Formalizing Organization Implementation

Our research program aims at finding building blocks that are able to deal quickly with the constant change that organizations face. In order to do so, a deeper understanding of possible organization implementation variants is necessary, as well as the implications on the operation and IT support of organizations. In earlier research, we have composed a list of Organization Implementation Variables to informedly decide upon organization implementation, enabling traceability in governing enterprise and IT transformations. This list has been validated and extended by four practical case studies and has been formalized afterwards and validated by prototyping. In this paper the resulting framework is presented which (a) is broader and more detailed than before, (b) has a sound theoretical basis, and (c) contains precise and validated definitions of the variables itself. This paper shows that the framework is not only suitable for organization modeling, but also has possibilities for designing software in which implementation choices can be made explicit and variable. This paper also provides insights in the implications of implementation choices on the operation of an organization.