Zoekresultaten

On the Categorization and Measurability of Enterprise Architecture Benefits with the Enterprise Architecture Value Framework

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.

Perceived benefits from enterprise architecture

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.

Circulation in Virtual Media Architecture

This paper describes a design experiment aimed at prototyping and exploring a virtual media architecture. We describe how we developed a prototype of a continuous circulation space that allows grounded movement, visual continuity and transitions between modes of the reality-virtuality continuum using an HMD (head-mounted display) and a technique called Stencil Rendering. Our prototype, situated in an architectural environment and supported by a narrative that provides a direction and context of use, enables us to explore the logic of circulation from direct experience. Throughout this paper we identify and reflect on several principles of this logic and define the circulation space as a composite of actual and virtual that unfolds interactively as the visitor moves through it. Our approach shows a way to experiment with the notion of virtual media architecture and to speculate about its possible use.

Instruments to Evaluate and Improve IT Architecture Work

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?

Towards media architecture

Navigating Interactive Story Spaces

Over the past decade, journalists have created in-depth interactive narratives to provide an alternative to the relentless 24-hour news cycle. Combining different media forms, such as text, audio, video, and data visualisation with the interactive possibilities of digital media, these narratives involve users in the narrative in new ways. In journalism studies, the convergence of different media forms in this manner has gained significant attention. However, interactivity as part of this form has been left underappreciated. In this study, we scrutinise how navigational structure, expressed as navigational cues, shapes user agency in their individual explorations of the narrative. By approaching interactive narratives as story spaces with unique interactive architectures, in this article, we reconstruct the architecture of five Dutch interactive narratives using the walkthrough method. We find that the extensiveness of the interactive architectures can be described on a continuum between closed and open navigational structures that predetermine and thus shape users’ trajectories in diverse ways.