Presentation of an EA technique (CHOOSE) for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises.

1. FACULTY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Enterprise Architecture for Small and
Medium-Sized Enterprises
Maxime Bernaert
Promoter: Prof. Dr. Geert Poels
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 20/09/2012

2. Enterprise Architecture
Enterprise Architecture (EA)1: a holistic
approach to keep things aligned in a company
(IT - business, operations - strategy).
Holistic overview:
 Optimization of the company as a whole
(essentials are more stable than specific solutions)
 Strategy --> Operations
 Understood by all those involved
1Lankhorst M (2009) Enterprise Architecture at Work: Modelling, Communication and Analysis.
Springer-Verlag, New York
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 2

3. Enterprise Architecture
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 3

4. Enterprise Architecture
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 4

5. Enterprise Architecture
Some advantages:
 Common architecture from multiple stakeholders
 Overview with different viewpoints
 Testing environment
 Analysis and optimization
 Change impact analysis
 Find best-fitted ERP system
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 5

6. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises2
 European definition
• <= 250 employees
• Annual turnover <= 50 million euros or total assets <=
43 million euros
2European Commission (2003) Recommendation 2003/361/EC: SME Definition. Official Journal of
the European Union 46 (L 124) (6)
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 6

7. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
 Important for economy3
• 20.8 million SMEs in Europe (99.8% of all companies)
• 19.2 million micro enterprises (<= 10
employees, turnover <= 2 million euros or total assets
<= 2 million euros)
• 70% of European jobs, 58.4% of gross production
3European Commission (2010) Are EU SMEs Recovering from the Crisis? Annual Report on EU
Small and Medium Sized Enterprises 2011
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 7

8. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
EA for SMEs???4,5
 Not known in SMEs
 Not used in SMEs
4De Nil S, Deprost E, Bernaert M, Poels G (2012) Van Strategie tot Procesmodellering in Kleine en
Middelgrote Organisaties: Een Exploratief Onderzoek. University of Ghent, Ghent
5Devos J (2011) IT Governance for SMEs. University of Ghent, Ghent
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 8

9. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Problems faced by SMEs
 Lack of structure and overview in the company6
100%
Survival Rate
70%
50%
33%
25%
0 2 5 10 15
Year
6O'Gorman C (2001) The Sustainability of Growth in Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Int J
Entrep Behav Res 7 (2):60-75
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 9

10. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Problems faced by SMEs
 ERP adoption (fit with current business)?
 Communication (processes, strategy)?
 Concrete job description?
 Strategy and processes change (alignment?)
 Asses impact of changes?
 Different stakeholders?
 New CEO?
 Knowledge as a production factor?
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 10

11. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Solutions provided by EA
 Easier to find a suitable ERP system
 Processes and strategy are explicitly modeled
 Job description can be queried
 Processes are explicitly linked with strategy
 Different domains are interrelated
 Stakeholders are linked with their goals
 Knowledge of CEO can be made explicit
 Entrepreneurial knowledge can be shared
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 11

12. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
EA for SMEs???
 Not known in SMEs
 Not used in SMEs
 Adoption models
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 12

13. Adoption Models
Technology Acceptance Model7
 Most referred model for information technology
adoption
 Perceived usefulness: the degree to which a
person believes that using a particular system
would enhance his or her job performance
 Perceived ease of use: the degree to which a
person believes that using a particular system
would be free of effort
7DavisFD (1989) Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information
Technology. MIS Q 13 (3):319-340
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 13

14. Adoption Models
Technology Acceptance Model
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 14

15. Adoption Models
Method Evaluation Model8
 Model for method evaluation of IS design research
 TAM and Methodological Pragmatism9:
“Regardless of the potential benefits of IS design
methods published, unless they are used in
practice, these benefits cannot be realized”
8Moody DL The Method Evaluation Model: A Theoretical Model for Validating Information
Systems Design Methods. In: Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Information
Systems, Naples, Italy, 2003
9Rescher N (1977) Methodological Pragmatism: A Systems-Theoretic Approach to the Theory of
Knowledge. Basil Blackwell, Oxford
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 15

16. Adoption Models
Methodological Pragmatism
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 16

17. Adoption Models
Method Evaluation Model
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 17

18. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
EA for SMEs???
 Increase the perceived usefulness
• Increase actual effectiveness
• Advantages for SMEs in practice
 Increase the perceived ease of use
• Adapt methods to an SME context (in practice)
• Complexity10 (= 1/actual efficiency) must be decreased
 From actual to perceived efficacy
• Test in SMEs: feedback + EA gets better known
10Rogers EM, Shoemaker FF (1971) Communication of Innovations: A Cross-Cultural Approach.
The Free Press, New York
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 18

19. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Research steps
Small and medium sized enterprises
Enterprise architecture Validation
Criteria CHOOSE metamodel
Case studies
CHOOSE method
Criteria for tools Tool support
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 19

20. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Design Science11
11Hevner AR, March ST, Park J, Ram S (2004) Design Science in Information Systems Research. MIS
Q 28 (1):75-105
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 20

21. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Design Science: seven guidelines
1. A metamodel and method are created (guideline 1: creation
of an artifact)
2. for SMEs (guideline 2: for a specified problem domain).
3. The approach is evaluated in case studies (guideline 3:
thorough evaluation of the artifact).
4. No specific EA approach for SMEs exists (guideline 4:
innovative, novelty).
5. The metamodel and method have to be formalized
(guideline 5: the artifact must be rigorously defined, formally
represented, coherent, and internally consistent).
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 21

22. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Design Science: seven guidelines
6. The case studies are used to refine the metamodel and
develop and refine the method (guideline 6: search process).
7. Finally, articles have to be written about the approach, both
in academic journals as in journals for practitioners. Even
more important, the approach has to be implemented and
tested in practice (guideline 7: communication both to a
technical and managerial audience).
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 22

23. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Research steps
Small and medium sized enterprises
Enterprise architecture Validation
Criteria CHOOSE metamodel
Case studies
CHOOSE method
Criteria for tools Tool support
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 23

24. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Research steps
Small and medium sized enterprises
Enterprise architecture Validation
Criteria CHOOSE metamodel
Case studies
CHOOSE method
Criteria for tools Tool support
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 24

25. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Five criteria for SMEs (derived from
characteristics)
1. The approach should enable SMEs to time efficiently
work on strategic issues.
2. A person with limited IT skills should be able to apply the
approach.
3. It should be possible to apply the approach with little
assistance of external experts.
4. The approach should enable making descriptions of how
things are done in the company.
5. The CEO must be involved in the approach.
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 25

26. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Five criteria for EA (derived from definition)
1. Control: “Controlling the complexity of the enterprise.”
2. Holistic Overview: “EA has to capture the essentials of
the enterprise (more stable).”
3. Objectives: “Translation from corporate strategy to daily
operations.”
4. Suitable for its target audience (here: SMEs):
“Understood by all those involved.”
5. Enterprise: “Optimization of the company as a whole
instead of doing local optimization within individual
domains.”
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 26

27. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Research steps
Small and medium sized enterprises
Enterprise architecture Validation
Criteria CHOOSE metamodel
Case studies
CHOOSE method
Criteria for tools Tool support
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 27

28. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Research steps
Small and medium sized enterprises
Enterprise architecture Validation
Criteria CHOOSE metamodel
Case studies
CHOOSE method
Criteria for tools Tool support
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 28

29. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Five criteria for EA (derived from definition)
1. Control: “Controlling the complexity of the enterprise.”
2. Holistic Overview: “EA has to capture the essentials of
the enterprise (more stable).”
3. Objectives: “Translation from corporate strategy to daily
operations.”
4. Suitable for its target audience (here: SMEs):
“Understood by all those involved.”
5. Enterprise: “Optimization of the company as a whole
instead of doing local optimization within individual
domains.”
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 29

30. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Five criteria for EA (derived from definition)
1. Control: “Controlling the complexity of the enterprise.”
2. Holistic Overview: “EA has to capture the essentials of
the enterprise (more stable).”
3. Objectives: “Translation from corporate strategy to daily
operations.”
4. Suitable for its target audience (here: SMEs):
“Understood by all those involved.” (Simple)
5. Enterprise: “Optimization of the company as a whole
instead of doing local optimization within individual
domains.”
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 30

31. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Existing EA techniques
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 31

32. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
CHOOSE metamodel
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 32

33. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Research steps
Small and medium sized enterprises
Enterprise architecture Validation
Criteria CHOOSE metamodel
Case studies
CHOOSE method
Criteria for tools Tool support
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 33

34. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Research steps
Small and medium sized enterprises
Enterprise architecture Validation
Criteria CHOOSE metamodel
Case studies
CHOOSE method
Criteria for tools Tool support
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 34

35. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 35

36. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Research steps
Small and medium sized enterprises
Enterprise architecture Validation
Criteria CHOOSE metamodel
Case studies
CHOOSE method
Criteria for tools Tool support
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 36

37. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Research steps
Small and medium sized enterprises
Enterprise architecture Validation
Criteria CHOOSE metamodel
Case studies
CHOOSE method
Criteria for tools Tool support
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 37

38. Enterprise Architecture for SMEs
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 38

39. Past Work
 Integrating the semantics of events, processes and tasks across requirements engineering
layers
Bernaert M, Poels G, PhD Day FEB UGent 2010, May 28th, Ghent
 A Consolidated Enterprise Reference Model - Integrating McCarthy's and Hruby's Resource-
Event-Agent Reference Models
Laurier W., Bernaert M., Poels G. 2010. ICEIS (3), pp. 159-164
 Integrating the semantics of events, processes and tasks across requirements engineering
layers
Bernaert M, Poels G, 2010. Proceedings of the Doctoral Consortium of the 22nd International
Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering
(CAiSE'10), Hammamet, Tunisia, 2010, pp. 11-19.
 The Quest for Know-How, Know-Why, Know-What and Know-Who: Using KAOS for Enterprise
Modelling
Bernaert M, Poels G, PhD Day FEB UGent 2011, May 24th, Ghent
 Het Realiseren van een Globaal Procesoverzicht bij Gedecentraliseerde Procesarchitecturen
Vancaeneghem T., Bernaert M., Poels G., 2011, Thesis
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 39

40. Past Work
 The quest for know-how, know-why, know-what and know-who: using KAOS for enterprise
modeling
Bernaert M, Poels G, 2011. 6th International Workshop on Business/IT Alignment and
Interoperability (BUSITAL), London, UK, 2011. In: LECTURE NOTES IN BUSINESS INFORMATION
PROCESSING 83: 29-40.
 The Quest for Know-How, Know-Why, Know-What and Know-Who: Using KAOS for Enterprise
Modelling
Bernaert M, Poels G, 2011, Proceedings of the 6th SIKS Conference on Enterprise Information
Systems, pp. 15 - 16, Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (EIS2011) (Delft (The
Netherlands)).
 De zoektocht naar Know-How, Know-Why, Know-What en Know-Who: architectuur voor
kleinere bedrijven in vier dimensies
Bernaert M, 2011, Informatie, November nummer, 34-41.
 Enterprise architecture for small and medium sized enterprises
Bernaert M, Poels G, PhD Day FEB UGent 2012, May 25th, Ghent
 Keuzes Maken binnen Processen: Het Vermijden van een Russische Roulette voor de
Organisaties
Heyse M., Bernaert M., Poels G. (2012), Thesis
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 40

41. Past Work
 Van Strategie tot Procesmodellering in Kleine en Middelgrote Organisaties: Een Exploratief
Onderzoek
De Nil S., Deprost E., Bernaert M., Poels G. (2012), Thesis
Submitted
 Enterprise Architecture for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
Bernaert M, Poels G, 2012, Submitted for Information Systems and Small and Medium-sized
Enterprises (SMEs): State of art of IS research in SMEs
In progress
 Mapping the CHOOSE metamodel on ArchiMate
Roose D., Vansteenlandt J., Bernaert M., Poels G. (2012), Thesis
 Softwareondersteuning voor een business architectuur in Access en Java
Ingelbeen D., Bernaert M., Poels G. (2013), Thesis
 Business architecture modelling in CHOOSE: an internationalized application for Android
tablets
Maes J., Bernaert M., Poels G. (2013), Thesis
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 41

42. Past Work
 Next generation media: a user-friendly Android tablet application for business architecture
modelling
Dumeez J., Bernaert M., Poels G. (2013), Thesis
 Business architectuur modellering in CHOOSE: een gebruiksvriendelijke applicatie aangepast
aan de user interface van de iPad
Verhulst P., Bernaert M., Poels G. (2013), Thesis
 Business architectuur modellering in KMO’s: case study onderzoek ter verfijning en validatie
van de CHOOSE-methode
Callaert M., Bernaert M., Poels G. (2013), Thesis
 Business architectuur modellering in CHOOSE: een gebruiksvriendelijke applicatie voor de
iPhone
Puylaert O., Bernaert M., Poels G. (2013), Thesis
 Softwareondersteuning voor een business architectuur in Eclipse
Zutterman S., Bernaert M., Poels G. (2013), Thesis
 Next generation media: a user-friendly iPad application for business architecture modelling
Otte M., Bernaert M., Poels G. (2013), Thesis
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 42

43. Future Work
 More case studies (started)
 Effective in examining application in real-world
scenarios, particularly in emerging research domains12
 Formalize metamodel (ConceptBase & OCL)
(planned)
 Develop method (started)
 Finish tool support (half way)
 Link with ArchiMate (planned)
12Yin
RK (2003) Case Study Research: Design and Methods, vol 5. Applied Social Research
Methods Series. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, USA
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 43

44. Questions
Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maxime Bernaert and Geert Poels
Department of Management Information Science and Operations Management 44