=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=None
|storemode=property
|title=Applying Soft Systems Methodology in Enterprise Architecture Creation Workshops
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-800/paper-4-3.pdf
|volume=Vol-800
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/eis/NakakawaBP11
}}
==Applying Soft Systems Methodology in Enterprise Architecture Creation Workshops==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-800/paper-4-3.pdf
Applying Soft Systems Methodology in
Enterprise Architecture Creation Workshops
A. (Agnes) Nakakawa1 , P. (Patrick) van Bommel1 , and H.A. (Erik) Proper1,2
1
ICIS, Radboud University Nijmegen
P. O. BOX 9010 6500, GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands
2
CITI, CRP Henri Tudor Luxembourg, Luxembourg
nakakawa@science.ru.nl, pvb@cs.ru.nl, e.proper@acm.org
The full paper of this abstract was published as “Nakakawa, A., Bommel, P. van,
and Proper, H. A.: Applying Soft Systems Methodology in Enterprise Architec-
ture Creation Workshops, in Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop
on Enterprise Modelling and Information Systems Architectures (EMISA). M.
Nttgens, O. Thomas, B. Weber (Eds.), Hamburg, Germany, September 22-23,
2011. LNI 190 GI 2011, ISBN 978-3-88579-284-0”
Keywords: Enterprise Architecture Creation, Soft Systems Methodology, Col-
laboration Engineering.
Extended Abstract
Lack of effective involvement of stakeholders is one of the common drawbacks of
enterprise architecture development [1]. This paper, therefore, focuses on chal-
lenges associated with involving stakeholders in the enterprise architecture effort.
These challenges are mainly caused by two issues, i.e.: (a) the success of collabo-
rative sessions that involve enterprise architects and stakeholders mainly depends
on the presence of a professional or skilled facilitator; (b) the lack of a clear, pre-
dictable, and repeatable way of managing tasks that require effective and active
stakeholder involvement. Earlier attempts to overcome these issues involve us-
ing Collaboration Engineering to develop a process that enterprise architects
can execute (by themselves) so as to manage tasks that require effective collab-
oration with stakeholders during enterprise architecture creation. Collaboration
Engineering was chosen because it offers affordable facilitation to practitioners
(in this case enterprise architects) of recurring high-value tasks (like enterprise
architecture creation), by enabling the development of repeatable processes that
practitioners can execute without hiring a professional facilitator [2,5].
According to [5], a collaborative process for a given task is designed using the
following procedure: specifying the goal and deliverables of the process; defining
the activities that participants must execute so as to achieve the goal; speci-
fying the reasoning phases participants must undergo in order to achieve the
goal; and describing detailed facilitation support for each activity. Facilitation
support is specified by articulating: (a) the Group Support System (GSS) tools
that should be used (or alternative techniques) during the collaborative ses-
sions; (b) how the tools should be configured; and (c) the message prompts that
69
should be followed [2]. This design approach was adapted when formulating the
collaboration process for effectively involving stakeholders during enterprise ar-
chitecture creation. This process is herein referred to as Collaborative Evaluation
of Enterprise Architecture Design Alternatives (CEADA). The earlier version of
CEADA was evaluated in a field study (of five organizations) where it was effec-
tive in supporting activities that required stakeholders to brainstorm, prioritize
or rank or rate concerns and requirements for the architecture; and perform
multi-criteria evaluation of possible enterprise architecture design alternatives.
However, CEADA was still lacking adequate support for stirring vigorous and
rigorous discussions when executing activities that required stakeholders and ar-
chitects to reduce and organize aspects from brainstorming activities; and assess
possible interrelationships and implications. This was reflected in the feedback
from stakeholders who participated in the sessions supported by CEADA; the
facilitator; and the observer of the sessions.
Since the main focus of this research is to offer effective stakeholder involve-
ment in architecture creation, in this paper we address the above weakness by
supplementing CEADA with techniques for enhancing the creation of a shared
understanding and vision during execution of activities that involve organiz-
ing and discussing brainstormed aspects. We focus on adapting Soft Systems
Methodology (SSM) because of its reputation for managing complex and ill-
structured organizational problems through structuring rational thinking about
them [3]. SSM techniques can be adapted to supplement the design of the col-
laboration process with support for triggering discussions and creating a shared
understanding and vision among stakeholders. We also adapt the cause-effect
analysis diagram (or Fishbone or Ishikawa) technique because of its support
for thorough problem analysis [4]. Since SSM offers implicit facilitation support
for collaborative workshops or discussion debates among problem owners and
solver(s), Collaboration Engineering is further used in designing the facilitation
script that shows how SSM and Ishikawa techniques can be used in enterprise
architecture creation. Thus, in this paper CEADA is extended by a script that
provides facilitation support for using SSM and Ishikawa diagram techniques to
execute activities that require the use of clarify and organize patterns of reason-
ing.
References
1. Benard, S.A.: An Introduction to Enterprise Architecture - Linking Business and
Technology. AuthorHouse, Indiana. (2005) ISBN 1420880500.
2. Briggs, R.O., Vreede, G.J. de, and Nunamaker, Jr. F.: Collaboration Engineering
with ThinkLets to Pursue Sustained Success with Group Support Systems. Journal
of Management Information Systems, 19:31–64, 2003.
3. Checkland, P.: Systems thinking, systems practice. John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Baffins
Lane, Chichester (1998) ISBN-10: 0-471-98606-2
4. Ishikawa, K.: Guide to Quality Control. 2nd Edition. Asia Productivity Organiza-
tion, Tokyo. (1986)
5. Vreede, G.J. de, and Briggs, R.O.: Collaboration Engineering: Designing Repeatable
Processes for High-Value Collaborative Tasks. IEEE: HICSS (2005).
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