms of ACET is

to take meaningful decisions that enable the success of the ET.

Managerial information provision can face serious problems. Fredenberger et al.

(1997) mention examples like piecemeal information formats, faulty presentations,

information irrelevant to problems, or non-timely information provisioning.

Processing information and providing an overview of organizational dependencies is

one of the major tasks of enterprise architecture management (EAM) (Boh and Yellin

2007; Strano and Rehmani 2007). For this reason, the information perspective is valu-

able in terms of the ACET research. The role of the enterprise architect is considered

“one of making order out of chaos by taking the overwhelming amount of information

available and presenting it in a manner that enables effective decision-making” (Strano

and Rehmani 2007, p. 392). Solid foundations have emerged about information pro-

cessing mechanisms in organizations, most considerably the organizational infor-

mation processing theory (OIPT) (Clark et al. 2006; Galbraith 1974; Premkumar et al.

2005; Tushman and Nadler 1978).

This section proceeds as follows: In the second part, an overview of the related state of

the art is provided. Dimensions of ET-relevant information are introduced in the third

part. Part four emphasizes the information processing in the organization. Part five

asks how EAM can contribute to information processing and thus provides a founda-

tion for the following book chapters.

C.2 State of the Art

When transforming an enterprise, a high number of decisions need to be taken

(McGinnis 2007). To take these decisions, manifold information has to be collected,

consolidated and processed (Fry et al. 2005; Singh et al. 2011). A major success factor

during an ET is being aware of the importance of information requirements. A McKin-

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Part B – Information Requirements for Enterprise Transformations 79

sey study with more than 2000 participants (Kitching and Roy 2013) finds that having

information about the progress of an ET accounts for a four times higher likelihood of

success. Kilmann (1995) recognizes a dysfunctional information provision, for exam-

ple, by purposefully withholding information as a major hinderer of transformation.

He considers the willingness to exchange information as a prerequisite to conduct suc-

cessful ETs. McAdam (2003) identifies sharing and exchanging information as an im-

portant part in the human resources management during an ET. Rouse and Baba (2006,

p. 69) state that decision-making processes in ETs “can be substantially improved by

making them evidence based or data driven, thereby enhancing the quality and timeli-

ness of resource allocation decisions.”

Information requirements have been a topic in IS for a long time, especially in the con-

text of Executive or Management Information Systems. For this purpose, frameworks

exist that strive after helping to determine the appropriate information requirements

(Byrd et al. 1992; Gordon and Miller 1976; Gorry and Scott Morton 1971; Yadav

1985). The claimed goal in this research stream is “determining correct and complete

information requirements” (Byrd et al. 1992, p. 118). Early analysis of requirements is

considered to be a success factor for IT implementation by many top-level managers

(Byrd et al. 1992). However, determining such requirements is described as a difficult

challenge since managers have not much time to articulate their information require-

ments (Watson and Frolick 1993).

Nevertheless, the mentioned frameworks provide rather abstract guidance. In addition,

they focus mainly on financial aspects of managerial tasks and on supporting the daily

business instead of ET. Fredenberger et al. (1997) provide a framework that is more

specifically designed for the purpose of ET. Its focus is on the analysis of information

requirements that intermediary managers (thus, managers that are responsible to turn

around a company being in a crisis) pose. According to the authors, dealing with crisis

management differs from regular management: partners are less benevolent (due to the

financial losses incurred), and time is scarce. Therefore, different planning and control

processes are needed. Fredenberger et al’s (1997) framework still puts a focus on fi-

nancial information requirements and identifies, among others, information about fi-

nancials, expenses, costs, personnel, market working capital, and assets as important.

Summarized, the existing frameworks and related literature on information require-

ments provide a rather finance-oriented perspective and seldom focus explicitly on

ETs. Information about strategy, structure, systems, people, and culture especially

needs to be processed and available to lever the transformation process (By 2007).

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80 Paper C – Dimensions of Information Requirements

Thus, information requirements should be identified while keeping this purpose in

mind. In the following part, dimensions of information requirements in ETs are dis-

cussed.

C.3 Dimensions of Information Requirements

Information requirements can be posed in different dimensions during an ET. A clari-

fication is necessary to understand how the term “information” should be interpreted in

the ACET context. Rough guidance for this discussion is drawn from socio-technical

systems theory (Bostrom and Heinen 1977) that distinguishes people, tasks, technolo-

gy and structure as important constructs of a socio-technical system (like the organiza-

tion that is affected of the ET).

C.3.1 People: Consumers of the Information

During the course of an ET, a lot of stakeholders require information. In general terms,

those who are leading the ET and those who are affected can be distinguished (Stiles et

al. 2012).

Concerning the latter, traditional change management strongly emphasizes appropriate

change communication (Kotter 1995). Establishing communication plans and stories is

part of almost all change frameworks (e.g. Keller and Price 2011; Uhl and Gollenia

2012). The information that stakeholders may need differs depending on their position

(Prosci 2014): Employees first need to be informed about the reasons of the change,

direct consequences for themselves, the change process and later on about the details.

Supervisors and middle-managers, in addition, need to be informed about roles during

the ET. For senior management, the information has to be more aggregated. For exam-

ple, details about the ET are only relevant on an aggregate level instead of very de-

tailed process or procedure-related information. Aside from the internal stakeholders,

customers and other external parties need information to adapt their processes and be-

haviour (Davidson 1993).

The stakeholders that are, apart from the senior management, in charge of the ET

could be subsumed as ET management (ETM). Stakeholders of this group deal with

managing the ET (Stiles et al. 2012). This group needs a holistic overview and is re-

sponsible for managing the information provision to other groups. If information does

not exist, the ETM needs to collect, consolidate and generate it. While in large enter-

prises this role might exist strictly separated from others (like portfolio management,

project management, business engineering), in medium to small enterprises, such a

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Part B – Information Requirements for Enterprise Transformations 81

strict distinction does usually not exist. Thus, in practice, the role of the ET manager is

often not directly mentioned – a search on LinkedIn in July 2014 revealed a total of

8.314 transformation managers but almost five million project managers on the plat-

form. Thus, our understanding of the ET manager (or the ET management team) in-

cludes people that have the best overview of the ET. It heavily depends on the specific

ET, who the best person is that should be addressed and who has information require-

ments that come closest to the information requirements of the role ETM. Addressing

such managers and collecting their information requirements in practice is a challeng-

ing task due to the usually high workload that these experts have to perform (Watson

and Frolick 1993).

C.3.2 Structure: Organizational Scope of the Information

ET-relevant information may be required concerning different organizational scopes,

some of which are illustrated in Figure 11.

Figure 11: Organisational scopes of information

Information concerning the environment of the organization (also referred to as exter-

nal information (Watson and Frolick 1993)) may include regulatory standards, cus-

tomer related information, etc. Such information may traditionally be received by trade

journals, contacts in industry, customers, etc. (Watson and Frolick 1993). Information

concerning the organization may include lots of pieces that are related to the current

state. Some examples are the current organizational units, processes, the culture, ET

history, etc. Such information is oftentimes collected by conducting meetings (Watson

and Frolick 1993). On the ET level, a multitude of relevant information may be col-

lected, such as planned changes, projects, etc. Information about groups may focus on

different departments, teams and other sub-groups of the organization that are affected

by an ET (Gersick 1991). Information about stakeholders is comparably hard to gather,

but ETM still needs to cover this perspective up to a certain degree.

Environment

Organization

Transformation

Group

Stakeholder / Individual

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82 Paper C – Information Processing during Enterprise Transformations

C.3.3 Task: Purpose of the Information

Information is required for different tasks during ETs. Abraham et al. (2013b) consider

enterprises as systems in which several feedback loops run in parallel. Based on

Åström and Murray (2008) they consider management as a cyclic feedback loop that

involves transforming an enterprise. Based on this perspective, the organization can be

described by observable variables. Information about these variables flows to the re-

sponsible organizational actors. During the ET, a subset of the observable variables,

the controllable variables of the enterprise, are changed. This means, information

about the necessary changes is provided as feedback to the organization. In the de-

scribed case, the information has a steering function. It is not used to form a decision

but it already represents the final decision (see Yadav (1985) for an explication of the

decision process).

The information could already be relevant during an earlier stage in the decision pro-

cess – when the decision is not yet taken but information is required to thoroughly take

the decision and consider different scenarios. Here information conducts rather an in-

forming task. The information could be further differentiated into those that directly

have an effect on how to take the decision (e.g., a standard that needs to be applied)

and those that only support the decision process (e.g., the number of affected employ-

ees).

C.3.4 Technology: Detail of the Information

Information can be required in different levels of detail. The technology dimension is

related to this degree of detail that the information is comprised of. Available infor-

mation could be very detailed, e.g. down to single technical attributes. In terms of the

ACET project, it seems to be appropriate to rather consider a wide and, thus, less de-

tailed perspective on ET. Information is rather addressed on a high degree of abstrac-

tion containing less detail. This abstract information needs to be broken down to the

level of a specific ET or specific systems that are supposed to be developed.

C.4 Information Processing during Enterprise Transfor-

mations

After explicating possible dimensions of information requirements, special attention is

needed on explicating how information is shared and value is created. The ET manager

needs to understand how information is processed in the enterprise during the ET and

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Part B – Information Requirements for Enterprise Transformations 83

he or she needs to know which of these information is relevant for the management

tasks.

The well-established organizational information processing theory (OIPT) (Galbraith

1974; Galbraith 1977) stresses three important issues: an organization’s information

processing need, its information processing capability, and the fit between both. The

OIPT applies to large organizations that are comprised of many specialist groups and

resources who provide the output. These groups perform group-interdependent sub-

tasks. However, the task performers are not able to communicate with all other de-

pendent tasks performers in the organization. Thus, mechanisms need to be established

that allow for a coordination of the different groups and handling uncertainty. Some

basic mechanisms are prevalent in almost every organization: (1) Coordination by

rules or programs, suitable for routine tasks that occur in a very predictable manner

and can be precisely described, (2) hierarchy, suitable for higher levels of uncertainty,

(3) coordination by targets and goals, suitable for very high levels of uncertainty.

The described mechanisms become problematic when uncertainty increases and too

many exceptions occur (e.g., during transformations). Rules, for example, are only

efficient if situations are foreseen and already documented. Hierarchy may become

overloaded when too many exceptions occur (since supervisors are overloaded with

decision workload). Coordination by goals and sub goals only works well when these

are properly defined.

When transformation occurs, uncertainty increases and so does the amount of infor-

mation that needs to be processed (Galbraith 1974). How far information needs to be

processed depends on the individual corporate environment and organizational struc-

ture. Tushman and Nadler (1978) differentiate the tasks that need to be conducted by

different properties: subunit task characteristics (are the tasks predictable?), subunit

task environment (is the environment often changing?), inter-unit task interdependence

(how dependent is the subunit from others?). They further argue that organismic (and

thus more self-organizing) structures can better cope with an increased information

processing need than mechanistic ones. However, this comes at the costs of less con-

trol and potentially slower response time.

No matter how well the organization is able to deal with a certain level of information

processing need, if an ET occurs, the current configuration of processing need and ca-

pability needs to be adjusted. The theory provides mechanisms that help to reduce the

processing need and those to increase processing capability. The first mechanism to

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84 Paper C – Information Provision in the Context of ACET

reduce the processing need is the creation of slack resources. This may include in-

creasing budgets to decrease the interdependence of business units. The result would

be a planned redundancy. The second proposed mechanism is the creation of self-

contained tasks (e.g., change organization from resource-based to output-based by or-

ganizing the hierarchy by products instead of functions).

When the information processing need cannot be lowered and no longer handled by

the existing structures, the capability of the organization to deal with the new circum-

stances needs to be increased. For this purpose, two mechanisms are proposed by the

theory. First, the organization could conduct investments in vertical information sys-

tems. This means, to introduce systems that allow transferring decision relevant infor-

mation faster to decision makers that are positioned higher in the hierarchy. Such sys-

tems can be IT systems but also organizational roles like assistants or support depart-

ments. The mechanism works especially well with information that is easy to quantify

and formalize. The second introduced mechanism is the creation of lateral relation-

ships (establishing joint decisions by establishing teams, task forces or direct contacts

that range across the lines of authority but do not escalate necessary decisions within

the hierarchy). The mechanism attempts to avoid overloading of the hierarchy by in-

creasing the information processing capability on lower levels. This mechanism is es-

pecially realized in matrix organizations that have different lines of authority.

To decide which mechanisms to apply, detailed information about the current infor-

mation processing and the anticipated information processing need are necessary.

Hereby not only the sheer mass of information is important, but also information that

reduces equivocality (Daft and Lengel 1986) (i.e., reducing the amount of different

interpretations). Managers need to apply their experience to interpret the information

cues or discuss them to achieve a common understanding of the situation (Daft and

Lengel 1986).

C.5 Information Provision in the Context of ACET

In this section, the potentials of EAM to support the described information provision

during ET are elaborated. Not every kind of information is suitable to be provided by

EAM. Figure 12 provides a first draft on how information requirements that are sup-

ported by EAM might be limited.

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Part B – Information Requirements for Enterprise Transformations 85

Figure 12: Information characteristics

Basically, information that is provided by EAM arrives, in some sort, for all stake-

holders in the end. However, in the first place, the ET management seems to be the

primary consumer during a transformation. Since the steering mandate is oftentimes

given to the ET management, information in most cases serves the purpose of being

informative rather than directly steering. The scope of EAM is on the organisation and

the transformation initiative rather than on the environment or individual stakeholders

or groups. Information may be provided with different amounts of details depending

on the topic area. For example, information about IT systems might be provided in a

very detailed way while information about business goals is less available.

Information provision is not a simple task. Information is not just handed over at a cer-

tain point of time from the supplier to the consumer. Instead, the information supplier

(in this case EAM), is involved during many process steps of information processing.

Corner et al. (1994) as well as Clark et al. (2006) distinguish different steps that in-

formation processing is comprised of. While the first authors describe a strategic con-

text and distinguish encoding, storage/retrieval, decision, action and outcome; the lat-

ter suggest information generation, dissemination and interpretation. Thus, information

processing is not one single activity, but a complex process that needs different sup-

portive means. Figure 13 discusses how information processing is conducted and

where EAM could be involved.

Consumers

All via ET Management

Scope

Focus on organisation and

transformation

Purpose

Mostly informing, partially

steering

Details

Different degrees of detail.

On average less detailed.

Information

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86 Paper C – Information Provision in the Context of ACET

Figure 13: Information processing steps and EAM support

(based on Corner et al. 1994)

EAM can be used to overcome the information processing issues to support some of

the mechanisms that OIPT proposes. When referring to the reduction of information

processing need, the creation of slack resources cannot be supported by EAM – here

the strategy is simply “add more resources.” The creation of self-contained tasks,

however, provides more opportunities for EAM. The goal is reshaping the tasks in the

enterprise during the ET. Such a restructuration would require deep and fundamental

knowledge about the organization itself. Here EAM seems to be able to provide input.

The core of the discipline is the knowledge about fundamental structures of the organ-

Encoding

Outcome

Action

Decision

Storage/

Retrieval

Interpreting and understanding information, risk of bias due to

individually existing knowledge.

EAM is able to support the encoding of information by communicating with

many stakeholders and collecting information about business and IT

structures.

Preservation of interpreted information and retrieval if strategic

decision is necessary. Risk of lost information due to insufficient

storage mechanisms.

Due to manifold modelling and documentation techniques that were

developed, EAM is very mature in storing and retrieving information.

Based on information retrieved from storage, decisions emerge from

former process steps.

EAM is involved in decisions but is not supposed to be the decision taker.

The final decision is with the ET management.

Well supportable

by EAM

Less supportable

by EAM

Almost not supportable by

EAM

Enactment of a strategic decision.

The responsibility for the “action” is not with EAM but with the

transformation management.

Result of the decision enactment, for example, performance

evaluations or individual feedback.

EAM could be involved in qualitative evaluations of the outcome. These

could be documented as lessons learned in the encoding step again.

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Part B – Information Requirements for Enterprise Transformations 87

ization – business or IT structures. The third proposed mechanism is managing the

environment. The mechanism refers to influencing media or politics to achieve the or-

ganization’s goal to reduce information processing. Here EAM seems to be unable to

provide valuable support.

Table 14: EAM support of ETs: Reduction of the information processing need

Mechanism EAM Support

Creation of

slack resources

Mechanism in general seems not to be efficient and rather to be

an emergency solution. Thus, not suitable for EAM support.

Creation of self-

contained tasks

Mechanism is not trivial to establish since a lot of knowledge

about corporate structures and conducted tasks is necessary.

Since EAM is able to provide plenty of information about the

corporate structures (e.g. applications, processes, goals), the

mechanism has the potential to be supported by EAM.

Management of

the environment

Rather influenced by public relations or lobbying, not the do-

main of EAM.

On the other side, to increase the information processing capability, the organization

could invest in vertical information systems. To support this mechanism, an EAM

would be required that collects information and provides them to the management.

Enabling other stakeholders in the organization to take their own informed decisions

would not be in focus. EAM could also be involved by providing foundations for IT

systems that enable the faster information transfer.

The second introduced mechanism is the creation of lateral relationships. To support

the introduction of the second mechanism, EAM would need to enable not only the

top-management to take decisions but also line managers or even lower-level employ-

ees. Such a source of information for everybody could be used as foundation for the

necessary coordination (Abraham et al. 2012a). See a summary in Table 15.

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88 Paper C – Summary and Discussion

Table 15: EAM support of ETs: Increase of the information processing capability

Mechanism EAM Support

Investment in

vertical infor-

mation systems

EAM collects information and quickly provides information to

top management. In addition, EAM could provide information

that is necessary to introduce information technology that also

aims at providing top management information.

Creation of

lateral relation-

ships

For this mechanism, a business-oriented EAM would be neces-

sary. Based on capability or process documentations, EAM

could help to determine how teams should be staffed and guide

their coordination without intervention by higher levels of the

hierarchy.

C.6 Summary and Discussion

In this section, information requirements as a concept were analysed and the organiza-

tional information processing theory was introduced. Further, the section examined,

where and how EAM could occur in the information processing in organisations. On

the one hand, the analysis provides understanding about the challenges and mecha-

nisms that occur during a transformation from an information perspective. On the oth-

er hand, the analysis raises further questions about the role that EAM plays or might be

able to play.

In general, determining the information requirements is a difficult task. Lohman et al.

(2003) identify different pitfalls in this endeavour: data availability and quality does

not meet requirements, requested and provided information are unrelated, information

needs are poorly assessed, information is used in a non-performance increasing man-

ner. To address some of these problems, an RM for information requirements is devel-

oped in section 4.3.3.3. Such models lower efforts since they are reusable and contain

best-practices (Fettke and Loos 2007).

In addition, the analysis reveals three major areas where EAM could be able to provide

ETM support from an information perspective. First, EAM is involved in the general

information processing that an organization conducts all the time (and not just during

ETs) in addition to other departments and disciplines. Especially concerning infor-

mation encoding and storage/retrieval, EAM seems to be able to provide value. Sec-

ond, in terms of lowering the information processing need that occurs during a trans-

formation, EAM can be involved in designing better suited tasks. For this purpose,

information about processes, projects and relations between stakeholders need to be

provided by a business-oriented EAM. Third, when the information processing need

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Part B – Information Requirements for Enterprise Transformations 89

cannot be lowered any longer, EAM is able to provide value to both proposed mecha-

nisms that increase the information processing capability of the organization.

However, while the theoretical analysis shows the value of EAM for the management

of ETs in general, concrete guidance for practitioners or scientists cannot be derived at

the current state. The theoretical lens instead raises questions: Which information can

EAM exactly provide? Which information do ET managers in specific types of ETs

exactly need? Is the same information always needed, or is different information re-

quested in the different types of transformation? What can architects do in addition to

the currently known EAM approaches to further extend the value of EAM? The book

at hand is going to provide answers and thoughts in the following chapters.

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90 Paper D – Introduction

Paper D – A Reference Model for the Information-

Based Support of Enterprise Transformations

Table 16: Bibliographical information of paper D

Title A Reference Model for the Information-Based Support of

Enterprise Transformations

Authors &

Affiliations Labusch, Nils

University of St.Gallen, Institute of Information Management

Mueller-Friedberg-Str. 8, 9000 St.Gallen, CH

[email protected]

Aier, Stephan

University of St.Gallen, Institute of Information Management

Mueller-Friedberg-Str. 8, 9000 St.Gallen, CH

[email protected]

Winter, Robert

University of St.Gallen, Institute of Information Management,

Mueller-Friedberg-Str. 8, 9000 St.Gallen, CH

[email protected]

Publication

Outlet

Proceedings of 9th International Conference on Design Science

Research in Information Systems and Technologies (DESRIST

2014), M.C. Tremblay, D. van der Meer, M. Rothenberger, A.

Gupta, and V. Yoon (eds.), Miami, FL, United States, pp. 194-

208., M.C. Tremblay, D. VanderMeer, M. Rothenberger, A. Gup-

ta, and V. Yoon (eds.), Miami, FL, pp. 194-208.

Year 2014

Rating C (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)

Abstract Enterprises from time to time have to go through radical changes,

oftentimes referred to as enterprise transformations (ETs). De-

pending on the type of ET that is conducted, different information

requirements exist. In order to support ETs, a reference infor-

mation model should therefore distinguish different ET types.

Based on the empirical analysis of ETs that is used to determine

four ET types with different information requirements, we con-

struct such a reference model in the paper at hand. The applica-

tion of the model is exemplified with the case of enterprise archi-

tecture management as an information provider.

D.1 Introduction

Enterprises from time to time have to go through changes that are not routine but fun-

damental and radical. These changes are designated as enterprise transformations

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91

(ETs) (Rouse 2005b). ETs substantially alter an organization’s relationships with its

key constituencies like customers or suppliers (Rouse 2005b). Examples of such fun-

damental changes are adaptions of the business model (Aspara et al. 2011), mergers

and acquisitions (Johnston and Madura 2000), or introductions and replacements of

enterprise-wide information technology (Bhattacharya et al. 2010; Hock-Hai Teo et al.

1997; Sarker and Lee 1999). Conducting ETs is challenging and many efforts fail

(Kotter 1995; Sarker and Lee 1999). ETs are also discussed under the terms “business

transformation” (Ash and Burn 2003; Ashurst and Hodges 2010; Daniel and Wilson

2003; Davidson 1993) or “organizational transformation” (Dixon et al. 2010; Hock-

Hai Teo et al. 1997; Orlikowski 1996; Romanelli and Tushman 1994).

Research concerning ETs is conducted since decades in different research disciplines;

including information systems (IS) research. However, Besson & Rowe (2012) con-

clude that past and current work mostly focusses on psychological and socio-cognitive

inertia (e.g., employee resistance) – socio-technical and economic inertia are underes-

timated, or seem to be overlooked in ET research. We thus consider ETs a topic that

offers huge research potentials for IS researchers due to the holistic perspective that IS

can offer about people, tasks, and technology. Supporting ET managers with this per-

spective also provides significant potentials for practice.

During an ET, many stakeholders are involved which have extensive and diverse in-

formation requirements. These oftentimes need to be fulfilled by ET managers (e.g.,

program managers, C-level executives). Providing decision relevant information for an

ET is a mission critical task (Galbraith 1974) and the availability of information at the

right time to monitor and troubleshot the ET is described as a major success factor

(Keller et al. 2010).

ET information requirements can be met by sourcing and integrating information from

many different information systems. Since ETs affect the entire enterprise, the most

important information is usually sourced from enterprise-wide information systems

like transactional (ERP) systems, data warehouses, function-specific information sys-

tems (e.g., Human Relations), or project/program management IS. Important sources

of information are systems that are already build to support enterprise-wide coordina-

tion – like, e.g., Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) information systems. In

order to utilize these systems in an ET, an information reference model would be help-

ful, that allows identifying the relevant information requirements.

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92 Paper D – Related Work

However, depending on their drivers, their criticality, affected functions, and other

contingencies, ETs are very different. As a consequence, the information requirements

of ETs are different. Therefore we need to understand the different types of ET from

an information perspective in order to provide appropriate and tailored information

support. Our goal therefore is not to propose a ‘one size fits all’ information reference

model for ET support, but instead to leverage the knowledge prevalent in design sci-

ence research to construct a reference information model that allows distinguishing

different ET types. Thus, we pose the following research question:

RQ: How can information requirements in ETs be structured in a reference

information model that allows distinguishing different ET types?

We proceed as follows: We discuss related work in section two. We go on with intro-

ducing our research and design approach. We present results from the classification

process of ETs from an information requirements perspective in section four. A

demonstration based on EAM as an information provider is presented in section five.

The paper is concluded with a summary and limitations in section six.

D.2 Related Work

In academic research, typically two understandings of change are prevalent

(Wischnevsky and Damanpour 2005): On the one hand, evolutionary views assume

that organizational change is incremental and continuous. Fundamental differences

result from the accumulation of small changes over long periods. On the other hand,

punctuated equilibrium models (Gersick 1991) assume that fundamental organizational

change occurs in short periods of discontinuous, revolutionary change, which punctu-

ate long eras of relative stability represented by incremental, convergent changes

(Romanelli and Tushman 1994).

ET research is rooted in the latter research stream. Examples of such fundamental

changes are ETs of the business model (Aspara et al. 2011), mergers & acquisitions

(Johnston and Madura 2000), or introductions and replacements of enterprise-wide IT

systems (Bhattacharya et al. 2010; Hock-Hai Teo et al. 1997; Sarker and Lee 1999).

Especially because of the latter example and the assumed potential of IT to impose

ETs (Cooper 2000), the topic gains attention in the IS community (e.g., Sammon and

Adam 2008; Thorogood et al. 2010).

When transforming an enterprise, a high number of decisions, some of them with ma-

jor consequences, have to be taken. In order to take these decisions on a thorough

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foundation, manifold information has to be collected and consolidated in short time

(Fry et al. 2005; Klein and Krcmar 2003; Singh et al. 2011; Tichy 1983). Thus, a fit

between the information requirements and the information provision is crucial

(Galbraith 1973; Galbraith 1974; Galbraith 1977; Galbraith 2002).

However, what is missing in order to take appropriate design decisions for the infor-

mation provision are details about the information needed most. Thus, a classification

is valuable that allows distinguishing different types of ETs and explicates the occur-

ring information demands. While very few classifications exist in order to distinguish

ETs (e.g., Rouse 2005b), none of them classifies ETs from an information require-

ments perspective. We aim at closing these gaps by understanding, which types of ET

exist from an information requirements perspective and providing an information ref-

erence model for ETs.

Reference models are well-known in IS research. Such a model is considered to be a

conceptual framework that can be used as a draft for IS design and development

(Fettke and Loos 2007). Reference models exist for different areas, e.g., logistics

(Holten and Melchert 2002) or quality management (European Foundation for Quality

Management 1999). In order to be useful, reference models need to be adaptable to

certain situations in an efficient manner and thus need to provide guidance on their

adaption (Becker et al. 2007a). We aim at integrating the determined ET types in order

to simplify the adaption and configuration of the proposed model.

D.3 Research Approach

Existing classifications of ETs focus on the respective goals, not on information re-

quirements. However, to allow for a tailoring of information systems concerning the

information requirements of an ET, we need a classification that is based on these re-

quirements (and not, e.g., the ET goals). In order to derive such a classification and to

identify ET types based on the information requirements, we base our research process

on the guidance given by Winter (2011c) and Bucher et al. (2007).

D.3.1 Identification of Contingency Factors and Information Re-

quirements

In order to understand the diversity of ETs, we need to identify relevant contingency

factors and information requirements. Basically, these are differentiated into three

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94 Paper D – Research Approach

groups: the environment of the ET (“the organization”), the ET itself (goals, reasons,

figures, etc.) and the information requirements of ET managers.

In order to identify contingency factors concerning the ET and the organization, we

conducted a literature survey in databases (EBSCO and ISI) and top journals of infor-

mation systems and management science. We followed the Basket of Eight

(Association for Information Systems 2011) (eight journals) and the European JOUR-

QUAL ranking (Schrader and Hennig-Thurau 2009) (journals ranked equal or higher

than B in the partial rankings information systems (26 journals) and management (21

journals)). We applied the search term “(((organizational OR enterprise OR business

OR radical) AND transformation) OR “radical change“)” in the title in combination

with the term “(type* OR archetype* OR class* OR categor* OR taxonom* OR seg-

ment* OR dimension*)“ in the abstract. The search revealed 397 results in total, after

reviewing the abstracts; we considered 23 papers relevant for further analysis. We fur-

ther included sources from forward and backward analysis. We surveyed these sources

(mostly empirical studies or cases) in detail, in order to extract concrete contingency

factors for the analysis. Examples are goals of the ET (Baumöl 2005), affected de-

partments (Porter 1985), reasons for the ET (Romanelli and Tushman 1994), and fig-

ures like the involved resources (e.g. eurostat 2008).

In order to analyze the information requirements during ETs, we incorporate work that

we conducted earlier. In two papers we identified information needs that ET managers

potentially would have. One study is based on literature (Labusch and Winter 2013)

the other on interviews with experts (Labusch et al. 2014a). We consolidate the identi-

fied information items from the studies above in one list (see the provided information

model in figure 2 for details) with different groups of information and the single in-

formation requirements. This list is provided to the ET experts as part of the study.

The goal is to identify, whether all of these information requirements were existing

during all ETs, or if differences could be identified.

D.3.2 Empirical Analysis

We provided the contingency factors and information objects to four practitioners in

one organization in order to evaluate if they were comprehensible and if major aspects

were missing. The participants had different job positions that deal with ETs (e.g., pro-

ject managers, process manager). We wanted to make sure that the contingency factors

and information objects are unambiguous and can be judged in reasonable time. Dur-

ing this pilot phase we noticed that filling in the questionnaire takes about 30 minutes.

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Due to the complexity of the problem domain we consider this amount of time reason-

able.

During the pilot phase some information objects needed to be rephrased to increase

their clearness and to preserve the meanings from the source papers. In addition, this

pretest was meant to identify further contingency factors or information objects that

we would need to add. Interestingly, no more factors were added by the experts, which

might serve as a quality indicator for the ones we originally choose.

After the pre-test, we provided the questionnaire to a total of 30 highly knowledgeable

informants that are able to describe ETs as the unit of analysis. These were for exam-

ple ET managers, CEOs, or program managers. The informants were asked to rate the

items based on a five point Likert scale (Likert 1932). We were able to collect data

from a variety of industries (see Table 17, multiple answers allowed). We consider

including multiple industries an advantage due to avoiding industry-specific bias and

thus increasing the general applicability of the artifact.

Table 17: Overview of participating industries

Industry Amount

Education 1

Power Supply 7

Financial Services 6

Healthcare 3

Information & Communication 8

Production 4

Transport & Logistics 1

Insurance 2

Other 3

D.4 Design Process

D.4.1 Identification of Enterprise Transformation Types

We conducted a hierarchical cluster analysis (Ward’s method, squared Euclidian dis-

tance) based on the information requirements illustrated above (see the concrete in-

formation items in Figure 15). In order to use as many cases as possible for the analy-

sis, we handled missing values by replacing the missing with column (variable) means.

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96 Paper D – Design Process

If more than 10% of values were missing, we omitted the case. This procedure left us

with 21 ETs that were used for the cluster analysis.

An important challenge when designing a reference model is to determine the number

of configurations it supports. Whenever too many configurations exist, the number of

organizations decreases were a particular configuration can be applied. A ‘one size fits

all’ model or a model that supports too few configurations, on the other hand, is not

considered to be useful because specific requirements cannot be met to a sufficient

extent (Becker et al. 2002; vom Brocke and Thomas 2006). We determined the num-

ber of configurations for our model based on the goal to provide meaningful guidance

for the ET support but at the same time adhere to statistical criteria.

A two cluster solution would have been most appropriate concerning the cluster dis-

tance (measured by the squared Euclidian distance). However, with this configuration,

cluster one would contain two cases while the second cluster would contain the others.

With a three cluster solution, clusters would not be a helpful foundation for design

since differences of information requirements among the clusters were not concise. In

the four cluster solution, clusters are more differentiated concerning their information

requirements and hence provide more appropriate guidance for the design step. Five or

six cluster solutions do not provide enough differences to warrant another differentia-

tion in the following model design. In consequence, we choose a four cluster solution

to guide the following design steps. Figure 14 provides an overview of the summarized

mean values in the respective groups of information.

Figure 14: Information demands in the different clusters

00.5

11.5

22.5

33.5

44.5

5Strategy

Goals

Business Structure

Project Portfolio

Design Options

MethodsSocial Factors

Performance

Stakeholders

Risks

IT Structure

C1: Strategic Alignment

C2: Market Alignment

C3: Management Driven

C4: Operational Optimization

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Cluster one, strategic alignment, represents ETs that are driven by strategic changes or

the introduction of new products and necessary changes in the IT. Corporate manage-

ment, but also IT departments guide these ETs. The strongest goal is optimization

(thus, achieving more efficiency, e.g., in processes or IT systems). A second goal is

increasing the flexibility of the company (thus, being able to react to future changes in

the market environment). Information that was considered most important in this clus-

ter is related to strategy (e.g., business strategy, ET drivers) or goals (e.g., goal de-

scriptions). Information that was considered least important is about locations, infor-

mation relevant to outsourcing, information about affected stakeholders. Furthermore,

information about shareholders, suppliers, internal guidelines, and IT security were of

least importance. The average level of information considered necessary, is rather in

the middle (compared to the other clusters).

Cluster two, market alignment ETs, represents ETs that are driven by the introduction

of new products and services or by changes of the addressed market segments. ETs are

guided by corporate management and marketing departments. It seems to be conse-

quent that goals of these ETs are mostly repositioning in the market and optimization

of internal structures. Thus, in this cluster, the changes in the market environment al-

ready happened and triggered a respective reaction by the organization. On average,

the information requirement in cluster two is higher than in the first one. Information

that is considered to be important in this cluster is similar to the strategic alignment

cluster concerning the top-most important ones – especially concerning strategy and

goals. However, some information is important that is highly related to the cluster-

specific goals, e.g., skills of employees, product portfolio, legislative rules, customers,

etc. Less important information is about benefits, current costs as much as quantitative

and qualitative monitoring of the success.

Cluster three, management-driven ETs, represents ETs that are driven by changes in

corporate management and changes of the company structure. They are guided by cor-

porate management. The strongest goal is repositioning. For this kind of ETs the mar-

ket environment, an overview of projects, redundancies between those projects, etc.

were considerably important. However, most values about the importance of the in-

formation are very small compared to the other clusters and the overall average of the

dataset. ETs in this cluster do not need much information because they are conducted

by managers that rely solely on their experience implementing their vision about the

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98 Paper D – Design Process

organization. Thus, from an information perspective, the support in this cluster can

only occur on a very low level.

The ETs represented by cluster four, operational optimizations are driven by changes

of the environment (e.g., legal-wise) and by necessary adaptations of supporting IT

systems. Additional drivers are performance crises or structural changes in the compa-

ny. It is not surprising that such ETs are guided by the technology/IT departments and

the corporate management. The main goal is optimization, partially also repositioning.

Most important information that is specific in this cluster is about applications,

IT infrastructure, redundancies between projects, capabilities of employees, processes,

etc. What are considered least important information are ET drivers, market environ-

ment, and most information about external stakeholders. Thus, the ETs that are de-

scribed in this cluster are mostly internally visible and external impact is less consid-

ered.

Based on the findings from literature and the empirical analysis, we are able to design

a reference model that consolidates these findings.

D.4.2 Design of an Enterprise Transformation Information Model

We used the clusters above, in order to provide guidance, which information are most

considerable in which ET type. We found the median to be an appropriate decision

criterion due to its stability concerning outliers. When the information item was rated

with the median value itself, it was included in the ET type. Thus, the model below

(Figure 15) allows for configuration of information systems concerning the four dif-

ferentiated ET types. This allows for a much more efficient application of the model

depending on the ET type, the organization has to conduct.

The model is comprised of eleven information groups that contain more detailed in-

formation items. For each information item an indicator label is assigned that provides

configuration guidance. Each ET is supposed to mostly belong to one of the clusters

introduced above. Once the ET type is determined, the indicator color next to the in-

formation item provides guidance about the relevance of the information item for this

specific ET type. When the indicator is colored white, the information item is not rele-

vant for the corresponding cluster. Consider for example the information item “im-

portant steps” in the “strategy” information group. It is relevant for all types of ET,

except the management-driven (Cluster 3) ones.

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99

Figure 15: ET reference information model

IT Structure

Performance

Risks

Design Options

GoalsStrategy

Project Portfolio

Methods

Social Factors

Business Structure

Stakeholders

Benefits of the transformation

(quantitative) success metrics

(qualitative) success metrics

As-Is costs

T1

T3

T2

T4

T1

T3

T2

T4

T1

T3

T2

T4

T1

T3

T2

T4

Outsourcing potentials

Evaluated technology

T1

T3

T2

T4

T1

T3

T2

T4

Consolidation potentials

T1

T3

T2

T4

Business case for the transformation

T1

T3

T2

T4

Plan costs (budget)T1

T3

T2

T4

Solution ideasT1

T3

T2

T4

Business requirementsT1

T3

T2

T4

Projects

Redundancies among projects

Dependencies between projects

Project roles

Skills of employees

T1

T3

T2

T4

T1

T3

T2

T4

T1

T3

T2

T4

T1

T3

T2

T4

T1

T3

T2

T4

Transformation methods

T1

T3

T2

T4

Locations

Business functions

Capabilities of the organization

T1

T3

T2

T4

T1

T3

T2

T4

T1

T3

T2

T4

Organizational cultureT1

T3

T2

T4

Transformation history

T1

T3

T2

T4

TrainingsT1

T3

T2

T4

Communication strategy

T1

T3

T2

T4

Common languageT1

T3

T2

T4

Cultural change (necessary activities)

T1

T3

T2

T4

Stakeholder characteristics

T1

T3

T2

T4

Internal stakeholders of the transformation

T1

T3

T2

T4

(Frame-) ContractsT1

T3

T2

T4

CustomersT1

T3

T2

T4

SuppliersT1

T3

T2

T4

Business partnersT1

T3

T2

T4

Important steps (e.g. roadmap)

T1

T3

T2

T4

Market situationT1

T3

T2

T4

DriversT1

T3

T2

T4

Business StrategyT1

T3

T2

T4

T1

T3

T2

T4

Transformation goal description

ProcessesT1

T3

T2

T4

Organizational structure

T1

T3

T2

T4

Product portfolioT1

T3

T2

T4

Information important for this type

Information not important for this type

T1: Strategic ALignment

T2: Market Alignment

T3: Management Driven

T4: Operational Optimization

IT-Security aspectsT1

T3

T2

T4

IT-InfrastructureT1

T3

T2

T4

Applications (incl. interfaces)

T1

T3

T2

T4

Data structuresT1

T3

T2

T4Assessed risks

T1

T3

T2

T4

Internal guidelines/standards

T1

T3

T2

T4

Security aspectsT1

T3

T2

T4

Legal regulationsT1

T3

T2

T4

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100 Paper D – Demonstration: EAM as a Configurable Information Provider for Enterprise

Transformations

Due to the level of abstraction in the model, we do not provide detailed relations be-

tween the information groups, since information needs to be combined and exchanged

in many ways that are depending on the concrete ET in the concrete organization. In

very broad terms, the information groups relate together as follows: In order to prepare

a sufficient strategy for the ET, the transformation’s most important steps, its market

environment, its drivers, and the business strategy are needed to be known. Based on

the ET strategy, ET managers need to determine the goals of the ET. Strategy and

goals of the ET define how the ET changes business and IT structures. Based on the

goals, strategy, and existing structures, different design options can be proposed and

evaluated. Operationally, the ET has to be broken down in projects and project portfo-

lios that leverage the available skills and resources. During the ET, the performance

needs to be monitored. Different stakeholders that are involved in the ET need to be

known and addressed. They impose social factors that heavily influence the ET. In

order to ensure the success of the ET, risks need to be assessed and handled. All of the

above aspects can be improved by applying methods that are designed in order to sup-

port ETs.

In concrete ETs, however, organizations need to further discuss and evaluate the mod-

el concerning their particular ET. In addition, organizations need to determine, which

departments, disciplines, or information systems can provide which information that is

considered to be necessary. On the other hand, designers of, e.g., information systems

can use the model to analyze, in which ETs their system could be applied and add val-

ue. We use the IS enterprise architecture management (EAM) in order to demonstrate

its role for the information supply in different ETs in the next section.

D.5 Demonstration: EAM as a Configurable Information

Provider for Enterprise Transformations

In this section, we demonstrate, how the model designed before can be used in order to

determine, if an IS could be used to support an ET. Further, we demonstrate how it can

contribute to the information provision. We take EAM as an example for an IS artifact

that can be tailored concerning different ET information requirements.

Enterprise architecture (EA) as such is understood as (1) the fundamental structure of a

government agency or a corporation, either as a whole, or together with partners, sup-

pliers, and/or customers as well as (2) the principles governing its design and evolution

(The Open Group 2011; Winter and Fischer 2007). Enterprise architecture manage-

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101

ment (EAM) is concerned with the establishment and continuous development of EA

in order to consistently respond to business and IT goals, opportunities, and necessities

(Aier et al. 2011).

Since ETs occur, when the deep structure of an organization is changed (Besson and

Rowe 2012), the relation between the two disciplines becomes obvious: enterprise

transformation means to change the structures of the enterprise, while EAM can pro-

vide information about these structures (Gardner et al. 2012). In general, huge poten-

tial is seen for EAM to support ETs (Winter et al. 2012a).

We took the information objects presented in the model above and evaluated, if they

can be provided solely by EAM, partially by EAM, or not at all by EAM. We applied a

five point-Likert-Scale in order to rate the support based on the content meta-model of

the Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) (The Open Group 2011) and addi-

tional literature sources (see Labusch and Winter (2013) for more details about the

rating procedure and the used literature). See Table 18 for the results of the analysis

concerning the general EAM support of ETs.

Table 18: EAM support of ETs

Information EAM Support

Strategy Support differs, business strategy and drivers could be provided

very appropriately, market situation rather partially, important

steps (e.g. in terms of a roadmap) could be provided very well.

Goals Goals and requirements are direct meta-model elements of

EAM, information to determine budgets and develop business

cases could be partially provided.

Business

Structure

Knowledge about structures is often considered the core of

EAM, thus these are all direct part of the content meta-model

and the support is very strong.

Project Portfolio Information about projects and skills are also considered core of

EAM.

Design Options EAM can partially contribute in providing design options, how-

ever, many more stakeholders need to be involved.

Methods The content meta-model does not consider ET methods, minor

support could be possible since architects are often keen on

methods.

Social Factors Social factors are usually not contributed by EAM. Establishing

and designing a common language is part of EAM.

Performance EAM is able to collect benefits of ETs and additional qualita-

tive measures. Financial side is out of EAM scope.

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102 Paper D – Demonstration: EAM as a Configurable Information Provider for Enterprise

Transformations

Information EAM Support

Stakeholders Concerning Stakeholders, EAM is able to provide information

about contracts, suppliers and internal stakeholders of the ET

since these are content meta-model elements.

Risks Guidelines/standards can be provided.

IT Structure Providing Information about IT structures is core of EAM.

Based on the table above and the ET information model, we can distinguish the EAM

support for the different ET types.

ETs of the type “strategic alignment” is only partially be supported by EAM. The re-

quired information in terms of strategy and goals can be provided very well. Infor-

mation about business structure, project portfolio and IT structures are in general not

strongly requested within this ET type. Thus, lots of the information that EAM could

provide would not be necessary for this type. The EAM support thus would be much

focused (e.g., on business requirements, processes, or capabilities).

The ET type “market alignment” is much stronger supported. In these ETs the enter-

prise needs to be realigned with the market, thus, plenty of information about the cur-

rent structures is needed. This information can be very well provided by EAM. Since

these ETs occur very sudden, the information needs to be available quickly – thus, it is

very valuable if it is already documented. In consequence, EAM can provide infor-

mation about strategy, goals, business structures, IT structures as much as the project

portfolio and further ones. Of course, the necessary information could neither exclu-

sively nor completely be provided by EAM – when it comes to stakeholder or social

factor related information, EAM can only provide minor support.

The ET type “management driven” is almost not supported by EAM. The only infor-

mation that can be provided is about the market situation. Since this information can

anyway only partially be provided by EAM, the model shows that EAM is not the pre-

ferred discipline/information system to support the ET type.

For “operational optimizations” EAM again can provide valuable information. Ac-

cording to the model, strategic aspects are almost not important and ETs of this type

rather require fundamental knowledge about the business and IT structure of the com-

pany in order to realize optimizations. Thus, these ETs directly address again the core

of EAM.

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Part B – A Reference Model for the Information-Based Support of Enterprise

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103

Figure 16 illustrated the summary of the EAM system support differentiated by ET

type.

Figure 16: EAM system support differentiated by ET type

D.6 Summary, Limitations & Outlook

In the paper at hand we provide a reference information model that allows distinguish-

ing different types of ETs based on the information that ET managers require. The

model distinguishes four different ET types that have been identified with an empirical

analysis of ETs. Based on the model, we demonstrate how the information provision

by EAM needs to be configured, in order to fulfill ET-type dependent information re-

quirements. The demonstration shows that certain types of ET can be much better sup-

ported by IS than others. Our contribution to the body of ET literature therefore is a

C1

Schwarz

Weiss

C2

Schwarz

Weiss

C3

Schwarz

Weiss

C4

Schwarz

Weiss

Type 1:Strategic Alignment

Type 3:Management Driven

Type 2:MarketAlignment

Type 4:OperationalOptimization

Information aboutbusiness and ITstructures are not stronglyrequested, information about stakeholders and social aspects cannot be provided sufficiently.

Information about strategy & goals provided.

Information about social aspects & stakeholders not provided. Information

about strategy, goals, projects and structures available via EAM.

Almost no information requested.

Market Environment

Information about social

aspects not provided. Information about strategy or design optionsnotrequested

Information about, goals, projects and structures available via EAM.

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104 Paper D – Summary, Limitations & Outlook

model that allows for providing information during ETs much more focused. Further,

the model provides a dense overview of information that is necessary in ETs.

In order to identify, how the best information support for the identified ET types can

be assured, the demonstration that we conducted should be repeated with other infor-

mation systems beyond EAM. Candidates are ERP systems, business intelligence sys-

tems, or other enterprise-wide IS.

Some limitations occur in the presented research. It could be the case that further clus-

ters exist that we did not identify due to a limited amount of transformation cases. This

problem occurs whenever complex real-world phenomena are researched and abstract-

ed in a model. Future work and an increased empirical foundation of the model will

show, if the identified types need to be revised or if they will be confirmed. Due to the

highly knowledgeable informants that we collected the responses from, we are reason-

ably confident to assume the latter. Further, each ET in the evaluated set of data is de-

scribed by one respondent. Due to the manifold roles that conduct ET management

(e.g., program managers, C-level executives), role-specific differences about required

information could occur. Based on the current amount of data collected, we are not

able to account for these differences. However, such different information require-

ments by different roles provide an interesting field for future research.

Additional future work planned in the project is to provide the model to practitioners

that deal with EAM during ETs. Focus groups or interviews with these experts will

provide valuable feedback and input to the model in order to further increase its ap-

plicability and utility, especially in the domain of EAM. We invite researches that

primarily deal with other IS to extent and apply the model in their domains.

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Part B – Beyond Enterprise Architecture Modeling – What are the Essentials to Support

Enterprise Transformations?

105

Paper E – Beyond Enterprise Architecture Modeling –

What are the Essentials to Support Enterprise Trans-

formations?

Table 19: Bibliographical information of paper E

Title Beyond Enterprise Architecture Modeling – What are the Essen-

tials to Support Enterprise Transformations?

Authors &

Affiliations Labusch, Nils

University of St.Gallen, Institute of Information Management

Mueller-Friedberg-Str. 8, 9000 St.Gallen, CH

[email protected]

Aier, Stephan

University of St.Gallen, Institute of Information Management

Mueller-Friedberg-Str. 8, 9000 St.Gallen, CH

[email protected]

Winter, Robert

University of St.Gallen, Institute of Information Management,

Mueller-Friedberg-Str. 8, 9000 St.Gallen, CH

[email protected]

Publication

Outlet

Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Enterprise

Modelling and Information Systems Architectures (EMISA

2013), R. Jung, and M. Reichert (eds.), St.Gallen, Switzerland,

pp. 13-26.

Year 2013

Rating C (Lecture Notes in Informatics)

Abstract In recent years, many different modeling techniques and lan-

guages were developed in order to allow for an efficient and ap-

propriate enterprise architecture management (EAM). Recently,

EAM is no longer only seen as a means to ensure business/IT

alignment but further as a means to support fundamental changes

of the organization, often called enterprise transformation (ET).

In a joint project with a group of practitioners we aim at develop-

ing a framework that provides guidance on how EAM can sup-

port such ETs and thus leverage the benefit of modeling. Our de-

sign results after more than one year of research reveal different

types of EAM, areas of action in ETs and ET activities that can

be supported by EAM. The findings show that modeling tech-

niques or languages should focus on constructs like transitions,

benefits or risks in order to increase their value for ET support.

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106 Paper E – Introduction

E.1 Introduction

While enterprise architecture (EA) describes the fundamental structures of an enter-

prise, EAM is concerned with the establishment and coordinated development of the

EA in order to consistently respond to business and IT goals, opportunities, and neces-

sities (The Open Group 2011). Core of EAM are manifold modeling techniques and

models that document and consolidate the relevant information and allow for under-

standing cross-company relations (Lankhorst et al. 2013; Steinhorst et al. 2012; Winter

and Fischer 2007).

In recent years, many different modeling techniques and languages were developed in

order to allow for an efficient and appropriate EAM (e.g. the Archimate language as a

standard (The Open Group 2012) or vendor dependent languages). The traditional task

of EAM is providing guidance on the achievement of business to IT alignment (Boh

and Yellin 2007), many frameworks aiming at this task exist (e.g. TOGAF (The Open

Group 2011)). However, EAM increasingly claims to support tasks that are beyond

traditional and often limited business to IT alignment challenges. One major example

is the support of complex and large scale changes in an organization.

These changes, often called enterprise transformations (ET), are not routine since they

substantially alter an organization’s relationships with its key constituencies like cus-

tomers, suppliers or regulators. ETs may result in new value propositions, they may

provide old value propositions in fundamentally new ways or they may change the

inner structure of the enterprise (Rouse and Baba 2006). Examples are transformations

of the business model (Aspara et al. 2011), mergers & acquisitions (Johnston and

Madura 2000) or introductions and replacements of enterprise information systems

(Bhattacharya et al. 2010; Hock-Hai Teo et al. 1997; Sarker and Lee 1999). Many

transformations fail for a variety of reasons (Kotter 1995; Sarker and Lee 1999) like

underestimated technical complexity, or lacks in either portfolio or benefits planning

(Flyvbjerg and Budzier 2012).

For these reasons, EAM is believed to support the management of ETs (Asfaw et al.

2009) by guiding the necessary coordination efforts (Abraham et al. 2012a; Harmsen

et al. 2009; Pulkkinen et al. 2007) and providing information for management support

or strategy development (Asfaw et al. 2009). IT is often an important part of the ET

but further aspects are as important or even more important.

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Part B – Beyond Enterprise Architecture Modeling – What are the Essentials to Support

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107

Thus, in the research project that we conduct with partners from corporate practice, we

aim at investigating what the important parts of managing an ET are and how they can

be supported by the models and techniques that EAM provides. Thus, we are guided in

the project by the following research question:

RQ: How can the management of enterprise transformations be supported by EAM?

We proceed as follows: We present related work that explores the link between EAM

and ET management (ETM). We go on with presenting our design approach and pro-

vide a brief description of the current work status concerning our designed framework.

In section five we discuss the achieved state of work and conclude with a summary

and implications for future work in the last section.

E.2 Related Work

Winter et al. (2012a) illustrate the relation of EAM and ETM. Their main findings

show that current EAM is primarily conducted in the IT and operations departments

(whereas ETM is often part of the business departments), EAM primarily focusses on

current and target states (whereas ETM focusses on the process in between these

states) and EAM requires experts with analytical experience (whereas ETM requires

people with very mature communication and politics skills). Keller and Price (2011)

take a managerial perspective and include “architect” as one of five transformation

stages (within “aspire”, “assess”, “act” and “advance”). They describe activities like

breaking down the transformation initiative into a manageable portfolio, identifying

skills or setting up formal reinforcement mechanisms as part of the “architecting”.

Authors that deal explicitly with EAM identify similar potentials. Harmsen et

al. (2009) propose to use EAM as a governing function in order to streamline a portfo-

lio of transformation steps that need to be well aligned in order to be successful. The

authors consider EAM suitable to ensure this – especially in areas like strategic direc-

tion (investigate alternatives), gap analysis, tactical planning (identify intermediate

milestones), operational planning, selection of partial solutions, e.g. based on stand-

ards (Boh and Yellin 2007), or solution crafting (which describes the identification of

tasks in projects). Radeke (2011) discusses, how EAM can contribute to the strategic

change process. He finds that EAM has the potential to improve the strategic fit of an

enterprise with its market environment, to improve business/IT alignment, and to im-

prove the preparedness for change through standardization and modularization of the

respective enterprise. According to Pulkkinen et al. (2007), EAM allows groups to in-

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108 Paper E – Research Design

terpret the related issues for their purposes. The guidelines and principles agreed on

with the collaborative EAM work facilitate plans and designs for interoperability and

synergy of systems.

Focusing on a modeling perspective, Aier and Gleichauf (2010) describe what is nec-

essary in order to not only model to-be and as-is states but to model the transformation

between these states. They describe different types of necessary intermediary trans-

formation models. Steinhorst et al. (2012) describe an approach that allows for an

analysis of models on a structural and semantic level. The approach allows for a detec-

tion of weakness and best practice patterns concerning transformations in existing

models. McGinnis (2007) provides conditions that models need to fulfill in order to be

used in ETs. He claims that such models facilitate the education of employees and can

be used as a foundation for large-scale IT implementations (like ERP or CRM sys-

tems). In addition they can be used to predict how the enterprise reacts to future sce-

narios or assess alternative processes, customer or supplier relations. He further states

that such models need to be based on syntax and semantics that are driven from a

business and non-IT implementation perspective.

Summarized, EAM is considered to have a high potential to support ETs. Lots of re-

search about EAM is conducted and many practitioners are dealing with the topic. So

far, however, EAM is mostly concentrating on business/IT alignment issues. Evidence

for these problems can be found in the formal specifications of the EAM frameworks

currently available. For example the content meta-model of TOGAF (The Open Group

2011) is comprised half of IT related and half of business related elements. Other as-

pects beyond business/IT alignment that may be relevant to ET, e.g. skill development

or role definitions, are less explicitly illustrated. Identifying these aspects and opening

up the field of ET for EAM and its modeling core would leverage the manifold re-

search in the modeling domain.

Thus, together with consortia partners, we aim at designing and consolidating a

framework that prescribes where and how models and techniques from EAM can sup-

port the management of enterprise transformations. Such a framework aims at bringing

together the ET and the EAM perspective and it aims at alleviating communication

defects between the stakeholder groups involved.

E.3 Research Design

In the paper at hand we focus on the description and discussion of the design research

process (Peffers et al. 2007). Our research approach follows the general design cycle

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109

idea as introduced by Hevner et al. (2007) and particularly follows the more recent

understanding of design science that assumes alternating core activities of design and

evaluation within one and the same cycle (Sein et al. 2011; Winter and Albani 2013).

E.3.1 Research Setting

We conducted the design process in a consortium of researchers and practitioners

(Otto and Österle 2012) that met four times during the years 2011 and 2012 in order to

develop the framework and to apply it within their organizations later on. The group

was comprised of eleven experts being employed with seven organizations located in

different industries (public sector, insurance, utilities). The participants had long-time

experience in their domains and access to further experts within their companies (Otto

and Österle 2012). Table 20 provides an overview about participants and their organi-

zations.

Table 20: Design partners

Company Industry Informants

A Insurance Head Enterprise Architecture

IT Project Manager

B Insurance Head of IT Service Management

Head of Enterprise Architecture

C Public Sector Head of IT Strategy

D Utilities Enterprise Architect

E Insurance Head of Enterprise Architecture

Data Architect

Enterprise and Data Warehouse Architect

F Utilities Enterprise Architect

G Insurance Vice President Enterprise Architecture

The meetings contained four major elements: First, keynotes in which one of the in-

formants reported about practices from his organization. Second, external input by ex-

perts that where not participating regularly in the meetings but could provide the core

group with new and challenging perspectives – we especially invited external experts

to avoid biases and to ensure reliability. Third, academic input: the researchers pre-

sented findings and implications from theory. Finally, workshop sessions: the partici-

pants were asked to conduct different tasks and discussions moderated and supported

by the research team. The meetings usually took two days.

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110 Paper E – Research Design

In the time between the meetings with the practitioners, our research team conducted

internal workshops and discussions in order to provide input to the practitioners. In

order to avoid biases for the design decisions by the research team, one person – simi-

lar to the external experts in the practitioner workshops – was taking the role of a dev-

il’s advocate (Herbert and Estes 1977) and thus purposefully provided an opposite

opinion.

E.3.2 Design Process

The process itself contained four major iterations. In a first iteration, we identified the

problem as stated above and ensured its relevance during discussions with the partners.

Thus, EAM is perceived to support ET, but current approaches seem not to be fully

sufficient to achieve this goal due to their focus on business/IT alignment. We con-

ducted a first design-cycle in the research team where we surveyed the EAM

knowledge base for appropriate kernel theories in order to allow for an approach “in-

formed by theory” (Gregor 2006). Based on its explicit link to transformation and the

focus of the project, we identified the body of knowledge about dynamic capabilities

as a very helpful means. Barreto (2010) summarizes a dynamic capability as “the

firm’s potential to systematically solve problems, formed by its propensity to sense

opportunities and threats, to make timely and market-oriented decisions, and to change

its resource base.” Teece (2007) subdivides dynamic capabilities into the areas of sens-

ing, seizing and transformation and thus includes the fundamental change as core.

Abraham et al. (2012b) consider EAM as a dynamic capability and thus link the areas

of ET and EAM on a sound theoretical foundation. According to Abraham et al.

(2012b) each type of change needs a different type of EAM: A fast but lean type for

unpredictable changes and a rather traditional type of EAM for planned changes. We

further distinguished the traditional type into a business-related and a rather IT-

focused type of EAM since these are the ones regularly mentioned in theory

(e.g. Lankhorst et al. 2009a) or seen in practice like in our group of practitioners. We

applied the wording and content used in the theories also for the discussions during the

practitioner discussions. For example, the theoretical view helped to understand that

transformation activities could be distinguished into sensing, seizing and actually im-

plementing the changes.

The theoretical findings were discussed and further refined in the group of practition-

ers. Thus, with this step we were able to reduce the size of the relevant EAM

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Part B – Beyond Enterprise Architecture Modeling – What are the Essentials to Support

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111

knowledge base into smaller pieces, depending on which type of EAM should be con-

sidered in more detail.

In a second iteration we identified areas of action, where EAM potentially can support

ETs. We first conducted this step openly in the group of practitioners to collect their

experiences and perceptions. This resulted in four major areas: (1) Rolls, skills &

communication deals with the question, which roles and skills are necessary during a

transformation from the point of view of EAM and how communication with other

stakeholders being involved in transformations can be improved. (2) Governance &

control deals with the governance-processes that are necessary for transformations and

can be supported by EAM. (3) Planning & requirements management is concerned

with techniques and tasks that are relevant for planning ETs. The fourth identified area

was (4) organizational culture that was considered to be an important context factor.

In the third iteration, we refined the results. For example, we considered the area of

roles and communication. In the research team, we identified the kernel theory of

boundary objects (Doolin and McLeod 2012) as a helpful means to explain, how EA

can foster the communication among different stakeholder groups. The theory shows

that certain objects like models, commonly used frameworks etc. overcome barriers

like different language between different areas of business or between business and IT.

In the practitioner group boundary objects from the different companies were identi-

fied, e.g. capability maps, application landscapes but also more unusual objects like a

project interaction room (a fixed room that is used to discuss a certain topic by differ-

ent stakeholder groups).

While the design process up to this point was driven a lot by an architectural perspec-

tive on ET, we shifted the perspective towards a more business oriented approach in

the fourth iteration by inviting external experts that deal on the one hand with a holis-

tic transformation perspective and on the other hand with soft factors and a change-

centered perspective. The overall goal for this meeting was to become more specific

about activities that are necessary during transformations and could potentially be sup-

ported by EAM. We further aimed at integrating those in a consolidated framework.

As a foundation we used the BTM2 framework (Uhl and Gollenia 2012) that aims at

covering the management of transformations, based on a holistic perspective. In the

team of researchers we discussed, which of the given activities in the framework could

be supported by EAM. In the next step, we handed over this discussion to the EAM

practitioner group. In here, we even went one step further and asked, if EAM could

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112 Paper E – Research Design

support the transformation activities depending on the EAM type (lean, traditional,

business) that we investigated in the first iteration. We conducted three cycles in total

in this workshop session, in each cycle the groups were mixed again in order to ensure

a direct evaluation of the findings (world-café method (World Café Community

Foundation 2013)). As the result, some of the activities were marked as not supporta-

ble by any of the types, some only by one type and some by all three types of EAM.

The overall design process that we conducted so far is illustrated in Table 21.

Table 21: Design process

Iteration Event Meeting Program

1 Whole Group

Meeting EAM for ET: Idea and Necessities (speech, re-

searcher)

Exchange of experiences (workshop, all)

Consolidation of challenges and experiences

(workshop, all)

Research team

internal discus-

sion

Learning from dynamic capabilities

2 Whole Group

Meeting Identification of EAM capabilities for ET (work-

shop, all)

Mapping of EAM capabilities to solution areas

(workshop, all)

Derivation of “areas of action”

Research team

internal discus-

sion

Learning from boundary objects

3 Whole Group

Meeting Architectural Support of ET – The perspective of

transformation management (speech, researcher)

Boundary objects: roles, skills and communication

(speech, informant)

Boundary objects: roles, skills and communication

(workshop, all)

Controller and IT: the changing roles (speech, ex-

ternal expert)

Governance processes (speech, informant)

Governance processes (workshop, all)

EAM planning processes (workshop, all)

Research team

internal discus-

sion

Pre-consolidation of the framework

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Iteration Event Meeting Program

4 Whole Group

Meeting BTM2: Overview, development and application

(speech, external expert)

Capability models as a management tool (work-

shop, all)

Value management as a connection to the business

(workshop, all)

Change management: a practical view behind the

scenes (speech, external expert)

Theoretical perspectives on culture and acceptance

(speech, researcher)

Consolidating the Framework: Transformation

from an architectural perspective (workshop, all)

Research team

internal

discussion

Refinement of the framework

E.4 Towards a Framework for the Architectural Support of

Enterprise Transformations

In the following section we provide a brief overview of the results that we achieved so

far with our partners in order to allow for an understanding of the framework.

E.4.1 Overall Structure

The main constructs in the framework are the identified types of EAM, the respective

areas of action concerning ETM and the ETM activities that according to our research

process (described above) can be supported by EAM. Like described above, we identi-

fied a lean type of EAM to deal with rather sudden transformations, a traditional type

of EAM for planned changes concerning mostly IT issues and a business-related type

of EAM. The framework is further comprised of areas of action that can be supported

by EAM during a transformation. These are “rolls, skills & communication”, “govern-

ance & control”, “planning & requirements management” and “organizational cul-

ture”. In order to deal with the complexity, each ETM activity belongs to one ET area

of action but can, of course, be supported by more than one type of EAM. This is

summarized in Table 22.

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114 Paper E – Towards a Framework for the Architectural Support of Enterprise

Transformations

Table 22: Overall relation

Transformation Activity EAM Type ET Area of Action

IT o

rien

ted

EA

M

Busi

nes

s

ori

ente

d E

AM

Lea

n E

AM

Roll

s, s

kil

ls &

com

mu

nic

a-

tion

G

ov

ern

ance

&

Contr

ol

Pla

nnin

g &

req

uir

emen

ts

man

agem

ent

Org

aniz

atio

nal

cult

ure

Setup communication X X

Establish communities of

practice X X

Manage training X X

Orchestrate skills & disci-

plines X X

Manage and measure

principles X X

Conduct lifecycle manage-

ment X X

Monitor change X X

Develop roadmap plan X X

Analyze cultural environ-

ment X X

Establish common language X X X

Conduct stakeholder man-

agement X X X

Establish transformation

lifecycle X X X

Establish potentials for fur-

ther benefits X X X

Analyze initial situation X X X

Develop integrated transfor-

mation plan X X X

Analyze needs & maturity

level X X X

Develop detailed business

case X X X

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Transformation Activity EAM Type ET Area of Action

IT o

rien

ted

EA

M

Busi

nes

s

ori

ente

d E

AM

Lea

n E

AM

Roll

s, s

kil

ls &

com

mu

nic

a-

tion

G

ov

ern

ance

&

Contr

ol

Pla

nnin

g &

req

uir

emen

ts

man

agem

ent

Org

aniz

atio

nal

cult

ure

Manage requirements X X X

Define overall goals X X

Develop high-level business

case X X

Define KPIs and benchmark X X

Plan benefit realization X X

Perform 360° strategic risk

assessment X X

Define risk strategy X X

Conduct program planning X X

Manage program scope X X

Assess change readiness X X

Analyze & set cultural envi-

ronment X X

Orchestrate skills & disci-

plines: propose experts X X X

Evaluate risk for transfor-

mation business case X X X

Manage communication and

translation X X

Review and evaluate results X X

Conduct ex-post program

alignment X X

Conduct risk monitoring X X X

Manage communication X X X X

Align with risk management X X X X

Assess as-is capabilities X X X X

Design to-be architecture X X X X

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116 Paper E – Towards a Framework for the Architectural Support of Enterprise

Transformations

Transformation Activity EAM Type ET Area of Action

IT o

rien

ted

EA

M

Busi

nes

s

ori

ente

d E

AM

Lea

n E

AM

Roll

s, s

kil

ls &

com

mu

nic

a-

tion

G

ov

ern

ance

&

Contr

ol

Pla

nnin

g &

req

uir

emen

ts

man

agem

ent

Org

aniz

atio

nal

cult

ure

Perform gap analysis X X X X

Consider, for example, the activity “Manage Communication”. In the table above we

can see that it was considered important concerning all three types of EAM and be-

longs to the “rolls, skills & communication” area of action. At the current stage of the

research project, we aim at investigating, how EAM can support ETM in terms of cur-

rently available techniques and models. Thus, we discussed this issue in the workshop

and documented the findings in a structured way. We used a structure that is similar to

Bucher & Dinter (2012) and the TOGAF framework (The Open Group 2011). The

most important parts are the actual activities (what is done) and techniques (how is it

done). Figure 17 provides an example of the “manage communication” activity.

Figure 17: Example of an activity

The example shows that transformation managers need inputs like principles, stake-

holders etc. in order to successfully conduct the activity. EAM can offer support by

e.g. using models that include the stakeholders and provide those to ET managers or,

depending on how EAM is established in the organization address the stakeholders by

themselves.

Manage Communication

Title: Manage Communication

Necessary inputs

Principles, stakeholders, goals of the transformation, available media

Roles Architect, management, communications department

Sub-Activities Develop communications plan, identify stakeholders, define communication media

Techniques Stakeholder analysis, communication analysis, feedback analysis

Results Communications matrix, elevator pitch, communication process plan

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117

Summarized, the framework provides two degrees of abstraction: (1) The overview

level with types and areas of actions shows where the EAM knowledge and models

could be used in order to support ETM. (2) The concrete activities and the included

details illustrate how EAM could be used in detail.

E.4.2 Framework Application

The proposed framework can be further customized for single organizations and the

scope of the future EAM in the specific company can be determined. If e.g. a company

has an EAM rooted in the IT department and dealing with IT questions only, the in-

formation that such EAM can provide are relevant for most transformations. However,

the department should focus on supporting ET activities that they are familiar with

(e.g. development of roadmaps). The situation is different, if EAM should be set up as

an ET supporting discipline, rooted in the business departments. Further activities, like

defining key performance indicators (KPI), should be considered relevant. These two

examples illustrate that an incorporation of the framework differs on the concrete en-

terprise it is applied in. The artifact can provide guidance in both (and more) cases by

providing direction on techniques and results that the EAM knowledge base can pro-

vide.

An implementation in one specific enterprise requires workshop sessions with the

most important stakeholders in this organizational environment in order to get insights

about necessary priorities and preferences.

E.5 Discussion

In the paper at hand we ask, how important parts of managing enterprise transfor-

mations can be supported by EAM and thus, how the potential of the manifold existing

modeling techniques and languages can be leveraged in a promising field.

Our research shows that EAM can provide useful inputs to the management of trans-

formations – not just business/IT alignment but also business/business alignment. In

the group discussions it became clear that “the business” is not a monolithic unit and

their interests are heterogeneous. The term business to business alignment might be

sufficient when it comes to transformations. It became clear during the discussions that

certain transformation activities are supported rather natively by EAM. These are

characterized by a utilization of “native” EAM outputs like risk assessments, IT-

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118 Paper E – Summary & Conclusion

application landscapes etc. Concerning these activities it is straight forward for EAM

to support the ET and provide appropriate models.

Concerning other ET activities, EAM has a high development potential in order to be-

come a supportive means. Such activities can be the support of staffing (by providing

capability and skill information on an employee level) or establishing a common lan-

guage crossing organizational boundaries (e.g. by providing catalogues or corporate

languages). Further, EAM could focus on the assessment and modeling of benefits that

certain stakeholders want to achieve during the transformation. Such models could

support the early identification of conflicts.

Some activities that ET management needs to conduct however, are hardly supported

and will be hard to support by future EAM. These are especially related to psychologi-

cal aspects like management of employee’s perception of work or further ones. Model-

ing such aspects might be an interesting future field for the development of new mod-

eling languages and techniques.

The field of enterprise transformation seems to represent a significant potential for

modeling research. So far, most languages focus on the different states during an ET.

What is still lacking are approaches that allow for modeling the transformation itself,

including factors like risks, benefits and other critical issues. When conducting a

search on modeling and transformation literature on Google Scholar, most approaches

found focus on transforming models by themselves. Solid work on specifics of trans-

formations and their documentation are underrepresented. This offers an interesting

and relevant field for future work.

Apart from the potential that new modeling languages or methods might have, the ex-

isting ones could be leveraged further by understanding the activities that are conduct-

ed during transformations and the capabilities that are needed. The results of the first

design iterations that we present in this paper could be a helpful means for practition-

ers in order to identify, which activities they might be able to support with enterprise

models. In consequence, the framework provides guidance where “self-marketing”

activities can be applied or in which areas the internal EAM approach could become

improved.

E.6 Summary & Conclusion

In the paper at hand we presented results from a research project that aims at the de-

velopment of a framework for the architectural support of enterprise transformations.

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119

We focused on the presentation of the design process itself and presented some of the

recently achieved results.

Of course, some limitations occur. Some colleagues might consider the lack of a one-

time large-scale evaluation of the presented artifact. Nonetheless, due to the chosen

one-cycle approach of design science research, the single steps were evaluated inter-

mediately and immediately during design. Thus, the validity and reliability of the arti-

fact is ensured. In addition, two of the research partners are planning to incorporate a

version of the framework in their companies. We will report on the experiences in fu-

ture work. We are aware that the details presented in the paper at hand can only be part

of the whole artifact description and result. However, such reduction is necessary due

to space limitations and the current state of the project. The industry mix of the re-

search partners might also have an influence on the result. Nevertheless, not only part-

ners that are primarily dealing with information (e.g. banks or insurances) but also

more production oriented companies like utilities participated.

The next steps in the research process will be a more detailed catalogue that includes,

how exactly (e.g. by which EAM artifacts) the identified ET activities can be support-

ed. Further we aim at identifying context factors that lead to favor one introduced

EAM approach over the other.

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120 Paper F – Introduction

Paper F – Information Provision as a Success Factor in

the Architectural Support of Enterprise Transfor-

mations

Table 23: Bibliographical information of paper F

Title Information Provision as a Success Factor in the Architectural

Support of Enterprise Transformations

Authors &

Affiliations Labusch, Nils

University of St.Gallen, Institute of Information Management

Mueller-Friedberg-Str. 8, 9000 St.Gallen, CH

[email protected]

Aier, Stephan

University of St.Gallen, Institute of Information Management

Mueller-Friedberg-Str. 8, 9000 St.Gallen, CH

[email protected]

Publication

Outlet

Proceedings of the 8th TEE Workshop in conjunction with the

16th IEEE Conference on Business Informatics, D. Aveiro, M.

Bjekovic, A. Caetano, A. Fleischmann, L. Heuser, S. De

Kinderen, M.M. Komarov, Y. Kou-cheryavy, S.V. Maltseva, W.

Molnar, A. Oberweis, H.A. Proper, M. Rap-pa, W. Schmidt, F.

Schönthaler, J.-S. Sottet, C. Stary, and G. Vossen (eds.), Geneva,

Switzerland, pp. 141-148.

Year 2014

Rating Not rated

Abstract Enterprise transformations (ET) fail in many cases or do not ac-

complish the expected goals. Enterprise architecture management

(EAM) is often considered to be an appropriate means to tackle

this problem by providing information that is relevant to ET

managers. Therefore, we analyze, which types of information

provided during an ET contributes to its success. In addition we

discuss if EAM can appropriately support ETs by providing rele-

vant information. The results show that value can be provided to

ET management when business-related information on a detailed

level is offered. Examples are business requirements, business

functions, or qualitative measures. We find information that can

be provided by EAM to be an important success factor for ETs.

F.1 Introduction

Enterprises from time to time have to go through changes that are not routine but fun-

damental and radical. These changes are designated as enterprise transformations

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121

(ETs) (Rouse 2005b). ETs substantially alter an enterprise’s relationships with its key

constituencies like customers or suppliers (Rouse 2005b). Examples of such funda-

mental changes are adaptions of the business model (Aspara et al. 2011), mergers and

acquisitions (Johnston and Madura 2000), or introductions and replacements of enter-

prise-wide information technology (Bhattacharya et al. 2010; Hock-Hai Teo et al.

1997; Sarker and Lee 1999).

Managing ETs is a difficult task and many efforts fail (Flyvbjerg and Budzier 2012;

Kotter 1995). Thus, the topic should be in the scope of current research as the rele-

vance for improving related management methods and research perspectives is given.

As such, research concerning ET is conducted for decades in different research disci-

plines; including information systems (IS) research. However, Besson & Rowe

(Besson and Rowe 2012) conclude that past and current work mostly focuses on psy-

chological and socio-cognitive inertia (e.g., employee resistance)—socio-technical and

economic inertia are underestimated, or even seem to be overlooked.

In order to deal with the complex challenge of transforming an enterprise, oftentimes

enterprise architecture management (EAM) is seen as a valuable means (Abraham et

al. 2013b; Asfaw et al. 2009). While enterprise architecture (EA) describes the funda-

mental structures of an enterprise, EAM is concerned with the establishment and con-

tinuous development of EA in order to consistently respond to business and IT goals,

opportunities, and necessities (Aier et al. 2011; The Open Group 2011). Thus, EAM is

often found to support the management of ETs (Asfaw et al. 2009; Dorsch and

Haeckel 2012) by guiding the necessary efforts (Abraham et al. 2012a; Harmsen et al.

2009; Pulkkinen et al. 2007) and eliminating flaws like local optimizations (as op-

posed to global perspectives) or expensive redundancies (Foorthuis et al. 2010). We

refer to this support capability of EAM as the architectural support of ETs.

A prominent means for architectural support of ETs is the provision of decision-

relevant information to ET managers. In line with Laudon & Laudon (2006, p. 14) we

consider information as “data that have been shaped into a form that is meaningful and

useful to human beings”. The role of the enterprise architect is considered “one of

making order out of chaos by taking the overwhelming amount of information availa-

ble and presenting it in a manner that enables effective decision-making” (Strano and

Rehmani 2007, p. 392).

However, in order to design an EAM function that is able to provide valuable ET sup-

port, we need to know, which information is available for planning and managing an

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122 Paper F – Related Work

ET and which impact such information has on the ET’s success. Since there seems to

be no regular application of EAM as a leading authority or as a support service for ETs

yet (Asfaw et al. 2009; Lankhorst et al. 2009a), we aim at understanding the require-

ments that such a service has to meet. We pose the following research questions:

RQ1: Which information provided for planning and managing an ET contributes to

its success?

RQ2: Can EAM provide this information?

We proceed as follows: We discuss related work on the relation of ET management

(ETM) and EAM in section two. We describe our research approach and survey design

in section three. We present the results of the study in section four and discuss these

results in section five4. The paper ends with a summary and conclusions in section six.

F.2 Related Work

There are only a few articles that explicitly discuss the architectural support of ETs.

Asfaw et al. (2009) analyze enablers and challenges in driving ETs using EA concepts.

They decompose ETM in three components: communications, process, management

support, and structure. Within these components they identify success factors like

stakeholder involvement or guided application development. However, the authors

conclude that architecture as such cannot cope with all challenges and thus, additional

capabilities like change management are also needed. Radeke (2011) discusses, how

EAM can contribute to the strategic change process. He discusses the potential of

EAM to improve the strategic fit of the enterprise with the market environment, busi-

ness-IT alignment, and the preparedness for change by standardization and modulari-

zation of parts of the enterprise. Simon et al. (2014) also recognize a high potential of

EAM to support ETs, e.g., by assessing the enterprise’s ET readiness.

Aier et al. (2012) focus on the discipline of EAM and discuss past and future devel-

opments. Thereby, the authors distinguish EAM functions in stage one (basic IT archi-

tecture), stage 2a (passive IT EAM), stage 2b (proactive IT EAM), and stage 3 (strate-

gic EAM). The latter is more differentiated and focuses on supporting business mat-

ters. For this purpose, not only aspects like business processes or organizational units

4 Additional parts of the survey are presented and applied in Labusch et al. (2014b).

The original contribution of this paper is the analysis of data related to the success of

the ETs and the available information.

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123

are put into models, but instead the vocabulary of business units needs to be adopted

and integrated in an EAM approach. Abraham et al. (2013b) explicate that architecture

contains descriptive aspects (establishing transparency) as much as prescriptive as-

pects (restricting design freedom). Smolander et al. (2008) describe different under-

standings of architecture by discussing various metaphors: (1) architecture as blueprint

(high level description of a system, directly guiding more detailed implementation),

(2) architecture as language (enabling a common understanding about the system

among stakeholders), (3) architecture as decision (architecture represents decisions

about design trade-offs) and (4) architecture as literature (documenting and transfer-

ring information over time).

In line with the second and the fourth metaphor, Strano & Rehamni (2007) point out

that architects are dealing a lot with information that needs to be processed and pre-

sented in a meaningful way. Information handling is also considered of major im-

portance in the ET literature. When transforming an enterprise, a high number of deci-

sions, many of them with major implications, need to be taken. In order to take these

decisions on a sound basis, manifold information needs to be collected and consolidat-

ed (Fry et al. 2005; Klein and Krcmar 2003; Singh et al. 2011; Tichy 1983). Thus, a fit

between the information demands and the information provision capability is crucial.

This issue of information processing fit is discussed from a theoretical perspective in

the organizational information processing theory (OIPT) (Galbraith 1973; Galbraith

1974; Galbraith 1977; Galbraith 2002) and its extensions for more specific problems

(e.g., Gattiker and Goodhue 2005; Premkumar et al. 2005). The central concepts of the

theory is the reduction of uncertainty—a concept that is also central to ETs (Elliot

2011; Lengnick-Hall and Beck 2005; Morgan and Ogbonna 2008). Core elements of

the theory are design decisions that allow for a reduction of information processing

needs on the one hand and that allow to increase the information processing capability

on the other hand (Galbraith 1974).

Summarizing, the related work indicates that EAM is supposed to support ETs in dif-

ferent ways. An information perspective on ET is beneficial and especially from an IS

point of view relevant. However, related work does not provide deeper insights about

the details of the required and provided information, and about their impact on ET

success. We aim at closing this gap.

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124 Paper F – Research Approach

F.3 Research Approach

Our main goal is to identify, the information that is provided during ETs and whether

it has a significant impact on ET success.

F.3.1 Overall Research Project

The paper at hand is the final step in a research project that is comprised of three steps

in total. In a first step, we conducted a literature survey (Labusch and Winter 2013) in

order to understand the relation between EAM and ET management (ETM). The sur-

vey identifies activities conducted by ETM and the potentially necessary information

that could be provided by EAM. In a second step, we conducted a qualitative study

based on interviews with EAM and ETM experts (Labusch et al. 2014a). The study

provides a better understanding of current architectural support of ETs. The results of

both steps were consolidated in order to develop the questionnaire for the study at

hand. This study aims at analyzing the topic on a broader empirical foundation and at

deriving insights from a larger set of ETs.

F.3.2 Identification of Items

We differentiate three groups of items: those describing the environment of the ET

(“the organization”), the ET itself (goals, reasons, figures), and the ET support con-

cerning the information provisioning. The unit of analysis is the single ET.

In order to identify items concerning the ET and the influence factors in the enterprise,

we conduct a literature survey in databases and top journals of information systems

and management science. We follow the Basket of Eight (Association for Information

Systems 2011) and the JOURQUAL ranking (Schrader and Hennig-Thurau 2009). We

apply the search term “(((organizational OR enterprise OR business OR radical) AND

transformation) OR “radical change“)” in the title in combination with the term

“(type* OR archetype* OR class* OR categor* OR taxonom* OR segment* OR di-

mension*)” in the abstract. The search delivered 397 results in total, after reviewing

the abstracts; we consider 23 papers relevant for further analysis. Additionally we in-

clude sources from forward and backward analyses. We examine these sources in de-

tail, in order to extract concrete items for the questionnaire.

In order to analyze the architectural support of ETs, we incorporate work that we con-

ducted earlier (see section F.3.1). Thus, we consolidate the identified items from the

studies above in one list. Finally, we end up with a list of information items that are

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125

potentially needed during an ET. This list is provided to the ET experts as part of the

study at hand. The goal is to examine, which of the identified information contribute to

ET success.

F.3.3 Questionnaire Design

The questionnaire starts with generic questions about the respondent. If consultants fill

in the questionnaire, we ask them to provide information on a specific ET at a specific

customer. We further collect data about the enterprise that has been transformed.

In the next section of the questionnaire, we collect facts about the ET itself. We ask the

experts, whether the ET is already finished and if so, whether it has been successful. If

the ET still is in progress, we ask for the respondent’s prediction, whether it will be a

success. In this case (and whenever possible later on), we employ five point Likert

scales (Likert 1932). In addition, we ask how long the ET took or is going to take. We

ask for the drivers of ETs. Most of the respective items are provided by Romanelli &

Tushman (1994), stating that ETs usually are driven by strategic issues, changes in the

power structure, or changes of the corporate structure. Due to the IT-centered under-

standing of EAM in many cases, we added “necessary changes in IT systems” which

are also considered to be a driver of ETs (Lyytinen and Newman 2008).

In the next section, we ask the experts to state, which part of the enterprise is leading

the ET and which parts are affected. We derive the items from Porter’s value chain

(Porter 1980). We add the “corporate management” as a separate part (instead of leav-

ing it included in the corporate infrastructure, as defined by Porter) since other studies

(Kotter 1995; Lahrmann et al. 2012) name leadership support as a success factor in

ETs. We further ask the respondents, how many employees were executing the ET,

how many external personnel was involved, and how many personnel was affected by

the ET.

In the third part of the questionnaire, we ask for the actual availability of required in-

formation in the specific ET (similar to Fredenberger et al. (1997)). In addition we

provide an explanation sheet for the items.

F.3.4 Pilot Phase

We provided the questionnaire to four practitioners employed with one enterprise. The

participants have different job positions that deal with ETs. We want to make sure that

the questionnaire is understandable and can be filled in in reasonable time. During this

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126 Paper F – Research Approach

pilot phase we found that filling in the questionnaire takes about 30 minutes. Due to

the complexity of the problem domain this is considered a reasonable amount of time.

During the pilot phase some items needed to be rephrased in order to increase their

understandability. In addition the pretest was meant to identify further items that we

would need to add. However, no further items were added by the experts, which might

serve as an indicator for the quality of the original set of items.

F.3.5 Roll-Out

We provided the questionnaire to a group of executive students in an executive MBA

program on ET. All participants are involved in ETs in leading positions in their re-

spective enterprises. We additionally provided the questionnaire in an online version to

the alumni network of this executive MBA program that are all holding job positions

related to ETs. We further addressed ET managers in additional organizations that we

are conducting research projects with. Thus, in total more than 700 contacts were pro-

vided with the questionnaire.

F.3.6 Resulting Dataset

We received a total of 57 responses by experts that hold positions like CxO, Programm

Manager, or Head of Department over a period of three months. Most respondents are

directly employed with the enterprise that was transformed (48) while only a minority

(9) is, working for consulting or other service companies. The ETs take place in differ-

ent industries (multiple answers possible), see Table 24 for details.

Table 24: Surveyed industries

Industry Number of analyzed ETs

Education 1

Utilities 9

Financial Services 13

Healthcare 3

Information & Communication 13

Public Administration 1

Production 10

Services 1

Transport & Logistics 1

Insurance 4

Other 7

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127

F.4 Results

The results of our survey provide some interesting findings about ETs and their infor-

mation support.

F.4.1 General Findings about ETs

Most of the ETs in the dataset are described as successfully finished or on the way to

be successfully finished (almost successful or completely successful, 76%) while the

average ET takes 3-4 years. Why are so many ETs in our dataset successful although

other studies found that a large part of all ETs fail (Kotter 1995)? One reason might be

that the respondents decided to rather report on successful ETs they were involved in.

A second reason might be found in the specific executive training on transformation

management the respondents have received. However, this arguably non-

representative sample of ETs considering success rates does not limit our analysis of

the relation between information provisioning and ET success.

The topmost important drivers of ETs are strategic changes, necessary changes in IT

systems, introduction of new products or services, necessary changes of the culture,

and changes in the environment (e.g., regulatory requirements). Oftentimes, the sur-

veyed ETs are guided by the management of the enterprise. In addition, the IT and

technology development departments of the enterprises play a guiding role in ETs.

Less strongly but still involved in guiding the ETs are production and logistics de-

partments. See Table 25 for details.

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128 Paper F – Results

Table 25: Guiding departments

Department Average Agreement Standard Deviation

Inbound Logistics 1.37 0.95

Production/Operations 2.19 1.48

Outbound Logistics 1.38 0.87

Marketing 1.96 1.28

Sales 2.29 1.53

Customer Service 2.08 1.38

Firm Infrastructure

(e.g., financials, planning, legal)

1.92 1.40

Human Resources 1.85 1.38

Technology/IT 3.17 1.67

Procurement 1.77 1.38

Corporate Management 3.62 1.59

Other 1.35 0.90

Likert scales, five would be “fully agree”, multiple answers possible

The analyzed ETs represent huge endeavors: on average 513 full time equivalents

(FTE) of internal staff are involved, supported by 33 external FTEs. On average, 8040

employees (in FTEs) are affected by the ET.

The collected descriptions of ETs show that these are indeed fundamental changes like

described in literature. In the next step we analyze the influence of the provided infor-

mation on ET success.

F.4.2 Available Information and ET Success

We provide our respondents with the question, whether ET related information is

available. Independently from the success of the ET, we evaluate the general availabil-

ity of the information. Information that is related to general goal descriptions is often

available. However, information about the concrete business case or the history of ETs

in the specific enterprise is less often available.

As a second step, we conduct a regression analysis (linear regressions with each in-

formation item as independent and ET success as dependent variable) in order to eval-

uate the impact of the availability of the information on ET success. We measure suc-

cess employing a five point Likert scale. The average value for success in the dataset is

3.84, thus, ETs have been mostly successful. Data are summarized in Table 26.

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Table 26: Information availability and influence on ET success

Category Information Mean

Avail-

ability

Regres-

sion

Coeffi-

cient

R2 Signifi-

cance

1.

Information

concerning

general goal

descriptions

Consistent goal

description

4.04 .220 .104* 0.0307

Important steps (e.g.

roadmaps)

3.87 .218 .101* 0.0337

Market situation 3.04 .163 .082 0.0594

Drivers 3.89 .128 .042 0.1780

Business Strategy 3.52 .005 .000 0.9570

2.

Information

concerning

detailed goal

descriptions

Business requirements 3.64 .383 .259** 0.0005

Solution ideas (scenarios) 3.61 .236 .110* 0.0318

Plan costs (budget) 3.05 .204 .169** 0.0068

Business case for the

transformation

2.86 .047 .006 0.6163

3.

Information

concerning

existing

business

structures

Processes 3.18 .250 .174** 0.0054

Organizational structure 3.98 .252 .156** 0.0088

Product portfolio 3.91 .107 .028 0.2806

Locations /

location concept

3.60 .109 .046 0.1674

Business functions 3.56 .303 .257** 0.0005

Capabilities of the

organization

2.98 -.028 .002 0.7822

4.

Information

concerning

program

management

Stakeholders of the

transformation

3.91 .196 .094* 0.0434

Overview of projects 3.23 .273 .261** 0.0006

Redundancies between

projects

2.87 .135 .060 0.1080

Dependencies between

projects / initiatives

3.11 .172 .104* 0.0347

Project roles (including

ownership)

3.59 .155 .083 0.0582

Skills of employees 3.13 .109 .027 0.2884

** Significance < 0.01 * Significance < 0.05

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130 Paper F – Results

Category Information Mean

Avail-

ability

Regres-

sion

Coeffi-

cient

R2 Signifi-

cance

5.

Information

concerning

design options

to achieve the

goals

Outsourcing potentials 2.65 .033 .004 0.6982

Evaluations of

technology

2.80 .109 .048 0.1574

Consolidation potentials 2.96 .169 .097* 0.0419

6.

Information

concerning

method

competence

Concrete methods for

transformations

2.77 .176 .095* 0.0475

Outsourcing support 2.12 .056 .007 0.6061

7.

Information

concerning

change

management

Stakeholder

characteristics

2.96 .174 .096* 0.0405

Cultural change 3.00 .021 .001 0.8189

Common language 3.02 .080 .015* 0.4378

Communication strategy 2.91 .263 .189** 0.0036

Trainings 3.07 .296 .294** 0.0002

Transformation history

(“Good Practices” and

“Lessons Learned”)

2.11 .259 .157** 0.0085

Organizational culture 2.64 .027 .002 0.7700

8.

Information

concerning

performance

management

Benefits of the

transformation

3.14 .164 .098* 0.0461

As-Is costs 3.21 .177 .117* 0.0287

(qualitative) success

control (e.g. Expert

opinion)

2.91 .246 .189** 0.0045

(quantitative) success

control e.g. measure

“process time“)

3.07 .251 .217** 0.0021

9.

Information

concerning

external

stakeholders

Business partners 3.09 .087 .027 0.2938

Shareholders/investors/

owner structure

3.07 .063 .016 0.4240

Suppliers 2.79 .098 .030 0.2754

Customers 3.05 .043 .006 0.6265

Master

agreements/contracts

3.09 .244 .202** 0.0032

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131

Category Information Mean

Avail-

ability

Regres-

sion

Coeffi-

cient

R2 Signifi-

cance

10.

Information

concerning risk

management

Risk assessments 3.23 .392 .426** 0.0000

Legal regulations 3.26 .328 .396** 0.0000

Security aspects 3.02 .204 .147* 0.0132

Internal

guideline/standards

3.39 .261 .227** 0.0014

11.

Information

concerning IT

Data structures 3.29 .170 .099 0.0514

Applications (incl.

interfaces)

3.32 .097 .038 0.2362

IT-Infrastructure 3.29 .123 .052 0.1569

IT-Security aspects 3.00 .154 .076 0.0850

** Significance < 0.01 * Significance < 0.05

F.5 Discussion

F.5.1 Impact of Information Availability on ET Success

We are aware that regression analyses can merely provide hints on relation among all

the variables under consideration. However, we consider discussing the results as val-

uable since tendencies can be derived.

The first category, denominated general goal descriptions addresses strategic aspects

of the ET. While information is often available, its relation to ET success remains dif-

fuse. For the availability of consistent goal descriptions and of necessary important

steps, we find a significant relation with ET success. An interesting aspect is the avail-

ability of information on business strategy. Currently, we do not find a significant rela-

tion to ET success (which contradicts other sources that consider business strategy be-

ing an important part of successful ETs (e.g. Uhl et al. 2012)). This might have differ-

ent reasons: First, more data needs to be collected to provide more detailed discussions

about single information items. Second, it could also be the case that business strategy

in general is not detailed enough to guide ETs or changes too often. The reason could

be the ET itself—when it is initiated this usually happens due to the business strategy.

For the subsequent ET, though, the business strategy has no further significance. This

hypothesis is supported by the results of the next category.

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132 Paper F – Discussion

The information concerning detailed goal descriptions are much stronger (and signifi-

cantly) contributing to ET success. Here, information like business requirements and

solution ideas (e.g., in terms of scenarios) are considered and used as input by ET

managers. Especially concrete business requirements seem to be strongly related to ET

success and should be considered important information.

During the ET, many existing business structures are affected. To develop the above

mentioned scenarios, these structures need to be known (Rouse 2005b). For the infor-

mation about processes, organizational structures, and business functions, we find sig-

nificant relations to ET success. For the capabilities of the enterprise we cannot identi-

fy such a relation. This might be, because the concept of capabilities is oftentimes

blurry and difficult to understand for ET managers.

The operational part of the ET usually is guided and coordinated by program man-

agement (Levene and Braganza 1996; Rosemann et al. 2012). Non-surprisingly, an

overview of projects and information about the stakeholders of the ET contributes to

ET success. Information about dependencies between projects also contributes to ET

success. Interestingly, no significant relation is observable between the information

about redundancies among projects and the overall ET success. The reason might be

that certain redundancies are helpful and could be tolerated during the ET.

Concerning information about design options to achieve the goals, only information

about consolidation potential has a significant impact on ET success. Technology

evaluations and information about outsourcing potentials are not found to be signifi-

cantly contributing to ET success.

Many authors claim that ET-guiding methods have influence on ET success

(Lahrmann et al. 2012). The empirical data at hand supports this claim. We find a posi-

tive impact of information availability about ET methods on ET success. The out-

sourcing support does not explicitly contribute to ET success.

An important aspect of ETs is change management (Kotter 1995). We find that infor-

mation about trainings have a very high and significant impact on ET success. This

includes information on necessary and available trainings. Also information about a

communication strategy and the ET history (experiences and lessons learned) is found

to have a significant impact on ET success. Surprisingly, no significant impact is

found for information about cultural change or information about organizational cul-

ture. Why could this be the case? We assume that the construct of organizational cul-

ture as such is too abstract to directly contribute to ET success. It is rather represented

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133

in other information, e.g., ET history, business requirements, or other artifacts that

might be different depending on the predominant culture (Schein 1997).

Information concerning performance management is necessary to monitor the progress

of the ET (Keller and Price 2011). Information in this category has a significant influ-

ence on ET success. The relation concerning success control is particularly strong.

While this is not a surprise, it is remarkable that not only quantitative measures need to

be considered but also qualitative ones have a similar impact on ET success.

The impact of information concerning external stakeholders is less strong than we ex-

pected. While the availability of information about master agreements has a high im-

pact, other information (e.g., on customers, suppliers, shareholders) is not found to be

significant. The reason might be that contracts describe the relation between the enter-

prise and its external stakeholders in more detail while information about who the ex-

ternal stakeholders are is not sufficient.

Information concerning risk management has a significant positive impact on ET suc-

cess. Especially information about legal regulations and the results of risk assessments

is considered to be a major contribution to ET success. Also internal guidelines and

standards are highly significant and positively related to the success. Thus, a solid risk

management can be considered a major success factor in ETs. This finding is in line

with the current literature about ETs, e.g. (Furneaux et al. 2012).

Finally, we analyze the availability of information about IT. In this category no signif-

icant relation to ET success is found. While we still have too little data to make defi-

nite claims here, one possible reason might be that the significance of IT on ET de-

pends on the ET type. (e.g., those that aim at replacing an ERP system). Since we did

not distinguish different types of ETs in this study, no significant effect could be rec-

ognized.

F.5.2 Architectural Support of Enterprise Transformations

The discussion shows that information provision adds to ET success. Such information

can be provided by different disciplines and functions that exist within an enterprise.

One of these is EAM. A question that is often posed is, can EAM provide the infor-

mation necessary for ETs (Asfaw et al. 2009; Winter et al. 2013)?

From an information perspective, we discuss the question by considering the infor-

mation we found most significant for ET success. This is information about business

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134 Paper F – Discussion

requirements, business functions, projects, communications strategy, trainings, ET his-

tory, qualitative and quantitative success measures, master agreements, risk assess-

ments, legal regulations, and internal guidelines/standards. Can EAM deliver this in-

formation? Based on The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) (The Open

Group 2011) and a survey of other sources (Labusch and Winter 2013), we discuss the

potential of EAM to support the provisioning of this information (Table 27).

The discussion shows that an EAM that supports ETs needs to focus on business as-

pects rather than on IT architecture. Especially the collection of business requirements,

qualitative success measures, and different structural information (e.g., business func-

tions) seems to be an important starting point.

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135

Table 27: Architectural support

Information Architectural support

Business require-

ments

By using business models, business requirements can be

collected and broken down into more detailed ones.

Business functions Business functions are a core object that EAM deals with.

Thus information about the existing ones and an analysis

about affected ones in the ET is possible.

Overview of projects Architects are usually well-informed about occuring pro-

jects and work hand-in-hand with project management in

order to provide information about these.

Communication

strategy

The communication strategy is rather not the focus of

EAM.

Trainings Information about trainings can partially be provided by

EAM but in general this task is conducted by human re-

source departments.

ET history Can partially be provided by EAM but other departments

are also heavily involved.

(qualitative) success

control (e.g, expert

opinion)

Collecting qualitative measures is a task that EAM can

conduct since an overview of business requirements and

functions as much as of goals exists.

(quantitative) success

control, e.g., measure

“processing time“)

Is rather in the scope of management accounting, not of

EAM.

(Frame-)Contracts Contracts can be documented, thus support by EAM is pos-

sible.

Risk assessments Risk assessments are conducted by many architects, thus

architectural support can be provided concerning this in-

formation. Other disciplines need to be also involved.

Legal regulations Not part of EAM, rather provided by legal departments.

Internal guide-

lines/standards

Core strength of EAM to moderate, coordinate, and provide

information about internal guidelines and standards.

F.6 Summary & Conclusions

ETs are endeavors that in many cases fail or do not achieve the expected goals

(Flyvbjerg and Budzier 2012; Kotter 1995). Thus, current research in the field of ET

management should contribute insights on dealing with this challenge. In the paper at

hand, we analyzed, which information provided during an ET contributes to ET suc-

cess. In addition we discussed whether EAM can appropriately support ETs by provid-

ing relevant information.

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136 Paper F – Summary & Conclusions

The results show that value can be provided to ETM when business-related infor-

mation on a detailed level is offered. Examples are business requirements, business

functions, or qualitative measures. Thus, considering information as an important fac-

tor in ETs is a valuable perspective.

However, we did not differentiate types of ETs, e.g., based on the importance of cer-

tain information. Instead, we focused on identifying the most influential information

for ET success in general. While this step already provides valuable insights in how an

ET support from an information perspective should look like, this nevertheless consti-

tutes a limitation of our work. We plan to further detail and distinguish information

support for different types of ET in future work.

Acknowledgment

This work has been funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)

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Curriculum Vitae 159

Curriculum Vitae

Date of Birth: 23. April 1985

Place of Birth: Duisburg

Nationality: German

Education

2011 - 2014 University of St.Gallen (HSG), Switzerland

Ph.D. program in Business Innovation

2008 - 2011 Westphalian Wilhelminian University Münster, Germany

Master of Science in Information Systems (M.Sc.)

2005 - 2008 Westphalian Wilhelminian University Münster, Germany

Bachelor of Science in Information Systems (B.Sc.)

1995 - 2004 Bertha-von-Suttner College-Prep High School

Oberhausen, Germany

University Entrance Diploma

Work Experience

2011 2014 Research Assistant at the Institute of Information

Management, Switzerland

University of St.Gallen, Prof. Winter

2009 - 2010 Internship IT-Management, United States

ContiTech North America, Inc.

2008 Internship Consulting , Germany

Deloitte & Touche Wirtschaftsprüfungs GmbH