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Marné De Vries

University of Pretoria, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Faculty Member

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C. Michael Hall

University of Canterbury/Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha

Charalambos Tsekeris

National Centre of Social research

California Institute of Integral Studies

Lancaster University

Kansas State University

Bentley University

York University

Andrzej Wojciech W Nowak

Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

Miguel Carvajal

Universidad Miguel Hernandez

University of Central Lancashire

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Papers by Marné De Vries

System dynamics applied in enterprise engineering – a systematic literature review

Journal of modelling in management, May 14, 2024

Purpose -This study aims to investigate the combined use of System Dynamics (SD) applications in ... more Purpose -This study aims to investigate the combined use of System Dynamics (SD) applications in Enterprise Engineering (EE) research and practice. SD application in EE is becoming widely accepted as a tool to support decision-making processes and for capturing relationships within enterprises. Design/methodology/approach -A systematic literature review (SLR) is conducted using a standard SLR method to provide a comprehensive review of existing literature. The search was conducted on ten platforms identifying 30 publications which were analysed through the use and development of a codebook. Findings -The SLR showed that 90% of the result set consisted of peer-reviewed academic conferences and journal papers. The SLR identified a highly dispersed author set of 83 authors. Amongst these authors, Vinay Kulkarni was an active author who has co-authored up to four publications in this research area. The analysis further revealed that the combined use of SD applications and EE is an emerging research area that still needs to develop in maturity. While all phases of EE have received attention, the current research work is more focused on the design phase. The important gap between model development and implementation is identified. Originality/value -The study elucidates the existing status of interdisciplinary research combining techniques from the SD and EE disciplines, suggesting future research topics that combine the strengths of these existing disciplines.

A Meta Model for Enterprise Systems Dynamics: Reducing Model Ambiguity

Extending the Meta Model for Enterprise Systems Dynamics from a Software Tooling Perspective

Modelling the Electricity Value of Mauritius’ Sugarcane Industrial Ecosystem Using Systems Dynamics Approach

Sugar cane, grown widely in African countries, is known to be one of the most productive species ... more Sugar cane, grown widely in African countries, is known to be one of the most productive species in terms of its conversion of solar energy to chemical potential energy. However, the deployment and diffusion of this technology option on large scale basis is hindered by the complexity in bio-electricity generation. The conversion pathways across bio-electricity production involve water, energy, and land-use planning decision and policy making often occurs in separate and disconnected institutional entities. As such the analytical tools used in support of the decision making process are equally fragmented. In addition the supply of feedstock for electricity generation is limited to the crop harvest season. Let alone the supply is threatened by a wide range of factors among which includes declining sugar prices, competing priorities for land and water which hinder growth of this sector. The complexity warrants the need for decision support tools that can be used not only to broaden the...

An integrated approach for modeling the electricity value of a sugarcane production system

Applied Energy, 2016

• Electricity value of a sugarcane industrial ecosystem is modeled using a SSD model. • Bagasse a... more • Electricity value of a sugarcane industrial ecosystem is modeled using a SSD model. • Bagasse and trash can provide highest efficiency in electricity generation. • Projected bio-derived electricity generation can substantially reduce emissions. • Proposed approach broadens the understanding of bio-derived electricity generation.

Usability of Virtual Tools for Participatory Enterprise Modelling

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, Dec 31, 2022

Participatory modelling (PM) is focused on actively involving enterprise stakeholders and modelli... more Participatory modelling (PM) is focused on actively involving enterprise stakeholders and modelling experts in the modelling process. Typically, participants are co-located and encouraged to collaborate to avoid conceptual misalignment. During Covid-19, however, people were forced to reduce significantly their physical interactions, which led to the embracing of virtual tools. However, limited research has been done to evaluate virtual tools for the purpose of PM or participatory enterprise modelling (PEM), and specifically for the ease-of-use or usability of these tools. Many standardised usability questionnaires are available to evaluate the usability of user interfaces or systems. We provide key criteria for selecting an appropriate standardised questionnaire to measure PM tool usability and, as the main contribution, examine in a controlled experiment the usability of an online tool, MURAL, when participants use PEM. We report on the tool's usability, using the selected standardised usability questionnaire, and present insights obtained through interviews and observations.

Exploring the future of enterprise architecture: A Zachman perspective

by Marné De Vries and John Zachman

Computers in Industry, 2016

Today, and for the foreseeable future, organizations will face ever-increasing levels of complexi... more Today, and for the foreseeable future, organizations will face ever-increasing levels of complexity and uncertainty. Many believe that enterprise architecture (EA) will help organizations address such difficult terrain by guiding the design of adaptive and resilient enterprises and their information systems. This paper presents the "Grand Challenges" that we believe will challenge organizations in the future and need to be addressed by enterprise architecture. As a first step in using enterprise architecture as a solution for overcoming identified challenges, the Zachman Enterprise Architecture Framework is used to guide and structure the discussion. The paper presents the "Grand Challenges" and discusses promising theories and models for addressing them. In addition, current advances in the field of enterprise architecture that have begun to address the challenges will be presented. In conclusion, final thoughts on the future of enterprise architecture as a research field and a profession are offered.

Adapting and Evaluating the Story-Card-Method

Springer eBooks, 2022

A process reuse identification framework using an alignment model

This thesis explores the potential to unify three emerging disciplines: enterprise engineering, e... more This thesis explores the potential to unify three emerging disciplines: enterprise engineering, enterprise architecture and enterprise ontology. The current fragmentation that exists in literature on enterprise alignment and design constrains the development and growth of the emerging disciplines. Enterprises need to use a multidisciplinary approach when they continuously align, design and redesign the enterprise. Although enterprises need to be aligned internally (across various enterprise facets), as well as externally (with the environment), most alignment approaches still focus on business-IT alignment, i.e. aligning the business operations with the information and communication technologies and systems of the enterprise. This study focuses on a popular business-IT alignment approach, called the foundation for execution approach, and its associated artefact, called the operating model. The study acknowledges the theoretical contribution of the operating model to establish the required level of business process integration and standardisation at an enterprise in delivering goods and services to customers. Highlighting the practical problems in selecting an operating model for an enterprise, and more specifically the practical problems of identifying process reuse potential at an enterprise, a thesis statement is formulated: The operating model concept, as part of a business-IT alignment approach, can be enhanced with a process reuse identification framework, when a business-IT alignment contextua/isation is used. The study is divided into two research questions. The first research question addresses the current fragmentation that exists in the literature, which impairs reuse of the existing business-IT alignment knowledge base. An inductive literature review develops the Business-IT Alignment Model to provide a common contextualisation for current business-IT alignment approaches. The second research question addresses the practical problems of the operating model regarding the identification of process reuse potential at an enterprise. Applying the newly developed Business-IT Alignment Model as a contextualisation instrument, the study demonstrates the use of design research in developing the Process Reuse Identification Framework. The conclusion after the investigation of the two research questions is that the thesis statement was confirmed, i.e. the operating model concept, as part of a business-IT alignment approach, can be enhanced with a process reuse identification framework, when a business-IT contextualisation is used.

Modelling Electricity Generation from Sugarcane Production System Using Systems Dynamics

Green energy and technology, Nov 2, 2017

Current global energy systems have proven unsustainable amid effects of the cumulative greenhouse... more Current global energy systems have proven unsustainable amid effects of the cumulative greenhouse emissions and climate change. The drive towards a low carbon future has precipitated the consideration of alternative energy sources. Among these sugar cane, grown widely in African countries, is known to be one of the most productive species in terms of its conversion of solar energy to chemical potential energy. However the supply of feedstock is limited to the harvest or crop season. More-so the sugarcane industry is faced with a plethora of threats and challenges. This paper seeks to broaden the understanding of the complexity in bio-electricity generation through a systems dynamics model. The model provides certain considerations for optimization of the energy value in sugarcane production systems. Among these is the use of trash as additive feedstock, and improvement in feedstock productions through enhanced sugarcane production systems. Apart from illustrating some of the policy considerations on land use change, sugarcane production, and improved technological efficiency the paper provides the effect on emission avoidance.

Evaluating the usefulness of an online participative modelling tool when post-graduate engineers co-model enterprise operations

Towards a Holistic Customer Experience Management Framework for Enterprises

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, Nov 1, 2016

We have entered the age of the customer where customer choice is the main differentiator between ... more We have entered the age of the customer where customer choice is the main differentiator between enterprises. Therefore, enterprises need to shift their focus to customer experience management (CEM). A survey conducted within the telecommunications sector indicated a gap between theoretical CEM approaches and their implementation in enterprises. Although a systematic literature review and inductive thematic analysis of CEM literature revealed nine common themes, none of the existing approaches includes all of these themes in a comprehensive way. Based on those nine themes, this paper presents a new holistic framework for CEM that managers and practitioners concerned with improving customer experiences could use.

Selecting a Scaled Agile Approach for a Fin-Tech Company

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2020

Agile methodologies were created for small co-located teams; but their benefits are now needed fo... more Agile methodologies were created for small co-located teams; but their benefits are now needed for projects with multiple, geographically dispersed teams. This raises the issue of scaled Agile-the modification of Agile to suit grander endeavours. This article introduces a fin-tech company which is building a digital banking platform and is already running Scrum, with the crucial need to scale its Agile approach because numerous globally distributed development teams are working on this project. A systematic inquiry at the enterprise, using interviews and surveys, raised issues about inter-team communication, collaboration, and dependencies, all of which link to issues in the literature about scaling Agile. Using a systematic process of extracting knowledge on Agile-at-scale frameworks from the literature, a comparison of existing frameworks (SAFe, Less, DAD, and Nexus) was used to determine which was best suited, with Nexus being suggested for the enterprise. We conclude by suggesting case study research to experiment further with Nexus.

Demonstrating Approach Design Principles during the Development of a DEMO-based Enterprise Engineering Approach

Enterprise engineering (EE) aims to address several phenomena in the evolution of an enterprise. ... more Enterprise engineering (EE) aims to address several phenomena in the evolution of an enterprise. One prominent phenomenon is the inability of the enterprise as a complex socio-technical system to adapt to rapidly-changing environments. In response to this phenomenon, many enterprise design approaches (with their own methodologies, frameworks, and modelling languages) emerged, but with little empirical evidence about their effectiveness. Furthermore, research indicates that multiple enterprise design approaches are used concurrently in industry, with each approach focusing on a subset of stakeholder concerns. The proliferating design approaches do not necessarily explicate their conditional use in terms of contextual prerequisites and demarcated design scope; and this also impairs their evaluation. Previous work suggested eleven design principles that would guide approach designers when they design or enhance an enterprise design approach. The design principles ensure that researchers contribute to the systematic growth of the EE knowledge base. This article provides a demonstration of the eleven principles during the development of a DEMO-based enterprise engineering approach, as well as a discussion to reflect on the usefulness of the principles.

Towards an enterprise evolution contextualisation model

Proceedings of the First International Conference on Enterprise Systems: ES 2013, 2013

ABSTRACT Enterprises that exist today came into being mostly in an ad-hoc manner rather than bein... more ABSTRACT Enterprises that exist today came into being mostly in an ad-hoc manner rather than being systematically designed. A piece-meal design of enterprise components led to a lack of coherence and consistency between numerous components of the enterprise. At present, both researchers and practitioners acknowledge the need for an overall view of the enterprise, as well as a new paradigm to understand and redesign the enterprise.

The Nature of the Enterprise Engineering Discipline

Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, 2014

Enterprise engineering originated as a practice with most publications focusing on the practical ... more Enterprise engineering originated as a practice with most publications focusing on the practical facets without the underlying scientific foundation. Foundational works emerged from different authors in recent years, including Dietz, Hoogervorst and Giachetti. According to Gregor, the bodies of knowledge or theories encompassed in a discipline need to address questions related to four classes namely: the domain, structural or ontological, epistemological, and socio-political. As a departure point for setting a research agenda for EE, we argue that the four classes of questionscould also serve as a basis to determine an EE research agenda. In this paper we argue that a research agenda for EE should start with the first class of questions, concerning the domain of the discipline and suggest that an existing model, the Enterprise Evolution Contextualisation Model (EECM), could be used to define the domain of the EE discipline.

A Farm Site Development Method: Creating a Roadmap Towards Site Saturation

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, Dec 1, 2014

Exploring Enhancements to the Agile Approach for Mid-Sized Enterprises in the Services Sector

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, Nov 1, 2017

Companies need to thrive in a dynamic environment, responding to it in an agile way. Within a com... more Companies need to thrive in a dynamic environment, responding to it in an agile way. Within a company's ICT domain, a key to achieving agility is to use agile software development. Experience, together with a literature review, has shown that the agile software development family of methods does not naturally fit into the context of medium to large enterprises. This article focuses on the challenges associated with agile software development. The main contribution of the article is to affirm that a class-of-problems exists-i.e., that many practitioners face challenges in implementing existing agile software development approaches successfully in medium to large enterprises. We also gather data via multiple interviews to show that the class-of-problems exists in a real-world enterprise that currently applies agile software development in medium-sized governmental bodies.

Towards Consistent Demarcation of Enterprise Design Domains

Springer eBooks, 2017

This article supports the ideology that enterprise engineering (EE) could add more value if EE re... more This article supports the ideology that enterprise engineering (EE) could add more value if EE researchers focus on facilitating effective conversations within design teams to create a common understanding of the enterprise. One way of creating a common understanding is to define and demarcate enterprise design domains in a consistent way. Literature presents different conceptualisations for demarcating design domains, without using a systematic demarcation rationale. As an example, this article introduces Hoogervorst's approach and associated enterprise design domains to highlight practical difficulties when emerging design principles are applied to four main design domains, as defined by Hoogervorst. Based on the suggestion to apply the basic system design process to demarcate the main enterprise design domains in a consistent way and addressing the need for additional design domains, we present four alternative enterprise design domains, developed via design science research. We also demonstrate the usefulness of the new design domains by presenting several examples of enterprise design cycles that occur during enterprise design.

A New DEMO Modelling Tool that Facilitates Model Transformations

Springer eBooks, 2020

The age of digitization requires rapid design and redesign of enterprises. Rapid changes can be r... more The age of digitization requires rapid design and redesign of enterprises. Rapid changes can be realized using conceptual modelling. The design and engineering methodology for organizations (DEMO) is an established modelling method for representing the organization domain of an enterprise. However, heterogeneity in enterprise design stakeholders generally demand for transformations between conceptual modelling languages. Specifically, in the case of DEMO, a transformation into business process modelling and notation (BPMN) models is desirable to account to both, the semantic sound foundation of the DEMO models, and the wide adoption of the de-facto industry standard BPMN. Model transformation can only be efficiently applied if tool support is available. Our research starts with a state-of-the-art analysis, comparing existing DEMO modelling tools. Using a design science research approach, our main contribution is the development of a DEMO modelling tool on the ADOxx platform. One of the main features of our tool is that it addresses stakeholder heterogeneity by enabling transformation of a DEMO organization construction diagram (OCD) into a BPMN collaboration diagram. A demonstration case shows the feasibility of our newly developed tool.

System dynamics applied in enterprise engineering – a systematic literature review

Journal of modelling in management, May 14, 2024

Purpose -This study aims to investigate the combined use of System Dynamics (SD) applications in ... more Purpose -This study aims to investigate the combined use of System Dynamics (SD) applications in Enterprise Engineering (EE) research and practice. SD application in EE is becoming widely accepted as a tool to support decision-making processes and for capturing relationships within enterprises. Design/methodology/approach -A systematic literature review (SLR) is conducted using a standard SLR method to provide a comprehensive review of existing literature. The search was conducted on ten platforms identifying 30 publications which were analysed through the use and development of a codebook. Findings -The SLR showed that 90% of the result set consisted of peer-reviewed academic conferences and journal papers. The SLR identified a highly dispersed author set of 83 authors. Amongst these authors, Vinay Kulkarni was an active author who has co-authored up to four publications in this research area. The analysis further revealed that the combined use of SD applications and EE is an emerging research area that still needs to develop in maturity. While all phases of EE have received attention, the current research work is more focused on the design phase. The important gap between model development and implementation is identified. Originality/value -The study elucidates the existing status of interdisciplinary research combining techniques from the SD and EE disciplines, suggesting future research topics that combine the strengths of these existing disciplines.

A Meta Model for Enterprise Systems Dynamics: Reducing Model Ambiguity

Extending the Meta Model for Enterprise Systems Dynamics from a Software Tooling Perspective

Modelling the Electricity Value of Mauritius’ Sugarcane Industrial Ecosystem Using Systems Dynamics Approach

Sugar cane, grown widely in African countries, is known to be one of the most productive species ... more Sugar cane, grown widely in African countries, is known to be one of the most productive species in terms of its conversion of solar energy to chemical potential energy. However, the deployment and diffusion of this technology option on large scale basis is hindered by the complexity in bio-electricity generation. The conversion pathways across bio-electricity production involve water, energy, and land-use planning decision and policy making often occurs in separate and disconnected institutional entities. As such the analytical tools used in support of the decision making process are equally fragmented. In addition the supply of feedstock for electricity generation is limited to the crop harvest season. Let alone the supply is threatened by a wide range of factors among which includes declining sugar prices, competing priorities for land and water which hinder growth of this sector. The complexity warrants the need for decision support tools that can be used not only to broaden the...

An integrated approach for modeling the electricity value of a sugarcane production system

Applied Energy, 2016

• Electricity value of a sugarcane industrial ecosystem is modeled using a SSD model. • Bagasse a... more • Electricity value of a sugarcane industrial ecosystem is modeled using a SSD model. • Bagasse and trash can provide highest efficiency in electricity generation. • Projected bio-derived electricity generation can substantially reduce emissions. • Proposed approach broadens the understanding of bio-derived electricity generation.

Usability of Virtual Tools for Participatory Enterprise Modelling

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, Dec 31, 2022

Participatory modelling (PM) is focused on actively involving enterprise stakeholders and modelli... more Participatory modelling (PM) is focused on actively involving enterprise stakeholders and modelling experts in the modelling process. Typically, participants are co-located and encouraged to collaborate to avoid conceptual misalignment. During Covid-19, however, people were forced to reduce significantly their physical interactions, which led to the embracing of virtual tools. However, limited research has been done to evaluate virtual tools for the purpose of PM or participatory enterprise modelling (PEM), and specifically for the ease-of-use or usability of these tools. Many standardised usability questionnaires are available to evaluate the usability of user interfaces or systems. We provide key criteria for selecting an appropriate standardised questionnaire to measure PM tool usability and, as the main contribution, examine in a controlled experiment the usability of an online tool, MURAL, when participants use PEM. We report on the tool's usability, using the selected standardised usability questionnaire, and present insights obtained through interviews and observations.

Exploring the future of enterprise architecture: A Zachman perspective

by Marné De Vries and John Zachman

Computers in Industry, 2016

Today, and for the foreseeable future, organizations will face ever-increasing levels of complexi... more Today, and for the foreseeable future, organizations will face ever-increasing levels of complexity and uncertainty. Many believe that enterprise architecture (EA) will help organizations address such difficult terrain by guiding the design of adaptive and resilient enterprises and their information systems. This paper presents the "Grand Challenges" that we believe will challenge organizations in the future and need to be addressed by enterprise architecture. As a first step in using enterprise architecture as a solution for overcoming identified challenges, the Zachman Enterprise Architecture Framework is used to guide and structure the discussion. The paper presents the "Grand Challenges" and discusses promising theories and models for addressing them. In addition, current advances in the field of enterprise architecture that have begun to address the challenges will be presented. In conclusion, final thoughts on the future of enterprise architecture as a research field and a profession are offered.

Adapting and Evaluating the Story-Card-Method

Springer eBooks, 2022

A process reuse identification framework using an alignment model

This thesis explores the potential to unify three emerging disciplines: enterprise engineering, e... more This thesis explores the potential to unify three emerging disciplines: enterprise engineering, enterprise architecture and enterprise ontology. The current fragmentation that exists in literature on enterprise alignment and design constrains the development and growth of the emerging disciplines. Enterprises need to use a multidisciplinary approach when they continuously align, design and redesign the enterprise. Although enterprises need to be aligned internally (across various enterprise facets), as well as externally (with the environment), most alignment approaches still focus on business-IT alignment, i.e. aligning the business operations with the information and communication technologies and systems of the enterprise. This study focuses on a popular business-IT alignment approach, called the foundation for execution approach, and its associated artefact, called the operating model. The study acknowledges the theoretical contribution of the operating model to establish the required level of business process integration and standardisation at an enterprise in delivering goods and services to customers. Highlighting the practical problems in selecting an operating model for an enterprise, and more specifically the practical problems of identifying process reuse potential at an enterprise, a thesis statement is formulated: The operating model concept, as part of a business-IT alignment approach, can be enhanced with a process reuse identification framework, when a business-IT alignment contextua/isation is used. The study is divided into two research questions. The first research question addresses the current fragmentation that exists in the literature, which impairs reuse of the existing business-IT alignment knowledge base. An inductive literature review develops the Business-IT Alignment Model to provide a common contextualisation for current business-IT alignment approaches. The second research question addresses the practical problems of the operating model regarding the identification of process reuse potential at an enterprise. Applying the newly developed Business-IT Alignment Model as a contextualisation instrument, the study demonstrates the use of design research in developing the Process Reuse Identification Framework. The conclusion after the investigation of the two research questions is that the thesis statement was confirmed, i.e. the operating model concept, as part of a business-IT alignment approach, can be enhanced with a process reuse identification framework, when a business-IT contextualisation is used.

Modelling Electricity Generation from Sugarcane Production System Using Systems Dynamics

Green energy and technology, Nov 2, 2017

Current global energy systems have proven unsustainable amid effects of the cumulative greenhouse... more Current global energy systems have proven unsustainable amid effects of the cumulative greenhouse emissions and climate change. The drive towards a low carbon future has precipitated the consideration of alternative energy sources. Among these sugar cane, grown widely in African countries, is known to be one of the most productive species in terms of its conversion of solar energy to chemical potential energy. However the supply of feedstock is limited to the harvest or crop season. More-so the sugarcane industry is faced with a plethora of threats and challenges. This paper seeks to broaden the understanding of the complexity in bio-electricity generation through a systems dynamics model. The model provides certain considerations for optimization of the energy value in sugarcane production systems. Among these is the use of trash as additive feedstock, and improvement in feedstock productions through enhanced sugarcane production systems. Apart from illustrating some of the policy considerations on land use change, sugarcane production, and improved technological efficiency the paper provides the effect on emission avoidance.

Evaluating the usefulness of an online participative modelling tool when post-graduate engineers co-model enterprise operations

Towards a Holistic Customer Experience Management Framework for Enterprises

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, Nov 1, 2016

We have entered the age of the customer where customer choice is the main differentiator between ... more We have entered the age of the customer where customer choice is the main differentiator between enterprises. Therefore, enterprises need to shift their focus to customer experience management (CEM). A survey conducted within the telecommunications sector indicated a gap between theoretical CEM approaches and their implementation in enterprises. Although a systematic literature review and inductive thematic analysis of CEM literature revealed nine common themes, none of the existing approaches includes all of these themes in a comprehensive way. Based on those nine themes, this paper presents a new holistic framework for CEM that managers and practitioners concerned with improving customer experiences could use.

Selecting a Scaled Agile Approach for a Fin-Tech Company

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2020

Agile methodologies were created for small co-located teams; but their benefits are now needed fo... more Agile methodologies were created for small co-located teams; but their benefits are now needed for projects with multiple, geographically dispersed teams. This raises the issue of scaled Agile-the modification of Agile to suit grander endeavours. This article introduces a fin-tech company which is building a digital banking platform and is already running Scrum, with the crucial need to scale its Agile approach because numerous globally distributed development teams are working on this project. A systematic inquiry at the enterprise, using interviews and surveys, raised issues about inter-team communication, collaboration, and dependencies, all of which link to issues in the literature about scaling Agile. Using a systematic process of extracting knowledge on Agile-at-scale frameworks from the literature, a comparison of existing frameworks (SAFe, Less, DAD, and Nexus) was used to determine which was best suited, with Nexus being suggested for the enterprise. We conclude by suggesting case study research to experiment further with Nexus.

Demonstrating Approach Design Principles during the Development of a DEMO-based Enterprise Engineering Approach

Enterprise engineering (EE) aims to address several phenomena in the evolution of an enterprise. ... more Enterprise engineering (EE) aims to address several phenomena in the evolution of an enterprise. One prominent phenomenon is the inability of the enterprise as a complex socio-technical system to adapt to rapidly-changing environments. In response to this phenomenon, many enterprise design approaches (with their own methodologies, frameworks, and modelling languages) emerged, but with little empirical evidence about their effectiveness. Furthermore, research indicates that multiple enterprise design approaches are used concurrently in industry, with each approach focusing on a subset of stakeholder concerns. The proliferating design approaches do not necessarily explicate their conditional use in terms of contextual prerequisites and demarcated design scope; and this also impairs their evaluation. Previous work suggested eleven design principles that would guide approach designers when they design or enhance an enterprise design approach. The design principles ensure that researchers contribute to the systematic growth of the EE knowledge base. This article provides a demonstration of the eleven principles during the development of a DEMO-based enterprise engineering approach, as well as a discussion to reflect on the usefulness of the principles.

Towards an enterprise evolution contextualisation model

Proceedings of the First International Conference on Enterprise Systems: ES 2013, 2013

ABSTRACT Enterprises that exist today came into being mostly in an ad-hoc manner rather than bein... more ABSTRACT Enterprises that exist today came into being mostly in an ad-hoc manner rather than being systematically designed. A piece-meal design of enterprise components led to a lack of coherence and consistency between numerous components of the enterprise. At present, both researchers and practitioners acknowledge the need for an overall view of the enterprise, as well as a new paradigm to understand and redesign the enterprise.

The Nature of the Enterprise Engineering Discipline

Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, 2014

Enterprise engineering originated as a practice with most publications focusing on the practical ... more Enterprise engineering originated as a practice with most publications focusing on the practical facets without the underlying scientific foundation. Foundational works emerged from different authors in recent years, including Dietz, Hoogervorst and Giachetti. According to Gregor, the bodies of knowledge or theories encompassed in a discipline need to address questions related to four classes namely: the domain, structural or ontological, epistemological, and socio-political. As a departure point for setting a research agenda for EE, we argue that the four classes of questionscould also serve as a basis to determine an EE research agenda. In this paper we argue that a research agenda for EE should start with the first class of questions, concerning the domain of the discipline and suggest that an existing model, the Enterprise Evolution Contextualisation Model (EECM), could be used to define the domain of the EE discipline.

A Farm Site Development Method: Creating a Roadmap Towards Site Saturation

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, Dec 1, 2014

Exploring Enhancements to the Agile Approach for Mid-Sized Enterprises in the Services Sector

South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, Nov 1, 2017

Companies need to thrive in a dynamic environment, responding to it in an agile way. Within a com... more Companies need to thrive in a dynamic environment, responding to it in an agile way. Within a company's ICT domain, a key to achieving agility is to use agile software development. Experience, together with a literature review, has shown that the agile software development family of methods does not naturally fit into the context of medium to large enterprises. This article focuses on the challenges associated with agile software development. The main contribution of the article is to affirm that a class-of-problems exists-i.e., that many practitioners face challenges in implementing existing agile software development approaches successfully in medium to large enterprises. We also gather data via multiple interviews to show that the class-of-problems exists in a real-world enterprise that currently applies agile software development in medium-sized governmental bodies.

Towards Consistent Demarcation of Enterprise Design Domains

Springer eBooks, 2017

This article supports the ideology that enterprise engineering (EE) could add more value if EE re... more This article supports the ideology that enterprise engineering (EE) could add more value if EE researchers focus on facilitating effective conversations within design teams to create a common understanding of the enterprise. One way of creating a common understanding is to define and demarcate enterprise design domains in a consistent way. Literature presents different conceptualisations for demarcating design domains, without using a systematic demarcation rationale. As an example, this article introduces Hoogervorst's approach and associated enterprise design domains to highlight practical difficulties when emerging design principles are applied to four main design domains, as defined by Hoogervorst. Based on the suggestion to apply the basic system design process to demarcate the main enterprise design domains in a consistent way and addressing the need for additional design domains, we present four alternative enterprise design domains, developed via design science research. We also demonstrate the usefulness of the new design domains by presenting several examples of enterprise design cycles that occur during enterprise design.

A New DEMO Modelling Tool that Facilitates Model Transformations

Springer eBooks, 2020

The age of digitization requires rapid design and redesign of enterprises. Rapid changes can be r... more The age of digitization requires rapid design and redesign of enterprises. Rapid changes can be realized using conceptual modelling. The design and engineering methodology for organizations (DEMO) is an established modelling method for representing the organization domain of an enterprise. However, heterogeneity in enterprise design stakeholders generally demand for transformations between conceptual modelling languages. Specifically, in the case of DEMO, a transformation into business process modelling and notation (BPMN) models is desirable to account to both, the semantic sound foundation of the DEMO models, and the wide adoption of the de-facto industry standard BPMN. Model transformation can only be efficiently applied if tool support is available. Our research starts with a state-of-the-art analysis, comparing existing DEMO modelling tools. Using a design science research approach, our main contribution is the development of a DEMO modelling tool on the ADOxx platform. One of the main features of our tool is that it addresses stakeholder heterogeneity by enabling transformation of a DEMO organization construction diagram (OCD) into a BPMN collaboration diagram. A demonstration case shows the feasibility of our newly developed tool.