Versatile tool for competence management - an e-portfolio management system for higher education in applied sciences

In the line of outcome based education and transferability of credits, we study a Higher Education case and propose an e-Portfolio solution as a versatile tool for assessment tasks. The solution tackles the problems firstly, of accreditation of prior achievements from both institutional and experiential learning. Secondly, the developed tool carries the process of learning outcome definitions management (derived from the real employment world), and the learner self-assessment and self-reflection as well as the guidance and support for these. The e-Portfolio management system, ePofo, supports the identification, assessment, recognition and accreditation of prior learning achievements and lea…

Enterprise Architecture : A Perspective on How Far We Have Come, and Directions for the Future

Enterprise Architecture (EA) appears to retain the attention of both practitioners and researchers, as the technological complexity of organizations grows. Several researchers have noted that research on EA has been diversifying over time, leading to inconsistent use of terminologies. Further, the benefit claims and other results, rather frequently, are not based on empirical evidence. These shortfalls in research on EA impede EA from maturing as a discipline and from demonstrating its benefit claims. Although there are reasons to believe that the research on EA has progressed, the extent of the progress and the directions for future research are not evident. This study draws on a meta-revi…

Managing information security in a business network of machinery maintenance services business – Enterprise architecture as a coordination tool

Today, technologies enable easy access to information across organizational boundaries, also to systems of partners in business networks. This raises, however, several complex research questions on privacy, information security and trust. The study reported here provides motivation and a roadmap for approaching integrated security management solutions in a business network of partners with heterogeneous information and communication technologies (ICT): Systems, platforms, infrastructures as well as security policies. Enterprise architecture (EA) is proposed as a means for comprehensive and coordinated planning and management of corporate ICT and the security infrastructure. The EA approach …

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…

Overview of Telecom Operator Software Market

Telecommunications is an essential enabler of modern societies and a global vertical industry, providing communication and information services, with its annual revenue of over trillion euros. In this book, a company providing these services is referred to as a telecom operator or communications service provider (CSP). CSPs create value by offering connectivity to and via an infrastructure of networks for transferring signals. The core business processes in a telecom operator company therefore revolve, on one hand, around physical networks and their maintenance, and on the other, managing their customers and their use of the connectivity services over the networks.

Insights from Operator Interviews

The previous section analysed use of software to improve productivity from a general perspective and provided a quick statistical analysis of software usage to the performance of a CSP. Before conducting elaborated statistical analysis on CSP software usage, we need to gain some insight into operator business and understanding on how operators see the role of software in their business as well as how they acquire software.

Systemic Management of Architectural Decisions in Enterprise Architecture Planning. Four Dimensions and Three Abstraction Levels

This paper presents a process model for the management of architectural decisions in enterprise architecture planning. First, decisions are made at the enterprise level, with strategic business considerations on the enterprise information, systems and technology strategy and governance issues. The next step is to define the domains, to then go on with domain architecture decisions. At the systems level, the enterprise and domain architecture decisions are collected and converted into architecture descriptions accurate in precision, form and detail to be given as input to the information systems development process, following the architectural planning. The model is derived from previous wor…

Defining Complexity Factors for the Architecture Evaluation Framework

The design and implementation of telecommunication systems is an incremental and iterative process, and system architectures may need to be revised and refined several times during their lifetime. Formal evaluation facilitates the identification of the weak points, where improvements are due in these architectures. In the domain of telecommunications, such evaluation can be based on the Architecture Evaluation Framework (AEF). During the evaluation, a deep understanding of the processes within a system is needed. Meanwhile, the systems being designed are usually complex systems encompassing a large number of components with an intricate pattern of interaction between them. As a result, it i…

Software Business in the Telecommunications Sector

Operations and Business Support Systems (OSS/BSS) software of Communication Service Providers (CSP's) can be developed internally within the CSP or acquired from a Software Vendor. The software industry lifecycle model hypothesizes that software development is internal in the beginning of the industry's lifecycle, and that the share of external products increases when it matures. Empirical evidence shows signs of the OSS/BSS software industry approaching maturity. Current and future developments of the industry include the possibilities of utilizing the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model and Open Source software (OSSw). Both have gained increasing interest by the CSP's. However, the relativ…

The Role of Enterprise Architecture in Building and Sustaining Information Technology : Enabled Organizational Agility

Towards a Contingency Framework for Engineering an Enterprise Architecture Planning Method

Enterprise architecture (EA) has a key role in managing and relating business strategies and processes, information systems, and IC technologies. EA planning devises an EA plan with development steps to make necessary enhancements to the current state of the affairs in EA. Accomplishing EA planning in a systematic and efficient manner requires the availability of frameworks and methods suitable to the situation at hand. The selection and adaptation of these methodical artifacts for the use of EA planning is often quite challenging in practice. We argue that the contingency approach can help in these activities of method engineering (ME), and present a contingency framework (named here EACon…

User Participation in Consulting Projects: Client and Provider Role Profiles

This study presents a variation scheme of participation roles in consulting projects. Typical consulting assignments in the area known as IS planning involve strategic planning and information systems management, enterprise architecture, information management or information technology governance. Participation is a crucial issue in consulting on these issues. In the literature on participation, different roles and tasks have been found, but it is not always specified, on what types of projects or systems the results are based. The literature on consulting suggests some models for work division. In a two-phase qualitative study, we first collect possible tasks in ICT consulting projects, an…

The state of research on software engineering competencies: A systematic mapping study

Considering the critical role of software in modern societies, we face an urgent need to educate more competent software professionals. Software engineering competencies (SEC) are considered the backbone of successfully developing software products. Consequently, SEC has become a hotspot for software engineering research and practice. Although scientific literature on SEC is not lacking, to our knowledge, a comprehensive overview of the current state of SEC research is missing. To that end, we conducted an extensive and systematic review of the SEC literature. We provide an overview of the current state of research on SEC, with a particular focus on common SEC research areas. In addition to…

Creating the Socio-technical Context Needed to Derive Benefits from Big Data Initiatives in Healthcare

The application of big data in healthcare typifies a complex socio-technical sys- tem. However, although research and practice have advanced the technical aspects of big data, comparable advancements in the social aspects (i.e., human and structural aspects) are lagging. Literature, especially on socio-technical theory, suggests that organizations may only derive benefits from big data initiatives when technical initiatives are adequate- ly complemented by social interventions. Thus, seeing that big data is receiving consider- able attention in healthcare, researchers have called for further research into the social aspects of the application of big data in healthcare. Adopting a socio-tech…

The Essential Competencies of Software Professionals : A Unified Competence Gate Framework

Context Developing high-quality software requires skilled software professionals equipped with a set of basic and essential software engineering competencies (SEC). These competencies and the satisfaction levels derived from them change over a project's lifecycle, or as software professionals move from one project to another. Objective Previous studies suggest a lack of means enabling SEC stakeholders to identify and assess competencies suitable for different projects. Additionally, previous research has mainly portrayed SEC to be static and overlooked their evolution over time and across projects. We investigate how we could effectively identify and match the competencies of software profe…

Organizational processes in ICT Management and Evaluation. Experiences with large organizations.

In this study, we describe the managerial and administrative processes relevant in the assessment of cost, efficiency and value of ICT support within and around an end user organisation. Systems of interdependent processes have been proposed to guide the management of ICT, without looking at the organizational activities, outcomes and interdependencies closer. The changed role of ICT in organizations’ activities does no more allow for isolated management of business and ICT domains. Despite of a lot of talk about business alignment of ICT, a permanent link between the mandates of business and IT management remains yet to be established, even in organisations well aware of their information …

A Practical Approach to EA Planning and Development: the EA Management Grid

Enterprise Architecture is gaining interest as a managerial tool for managing corporate ICT assets and their interplay. Our prior studies indicate that an ICT provider’s viewpoint on EA consulting, planning and development seems to be lacking in the proposed methodologies. Considering both literature and practical EA cases, we suggest an approach that supports restricted assignments in EA management. We present an EA Grid for the management of EA descriptions, requirements, constraints, as well as project tasks and deliverables, task preliminaries and dependencies in EA consulting and development. peerReviewed

Collaborative EA Information Elicitation Method : The IEM for Business Architecture

This study contributes to the enterprise architecture (EA) methodologies by suggesting a method for eliciting architecture requirements: gathering both the current architecture information, and the development needs and requirements for the business architecture (BA) dimension in EA planning. Most of all EA dimensions, the developing of the BA requires collaboration with various non-IT stakeholders. It presents thus challenges to the IT department, or the consultancy involved in EA related efforts. The contribution of the various stakeholder groups as informants is, however, crucial to well founded EA design decisions. The suggested method takes related IS development fields as starting poi…

Managing a Software Development Organization with a TQM Approach for Balance in a Period of Rapid Growth

Defining Complexity Factors for Architecture Evaluation Framework

The design and implementation of telecommunication systems is an incremental and iterative process, and system architectures may need to be revised and refined several times during their lifetime. Formal evaluation facilitates the identification of the weak points, where improvements are due in these architectures. In the domain of telecommunications, such evaluation can be based on the Architecture Evaluation Framework (AEF). During the evaluation, a deep understanding of the processes within a system is needed. Meanwhile, the systems being designed are usually complex systems encompassing a large number of components with an intricate pattern of interaction between them. As a result, it i…

Identity and Access Management for Remote Maintenance Services in Business Networks

Access to information systems across corporate boundaries with high demands to privacy and trust result into ambitious research and development targets. This study provides motivation and a roadmap for approaching integrated security management solutions in a business network of partners with heterogeneous ICT and security infrastructures. We aim at describing specifics of identity and access management in inter-organizational collaboration, and a vision and arguments for identity and access management in a business network. A case study with Metso Paper, Inc., the leading manufacturer of paper machinery and related services, validates the results, thus providing a motivating example of the…

Enterprise architecture as a collaboration tool : discursive process for enterprise architecture management, planning and development

Tieto- ja viestintäteknologiaa (ICT) hallitaan ja kehitetään kuten mitä tahansa yrityksen tai organisaation resurssia – tai ainakin näin olisi hyvä tehdä. Epäonnisia ICT-projekteja voidaan välttää nivomalla toiminnan ja teknologian suunnittelu ja kehittäminen yhteiseksi, vuorovaikutteiseksi prosessiksi, suosittelee aiheesta väittelevä Mirja Pulkkinen.Yritys- eli kokonaisarkkitehtuuri on kokonaisvaltainen lähestymistapa ICT:n hallintaan yhdessä liiketoiminnan kanssa. Johtamisessa voidaan tehdä tilaa liiketoiminnan ja teknologioiden vuoropuhelulle määrittämällä kokonaisarkkitehtuuriprosessi. Prosessi tuo toiminta-ajatuksen, tavoitteet sekä strategiat teknologiakehittäjille työn pohjaksi. Samo…

EA Planning, Development and Management Process for Agile Enterprise Development

In this study, we suggest an enterprise architecture (EA) development process model suitable for EA projects limited in scope and time. Several EA process models have been put forward, which have in common the idea of comprehensive EA management and development that is generic, cyclic and ongoing in a user organization. The suggested models are of varying level of abstraction. It is not simple to select the right issues from them for a restricted development effort. An ICT services provider needs a process model to follow in EA consulting and development projects. This approach is also needed for incremental EA development by user organizations. Starting with the suggested EA process models…

Evaluation of Enterprise IT Architecture Solutions – How can an ICT consultant tell what is best for you?

ICT has become a key business enabler and a competitive factor for enterprises. Enterprise architecture, developed by ICT consultants and ICT end-user organizations, is emerging as the management tool for intertwined business and IT planning. For managerial decisions, there is a need to evaluate the business value of architecture development results, but only a few models for this have so far been presented. Here we present the V-model for EA testing and validation that marks the evaluation points in EA management, and guides which evaluation tools could be used. peerReviewed

Key Issues in Enterprise Architecture Adoption in the Public Sector

This paper examines the challenges of enterprise architecture (EA) adoption in public sector organisations. So far, demonstrating the benefits of EA has appeared difficult in this context, and the results in transforming public sector remain modest: Both the penetration and the maturity of EA appear rather low. In the academia, however, the adoption of EA has gained less interest than the EA development and methodologies. Hence, there is a need for research on what are the challenges of EA adoption, and how to overcome them. This paper presents the results of an expert survey on the challenges of EA adoption in the Finnish public sector. The analysis of quantitative data, supported with a q…

A root cause analysis method for preventing erratic behavior in software development: PEBA

Measures taken to prevent faults from being introduced or going undetected can secure development of highly reliable software systems. One such measure is analyzing root causes of recurring faults and preventing them from appearing again. Previous methods developed for this purpose have been reactive in nature and relied heavily on fault reporting mechanisms of ogranizations. Additionally, previous efforts lack a defined mechanism for innovating corrective actions. In this study, we strive to complement the existing methods by introducing a proactive and qualitative method that does not rely on fault data. During the course of the research, in addition to an extensive literature search, an …

Dual Capability EAM for Agility in Business Capability Building : A Systems Theoretical View

Through two cases of IT-enabled business capability building in large enterprises, this paper elucidates how the systems theory approach can explain the enterprise architecture management (EAM) challenge to support business agility. The observation in both of these cases is that a legacy EAM approach does not adapt to a business development scenario involving agility. This leads to a study of the nature of the challenges in EAM when enabling strategic business moves involving new technologies, at the business unit level. For the type of projects as in these cases, we do not find a fitting paradigm in the EAM literature. Suggested solutions are IT bimodality, or Two Speed IT. However, its co…

Software and Standards in an Emerging Domain

This paper considers the software market in the field of e-Learning and Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) through observing standardization developments in the domain. A model of software market evolution suggests that observations on development and deployment of standards in the domain indicate the status on the market. As the model holds, in a mature phase, level of standardization is high and the number of competing standards low. The result of the study is, there appears to be a market, but a heterogeneous one, with hesitation on dominant designs and an overall modest level of standards adoption. Content standardization enables the (re)use of the learning content in multiple formats w…

EA Planning, Development and Management Process for Agile Enterprise Development

In this study, we suggest an enterprise architecture (EA) development process model suitable for EA projects limited in scope and time. Several EA process models have been put forward, which have in common the idea of comprehensive EA management and development that is generic, cyclic and ongoing in a user organization. The suggested models are of varying level of abstraction. It is not simple to select the right issues from them for a restricted development effort. An ICT services provider needs a process model to follow in EA consulting and development projects. This approach is also needed for incremental EA development by user organizations. Starting with the suggested EA process models…

Enterprise Architecture Descriptions for Enhancing Local Government Transformation and Coherency Management

Local governments cover multiple service sectors and are typically organized into diversified, deeply hierarchical organizations. Public services offered are tangible, mostly non-IT-critical, and heavily dependent on human resources. Information management is mainly manual in strategy and management processes. In this case study of a large Finnish local government organization, enterprise architecture (EA) is proposed as a tool for improving the coherency of the local government and its alignment to IT and other resources. We ask, what kind of EA descriptions local government agencies need for coherency management, and how to organize them. We apply action design research principles at the …

Support for Knowledge and Innovations in Software Development – Community within Company: Inner Source Environment

This case study considers a software development support portal adapted from open source developer communities into a company internal, so called inner-source development environment. With theoretical insights into knowledge management (KM) models, recent advancements in KM theory building, and observations of the inner source platform we make observations as regarding the KM approach and suggestions for its further development. Both technological and human components of KM are considered. The results of this study, can be generally applicable to the knowledge creation and innovation support in software development. We believe that many software companies are following the example and build…

The Actual Adoption and Use of Mobile Apps : The Case of a Higher Education Context

Mobile applications have gained wide acceptance in several sectors, including eCommerce and education. In higher education, mobile apps are being used not only for mobile learning but also for creating smart campus environments in which physical campuses are augmented with digital services. Mobile apps for smart campus initiatives usually have several features that students and educators are expected to adopt and use. However, although prior studies have investigated the adoption of mobile apps, most of such studies are on the user's intention to use or continue using mobile apps, leaving gaps in our understanding of how actual use occurs. Drawing on a case study of a mobile app for a smart…

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…

Software Business in the Telecommunications Sector