Towards Designing Modular Structures forReducing Non-linear Effects of OrganizationalChange
Marien KrouwelMay 15th 2013EEWC 2013 DC
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Proposition
Full-functional modules for organizations in which the impact of a given change is small, are a necessary addition to the field of Enterprise Engineering
I will not do this alone!
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Small change, large impact
Context (supply)
DataInformationBusiness
Δ law
Δ customer needs
Context
(environment + demand)
Function
Construction / ontology
Construction /
implementation
people
means
system type
per
spec
tive
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Even small changes in construction may have a high
impact
99900 99901
mary@acompany susan@acompany
IMPACTIMPACTIMPACTIMPACT
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Example 2: Exam marks
IMPACTIMPACT IMPACT N
Change:
Procedure v2
N
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Example 3: it starts with IT …
• Change of IT in e.g. financial department change of- Processes in department- Interfaces with department- Processes in other departments- IT in other departments- …
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These effects need to be reduced in order to ease change
• Main question- Can non-linear effects of changes in the
construction of an enterprise be reduced?
• Non-linear effect: any effect of a change, besides the change itself- non-linear implies the effect could also be smaller
than the change itself; any other terminology?
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Normalized Systems: for ITwithout combinatorial effects
• Combinatorial effects: special case of non-linear in which the impact of a change depends (also) on the size of the system
• Normalized Systems theory:- by adhering to four principles- embodied in 5 modular structures- a stable IS without CE’s can be created- with respect to 8 anticipated changes
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Benefits of modularity *
• Complexity reduction• Comprehensibility• Easy-replacement• Reducing impact of a change
* (McIlroy, Parnas, Baldwin & Clark, Sanchez & Mahoney, Simon)
The key for enterprises to be able to deal with change is modularity!
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Modularity in EE
• B/I/D• Production/coordination• Essence/implementation
- Essence: transaction and roles- Implementation: assignment
of technologies (human, ICT)
The ontological model of an enterprise is a better starting point for modularization than traditional process models (Terlouw)
Sub question 1:
What are the concerns in the implementation of
enterprises?
1b. And to what extent are they generic?
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Ex. implementation concerns *
• Employees• Roles/departments/functionary types• Competences• Equipment, devices, applications, databases,
infrastructure, etc.• Channels• Workplace/office locations• …
* (Op ’t Land and Krouwel, 2013)
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Organizational modular structures
…Info. object
…ActorRole
Trans-action
organization=
n Instances of Elements
ElementsElement
Sub question 2:
What modular structures can deal with
some of the generic concerns without
introducing NLE’s?
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Example: European Patent OfficeDifferences in:• Order of working• Language(s) • Deparments• Law• Channels IT
Differences in:• Order of working• Language(s) • Deparments• Law• Channels IT
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Example: European Patent Office
• Change- Internal structure of
core and GC’s changes indepedently
- Existence of and interactions between core and GC’s remain
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Limitation: NLE’s within transactions
• Dealing with NLE’s between transactions is a totally different (and larger?)problem!
• In NS: how to avoid two action elements that do similar things
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Conceptual model
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Approach
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Gathering implementation concerns
• Literature- Enterprise Architecture- Modularity- Organization design
• By looking for instabalities in current implementations- What happens if…- Comparing different implementations (e.g. EPO)
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Inter-dependencies and change frequency
• Dimensions may have interdependencies, e.g.,- adding e-mail as sales channel, requires an e-mail
server, application, desktop, etc.- new application requires new competences
• Some dimensions change quickly, others much slower- Quick(er): employees- Slow(er): roles/departments, new channel to offer
services
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Designing modular structures
1. Principles2. Guidelines3. Patterns4. Elements
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Experiment (1)
• Five groups, randomly assigned, consisting of- enterprise (transformation) architects- IT architects- business analysts- IT managers
• Four groups will be given assignment to model the implementation of described enterprise- Group 1: implementation concerns- Group 2: modular structures- Group 3: modular structures + implementation concerns- Group 4: no additional aids
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Experiment (2)
• Group 5 will rank implementations on presence of non-linear effects of some changes- First individually- Then together to reach consensus
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Planning
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Expected impact on theory
• Extension to/detailing of Framework of Enterprise Engineering (Hoogervorst, 2011)
• Applying Normalized Systems theory to the level of enterprises
• Clues for identifying non-linear effects- Concerns to look for- People to talk to
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Expected impact on practice
• Implementation concerns enable- better understanding of current organization
implementation- to design future organization implementation(s)- to make informed change decisions- designing agile IT
• Modular structures enable- designing enterprises that are able to change quickly
• in which transformations are easy and successful
- TOGAF enterprise continuum