Enterprise Architecture Descriptions for Enhancing Local Government Transformation and Coherency Management: Case Study

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 Kouvola City concern by adapting the Finnish Government EA Grid there. The business architecture is unfolded to evaluate the target state for a planned change. The results give new insights into transformation of the local government towards new public management related operation models, government-IT alignment, and further development of EA description tools and repositories for public administration use.

[1]  Mirja Pulkkinen,et al.  Systemic Management of Architectural Decisions in Enterprise Architecture Planning. Four Dimensions and Three Abstraction Levels , 2006, Proceedings of the 39th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'06).

[2]  Mary Jo Bitner,et al.  Service Blueprinting: A Practical Technique for Service Innovation , 2008 .

[3]  Paul P. Maglio,et al.  Steps Toward a Science of Service Systems , 2007, Computer.

[4]  John Gøtze,et al.  Coherency Management: Using Enterprise Architecture for Alignment, Agility, and Assurance , 2008 .

[5]  Elizabeth N. Fong,et al.  Information management directions , 1989 .

[6]  Jan-Erik Lane,et al.  New Public Management , 2021, Bangladesh Journal of Public Administration.

[7]  Steven C. Hill,et al.  Enterprise Architecture Planning: Developing a Blueprint for Data, Applications and Technology , 1993 .

[8]  Richard L. Daft,et al.  Organization Theory and Design , 1983 .

[9]  Mirja Pulkkinen,et al.  A Practical Approach to EA Planning and Development: the EA Management Grid , 2004 .

[10]  James Brian Quinn,et al.  Readings In The Strategy Process , 1992 .

[11]  Vassilios Peristeras,et al.  Governance enterprise architecture (GEA): domain models for e-governance , 2004, ICEC '04.

[12]  Thomas R. Gulledge,et al.  Business process management: public sector implications , 2002, Bus. Process. Manag. J..

[13]  Stephen L. Vargo,et al.  Toward a conceptual foundation for service science: Contributions from service-dominant logic , 2008, IBM Syst. J..

[14]  Mauri Leppänen,et al.  EA As a Tool in Change and Coherency Management - A Case of a Local Government , 2010, 2010 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[15]  Jukka Heikkilä,et al.  Key Issues in EA-Implementation: Case Study of Two Finnish Government Agencies , 2009, 2009 IEEE Conference on Commerce and Enterprise Computing.

[16]  Mauri Leppänen,et al.  Business Architecture Development at Public Administration - Insights from Government EA Method Engineering Project in Finland , 2008, ISD.

[17]  Wai Shing 李偉成 Li,et al.  Understanding action research , 2003 .

[18]  John A. Zachman,et al.  A Framework for Information Systems Architecture , 1987, IBM Syst. J..

[19]  Sandeep Purao,et al.  Action Design Research , 2011, MIS Q..

[20]  Kristian Hjort-Madsen,et al.  Enterprise Architecture Implementation and Management: A Case Study on Interoperability , 2006, Proceedings of the 39th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'06).

[21]  Richard V. McCarthy.  TOWARD A UNIFIED ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE FRAMEWORK: AN ANALYTICAL EVALUATION , 2006 .

[22]  Martin Harris,et al.  Strategic planning for information systems , 1991, J. Inf. Technol..

[23]  Elizabeth N. Fong,et al.  Information management directions: the integration challenge , 1989, SGMD.

[24]  Jeanne W. Ross,et al.  Enterprise Architecture As Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution , 2006 .

[25]  Robert Winter,et al.  Language communities in enterprise architecture research , 2009, DESRIST.

[26]  Kari Smolander,et al.  Four metaphors of architecture in software organizations: finding out the meaning of architecture in practice , 2002, Proceedings International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering.

[27]  Robert Winter,et al.  A Comprehensive Enterprise Architecture Metamodel and Its Implementation Using a Metamodeling Platform , 2005 .

[28]  Mauri Leppänen.  An ontological framework and a methodical skeleton for method engineering : a contextual approach , 2005 .

[29]  Vassilios Peristeras,et al.  Building an Enterprise Architecture for Public Administration: A High Level Data Model for Strategic Planning , 2001, ECIS.

[30]  Robert Winter,et al.  A Federated Approach to Enterprise Architecture Model Maintenance , 2007, Enterp. Model. Inf. Syst. Archit. Int. J. Concept. Model..

[31]  Antonio Cordella,et al.  E-government: towards the e-bureaucratic form? , 2007, J. Inf. Technol..

[32]  Scott A. Bernard.  An Introduction to Enterprise Architecture , 2004 .

[33]  Marijn Janssen,et al.  A Complex Adaptive System Perspective of Enterprise Architecture in Electronic Government , 2006, Proceedings of the 39th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'06).

[34]  Alan R. Hevner,et al.  Design Science in Information Systems Research , 2004, MIS Q..

[35]  Susanne Leist,et al.  Evaluation of current architecture frameworks , 2006, SAC.

[36]  Mirja Pulkkinen,et al.  EA Planning, Development and Management Process for Agile Enterprise Development , 2005, Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[37]  H. Bradbury,et al.  Handbook of action research , 2006 .

[38]  Jaap Schekkerman,et al.  How to Survive in the Jungle of Enterprise Architecture Framework: Creating or Choosing an Enterprise Architecture Framework , 2003 .

[39]  Mirja Pulkkinen,et al.  Enterprise architecture as a collaboration tool : discursive process for enterprise architecture management, planning and development , 2008 .

[40]  Hans de Bruijn,et al.  Output steering in public organizations: about the use of a product approach and a process approach , 2003 .

[41]  Mauri Leppänen,et al.  Government Enterprise Architecture Grid Adaptation in Finland , 2009, 2009 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.