Towards the Design of a Meta-Architecture for IT-Management Maria Bergenstjerna
[email protected] Phone: +46 31 773 27 78
School of Law and Economics; Department of Informatics Gothenburg University; Box 620; SE 405 30 Göteborg, Sweden.
Abstract This report demonstrates the practical and social meaning of meta-architectures for supporting the enterprise of IT-management in general and the management of enterprise-wide integration in particular. In this sense this study refers to metaarchitectures for support of the design as well as the development process. Irrespective of which, uncertainty, defined in terms of unbalance between emotionality and rationality, is the common denominator. The management of enterprise-wide integration has been empirically explored in order to document and understand the underlying models, techniques, tools or meta-architectures employed by Swedish companies for absorbing some degree of the faced uncertainties. Three critical lessons can be derived from this study. First of all, a common, strong cry for methodological knowledge is expressed in all empirical cases. Then, there is a demand for a battery of substantive and procedural methods, models, techniques, tools etc., rather than a ready-made, context-free, unified and universal methodological support. Lastly, the design of this battery of methodological support calls upon adequate meta-architectures, which address the issues of creating method-chains and method-alliances. The question is how do we balance the required and the existing meta-architectural knowledge?
Keywords: complexity, design, development, enterprise-wide, IT-management, knowledge, method, methodology, uncertainty
1. Introduction In the early days of information systems development, when the development process mainly concerned solutions to administrative data processing issues, the developer’s situation was much simpler than today. Then, given a certain problem, theories within the field could help answering questions like ‘What system solution are we looking for?’ The theories clarified whether the system was a question of optimisation, satisfaction or adaptation, thereby giving guidance and support to the development process. Today issues of vision and creation are replacing issues of representation. We don't model the world anymore! We create it! And so system attractiveness is being favoured. Now, given a certain problem, questions like 'Where do we begin? How do we go on? Where do we end? Is there any definite end?’ arise, indicating an even wider circle of interests, which includes enterprise development in general and enterprise-wide development in particular. This is by no means wrong. But it is difficult to see how ideas of vision, creation and attractiveness of the system are going to be put into practice. As developers we are in fact faced with a far more heterogeneous and Proceedings of IRIS 23. Laboratorium for Interaction Technology, University of Trollhättan Uddevalla, 2000. L. Svensson, U. Snis, C. Sørensen, H. Fägerlind, T. Lindroth, M. Magnusson, C. Östlund (eds.)
contradictory situation. The problems are so complex that our intuition, on one hand, won’t help and traditional procedures, on the other, will narrow the mind and so reduce the possibilities of finding good and meaningful solutions! This is a truly strategic situation, where the dynamics and turbulence of unpredicted changes leaves us with a dramatically increased uncertainty. Recent empirical studies imply the need for appropriate methodological support for dealing with this high degree of uncertainty. However, theories within the field offer poor support in this respect! IT-Management is understood as the activities and efforts made in the struggle towards coordination of enterprise and information systems development processes. Both processes are now being recognised as wider and deeper and thus, far more complex than previously envisioned. Therefore questions reflecting the needs for co-ordination of enterprise-wide and information systems development have to be put forward. The following reasons support this urge. First, communication and information processing are organizational activities. In this sense they cannot be understood or developed outside their social context. Secondly, the ever-increasing complexity, due to information technology infusion in all areas of human and business enterprise, prohibit any effort towards an isolated or separated development. Lastly, the conflicts of interests and ideas underlying such development cannot be solved by the methods of rationality and systemization only. Therefore, there is a need for a new perspective – an architectural view - which opens up for the coordination of issues; for instance the issues of reason with issues of emotion, hard thinking with soft thinking, facts with values, interests with obligations, local images with holistic visions, subjectivity with objectivity, models with learning, etc. In addition, there is a need for a coordinated, architectural thinking and means of support. Thus, the greater infusion of IT-systems in business and society, the greater the need for further development of architectural thinking and means of support, in order to provide the enterprise of IT-management with the appropriate methods, techniques and tools. In other words, there is a need to provide IT-management with the required meta-architectural knowledge.
1.1. Background The practical and social value of informatics can be given in terms of methods and theories. For instance, the interest of the old Informatics in systems development methods can be explained in terms of comprehensibility. Methods promise to provide the comprehensibility needed when designing and evaluating complex systems. However, no standard solution can be expected and purely formal methods are treated as inapplicable. On the other hand unaided intuition gets lost in complex systems problems. Furthermore, in the context of systems development there is an inhered contradiction between the needs for an overview of the whole presupposing abstraction and the needs of construction asking for details. Thus, the desideratum for comprehension of the whole is difficult to reach. The best to be hoped for is a structured approach, which identifies semi-separate sub-design tasks and achieves integration between them. Thus, the balance of abstractions and details for construction makes the question of comprehensibility the most typical problem of system design. Moreover, the rise of the new Informatics explains the strategic shift from management of systems development projects to management of information technology use. Shifting from an interest in methods to an interest in theory the new informatics is focusing on developing concepts and theories making it possible to describe, analyse, and design the rapidly diversifying field of information technology use, sometimes referred to as the information society. However, both methods and theories of Informatics are conceptual instruments addressing the critical issues of uncertainty, faced by the business of IT-management in general and the management of enterprise-
wide integration in particular. The desiderata for comprehensibility, awareness, meaningfulness, understandability etc. indicate the needs and demands towards the coordination and maintenance of available knowledge of both a substantive and procedural kind. Both the old and the new Informatics are rooted in the development and maintenance of design knowledge. However, the new Informatics employs a strategic orientation towards quality improvements through the use of information technology, whereas the old Informatics concerns the issues of the conceptual distance between the strategic and operational levels of design and development. In the first case the struggling for quality through the use of design clarifies the social roll of informatics. Whatever we do, we should remain engineers with a design orientation, with an interest in the contingent and exceptional rather than in the general, in local design principles rather than general laws, in patents rather than publications, in heuristics and innovation rather than methods and proofs, in the good and beautiful rather than the true (Dahlbom, 1998). In the second case the desiderata for manageability of different kinds of changes indicates the expected instrumentality of design. Design is a means for supporting comprehensibility and understanding. It may be seen as a desideratum for sound management. Without comprehensibility the critical role of management of securing mutual understanding fails. The design task is not a task of computer specialists. The design of any social system is not a data system design and hence not delegated to the data system department. The real nature of design is expressed in issues like how to balance the distinct worldviews of people against each other in specifying enterprise-wide design goals? What kind of design is required? How to combine overview and comprehension of the whole with correctness and precision in details? How to clarify, organize, evaluate and manage information flows of an enterprise? What kind of architecture is appropriate? Social conflicts between different user groups conclude that social feasibility studies ought to be done before other feasibility studies (Langefors, 1993). Thus, the apparent gap between the old and the new design and development views in Informatics can be explained in terms of method-chains, i.e. coordination of domain oriented substantive and procedural knowledge, and method-alliances, i.e. coordination of knowledge concerning differences in perspective, world views, values, etc. In other words, where can an adequate meta-architecture for organising the available knowledge of Informatics be found? How can this knowledge be used to satisfy the ever-changing requirements, which arise from the desiderata connected to the creation of a coordinated enterprise-wide and systems development process? The work of Anders G. Nilsson, (Nilsson, 1997) is promising and in harmony with objectives of my study.
2. A descriptive view of required meta-architectural knowledge This section provides a descriptive view of the required a meta-architectural knowledge for the management of a coordinated enterprise-wide and systems development process. The aim is to provide some answers to the following critical issues. First, what are the typical managerial situations calling for meta-architectural support? That is, what is intuitively recognized as relevant to the uncertain character of enterprise-wide and systems development process? Second, is there a comprehensive view of these typical managerial situations? How are the situations going to be understood from a general point of view? Third, what kind of meta-architectural support is involved in management of enterprise-wide development? How are these kinds related? In other words, what
is the taxonomy of required meta-architectural knowledge? Experiences from three different sources are being utilised in trying to provide these answers. First, there are the empirical cases in the master thesis by Bergenstjerna et al (Bergenstjerna et al, 1999), which demonstrate the methodological usage in six companies on the Swedish west coast, i.e. how the companies think and act in issues concerning large-scale design and development. Second, there are the experiences gained from the on-going DELTA project. The project, in collaboration with NUTEK and several large Swedish companies, involves a series of workshops. The aim of the workshops is to provide a sound insight to the most critical issue of IT-management, namely: why the coordination of enterprise-wide and IT-systems development is a difficult, risky and an uncertain affair. Whereas the enterprise of this research has been managed by the ideas of Soft Systems Methodology (Checkland, 1981), the organization of its results follows the principles of a classical research paradigm (Bunge, 1967). Finally, knowledge gained from reported cases from the wellknown Andersen Consulting firm also describing the difficulties of IT-management.
2.1. Situations calling for meta-architectural knowledge From the empirical cases in the master thesis, at least four strategic situations1 calling for metaarchitectural support have been identified: 1. The striving for, or struggling with quality through the use of information technology. 2. The coordination of enterprise-wide and information systems development processes. 3. The balance of rationality and emotionality, despite the fuzziness and incompleteness of our knowledge. 4. The re-usability of methodological knowledge. Management may be seen as the art of social improvements and innovation. All empirical cases have clearly indicated the importance of people’s visions of qualitative or quantitative changes. In this sense the coordinated human efforts striving for, or struggling with quality of social and working life become the real expression of the social meaning of management. This view is in harmony with the definition of IT-management as the “judicious organization of technological means to accomplish individual and social goals“ (Magoulas & Pessi, 1998). However, individual, organizational and social expectations or dreams cannot be materialized without adequate meta-architectural support, i.e. ways to organize the existing substantive and procedural knowledge (Hoffman 1988). The management of a coordinated enterprise-wide information and systems development is not a well-understood task. The empirical cases suggest needs and demands for a coordinated, continuous and holistic development. Thus, the eras of uncoordinated, discontinuous and fragmented development are over. But what issues become subject to coordination? Together the following critical issues are recognized as providing a relevant definition of the underlying complexity. First, there is a cry for continuous quality improvements in general and improvements of service in particular. For instance, a worldwide industrial company promises 24 hours delivery all over the world, whereas another company have expanded its range of products to cover new areas of business. Second, the desiderata for flexibility and adaptability of information technology use have become a critical, but simultaneously contradictory factor. This contradiction is for example found in connection to new investments in Internet and modern marketing systems, i.e. e-markets, to new investments in enterprise-wide transactional system and to the effective coordination of information flows and transaction flows through the use of large-scale "inter-enterprise" information systems. 1
Strategic situations are truly complex with a high degree of uncertainty.
Third, there is the issue of legacy systems, as well as, the associated simultaneous issues of learning and unlearning, which determine the rate of change. Fourth, the issues of leadership in general and the involvement of top-management in particular have been contradictory. In some cases the involvement of top-management is treated as a critical factor for the coordination of efforts, whereas in other cases it is undesirable. In any case the complexity has increased. Consider for instance, a developmental situation that affects the form and content of more that twenty enterprises located in different countries. Last, there are the issues of timelines and economy, which have generated alternative strategies to the traditional in-house development approach. In this sense, alternative forms of outsourcing, as well as the use of enterprise-wide standard "business systems" may be seen as possible solutions to the desiderata or requirements of timelines and economy. Thus, continuous quality improvements as well as innovativeness, timelines and economy may be seen as ends calling for the management of a coordinated development. In the same sense, strategic leadership, knowledge and human factors, adequate integration of information and knowledge resources, as well as sound utilization of environmental possibilities such as outsourcing, enterprise-wide standard systems, component-oriented design and development, etc. are expressing the critical means for the management of a coordinated development. The cry for a holistic metaarchitectural support, which incorporates both hard and soft techniques for supporting human comprehensibility, awareness and meaningfulness, may be seen as a presupposition and precondition for the acceptance and success of a coordinated development. The same arguments have been derived from the on-going DELTA project. In situations coloured by conflicts of interests and conflicts of ideas the primary task of ITmanagement is expressed in the balance of rationality and emotionality despite the fuzziness and incompleteness of our current knowledge base. According to the empirical cases in the master thesis, as well as the DELTA project workshops, only a few situations are found, in which the strategic objectives and goals are clear and strong enough and where knowledge of future events can be directly derived from the past. Predictions are impossible in a world characterized by conflicting views and contradictory interests as well as turbulence and unpredicted social and technological changes. In the same sense, intuition is not enough to manage and coordinate the ever changing variety of peoples needs, demands, desires, world images, visions and the like. The critical issue here concerns what kind of meta-architectural support to be used for managing the contradictory desiderata of rationality and emotionality in order to achieve acceptance to change, despite that nobody really knows the effects of these changes, i.e. despite the law of ignorance. The contradictory issue of re-usability of meta-architectural knowledge has become subject to management in general and to knowledge management in particular. From the empirical cases in the master thesis a desideratum towards re-usability of know-that and know-how knowledge can be derived. This is a paradox conflicting the law of ignorance. However, both consulting firms and business organizations are engaged in the re-use of meta-architectural (methodological) knowledge. Strategies of knowledge management, like those used by Andersen Consulting denote the desideratum for the systematisation and re-use of past experience.
2.2. Different modes of development A possible way to provide a comprehensible view of the situations calling for meta-architectural knowledge, described above, can be given in terms of two crucial dimensions. The first dimension concerns the variability of client requirements that can be derived from their needs, wants, images, visions, dreams etc. These requirements vary between having a simple or complicated nature. The
second dimension addresses the issues of meta-architectural knowledge available to professionals within a particular domain of inquiry. This knowledge varies between being either explicit and well structured or tacit with no structure at all. The arrangement of the two dimensions can be done in different ways, which can be assigned to four philosophies of thinking and acting in design and development; (1) Systematic, (2) Intuitive, (3) Professional and (4) Evolutionary. Philosophies Of Thinking & Acting in Design and Development
Tacit and no structure
Intuitive Design & Development
Types of knowledge and structure Systematic Explicit and Design and Development well structured/codified Simple
Evolutionary Design and Development
Professional Design and Development
Complicated
Variety of client requirements The characteristics of the Systematic philosophy follow the logic of the traditional "Waterfall" model. The model presupposes two clearly defined roles: the client and the professionals. The client is expected to provide a complete specification of the company technology use. The professionals, through the use of traditional engineering methods, translate the specification into a relatively optimal "information system", which corresponds to the requirements of the specification 2. In the empirical study presented in the master thesis two cases were found where relatively large, companies had adopted this particular philosophy. Both cases reflected a situation, which refers to a relatively simple and uncomplicated view of the client's requirements. The available knowledge was explicit and well structured. In both cases the kind of meta-architectural support was established through a companywide policy. The nature of the Intuitive philosophy follows the logic of experienced professionals. It is relevant in situations were explicit and well-structured knowledge is either not available or out of date. Rather, it is the designer’s own experiences that make up the structure of available knowledge or meta-architectural support. However, in this case the situation refers to a relatively simple and uncomplicated view of the client's requirements. The application of this philosophy presupposes the continuity of the same professionals being involved in both design and development of an enterprisewide IT system. There is a risk, in this philosophy, in that one single person cannot be sufficiently competent in all the fields involved by the different stages of the development process. Though, informal contacts between IT-experts working together absorb the need for the available knowledge to be explicit and well structured. In the empirical study presented in the master thesis one case was found to have adopted this particular philosophy. The essence of the Professional philosophy lies in the application of a component-oriented development strategy. Furthermore, the empirical cases in the master thesis reflect a situation where 2
Here the concept "information system" should be interpreted in terms of a "standard type" or "prototype" that should be used in several similar places.
the variety of required knowledge is high, but the involved professionals have adequate metaarchitectural support i.e. the available knowledge is well structured. Thereby covering the issues of management derived from the activities of design and development. This permits different kinds of professionals to be involved. Thus, the communication between client and professionals was conceived as a critical success factor. The communicative environment covered the interactions of people, from the clarification and specification of strategic ideas to their realization and maintenance. Workshops, demos, seminaries, e-mail etc. are conceived as crucial, communicative means. The general principles underlying the Evolutionary philosophy were represented in the master thesis by an interesting case indeed! The context in which this company exists can be described as follows: 1. There is a social and cultural heterogeneity, which covers the conflicting interests of people living and working in more than five different countries. 2. There is a coordinated and continuous process of development covering both the whole enterprise and its IT-systems. 3. There are coordinated processes of learning and "unlearning", i.e. successive abandonment of the legacy systems. 4. There is a continuous evaluation of the obtained effects, prior any decision for further development. 5. Analytical models, workshops and enterprise-wide prototyping are employed in order to secure the needs for comprehensibility of the "new" enterprise and awareness of the consequences of further changes. 6. The role of professionals is to clarify the nature of the future environment and its organization. In the light of this knowledge and prior experience of consequences, the parties involved in development are then able to decide on further steps towards the future. This last case demonstrates the social nature of IT-management, namely, (1) to satisfy the requirements of comprehensibility through the employment of an enterprise-wide architectural design, prototyping, etc., (2) to invoke the awareness associated with qualitative holistic improvements through the employment of dialectical processes and (3) to secure the motivation and the commitments of participants through the employment of "political processes"3
2.3. A taxonomy of the required meta-architectural knowledge The meta-architectural support in a given situation is expected to give answers to a variety of important questions regarding the substantive nature of the enterprise (know what-orientation) and the processes that change or modify it, (know how-orientation).
3
Meaningful decisions of organizational and social changes are expected to provide a sense of "win-win" condition.
Metaarchitectural Knowledge
Descriptive Knowledge
Substantive Knowledge
Know-What to secure good "Product" quality
Know-What to secure good "Product" quality
Process-oriented Knowledge
Know-How to secure good Process efficiency
Know-How to secure good Process efficiency
Normative Knowledge
In a given situation, substantive questions expresses the issue of managing quality with respect to the essential elements in an information environment like IT, people, processes and structures, business environments, and the mutual or inhered inter-dependencies that link these elements together. They concern for instance informational aspects between information systems i.e. systems coordination and systems cooperation. Process-oriented questions express the management of change i.e. the continuing development and management of quality, change decisions and change processes. They are for instance questions of information technology use, of enterprise-wide development, of systems development, of knowledge development as well as the rate of change.
3. An analytical view of existing meta-architectural knowledge This section tries to provide a comprehensive view of existing methodological support (metaarchitectural knowledge) adequate for the coordinated process of enterprise-wide and systems development. In this sense the focus of this part of the study is related to the following issues. First, what significant orientations can be identified, which ought to be addressed by a meta-architectural support? Having identified them, a short review is presented as to how these orientations have been methodologically supported in the past and at present. Further, an attempt is made to create a rough tentative overview of existing meta-architectural knowledge. Lastly, this knowledge is evaluated from the point of suitability for meta-architectural improvements.
3.1. Approaching the complex and contradictory issues of metaarchitectural support for the management of uncertainty It is possible to identify four significant orientations, which ought to be supported by metaarchitectural support. First, there is the orientation of strategic planning and change. Second, there is the orientation of organizational stage of maturity and management of rate of change. Third, there is the orientation of the four worlds paradigm of engineering and social informatics and finally, there is the orientation of inter-organizational integration, still under development. 3.1.1.
Orientation of strategic planning and change
Historically, Bowman et.al (Bowman, 1983) has presented a 3-stage model for strategic planning concerning the issues of strategy, information systems architecture and allocation of resources
required to implement the architecture in the beginning of the 1980s. The foundation of the model takes its origin from four complex and difficult activities of strategic planning, distinguished Bowman et.al: 1. The difficulties aligning enterprise strategy with IT strategy. 2. The difficulties designing an information systems architecture, which covers the information needs of the whole enterprise. 3. The difficulties arising in the allocation of different kinds of resources for the development of information systems architecture. 4. The difficulties choosing and using methods of the above mentioned uses. The proposed architecture concerns systems, different levels of management (strategic, tactical and operational) as well as the process of managerial activities like intelligence design, choice, planning, control and decision-making. The model reflects the underlying intention and issues typical of strategic planning and so highlights the need for adequate methodologies covering the strategic aspects of the three areas of concern. The 3-stage Model
Alternative Methodologie s
1. Strategic Planning
- Strategy Set Transformation
2. Organizational Information Requirements Analysis
3. Resource Allocation
- Business system Planning (BSP) - Charge out - Critical Success Factors (CSF) - Return on Investment (ROI) - Business Information Analysis - Zero-Based Budgeting and Integration Technique (BIAIT) (ZBB)
- Ends/Means Analysis (E/M)
Despite the good intentions, the model doesn’t propose a clear thesis as to how methods covering the boarders of strategic planning are related to each other. Another weakness is that the model does not address the issues of implementation. In this sense the links between levels of strategic planning and project management are missing. Lastly, the model proposes an unclear view of the enterprise on which the IS-architecture is defined. However, I believe that this model identifies the need for a methodological alliance, but it doesn't provide a sound answer as to how this alliance should be designed. Addressing the issues of implementation Wetherbe has proposed a further development of the 3-stage model (Wetherbe, 1988). Thus, Wetherbe’s 4-stage model introduces the additional stage of project portfolio, aiming to realize the chosen strategic plan. In the very early days of the 80s the issues of methodological alliances for the strategic planning and management of IT were addressed by Zachman (Zachman, 1982). He used the wellknown methods Business Systems Planning, BSP and Business Information Control Study, BICS in his studies. His first study concerned the methodological alliance of functional and structural aspects of an enterprise that has direct affect on the quality and availability of information. The study indicates some fundamental dimensions on which such an alliance should be based. The further development of Zachman’s ideas are well known and well documented. There are the three views of ISarchitecture, i.e. (1) the semantic view (what), (2) the functional view (how) and (3) the communicational view (where) (Zachman, 1987). In the further development of the model Zachman introduces an additional three views, namely (4) the temporal view (when), (5) the structural view (who) and finally (6) the strategic view (why) (Zachman, 1992). The main difference between on one hand Bowman and Wetherbe’s ideas and on the other Zachman’s ideas, can be expressed in terms of worldviews and perspectives. Whereas Zachman’s
model provides six different views of the enterprise Bowman and Wetherbe leave this issue unclear. Accordingly, the issues of method-chains and method-alliances must be studied with respect to the six views of enterprise and the four perspectives of IT-management mentioned above. As you can imagine the 6x4 framework of meta-architectural coordination is not an easy affair! In principle, Zachman has studied only the structural and functional issues of method integration at a relative high level. Thus, how the whole issue of meta-architectural support for strategic planning and change should be treated and managed remains unanswered even today.
3.1.2.
Orientation of organizational stage of maturity and management of rate of change
Another interesting group of models are those focusing on the stage of maturity of an enterprise, such models have been proposed by Nolan (Nolan, 1974), Earl (Earl, 1989) and Galliers (Galliers, 1991). Their models essentially treat the maturity issue with respect to (1) legacy, (2) out-sourcing, (3) innovative systems and (4) responsibility. The relationships between stage of maturity and legacy systems determines the rate of change. In this sense learning presupposes unlearning (Hedberg & Jönsson, 1978). The issues of synchronization between these aspects become more significant in situations where companies introduce sophisticated IS or the whole affair of systems development is managed by out-sourcing. In the same sense we can reason in cases of buying and adapting ‘business standard’ systems 4. Out of a methodological point of view this group of models determines the topdown or bottom-up orientation of analysis as well as the issues of resource allocation for innovative systems. However, Galliers makes clear that the stage of maturity model must satisfy several views such as (1) the strategic view, (2) the structural view (3) the informational view and (4) the cognitive view, etc. In all cases, there is a need for adequate meta-architectural support for the management of strategic change rather than for strategic planning. 3.1.3.
Orientation of the four worlds paradigm
A third group of models regarding methodological support refers the so-called four worlds paradigm, 4WP that have been developed in two different contexts of Informatics. In the fields of information systems engineering Mylopoulos (Mylopoulos, 1998) and Rolland (Rolland, 1998) have proposed a new conceptual framework where the enterprise of an organization can be given in terms of four worlds: (1) the world of processes, (2) the world of systems, (3) the world of users and their organizational settings and (4) the world of professional knowledge in terms of methods, models and techniques to be used in the analysis and design of the above worlds. In the fields of social informatics Dahlbom (Dahlbom, 1997) has proposed an alternative conceptual framework where the enterprise of an organization can be conceived in terms of four reasons; (1) final reasons i.e. social, organisational and individual ultimate goals, (2) material reason i.e. people, with respect to their capabilities and wisdom, (3) formal reason i.e. holistic models of organizing and managing and (4) efficient reason i.e. continuous, constructive development of actions and processes. Despite Mylopoulos’ struggle to elaborate several kinds of ontologies and providing of a universal informational view, I believe he creates more issues than solutions. In any case his analysis of the existing techniques for providing this meta-architectural support is interesting. Though, the question of meta-architectural support addressing the issues of relationships between the concerned 4
For instance SAP
worlds remains unanswered. Dahlboms model indicates the needs for, rather than the availability of, meta-architectural support. Dahlbom advocates more for a theoretical than a methodological support. However, the relationship between theory and methodology in the area of design is not so clear. There are two contradictory views in this case. Firstly, the view proposed by Mackenzie (Mackenzie, 1984) where any kind of methodology follows the theory. Secondly, the view proposed by Checkland (Checkland, 1981) where the theory follows the methodology. According to my opinion this Columbus-egg issue deals with the distinction between substantive and process-oriented metaarchitectural knowledge.
3.1.4.
Orientation of inter-organizational integration
A fourth group of methodological support has been actualised, but is still under development. The significance of this group is the issue of interorganisational integration. Here reference is made to the CIMOSA, PERA, GRAY and GERAM models (Bernus, 1996). The so-called Euromethod (Avison & Fitzgerald, 1995) also belongs to the same group. All instances in this group can be seen as typical examples of support for more complex and dynamic environments. The uses calling for meta-architectural support in this respect are characterized by high heterogeneity and high changeability, which together affect the degree of uncertainty. Hoffman has provided an interesting work of methodological integration (Hoffman, 1988). His study concerns the creation of methodological alliances between the strategic and functional views of an enterprise. This is demonstrated through the use of Business System Planning, BSP together with Porter’s classical model of the Value-Added Chain, VAC (Porter, 1985). The common denominator of both methods is the concern of business processes. Hoffman elaborates his concept with respect to four perspective of IT-management and proposes the two interesting issues of responsibility and of evaluation. Furthermore, he suggests that the evaluation of a particular enterprise-wide design should be performed with respect to extrinsic and intrinsic values. The first category refers to the social, organizational, cultural and technological ends, whereas the second covers the professional evaluation of means. The needs for adequate meta-architectures supporting the comprehensibility of the enterprise i.e. the human activity system are also required. Lastly, there is the model of comprehensive principles for supporting the complex and contradictory character of enterprise-wide integration, which have been proposed by Magoulas and Pessi (Magoulas and Pessi, 1998). These principles can be classified as (1) morphological, i.e. principles dealing with the architectural view of business or social enterprise, (2) axiological, i.e. principles dealing with the dialectical view of quality and lastly (3) praxeological, i.e. principles dealing with the political view of social changes.
3.2. A rough tentative overview of existing meta-architectural knowledge There already exist a large number of methodological supports, in forms of methods, techniques and tools focusing on a variety of aspects. They can be seen as representing various kinds of knowledge, which make them more or less well suited for different kinds of developmental work. Fore instance, the well-known method SWOT focuses on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organization at the present time in order to find what the organization should pay attention to for future survival. Another well-known method, Business Information Control Study, BICS, deals with
ownership and power in the organization, thereby focusing on the relations between information and organizational structure. Business Systems Planning, BSP, as well as BICS, concerns a detailed organizational planning and evaluation process.
A Rough, Tentative Overview of Existing Methodological Support
Substantive Knowledge Process-oriented Knowledge
Descriptive Knowledge CATWOE CSF SWOT PEST Processorientation (Mackenzie)
Normative Knowledge BSP; BICS 4WP
The strength of existing methods is the highlighting of certain critical issues in the management of enterprise-wide integration, such as delineation, interface and systems integration, rate of development and demands of synchronization. At the same time this support is insufficient and weak, as it doesn’t highlight all issues. So, basically all methods are incomplete as none one of them can provide an answer to all the questions of Know-what, Know-how and Know-when. Thus, all the existing methods, techniques and tools are fragmented, as they are unable to highlight the whole. In this sense existing methodological support is fine but insufficient to meet the demands for metaarchitectural improvements.
4. Towards the design of a Meta-architectural model for supporting IT-Management This last section provides en tentative view of the unbalance between required and existing metaarchitectural knowledge for the support of IT-management. The ambition is to provide some answers to the following issues. First, what are the critical elements of an adequate meta-architecture? What are the relations between them? Second, what significant aspects need to be carefully thought about with respect to human values and culture when creating patterns of organization? Third, what principles are there to secure acceptance and success of development? The common denominator of this work should be the model of new Informatics described by Dahlbom (Dahlbom, 1997). Meta-architectural models are not a new phenomenon. For instance, Hoffman, practitioner in the management of strategic issues of information technology, employs a meta-architecture to organize different kinds of knowledge and to harmonize communication (Hoffman, 1988). In the same sense Lynch, a city architect and city planner, uses a list of desiderata towards the choice or development of models and methods (Lynch, 1985). As noted above, there is an increased interest for the development of meta-architectures within the fields of enterprise integration (Bernus, 1996). Within the context of an enterprise-wide life cycle, the issue of importance is the possibility to harmonize the differences between the existing method, models, techniques, and tools, which together cover issues of management in general and IT-management in particular. However, in the
search and design of a meta-architectural model references should be made to the inspiring works of Hoffman and Lynch, rather than Bernus. To endure the management of the seemingly unmanageable nature of social reality, this last section is in search of adequate concepts and principles in order to find possibilities for balancing the required and the existing meta-architectural knowledge.
4.1. Searching for adequate morphological concepts and principles. Morphology deals with the issues of form and content as well as their relationships i.e. architectures. In other words, morphology deals with design studies. In this sense the primary role of morphology is to provide understanding with respect to the issue of “how people use information technology to organize their social reality“. Thus, given that “reality is a social construction”5, the enterprise of morphology is to provide understanding about the specific form of organization employed by humanity in a particular space and period of time. Morphology is aiming to support the management of information technology use in the context of a social or business enterprise and it is expected to provide a clear distinction between issues and relations of a strategic (macro) and an operational (micro) perspective, i.e. levels of conceptual differences as well as between issues and relations of processes, patterns, people and purpose, as they make up the critical parts of the meta-architecture. Metaarchitecture
Architectures For Combining Basic Building Blocks Process
Architectures For coordinating Levels Of Conceptual Differences
Pattern
People
Purpose
Property
Macro
Micro
By processes is understood the actions and efforts in enterprise development, systems development, knowledge development etc. Patterns refer to systems of authority, communication and workflow, which are expressed in design alternatives like Information Resource Management, IRM or Verksamhetsbaserad Systemutveckling, VBS. People involved in these patterns and processes are actors, owners or clients. By purpose is understood their values, needs and desires etc. The parts of processes, patterns, people and purpose form a framework, which together with their relations, makes up the whole of what we call an organization. The most significant aspects towards the coordination of morphological knowledge concerns the following issues of clarity: 1. Clarity of micro and macro aspects of management (Enquist, 1999; Grant, 1992). 2. Clarity of rational hierarchies (Galbraith, 1973, 1977, 1998). 3. Clarity of emotional networks (Dahlbom, 1998; Harrington, 1991). 4. Clarity of balance between rational hierarchies and emotional networks (Enquist, 1999). As to the issue of incorporation of time and space, references are made to the work of Zachman.
5
Aristotle: “Those that do not accept this fundamental principle are either Gods or wilds. In both cases they have no place in the realm of human life and human affairs”, (Taylor, 1944).
4.2. Searching for adequate axiological concepts and principles. Axiology refers to the issues and the theories of human values, whereas traditional sciences deal with the issues and the theories of true knowledge. For instance, some organizational theories discriminate business processes in terms of value-added activities and value-supported activities. Theories of quality management are usually expressed in the statement “doing the right thing“ in “the right way “ with respect to the economics of processes and produces. Still, other theories are interpreting the same statement with respect to the ethical values of human actions. Within the fields of Informatics there is a debate concerning the value of information as well as the value of information technology use. Some paradigms advocate that information has a value of its own, independently of its use and its user, whereas other paradigms postulate that neither information, nor information systems or information technology has a value that is independent of its user and its use. In literature there are a lot of expressions that belong to the fields of axiology. For instance, the strategic value of information and information technology, the goodness or badness of design, the concepts of critical information, critical decisions and critical principles employed by the method of Critical Success Factors, CSF, etc. All these ideas are typical axiological expressions. The above examples demonstrate that methods and techniques used in the creation of patterns of organization must be evaluated with respect to their cultural feasibility and rational accountability (See Hoffman above). Though, the realm of values has never been explored. Still, the ideas underlying the new Informatics concern just values, rather than facts. The most significant aspects towards the coordination of axiological knowledge concern the following issues of clarity: 1. Clarity of perspectives (Zachman, 1987; Hoffman, 1988). 2. Clarity of intrinsic and extrinsic values (Hoffman, 1988). 3. Clarity of quality (Dahlbom and Mathiassen, 1993).
4.3. Searching for adequate praxeological concepts and principles. The issues of change in general and issues of change through the use of information technology in particular seem to many people as identical. This mostly because the fundamental idea underlying the art and science of informatics has always been guided by the intention that information technology is just a powerful agent of change. The coordination of meta-architectural knowledge concerns the use of substantive knowledge, not only in strategic design, but also in the coordination of development with respect to the stage of maturity. The aim is here to define a situational meta-architecture, which utilizes the knowledge of the following models: 1. Procedural models by Checkland (Checkland, 1985), Mackenzie (Mackenzie, 1984) Hedberg (Hedberg, 1980). 2. Ginzberg's way to coordinate substantive and procedural knowledge (Ginzberg, 1980). 3. Galliers model of developmental stages as instrument for sound management (Galliers, 1991). However, changes do not always leads to improvements (Hedberg, 1980; Keen, 1981; Argyris, 1971). Thus, how is the concept of change to be integrated in the methodological frameworks of Informatics? Therefore, it is desirable to provide even sound principles that secure the acceptance and success of development.
5. Lessons learnt Three critical lessons can be derived from this study. First of all, a common, strong cry for methodological knowledge is expressed in the empirical cases. Then, a battery of substantive and procedural methods, models, techniques, tools etc., is demanded rather than a ready-made, contextfree, unified and universal methodological support. Last, the design of methodological support calls upon adequate meta-architectures, which address the issues of creating method-chains and methodalliances. The question is how do we balance the required and the existing meta-architectural knowledge? How do we find a meta-architecture for IT-management? The search for adequate concepts and principles for balancing required and existing metaarchitectural knowledge has touched upon the principles of morphology, axiology and praxiology. A coordination of knowledge for support of our over view of social reality, awareness and sense of meaningfulness is spoken for. Thus, we need knowledge based on the principle of morphology, which deals with design of business and social enterprise, to support our over view of social reality. Design studies in this respect supports our understanding of the elements and extends our knowledge of the whole. We also need knowledge based on the principle of axiology, which deals with human values, to support our awareness through a dialectic process. We need knowledge based on the principle of praxiology, which deals with the political view of social changes, to support our sense of meaningfulness. It is my belief that these issues are so closely related they cannot be dealt with in isolation. Providing my assumption is correct, we should ask ourselves, how do we find a meta-architecture for IT-management covering our needs for over view, awareness and meaningfulness? How are we to continuously balance and update this meta-architecture? How are we to cope with the trend of increasing complexity, without decreasing our over view? How are we to deal with aspects of dynamics in respect of time etc.? Thus, our understanding of how these factors interplay in any situation implies that we use a holistic and dynamic perspective in the search and use of a metaarchitecture for IT-management.
6. Bibliography Argyris, C. (1971). Management Information Systems; The Challenge to Rationality and Emotionality. Management Science, Vol. 17, No. 6. Avison, D. E. and Fitzgerald, G. (1995). Information systems Development: Methodologies, Techniques and Tools. 2nd Edition, The McGraw-Hill Companies, London. Bergenstjerna, M., et al (1999). Metoder för strategisk IT-management, Master Thesis, Department of Informatics, Göteborg University, Bernus, P., L. Nemes and T. Williams edit. (1996). Architectures for enterprise integration, Chapman and Hill. Bernus, P. and Nemes, L. (1996). Modelling and Methodologies for Enterprise Integration, Chapman and Hill. Bowman, B. J., Wetherbe, J. C., & Davis, G. (1983). The Three-Stage Model of MIS Planning, Information & Management, Vol.6, No.1: 11-25. Bunge, M. (1967). Scientific Research, Springer-Verlag. Checkland, P. (1981). Systems Thinking, Systems Practice. Wiley. Chichester. Checkland, P. (1985). From optimising to learning; a development of systems thinking for the 1990s. Journal of the Operational Research Society (9), pp. 757-767. Dahlbom, B. and Mathiassen, L. (1993). Computers In Context, The Philosophy and Practice of
Systems Design, NCC, Blackwell. Dahlbom, B. (1997). The New Informatics, Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, vol. 8, No. 2. Dahlbom, B. (1998). From Infrastructure to Networking. IRIS 21, Aalborg, Department of computer Science, University of Aalborg. Earl, M. J. (1989). Management Strategies for Information Technology. Prentice-Hall. Enquist, H. (1999). IT-management för komplexa ledningssystem – arkitekturbegrepp för samverkan verksamhet – leverantör. Licentiat uppsats. Institutionen för informatik, Handelshögskolan vid Göteborgs universitet. Galbraith, J. R. (1973). Designing Complex Organizations, Addison-Wesley. Galbraith, J. R. (1977). Organizational Design, Addison-Wesley. Galliers, R. D. (1991). Strategic Information Systems Planning: Myths, Reality and Guidelines for Successful Implementation, European Journal of Information Systems 1(1): 55-64. Ginzberg, M. (1980). An organizational contingencies view of accounting and information systems implementation. Accounting, Organizations and Society. Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 369-382 Grant, D. A., Ngwen Yama, O. and Klein, H. (1992). Modelling for CIM; Information Systems Architecture Definitions, an Information Engineering Case Study, Computers in Industry, vol.18. Harrington, J. (1991). Organizational Structure and Information Technology, Prentice-Hall. Hedberg, B. and S. Jönsson, (1978). Designing Semi-Confusing Information Systems for Organizations in Changing Environments. Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 3, No. 1:47-64. Hedberg, B. (1980). Using Computerized Information Systems to Design Better Organisations and Jobs, I. N. Bjorn-Andersen, red. The Human Side of Information Processing, North –Holland. Hoffman, T. (1988). Corporate Information Systems Strategy. Pirow, P., Duffy, N., & Ford, J., red. Information Systems in Practice and Theory. Elsevier Science Publishers B. V. (North-Holland). Keen, P. G. W. (1981). Information Systems and Organizational Change. Communication of the ACM, Vol. 24, No. 24:24-33. Langefors, B. (1993). Essays on Infology. Lynch, K. (1985). Good City Form, MIT Press. Mackenzie, K. D. (1984). A strategy and desiderata for organizational design. Human Systems Management 4, p. 201-213. Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Holland). Magoulas, T. and K. Pessi (1998). Strategisk IT-management. Institutionen för informatik, Handelshögskolan vid Göteborgs universitet. Göteborg, Göteborgs universitet: 458. Nilson, A. G. et al (1997). The Business Developer’s Toolbox: Chains and Alliances between Established Methods, kapitel 12 (pp. 217-241), Perspectives on Business Modelling - Understanding and Changing Organisations. Manuscript. Springer-Verlag, December 1, 1997. Nolan, R. L. and C. F. Gibson (1974). Managing the Four Stages of EDP Growth, Harvard Business Review (January-February). Mylopoulos, J (1998). Information Modeling In the Time of Revolution, Information systems, Vol. 23, No. 3/4, pp. 127-155. Pernici, B. and Thanos, C, Eds. (1998). Advanced Information Systems Engineering’s, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 1413,CaiSE’98, Springer. Porter, M. E. (1985). Competitive Advantage. New York. The Free Press. Rolland, C (1998). A Comprehensive View of Process Engineering. In [18]. Taylor, A. E. (1944). Aristoteles. Natur och Kultur. Stockholm. Wetherbe, J. C. (1988). Systems Analysis and Design, West Publishing Company. Zachman, J. A. (1982). Business System Planning and Business Information Control Study: A Comparison. IBM System Journal, Vol. 21, No. 1. Zachman, J. A. (1987). A Framework for Information Systems Architecture, IBM Systems Journal 26(3): 276-292. Zachman, J. A. and Sowa, J. F. (1992). Extending and formalising the framework for information systems architecture, IBM Systems Journal, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 590-616, 1992.
