Making informed decisions about historically grown and often complex business and Information Technology (IT) landscapes can be particularly difficult. Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) addresses this issue by enabling stakeholders to base their decisions on relevant information about the organization's current and future Enterprise Architectures (EAs). However, visualization of EA is often confronted with low usefulness perceptions. Informed by the cognitive fit theory (CFT), we argue that decision-makers benefit from interacting with EA visualizations using Augmented Reality (AR), because it enables a consistent task-related mental representation based on the natural use of decision-makers' visualspatial abilities. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate ARs suitability for EA-related decision-making. We follow the design science research (DSR) approach to develop and evaluate an AR head-mounted display (HMD) prototype, using the Microsoft HoloLens. Our results suggest that EA-related decision-making can profit from applying AR, but users find the handling of the HMD device cumbersome.
Smart cities are characterized by heterogenic stakeholders, many layers of authorities, complex decision-making processes, and competing objectives. As a result, they require a sophisticated and wellplanned governance regime. We describe the development and design of a governance regime which is grounded on IS principles as well as the resulting governance structure in a medium-sized city in Europe. Using the action design research approach, we designed, implemented, and revised in multiple iterations an ensemble artifact consisting of the governance structures and processes for a smart city initiative. Our empirical observations highlight challenges of coordination, communication, and innovation in this smart city and report on how we implemented and adjusted the governance regime accordingly. Our results are a first step towards general recommendations for the design and implementation of Smart City governance regimes in medium-sized cities.
Enterprise architecture (EA) visualizations like text, diagrams, and models are commonly displayed on 2D screens and are manipulated with a computer mouse and keyboard. The additional application of augmented reality (AR) promises improvements in terms of understanding complex architectural relationships and enables more natural manipulation of visualizations, ultimately leading to better decision-making. As part of a Design Science Research (DSR) project, we report on an empirical evaluation of user experience of an EA visualizing prototype deployed on an optical see-through head-mounted display (HMD) with 13 practitioners. The examined prototype displays a three-layer model that allows the analysis of randomly generated EAs. The participants performed 13 tasks which differed in complexity and context. In this study we qualitatively observe users' behavior. Our results indicate that AR is suitable to analyze EA. In particular those stakeholders less experienced with EA can benefit from utilizing EA visualizations in AR.
Today’s companies rely heavily on in-company information technology standards (ICITS) to reduce costs, ensure flexibility, and facilitate the planning, implementation, and operation of IT systems. Steering and managing ICITS has proven to be challenging, revealing the need for efficient governance mechanisms. But even though prior research demonstrates the challenges of ICITS, viable advice on how to implement ICITS is scarce. In this paper, we develop an organizational design theory for the management of ICITS based on the framework of organizational control theory. We conducted a critical case study to identify basic goals, constitutive elements, and fundamental mechanisms of a working ICITS management. The resulting design goals and principles were then evaluated and further refined in the light of additional expert interviews. With our work, we wish to extend the body of theoretical knowledge on the management of ICITS and help practitioners master the various challenges occurring in this domain.
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