Organizational Theory

"GERAM (The Generalized Enterprise Reference Architecture Methodology) is a class of enterprise architectures and their associated methodologies as developed by the IFAC/IFIP Task Force on Architectures for in their work during the period 1990-1996"

"provides a Reference Architecture (known as the CIMOSA cube) from which particular enterprise architectures can be derived. This Reference Architecture and the associated enterprise modelling framework are based on a set of modelling constructs, or generic building blocks, which altogether form the CIMOSA modelling languages."

"Establishing an enterprise architecture is like reengineering an aircraft in flight."

"A conceptual framework that links the Departmental and Programmatic missions, goals, and objectives, and provides a mapping of the current and future DOE business information required to support them."

"Architecture is that set of design artifacts, or descriptive representations, that are relevant for describing an object, such that it can be produced to requirements (quality) as well as maintained over the period of its useful life (change)."

"The Enterprise Architecture is the explicit description of the current and desired relationships among business and management process and information technology. It describes the "target" situation which the agency wishes to create and maintain by managing its IT portfolio. The documentation of the Enterprise Architecture should include a discussion of principles and goals. For example, the agency's overall management environment, including the balance between centralization and decentralization and the pace of change within the agency, should be clearly understood when developing the Enterprise Architecture. Within that environment, principles and goals set direction on such issues as the promotion of interoperability, open systems, public access, end-user satisfaction, and security."

"In the early '80's, there was little interest in the idea of Enterprise Reengineering or Enterprise Modeling and the use of formalisms and models was generally limited to some aspects of application development within the Information Systems community. The subject of "architecture" was acknowledged at that time, however, there was little definition to support the concept. This lack of definition precipitated the initial investigation that ultimately resulted in the "Framework for Information Systems Architecture." Although from the outset, it was clear that it should have been referred to as a "Framework for Enterprise Architecture," that enlarged perspective could only now begin to be generally understood as a result of the relatively recent and increased, world-wide focus on Enterprise "engineering." The Framework as it applies to Enterprises is simply a logical structure for classifying and organizing the descriptive representations of an Enterprise that are significant to the management of the Enterprise as well as to the development of the Enterprise’s systems. It was derived from analogous structures that are found in the older disciplines of Architecture/Construction and Engineering/Manufacturing that classify and organize the design artifacts created over the process of designing and producing complex physical products (e.g. buildings or airplanes.)"

"One could then consider the enterprise-reference architecture to be a meta model of the enterprise representation. The enterprise-architecture is a component of this meta model."

"The term "information technology architecture," with respect to an executive agency, means an integrated framework for evolving or maintaining existing information technology and acquiring new information technology to achieve the agency’s strategic goals and information resources management goals."

"The is about those methods, models and tools which are needed to build the integrated enterprise. The architecture is generic because it applies to most, potentially all types of enterprise. The coverage of the framework spans Products, Enterprises, Enterprise Integration and Strategic Enterprise Management, with the emphasis being on the middle two. The proposal for the architecture follows the architecture itself improving the quality of the presentation and of the outcome. Definitions of Generic Enterprise Reference Architecture, Enterprise Engineering/ Integration Methodology, Enterprise Modelling Languages, Enterprise Models, and Enterprise Modules are given. It is proposed how the above could be developed on the basis of previously analysed architectures (and other results too), such as the , the GRAI Integrated Methodology, , and TOVIE."

"Most enterprise architectures are obsolete," says Martin, and "most end-to-end processes are clumsy, slow, expensive, and even harmful; they need to be replaced with routines that are fast and focus on the needs of the customer."

"There is no such thing as a standard enterprise architecture. Enterprise design is as unique as a human fingerprint, because enterprise differ in how they function. Adopting an enterprise architecture is therefore one of the most urgent tasks for top executive management. Fundamentally, and information framework is a political doctrine for specifying as to who will have what information to make timely decisions... Enterprise architecture [is] the Holy Grail of all systems people. Advanced systems textbooks tell you that every organization must have one. Several CIM program directors attempted to come up with this abstraction, only to fail. Only someone with a depth of understanding about how the Pentagon really works could come up with anything of use."

"The presence of an enterprise reference architecture aids an enterprise in its ability to understand its structure and processes. Similar to a computer architecture, the enterprise architecture is comprised of several views. The enterprise architecture should provide activity, organizational, business rule (information), resource, and process views of an organization."

"An enterprise architecture is a snapshot of how an enterprise operates while performing its business processes. The recognition of the need for integration at all levels of an organisation points to a multi-dimensional framework that links both the business processes and the data requirements. Such a framework is provided by the Information Systems Architecture (ISA) developed by John Zachman."

"The Enterprise Project is collaborative work between AIAI at the University of Edinburgh, IBM UK, Lloyd's Register of Shipping, Logica and Unilever. The project is establishing a generic framework within which enterprise tools can be used to assist users in their tasks. It is based on an Enterprise ontology which establishes shared terminology for communication between users and tools... The core of the tool set will support user tasks via a workflow engine which will assist the user in performing a task, allow access to appropriate tools and methods, and make available suitable information resources. An abstraction of this central work ow within the tool set is provided in this paper. This acts to provide a framework for describing the various components integrated within the tool set and allowing them to be provided in a modular fashion."

"Enterprise computing and open systems - what are the distinctions between the two. Open systems are oriented towards an environment where most or all of the computing technology that comprises that environment is based upon standards regardless of the scope of the environment - departmental or organization-wide. Enterprise computing, by contrast, encompasses not only open system concepts but, by virtue of existing environments that must be incorporated as well, a great deal of proprietary interfaces and interoperability mechanisms. In the early 1990s, as both movements were beginning to gain momentum, there was some degree of overlap between open systems and enterprise computing, the amount of which was hindered somewhat by the stage at which enterprise architectures and standards were. It was anticipated that over time, as the enterprise architectures, open standards, and products built on one or both evolved and matured, the gap between the two would narrow and a greater degree of overlap would occur. As it turns out, the two movements have converged..."

"Although the concept of an enterprise architecture (EA) has not been well defined and agreed upon, EAs are being developed to support information system development and enterprise reengineering. Most EAs differ in content and nature, and most are incomplete because they represent only data and process aspects of the enterprise. This paper defines an EA... An EA is a conceptual framework that describes how an enterprise is constructed by defining its primary components and the relationships among these components."

"It is within the purview of each context to define its own rules and techniques for deciding how the object-oriented mechanisms and principles are to be managed. And while the manager of a large information system might wish to impose some rules based on philosophical grounds, from the perspective of enterprise architecture, there is no reason to make decisions at this level. Each context should define its own objecttivity."

"An enterprise architecture is an abstract summary of some organizational component's design. The organizational strategy is the basis for deciding where the organization wants to be in three to five years. When matched to the organizational strategy, the architectures provide the foundation for deciding priorities for implementing the strategy."

"An enterprise architecture can be thought of as a "blueprint" or "picture" which assists in the design of an enterprise. The enterprise architecture must define three things. First, what are the activities that an enterprise performs? Second, how should these activities be performed? And finally, how should the enterprise be constructed? Consequently, the architecture being developed will identify the essential processes performed by a virtual company, how the virtual company and the agile enterprises involved in the virtual company will perform these processes, and include a methodology for the rapid reconfiguration of the virtual enterprise."

"A company's enterprise architecture is unique — neither good nor bad, but only appropriate or inappropriate in regard to management's vision of the future. The current enterprise architecture either supports the vision or it does not."

"The integration technology and infrastructure elements available today, in 1993, would enable an enterprise to develop a significant integration infrastructure. However, integration projects are constrained by cultural inertia, financial and resource limitations, and, significantly, risk management Thus, projects and their supporting integration infrastructures tend to be deployed in an incremental and evolutionary manner. Since each enterprise chooses its integration path based on particular business needs, the corporations visited in this study each presented a different road map of integration efforts to date and a unique snapshot of current integration infrastructure.... DoD, in concert with leading companies, should formulate an R&D strategy to create a new generation of enterprise architectures, models, tools, and software systems, and to determine the potential for new business operations, engineering practices, and manufacturing concepts. To achieve potential functional and performance improvements, integrators should combine the leverage of several emerging threshold technologies, such as operational integration frameworks, object-based and knowledge-based product and process representations, application-oriented network services, near-term and mid-term solutions to database integration, and wide-area object brokerage and execution.-"

"This is an intermediate work that describes PERA, which is a general enterprise reference architecture model that is suited for manufacturing enterprises. The book explains PERA as a layered architecture, and within the context of an architectural life cycle. PERA at the conceptual level is focused on the integration of physical plant, human resources, and information systems. This approach is clearly suited to manufacturing, and in fact, the model has been adopted and adapted by Fluor Daniel Corporation (among others) and has been proven in practice..."

"Enterprise Architecture Planning (EAP) results in a high-level blueprint of data, applications, and technology that is a cost-effective, long-term solution; not a quick fix. Management participation provides a business perspective, credibility, and de-mystifies the systems planning process. EAP can be labeled as business-driven or data -driven because"

"The creation and implementation of integrated information systems involves a variety of collaborators including people from specialist departments, informatics, external advisers and manufacturers. They need clear rules and limits within which they can process their individual sub-tasks, in order to ensure the logical consistency of the entire project. Therefore, an architecture needs to be established to determine the components that make up the information system and the methods to be used to describe it. The ARIS architecture developed in this book is described in concrete terms as an information model within the entity-relationship approach. This information model provides the basis for the systematic and rational application of methods in the development of information systems. It also serves as the basis for a repository in which the enterprise's application - specific data, organization and function models can be stored. The ARIS architecture constitutes a framework in which integrated applications systems can be developed, optimized and converted into EDP - technical implementations. At the same time, it demonstrates how business economics can examine and analyze information systems in order to translate their contents into EDP-suitable form."

"A key ingredient to an enterprise architecture is the ability to link multiple and disparate systems into a coherent whole. has been gradually putting together the technology that will enable it to offer enterprise LANs that are capable of supporting distributed applications running across a variety of computer Internetworking and multi- routing are essential building blocks."

"For the IT department [the] change towards commodity products, open standards, end-user decision making and fundamental change in the Business platform, will imply substantial challenges. The role of the IS function will change. The formal IS budget in the US, according to Gartner Group Inc, is 2.4% of revenue in 1990, and will grow to 2.7% in 1995. End-user IT spending is estimated t0 2.4% in 1990, split 50/50 between budget and unseen expenses. This item is assumed to increase to 5.0% in 1995, bringing the total to 7.7% This total amount must be managed, and the rules must be set by the IS manager. Following the rule of "Least resistance", will lead to crisis and complete loss of control. IT resources must be managed. An Enterprise Architecture must be established and adhered to. Standards must be established, and partnerships between IT professionals and end-users formed."

"When one enterprise architecture dominates, Grumman plans to use it as a "manager of managers." This single, enterprise-wide network-management architecture will run over all other network-management systems being used: no existing scheme will be scrapped."

"The Enterprise Architecture is a combination of the Business and Computing architectures. The Computing Architecture, at the least, identifies hardware, software and data communications."

"Enterprise architectures are required to support and maximize the efforts of virtual teams within decentralized organizations. Vendor products exist today to start evolving towards a standards-based multi-vendor architecture. The underlying networking technology, 802.3/Ethemet, is robust and will provide for a cost-effective investment that will last for many years to come. Complimentary LAN technologies are already available to ensure transparent growth of networked systems. Combining human resources with information technology will be the key differentiating factor for successful manufacturing enterprises in the 1990s."

"Automatic control in manufacturing requires a very rigourous and well defined model of the operation to be controlled. A model which on one hand reflects reality as closely as possible and on the other hand allows easy and fast modifications and updates to reflect the continuous changes in the real world. provides the modelling concepts to describe and maintain the complete manufacturing systems. In addition, CIM-OSA aims to provide at providing consistent engineering and operational environments to model for execution as well as for real time operation control. Keywords: CIM; CIM architecture; enterprise architecture; enterprise modelling; enterprise optimisation; enterprise control; real time control;"

"Traditional manufactures tend to view human resources contained within highly segmented functions whereas integrated manufacturers view the entire organization as a series of resource centers. Integrated manufacturers allow and promote the sharing of critical skills on an as needed basis throughout the enterprise while Traditional manufacturers fall victim to resource hoarding. Given the breadth of change that new manufacturing technologies and operations philosophies will bring to many organizations, an assessment should be made as to how ready the organization and the various business functions are to accommodate these technology and non-technology changes. The recommended approach of course is to begin with corporate vision, objectives and strategies leading to a determination of the overall Enterprise Architecture in the areas of People, Management Practices, Support Structures and Corporate Cultures. This would ensure that all of the complementary shifts in the components of the Enterprise Architecture would be orchestrated under an overall plan of enterprise wide change."

"DOD will create a Department-wide blueprint (enterprise architecture) that will prescribe how the Department's financial and non-financial feeder systems and business processes interact. This architecture will guide the development of enterprise-level processes and systems throughout DOD."

"Architecture is defined as a clear representation of a conceptual framework of components and their relationships at a point in time... a discussion of architecture must take into account different levels of architecture. These levels can be illustrated by a pyramid, with the business unit at the top and the delivery system at the base. An enterprise is composed of one or more Business Units that are responsible for a specific business area. The five levels of architecture are Business Unit, Information, Information System, Data and Delivery System. The levels are separate yet interrelated... The idea if an enterprise architecture reflects an awareness that the levels are logically connected and that a depiction at one level assumes or dictates that architectures at the higher level."

"Architecture discussions frequently focus on technology issues. This paper takes a broader view, and describes the need for an "enterprise architecture" that includes an emphasis on business and information requirements. These higher level issues impact data and technology architectures and decisions... There is not a single correct way to develop an architecture or implement standards for every enterprise; they must be customized to the environment."

"With increasing size and complexity of the implementations of information systems, it is necessary to use some logical construct (or architecture) for defining and controlling the interfaces and the integration of all of the components of the system."

"The state of the art in software design is the "enterprise architecture", where separate software components implement data processing (or other application specific-tasks), data storage, and user interface functionality. This approach enables, for example, the replacement of a database engine without changing the software components that process the data and those that support the interaction with the user."

"Although many popular information systems planning methodologies, design approaches, and various tools and techniques do not preclude or are not inconsistent with enterprise-level analysis, few of them explicitly address or attempt to define enterprise architectures."

"In every bureaucratic system the shifting of responsibilities is a matter of daily routine, and if one wishes to define bureaucracy in terms of political science, that is, as a form of government—the rule of offices, as contrasted to the rule of men, of one man, or of the few, or of the many—bureaucracy unhappily is the rule of nobody and for this very reason perhaps the least human and most cruel form of rulership."

"There comes a time in the history of all bureaucracies when they must inevitably parody their own functions."

"Bureaucracy and social harmony are inversely proportional to each other."

"Bureaucracy is [...] simultaneously the most crippling of Indian diseases and the highest of Indian art-forms."

"How easily we Indians see the several sides to every question! That is what makes us such good bureaucrats, and such poor totalitarians."

"I meant the petitions to provoke thought, to create discussion, but I underestimated the inertia in the system. I forgot that inertia is what bureaucracies are all about!"

"Forecasting by bureaucrats tends to be used for anxiety relief rather than for adequate policy making."

"The mills of bureaucracy may or may not grind fine, but they certainly grind exceeding slow."

"In sharp contrast to the modus operandi of swarm dynamics, political bodies are ill-equipped to protect the integrity of their components and lack the collective wisdom for synchronization. Instead, highly layered command-based systems invade, institutionalize, and indoctrinate society with centralized directives, straitjacket bureaucracies, and self-serving officialdom. These systems hungrily feast on what others have created, cannibalizing other people’s resources like a tribe of pragmatic headhunters."

"The administrative character... is liable to be influenced much more strongly by the choice of letter carriers and policemen than by the choice of a High Commissioner."

"If you are going to sin, sin against God, not the bureaucracy. God will forgive you but the bureaucracy won't."

"Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. [...] The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions."