The Computer Science and Informatics (CSI) group at Jönköping University, Sweden, and the Business Information Systems group in Rostock have a long-standing cooperation which includes joint supervision of PhD projects. The latest result ist he successful defense of Julia Kaidalova’s dissertation on December 11, 2019, in Jönköping. Topic of the work was “Integration of Product-IT into Enterprise Architecture – a method for participatory Business and IT Alignment”.
Julia’s supervisors were Prof. Ulf Seigerroth (Jönköping University), Prof. Anne Persson (Skövde University, Sweden) and Prof. Kurt Sandkuhl (Rostock University). The photo shows (left to right) Julia Kaidalova, Ulf Seigerroth and Kurt Sandkuhl with the members of the PhD committee Prof. Paul Johannesson (Stockholm University), Prof. Monique Snoeck (KU Leuven, Belgium) and Prof. Geert Poels (Gent University, Belgium).
Abstract der Dissertation
Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a practice for planning, representation and governance of IT components and resources (Enterprise-IT) in an organization. In the context of digital transformation companies are exposed to various sorts of opportunities, both technological and business. Huge potential for value generation lies in Product-IT – built-in software and digital services enhancing the products, which is currently considered separately from Enterprise-IT. Integrated consideration of Product-IT and Enterprise-IT is hindered by various challenging factors, such as the mismatch between the agile and traditional modes for IT development and maintenance, disjointed technology platforms and overall lack of methodological support to address Product-IT. This thesis proposes a method for Product-IT inclusive EA, aiming to support integrated modelling of Product-IT and Enterprise-IT. The proposed method is the central artifact of a design science research process, which was grounded and evaluated theoretically (literature reviews) and empirically (industrial case study and experts interviews). The proposed method includes several parts: the key concepts for product-IT inclusive EA modelling expanding the traditional set of EA concepts, a set of focal areas enabling integrated modelling and analysis of Product-IT and Enterprise-IT, and a set of recommendations for participatory modelling of the proposed focal areas by the relevant stakeholders.