Ecosystem Architecture Management in the Public Sector : From Problems to Solutions

Based on our research concerning enterprise architecture (EA) in the Finnish public sector, we discuss how EA concept and tool need to be developed to support government business ecosystem and organization design. Our research context indicates, beyond a federal government or a state one, that even a single municipality, like a city concern, can be perceived as an ecosystem of its sectoral domains, subsidiaries and such. We outline a vision of an overall ontology-based, shared EA repository for the-whole-of-government current state descriptions and specify the central design principles and functional requirements for such a system, illustrating some potential use cases of it. Based on inter…

Information Systems Students’ Impressions on Learning Modeling Enterprise Architectures

This Full Research Paper presents enterprise architecture (EA) modeling tools utilized in an educational context. EA is a well-known and a commonly used approach for organizational development aiming to improve the alignment of business operations and information technology. This high level design of information technology (IT) driven business operations lays the foundations on lower level technical activities such as the design and implementation of application programs and features, system boundary interfaces, database distribution and data pipes, and system recovery. Organizations’ architectures are made visible by creating EA artefacts, such as business process diagrams, data models and…

Envisioning Information Systems Support for Business Ecosystem Architecture Management in Public Sector

Based on our research concerning Finnish national enterprise architecture (EA) adoption in long run, we discuss here how EA concept and tool are to be developed to support business ecosystem and organization design. Our research context indicates, beyond a federal government or a state one, that even a single municipality, like a city concern, can be perceived as an ecosystem of its sectoral domains, subsidiaries etc. We outline a vision of an overall ontologybased, shared EA repository for the-whole-of-government current state descriptions. We specify the central design principles and functional requirements for such a system and illustrate some potential use cases of it. The study suggest…

Towards Ecosystemic Stance in Finnish Public Sector Enterprise Architecture

Governments and organizations in both public and private sector are operating in fields of ever-growing uncertainty and complexity. To study this complex environment, the concept of ecosystems has been suggested, interpreting organizations as intertwined systems among layers of evolving ecosystems. While offering possibilities, operating in an ecosystemic environment might prove to be challenging, and the change from traditional governance structures might be difficult to manage, requiring holistic yet detailed view. Enterprise Architecture (EA) has been an interest of academics and practitioners for few decades, offering one of the most prominent solutions to managing complex organizations…

Examining Enterprise Architecture Definitions : Implications from Theory and Practice

This study explores the evolving discipline of Enterprise Architecture (EA) and the various definitions given to EA in literature and by practitioners. Due to the potential benefits, such as business and IT alignment, academics and practitioners have maintained an interest in enterprise architecture. EA has been developed outside of scientifically tested foundations, and is characterized by diversified views, seen in varied definitions given to the concept. Prior research has identified the need for conceptual strengthening as a necessity for the maturing the discipline. We contribute to this on-going discussion with a systematic literature review on the state-of-the-art of EA definitions a…

Method Framework for Developing Enterprise Architecture Security Principles

Organizations need to consider many facets of information security in their daily operations – among others, the rapidly increasing use of IT, emerging technologies and digitalization of organizations’ core resources provoke new threats that can be difficult to anticipate. It has been argued that the security and privacy considerations should be embedded in all the areas of organizational activities instead of only relying technical security mechanisms provided by the underlying systems and software. Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) offers a holistic approach for managing different dimensions of an organization, and can be conceived as a coherent and consistent set of principles tha…

Konditionaalin erikoiskehittymät itämerensuomalaisissa kielissä

Katsaus kokonaisarkkitehtuurin määritelmiin ja potentiaalisiin hyötyihin

Tässä systemaattisessa kirjallisuuskatsauksessa tarkastellaan kokonaisarkkitehtuurin määritelmiä ja potentiaalisia hyötyjä. Kirjallisuuskatsauksen tavoitteena on selvittää, millaisia määritelmiä kokonaisarkkitehtuurille on 2000-luvulla annettu, ja mihin määritelmiin viimeisin kokonaisarkkitehtuuria käsittelevä kirjallisuus viittaa. Kirjallisuuskatsauksen tulosten mukaan kokonaisarkkitehtuurille on annettu lukuisia määritelmiä, ja myös viimeisin aihetta käsittelevä kirjallisuus viittaa useisiin eri määritelmiin. Kokonaisarkkitehtuurin määritelmiä tarkastellaan ja niistä esitetään ontologinen integraatio, jonka mukaan kokonaisarkkitehtuuri kuvaa tai on toimintaa, jossa kuvataan organisaation …

Systems Approaches in the Enterprise Architecture Field of Research: A Systematic Literature Review

This study explores the use of the systems approaches (systems thinking and systems theories) as the theoretical underpinnings for Enterprise Architecture (EA) research. Both the academic and the practitioner communities have maintained an interest in EA due to its potential benefits, promising for the recent technological and business advances. EA as a research area is, however, characterized by diversified views depicted in different definitions of the concept, and no acknowledged common theoretical foundation. A number of prior studies have noticed this gap in the EA field of research, and called for a strengthening of the theory of EA. Variegated systems approaches have been suggested a…