Zoals zoveel beroepen is ook dat van informatiespecialisten onderhevig aan veel veranderingen. Onder invloed van alomtegenwoordige internettoegang en het gebruik van zoekmachines en sociale media op het web, neemt de informatiebalie bij hogeschool- en universiteitsbibliotheken al lang niet meer de centrale plek in die deze tien jaar geleden had. Jos van Helvoort rapporteert over de eisen die het 'reference work', naar de mening van vakreferenten en informatiespecialisten zelf, vandaag de dag en in de nabij toekomst aan hen stelt.
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We need mental and physical reference points. We need physical reference points such as signposts to show us which way to go, for example to the airport or the hospital, and we need reference points to show us where we are. Why? If you don’t know where you are, it’s quite a difficult job to find your way, thus landmarks and “lieux de memoire” play an important role in our lives.
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Software reference architectures have been around for quite some years. They have been designed and used with varying success. We have conducted an exploratory survey among software architects and developers to establish the extent to which SRA have penetrated among practitioners and to identify the benefits and problems practitioners face when using and designing SRA. In this article, we present our findings.
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Author Supplied: In the last decades, architecture has emerged as a discipline in the domain of Information Technology (IT). A well-accepted definition of architecture is from ISO/IEC 42010: "The fundamental organization of a system, embodied in its components, their relationships to each other and the environment, and the principles governing its design and evolution." Currently, many levels and types of architecture in the domain of IT have been defined. We have scoped our work to two types of architecture: enterprise architecture and software architecture. IT architecture work is demanding and challenging and includes, inter alia, identifying architectural significant requirements (functional and non-functional), designing and selecting solutions for these requirements, and ensuring that the solutions are implemented according to the architectural design. To reflect on the quality of architecture work, we have taken ISO/IEC 8402 as a starting point. It defines quality as "the totality of characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated requirements". We consider architecture work to be of high quality, when it is effective; when it answers stated requirements. Although IT Architecture has been introduced in many organizations, the elaboration does not always proceed without problems. In the domain of enterprise architecture, most practices are still in the early stages of maturity with, for example, low scores on the focus areas ‘Development of architecture’ and ‘Monitoring’ (of the implementation activities). In the domain of software architecture, problems of the same kind are observed. For instance, architecture designs are frequently poor and incomplete, while architecture compliance checking is performed in practice on a limited scale only. With our work, we intend to contribute to the advancement of architecture in the domain of IT and the effectiveness of architecture work by means of the development and improvement of supporting instruments and tools. In line with this intention, the main research question of this thesis is: How can the effectiveness of IT architecture work be evaluated and improved?
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Author supplied: Teaching software architecture (SA) in a bachelor computer science curriculum can be challenging, as the concepts are on a high abstraction level and not easy to grasp for students. Good techniques and tools that help with addressing the challenging SA aspects in a didactically responsible way are needed. In this tool demo we show how we used the software architecture compliance checking tool HUSACCT for addressing various concepts of SA in our courses on software architecture. The students were introduced to architectural reconstruction and architecture compliance checking, which helped them to gain important insights in aspects such as the relation between architectural models and code and the specification of dependency relations between architecture elements as concrete rules.
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Enterprise Architecture has been developed in order to optimize the alignment between business needs and the (rapidly changing) possibilities of information technology. But do organizations indeed benefit from the application of Enterprise Architecture according to those who are in any way involved in architecture? To answer this question, a model has been developed (the Enterprise Architecture Value Framework) to organize the benefits of Enterprise Architecture. Based on this model, a survey has been conducted among the various types of stakeholders of Enterprise Architecture, such as architects, project managers, developers and business or IT managers. In the survey the respondents were asked to what extent they perceive various benefits of Enterprise Architecture in their organization. The results of this survey (with 287 fully completed responses) are analyzed and presented in this paper. In all categories of the framework benefits are perceived, though to different extent. Very few benefits are perceived in relation to the external orientation of the organization. Few statistically significant correlations were found in relation to the background of the respondents: the overall view on benefits of Enterprise Architecture appeared independent of the role of the respondents, the economic sector and the number of years of experience with architecture.
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With the development of Enterprise Architecture (EA) as a discipline, measuring and understanding its value for business and IT has become relevant. In this paper a framework for categorizing the benefits of EA, the Enterprise Architecture Value Framework (EAVF), is presented and based on this framework, a measurability maturity scale is introduced. In the EAVF the value aspects of EA are expressed using the four perspectives of the Balanced Scorecard with regard to the development of these aspects over time, defining sixteen key areas in which EA may provide value. In its current form the framework can support architects and researchers in describing and categorizing the benefits of EA. As part of our ongoing research on the value of EA, two pilots using the framework have been carried out at large financial institutions. These pilots illustrate how to use the EAVF as a tool in measuring the benefits of EA.
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The importance of sustainability is rapidly increasing and by now has an increasing impact on the operations of organizations. In modern organizations many of the business processes are supported by IT, which makes the relation between sustainability and IT an important subject. However, how to integrate business strategy with IT operations in relation to sustainability is unclear. In this paper we focus on the role of Enterprise Architecture in this process and try to answer “How Enterprise Architecture may contribute in the traceable transformation from sustainability principles towards requirements on Green IT in the field of higher education.” Based on a literature study and qualitative research at different organizations we adapted the Sustainable Information Systems Management (SISM) model of Erek et al (2012). The SISM Revisited model not only guides organizations in identifying areas of interest for aligning the sustainability strategy of an organization with its IS/IT activities, but we expect it will be useful to implement sustainability in organizations as well.
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SUMMARY Architecture compliance checking (ACC) is an approach to verify conformance of implemented program code to high-level models of architec tural design. Static ACC focuses on the modular software architecture and on the existence of rule violating dependencies between modules. Accurate tool support is essential for effective and efficient ACC. This paper presents a study on the accuracy of ACC tools regarding dependency analysis and violation reporting. Ten tools were tested and compare d by means of a custom-made benchmark. The Java code of the benchmark testware contains 34 different types of dependencies, which are based on an inventory of dependency types in object oriented program code. In a second test, the code of open source system FreeMind was used to compare the 10 tools on the number of reported rule violating dependencies and the exactness of the dependency and violation messages. On the average, 77% of the dependencies in our custom-made test software were reported, while 72% of the dependencies within a module of FreeMind were reported. The results show that all tools in the test could improve the accuracy of the reported dependencies and violations, though large differences between the 10 tools were observed. We have identified10 hard-to-detect types of dependencies and four challenges in dependency detection. The relevance of our findings is substantiated by means of a frequency analysis of the hard-to-detect types of dependencies in five open source systems. DOI: 10.1002/spe.2421
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Background and aim – Challenging behaviour, such as aggression towards oneself, others, or objects, arises in interaction with the environment and may prevent individuals from participating in society and enjoying a high quality of life (QoL). Literature suggests that architects can contribute to prevention, by influencing challenging behaviour before rather than after its occurrence. The objective is to explore how architecture can contribute to the quality of life of intellectually impaired (and autistic) individuals showing challenging behaviour (CB). Methods – The case study is based on interviews with residents and care providers, and direct observations of their daily life. Results – Residents turn out to be dependent on the (visual) connection with the care provider and may experience stress from the behaviour of fellow residents. They also may experience stress when faced with unexpected situations and by sensory overload. Originality – The relevance of architecture for CB reduction is new to this particular field of healthcare. Practical or social implications – If these preliminary findings can be confirmed, they provide a basis for developing guidelines to design better environments for intellectually impaired individuals showing CB. Architecture might promote choice in interpersonal distance, by generous floorplans, a variety of spaces, and escape possibilities. Predictability might be enhanced by providing visual overview and previews into rooms. Finally, architecture that promotes sensory adjustment might improve the QoL of individuals showing CB by preventing sensory overload, and by doing so, mitigate related behaviours.Type of paper – Research paper.
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