Five Years of IT Management Improvement Eight Cases From the Master of IT Management

8/10/2019 Five Years of IT Management Improvement Eight Cases From the Master of IT Management

1/89


2/89


3/89

This page intentionally left blank


4/89

FIVE YEARS OF

IT MANAGEMENT

IMPROVEMENT

Eight cases from the Master of IT Management

Written by eight alumniEdited by Guus de Mari


5/89

2009 IOS Press and the Authors. All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-58603-960-8

Published by IOS Press under the imprint Delft University Press

Publisher

IOS Press BVNieuwe Hemweg 6b1013 BG Amsterdam

the Netherlandstel: +31-20-688 3355fax: +31-20-687 0019email: [email protected]

Master of IT Management

Delft TopTechSchool of Executive EducationDelft University of Technology

P.O. Box 612, 2600 AP Delft,the Netherlandstel: +31 15 278 80 19fax: +31 15 278 10 [email protected]

LEGAL NOTICEThe publisher is not responsible for the use which might be made of the following

information.

PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS


6/89

Five years of IT management improvement

- 1 -

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface 3

Guus de MariWriting a thesis as part of the executive Master of IT management 5Gerard Wijers

IT Governance in Europe 9Kees Trommel

A structure creating transparency between Business and IT 17Jacco Schonewille

Improvement of a high reliable and scalable ICT-infrastructure forthe new OPG head quarters 27

Gwan Kho

Making IT-Governance work with Enterprise Architecture 37Corn Pol

Command Vehicle IT Architecture: The challenge ahead 45Jan van de Pol

Right sourcing IT 55Guus Keizer

Forecasting in retailing 61Nico Wartenbergh

From Technology to Service 71Paul Leenards

Academic View on the Master of IT Management 77Anne Persson

We are in the midst of IT Management improvement 79 Udo Groen


7/89


- 2 -


8/89


- 3 -

PREFACE

Guus de Mari MBAis senior project manager at DelftTopTech, school of executive education of DelftUniversity of Technology and has his own consultancyfirm on HR development. In his career, he createdmany development programmes; key words in all hiswork are applied knowledge, creating innovationpower, combining internal and external expertise. Heis responsible for the Master of IT Management.

It has now been five years since the launch of the postgraduate Master of ITManagement at TU Delft. A host of students have now completed the programme.This publication showcases the results of a handful of these graduates. It presentssummaries of eight theses written between 2003 and 2008, selected to provide anexcellent picture of the full range of graduation projects.

Since all of our theses focus on real-life management problems, they have gone onto influence processes and progress within a range of business environments.This overview therefore not only gives you an insight into an academic programme,

but also into the IT issues that have helped shape various organisations. In otherwords, it gives you a flavour of IT management improvement over the last fiveyears. All of the graduates personally reflect on their completed project, applyingthe knowledge they have since acquired. In most cases, their colleagues andmanagers also look back on developments.

The book ends by addressing two fundamental questions. The first question, Whatis the academic value of this work?, is answered by Anne Persson, Professor atthe University of Skvde, Sweden. Udo Groen, member of the executive board ofProRail in the Netherlands, answers the same question from a business

perspective. These two perspectives perfectly mirror the structure of the masterprogramme: bringing academic knowledge to business experience and vice versa.

The book as a whole is an outstanding example of cooperation between universityand industry. It not only demonstrates how an academic programme can initiatesuccessful projects within businesses but also shows how business experiencecan enrich an academic programme. It is the ideal illustration of cooperation as thedissemination of knowledge and experience in both directions.

The process of creating such a publication is in itself an exercise in life long

learning. The participating graduates were all given a unique opportunity to revisitand reflect on their own thesis project. Most of them had little experience of writingarticles and had to take up the challenge of developing this competence.


9/89


- 4 -

The theses were written for the Master of IT Management at TU Delft. It is a part-time post academic master for experienced IT managers, aimed at developing theirskills at strategic level. Life long learning is a key aspect of education at TU Delft

and is the very reason why Delft TopTech was founded in 1986. The chapterwritten by the programme director, Dr Gerard Wijers, provides an interesting insightinto the educational programme and the context in which the theses wereproduced.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved in this book.The candidates invested a great deal of time and effort in producing theirsummaries. It was far from easy to capture the essence of their theses in texts thatwere both readable and accessible. Furthermore, the need to remove allconfidential information entailed a lot of extra work. All of the graduates worked on

a voluntary basis and clearly relished the experience. As one of them said Its niceto have an assignment again. They received guidance and feedback on theirdrafts from experts involved in the programme: Albert Plugge, Nico Brand, MarijnJanssen and Frank Grift. The book you have in your hands is the result of fruitfulcooperation between writers and editors.

Many other people were involved in this project, too many to mention by name.They include those who worked on the layout of the book, the proofreaders andthose who supported the project in other ways.

Creating this book and compiling the various elements has been a fascinatingchallenge. It was very rewarding to see the enthusiasm of the writers and thelearning process they underwent. If you enjoy reading this book as much as Ienjoyed producing it, you will not be disappointed.


10/89


- 5 -

WRITING A THESIS AS PART OF THE EXECUTIVE MASTEROF IT MANAGEMENTAn interesting and challenging journey

Dr.ir. Gerard Wijers began his career at TU Delftwhere he gained a Masters degree in ComputerScience and a PhD in IT Management and Infor-mation Planning Methodologies. At present, he has apart-time senior research fellowship in Delft in thefield of IT management & Sourcing and he isprogramme director of Delfts Executive Master of IT

Management. He is director of EquaTerras Gover-nance and Sourcing Management practice in theBenelux. He is an experienced advisor with an extensive background inIT strategy and IT governance. Gerard Wijers has been concerned withcustomer-supplier relationships in IT for more than 15 years and isknown as a committed, professional and entrepreneurial advisor. Hehelped found ISPL, the Information Services Procurement Library, awell-known contract management methodology. In the 90s he ownedan IT innovation consultancy firm, ID Research, which was later sold toone of the large Dutch IT service providers. Gerard Wijers speaks

regularly at conferences and has produced a large number ofinternational publications.

Over a period of five years we have been supervising the participants of theExecutive Master of IT management programme in writing their master thesis. It istherefore time for some observations and reflections and to share these with youas a reader. The thesis in itself is a very important part of the executive programmeand it is the most essential element of the programme for guaranteeing theacademic quality of this programme.

In this reflection paper we first would like to highlight the role of the thesis in theentire programme, secondly we discuss some typical assignments and thecharacter of the work and third we reflect on the process of supervision andexamination.

The thesis as part of the entire executive master programme

The thesis is the last part of the modular executive programme and participantscan start with their Master module and with writing their thesis as soon as theyhave successfully completed five modules. Each module of the programme

consists of 8 days of interactive education by leading scientific and businessleaders and each module contains a specific assignment. These assignments haveto be carried out within the business context of the participant and have a visibleimpact for these organisations. The assignments also prepare the students inapplying a (scientific) structured way of solving and analysing problems. Theexecutive master of IT management programme has (at the moment of writing) five


11/89


- 6 -

modules: IT Governance, Business & IT Architectures, IT Financials & DecisionMaking, Strategic Sourcing and IT Service Delivery Management.

The thesis counts for about 25% of the study load of the whole programme andhas to be delivered in a period of around 6 months, see figure below.

Each thesis is being evaluated on a set of predefined scientific criteria. Thesecriteria are:


12/89


13/89


- 8 -

With great respect we see an intensive thesis writing process going on in which theparticipants combine this intensive process with their (ongoing) managementposition and step-by-step improve and work on their business problem in a

scientific and structured way. Alas not all participants find the discipline andinspiration to fulfil this challenging final task. As supervisors we always try to find agood balance between giving active support and the personal responsibility of theparticipant himself. The examination committee has the role to make the finaljudgement.

Conclusions

Even though most participants find it difficult to get used to applying a scientificapproach to solving a business problem, many at the end succeed and learn that

such an approach leads to real understanding and thorough underpinning ofrecommendations, conclusions and designs. For the university it is inspiring tosupervise these experienced participants and to learn about the bigger business-ITconcerns within the organisations of these students.


14/89

Five years of IT management improvementKees Trommel; IT Governance in Europe

- 9 -

IT GOVERNANCE IN EUROPE

Ir. Kees Trommel MITMstudied Informatics at DelftUniversity of Technology. After his graduation, heworked for Incontrol Management Consultants wherehe executed several IT design, package selectionand implementation projects. In 1998, he started atYamaha Motor Europe N.V. as a project manager.He led ERP implementations at national distributorsall over Europe and was involved in several businessimprovement projects. Since 2006, he manages theapplication maintenance, application support and IT infrastructureteams of the company and is responsible for the availability and qualityof all Yamahas business applications and IT infrastructure. He graduatedin November 2004 in the Master of IT Management.

The subject of the thesis is the European headquarters of a Japanese multinational(further: the company). The companys prime responsibilities are sales, marketingand manufacturing of consumer goods in Europe. Throughout Europe and per

country the company has distributor organisations that are responsible for salesand marketing in their country. The company has a 100% shareholding in themajority of these distributor organisations.In the last two decades, the companys role in the European market place ischanging from that of a holding company of distributor organisations into a head-quarters of an integrated operation in Europe, a transition process that is still notfinished.

The global IT headquarters has indicated that the IS division (ISD) of the companyis responsible for European IT governance. As such, ISD and the entire European

IT organisation have been faced with the question in which manner IT governancein Europe could be organised.

Therefore, the thesis first has ascertained the definition and coverage of IT go-vernance in the companys context. Obviously, the new IT governance organisationshould be supportive in realising the companys business and IT strategy. As thelatter is currently not defined, several hypotheses have been formulated that coulddescribe the companys IT strategy.

By far, the most important hypothesis is that the companys European IT

organisation should aim for adaptable and standard core systems that can swiftlyand efficiently be enhanced to meet changing business requirements. This isspecifically important as the rate of business changes is increasing and quickaction and implementation are necessary. What is more, new developments arealmost never local anymore, but instead are pan-European in nature.


15/89


16/89


- 11 -

In the exhibit below, the position of the entities in the companys European ITorganisation in relation to typical IT organisations is shown.

Scaleeconomies

Controlof standards

Critical massof skills

Unresponsive

No BU ownership of systems

No BU control of centraloverhead costs

Doesnt meet every BU needs

User controlIT priorities

BUs haveownership

ResponsiveTo BU needs

Excessive overallcost to group

Variable standard ofIS competence

Reinvention of wheels

No synergy

Pooledexperience

Synergy

Functional ITleadership

Group-wideperspective

Decentralised ITCentralised IT Federal IT

Smallerdistributors

LISDsISD

Advantages and disadvantages of IT organisation types2

At first glance, some of the objectives might be realised by also centralising LISDsinto ISD. From literature it can be concluded that centralisation of the IS function isnecessary to integrate applications and to realise economies of scale. Managinginformation on a corporate level can result in value for money benefits as well.However, decentralisation is required to respond quickly to real businessrequirements

3. For similar reasons it can be argued that it is not sensible to fully

centralise the LISDs. They are part of the bigger distributor organisation givingthem a responsive service. In addition, the bigger distributors will not easily agree

with a complete centralisation of all IT activities but will be most likely willing tocentralise common IT activities.

To achieve the objectives, the company should realise a European IT governancestructure that attempts to capture both the benefits of the centralised and of thedecentralised IT organisation while mitigating the disadvantages thereof as muchas possible. The design of the new European IT governance organisation shouldtherefore take the federal IT structure as its foundation. The picture below indicatesin which manner the European IT organisation should shift towards a federal ITorganisation model. An assessment of eight factors that influence the IT

governance structure, such as organisational culture and corporate governancestructure supports this conclusion4.

2 Adapted from [Stephen L. Hodgkinson, 1996]3 [Michael J. Earl, Brian Edwards and David F. Feeny, 1996] and [Joe Peppard, 1999]4 [Anton Joha, 2003]


17/89


- 12 -

Re-positioning the European IS organisation

To implement the federal IT governance structure, the thesis first recommends toreorganise ISD and to explicitly assign the mandate to ISD to proactively define thecompanys corporate IT strategy. This reorganisation should specifically focus onenforcing the planning department within ISD that is responsible for tactical andstrategic issues. Furthermore, the companys ERP system maintenance andsupport should be centralised.

Also, it is recommended to use the CObIT framework, an international andgenerally accepted IT control framework to implement IT governance

5. Using the IT

processes defined in CObIT, the effects of the new IT governance structure can bemade more explicit. The future responsibilities of ISD, LISDs and small distributorscan be identified in relation to these processes. What is more, the CObITprocesses already will cover issues such as cost management, definition andmonitoring of service level agreements and the like. Last but not least, usingCObIT will assure coverage of all IT governance areas defined by the ITgovernance institute

6.

Introducing the proposed European IT governance structure as sketched above willbe a sensitive and most likely gradual process, as it will change responsibilities andactivities of parties involved. This will not be an easy task as little guidelines areavailable on how to approach this

7. Therefore it is recommended to follow a

phased approach for its implementation, as depicted below.

5 [IT governance institute, 2007]6 [IT governance institute, 2003]7 [John Ward and Joe Peppard, 2002]

Scale

economies

Controlof standards

Critical mass

of skills

Unresponsive

No BU ownership of systems

No BU control of centraloverhead costs

Doesnt meet every BU needs

User control

IT priorities

BUs have

wnership

Responsive

o BU needs

Excessive overallost to group

ariable standard ofIS competence

Reinvention of wheels

No synergy

Pooled

experience

Synergy

Functional ITleadership

Group-wide

perspective

Decentralised ITCentralised IT Federal IT

LISDsSmallerdistributors

ISD


18/89


- 13 -

Recommended phased approach towards the new IT governance structure

Once commitment has been granted, phase 1 should start with the re-organisationof ISD, with the aim to shift focus from operational to tactical and strategicactivities, such as the formulation of the companys IT strategy. In parallel, quickwins should realise obvious benefits. What is more, it should also prove the new ITgovernance structure in which a number of IT activities can be safely handed overto ISD.

The final phase entails the full-scale realisation of the new IT governance structurein which numerous activities are to be executed. Obviously, the implementation ofCObIT is the most extensive and difficult task but, as argued above, also veryimportant as the oncoming business challenges require quite a different approachtowards the companys IT in Europe.

References

Stephen L. Hodgkinson, The role of the corporate IT function in the federal ITorganisation,In: Information Management the organisational dimension, Oxford University

Press, 1996 Michael J. Earl, Brian Edwards and David F. Feeny, Configuring the IS function

in complex organisations, In: Information Management the organisationaldimension, Oxford University Press, 1996

Joe Peppard, Information management in the global enterprise: an organisingframework,In: European Journal of Information Systems (issue 8, pages 77-94), 1999

Anton Joha, The retained organisation after outsourcing (chapter 6), Masterthesis Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University ofTechnology, 2003

IT governance institute, CObIT framework (4

th

edition), www.isaca.org, 2007 IT governance institute, Board briefing on IT governance (2

ndedition),

www.isaca.org, 2003 John Ward and Joe Peppard, Strategic management of IS/IT: organising and

resourcing,In: Strategic Planning for Information Systems (chapter 8), Wiley, 2002

Phase 0

- commitment -

Phase 1

- foundation -

Phase 2

- quick wins -

Use CObIT to implementIT governance structure

Promote synergisticbehaviour, cooperation

and standardisation

Centralise ERP of bigger

distributors

Phase 3

- full implementation -

ReorganiseISD

Formulate

IT strategy

CommunicateIT strategy

Discuss IT servicessmaller distributors

CentraliseItalian ERP

Define SLAswith distributors

Build and explainbusiness case

Request approvalof top management


19/89


- 14 -

Reflection by the author

Reflecting on the thesis recommendations and the anticipated outcome

cannot be performed without mentioning the following influencing factors: Between 2004 and 2006 the companys business structure in Europe has

been drastically changed. In short, the company took over ownership andplanning of European inventory and related logistic operations. Thistransition was in many aspects very complex as longstanding businessrules were redefined and responsibilities shifted.

At the beginning of 2006, the companys Japanese headquarter wassubject to legal investigations, alleging that products were exported thatcould be used for military purposes without proper authorizations. In theaftermath of this investigation, control and compliance procedures were

rigorously implemented worldwide. In 2007, the company acquired a majority shareholding in two key

distributor organisations. What is more, the company itself merged itsseveral legal entities into one

The first factor directly relates with one of the implementation issuesaddressed in the thesis i.e. that the pace of the companys transition processwill have a knock-on effect on the pace of the implementation of the proposedIT governance structure. This has proved to be right. The complex and slowtransformation of the companys business structure required much ISD

involvement and resources.

The second factor also heavily determined the IT agenda several years.Obviously, it required changes in IT applications in order to ensure thatbusiness procedures were made compliant with all existing rules and auditingguidelines. Concluding, the third factor also had an obvious influence on theactivities on ISD. Both factors required activities having an internal andoperational focus.

When looking back, it must be concluded that only few recommendationswere partially executed. The implementation project never really took off asthe company and its top management clearly had different priorities. Thesuggested reorganisation of ISD was only executed for the operationalactivities and still ongoing. The planning department is not reinforced.Furthermore, although generally accepted, the companys IT strategyremained a set of hypotheses. The centralisation of the Italian ERP is also farfrom finalised.

However, the climate is changing. The new companys business structure is

now stabilised with standardised business procedures and applications. Thissituation, together with the fact that in the current economic downturn severalLISDs have requested ISD for extensive support and even central hosting oftheir ERP application, could after all lay the foundation be to implement theproposed governance structure.


20/89


- 15 -

Reflection by drs. R.G.M Angermann, division manager IS

When reflecting on the implementation of IT governance as described in the

thesis, the reality within the company has shown that it is very difficult to getbuy-in and support from local management and LISDs for the proposeddirection for IT in Europe. Also, support of the global IT head quarters hasbeen limited so far.

First of all, LISDs report to the local finance and administration (F&A)function. Timely financial information to the local top management and to thecompany is the most important trigger for IT activities of LISDs. European (IT)projects initiated by the company are only actively supported when itconcerns F&A related issues.

Next to that, F&A management does not always share the companys targetwith local (LISD) staff. There is much hesitation to do this as one is afraid thatexperienced LISD staff might leave that will harm support to the localbusiness.

What is more, LISDs have started projects with the approval of local topmanagement. ISD was either not informed at all or at a very late stage.Amongst others, this concerned a replacement of the companys DMS systemwith a local solution and a feasibility study for a new financial package. If

possible, the company stopped these local projects.

The current economic downturn is affecting the companys business inEurope and also world wide. The global head quarter therefore has instructedall subsidiaries to cut expenses and postpone all investments, in the light ofthe expected economy recession. This is obviously also influencing andslowing down IT activities.

Without a doubt, the proposed IT governance structure is the right directionfor the companys IT in Europe. However, the above has sketched severalmajor obstacles in implementing the proposed IT governance structure inEurope. The obstacles cannot all be removed instantly; this requires a step-by-step approach that adheres to the companys culture when changes of thismagnitude are implemented. It does however not alter the fact that therecommendations and the phased approach proposed in the thesis are valid.On the contrary, they are still very much applicable.


21/89


- 16 -


22/89

Five years of IT management improvementJacco Schonewille; A structure creating transparency between business and IT

- 17 -

A STRUCTURE CREATING TRANSPARENCY BETWEENBUSINESS AND IT

Jacco Schonewille MITM is CIO within Norfolklineand member of the executive team. Before he workedfor Baan Company. Jacco got his Master of ITManagement in 2004. Currently he is responsible fora major outsourcing project and an applicationreplacement programme. Outside Norfolkline he isfrequently asked to perform presentations andtraining in the IT domain. He is maried, has 4 childrenand loves to talk about IT Management. Finally he isperforming a PhD research via TU Delft.

The phenomenon business / IT alignment is on the agenda of business and ITexecutives for many years; and for good reasons, because a proper alignmentbetween business and IT is a prerequisite for creating business value from IT.However, this article will take a different view on the topic and presents adescription of a transparency structure that was developed as an attempt to make

business / IT alignment measurable and by increasing transparency also improvethe alignment itself. It offers a combination of existing theories and frameworks toimplement processes and best practices that will make it happen. We argue thattransparency will be increased within a company if the process is followed and theframework used.

Background of the study

Many people have some theoretical and practical knowledge of IT management.However, they often have questions about the validity and effect. Reasons for

these questions are that much of what you do and design is generic, andapplicable to other enterprises and IT environments. So the initial considerationbehind this study was the question about the availability of a framework that couldhelp executives to start an IT governance improvement process. IT governance isa term that is widely used, with many meanings and interpretations. To me, it is thestart of everything you do in IT: ensuring you know what to do (the goals should beclear) and how to achieve it (the way should be clear). We argue that the missionof an internal IT organisation should be to add value to the core business of anenterprise. Being an internal IT provider and using that position to create anisolated domain without aligning with the business is not acceptable. Thus an IT

department cannot work in isolation because in todays business IT is aprerequisite to support and enhance the business operation demanding a properalignment between business and IT.


23/89


- 18 -

The Transparency Concept

To address this issue, a structure was developed to improve the alignment

between Business and IT by increasing the transparency. Transparency is definedas: The state of the Processes, People and Technology in the IT governancedomain, determined by the level of explicitness, openness, simplicity and clarity.In our opinion very little can be done to improve the alignment process unlesstransparency is increased. The proposed structure focuses on increasingtransparency by explaining what to do, and how to do it. It shows how ITGovernance can help IT to better align with the business at all levels, and how thevarious theories and methodologies can be related to a specific enterprise. It alsoidentifies potential problems in achieving this alignment and explains what animprovement in transparency would mean to the various stakeholders.

Recommendations are given based on various frameworks and public domainmodels available like COBIT, IPW, ITIL and PRINCE2, and how they relate totransparency. The transparency concept exists of two elements. First thetransparency framework, and secondly the transparency process steps. The twoelements will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

The Transparency Framework

The developed structure contains a process with predefined steps that should befollowed, and a framework to assess and increase transparency. An importantelement in the concept of transparency is the question of how transparency can bemeasured. Once answered, we also have guidelines on how transparency can beincreased, as the only way to determine if transparency is increasing or decreasingis by measuring the current and new status based on predefined criteria. The sixtransparency criteria used within the framework are: Completeness (What?): The criterion Completeness concerns knowing what

information you have access to and how that is determined and evaluated. Justification (Why?): determining transparency is about assessing the reasons

why. This may be one of the most important criteria because it is the justification

of the effort, cost or investment. Timeliness (When?): The fact that information is provided is not sufficient, it isalso important to give that information at the right time. This is about planningand allocation.

Simplicity (How?): Reducing complexity is an important step in increasingtransparency. This criterion will determine: how easy it is; is the messagesimple; can it be explained in a clear way; is it easy to use etc.

Accessibility (Where?): The Accessibility criterion is about the ease of findingthe relevant information or resources. Is information accessible in a format andlanguage that the stakeholder can understand?

Responsibility (Who?): The Responsibility criterion is about who is involvedand who is responsible?


24/89


- 19 -

The figure below presents the transparency framework, using the 6 transparencycriteria that are applied to the Process, People and Technology angles.

Increasing transparency is first of all about determining the important drivers andneeds in the environment where you want to increase the transparency. This is

company specific and cannot be generalised. The next step is to determine thecharacteristics of the environment and list the priorities that will determine successor failure. The next step is how you can measure the transparency to assesswhere you stand today, and where you want to be in the future. Based on theprevious steps we are ready to select models, frameworks and best practises thatare best suited to the specific enterprise context. Once the frameworks, modelsand best practises are selected, and previous steps are completed, we can startwith the implementation plan. This takes all the findings into account, and putsthem in a structured plan, which also details the choices already made. Once theproject is finished, the transparency needs to be monitored, reviewed andimproved in a continuous cycle. It could be that because of a sweeping change instrategy and environment, we need to go back to the first step and start all overagain. The following diagram shows the transparency process that should befollowed.


25/89


- 20 -

The Transparency Process Steps

Ultimately, just speaking about transparency will not add any value to anenterprise. It should be about providing guidelines and direction for implementingthe transparency concept and communicating it to the business and IT stake-holders. The study shows that there is a viable business case starting thetransparency process. It indeed shows that by increasing transparency, a betterbusiness / IT alignment is achieved. Based on our findings this improvement is notonly realised because of just measuring the transparency, but also becauseinvolving both business and IT in such a process, will in itself already result in a

better alignment. In the next section we will present some results that we haveachieved within Norfolkline by applying the transparency concept.


26/89


- 21 -

Literature

Bom, J., Meijers, J. and van Herwaarden, H. (2001). Het ABC tot Integraal

IPWTM. tenHagenStam. Broadbent, M. (2002). CIO Futures - Lead with Effective Governance. ICA

Conference. Grembergen van, W. (2004). Strategies for Information Technology

Governance. Idea Group Publishing. Guldentops, E. etc. (2000). COBIT Control Objectives 3rd Edition. IT

governance Institute. Guldentops, E. etc. (2003). Board Briefing on IT governance 2nd Edition. IT

governance Institute. Lloyd, V. (2003). Planning to Implement Service Management (IT Infrastructure

Library). OGC. Macfarlane, I. and Rudd, C. (2001). IT Service Management (version 2.1.b).

ITSMF. Mack, R. and Frey, N. (2002). Six Building Blocks for Creating Real IT

Strategies. Gartner. Onna, M. van. and Koning, A. (2003). The Little Prince 2. tenHagenStam Opsware (2004). The new Business of IT. Opsware Inc. Pastore, R. (2003). Peter Weill on Managing the IT Portfolio. CIO.com. Weil, P. and Woodham, R. (2002). Implementing Effective IT governance. Sloan

School of Management. Weill, P. (2004). Balancing Boundaries with Creativity. Optimizemag.com. Wetzels, J. (2004). Voorkom teleurstellend ICT-beheer. Computable. Zee, H. van der. (2004). Nieuwe wijn en nieuwe zakken. Tiem.


27/89


- 22 -


Within Norfolkline the transparency framework and process are used in two

different ways. First of all the whole concept was used to test the designedframework and process. In this exercise we have not actually implemented theframework and process but it was more a theoretical exercise to applyresearch findings. In this exercise we found sufficient evidence that theassessment of transparency and the process steps included could be appliedto the Norfolkline environment. This was a valuable finding from a scientificangle but not satisfactory from a Norfolkline angle. Therefore we decided assecond step to use concepts and elements of the transparency frameworkand process to increase transparency and by that improve business / ITalignment within Norfolkline. The Norfolkline context didnt allow for a full

implementation because the state of the business organisation andcooperation with IT was such that we had to take a gentle and down-to-earthapproach, not even mentioning concepts like business / IT alignment. So, howdid we actually achieve more transparency and improved business / ITalignment? First of all we performed a survey among business and ITrepresentatives. The domains that were mentioned as focus areas were: (1)strategy; (2) finance; (3) organisation; and (4) infrastructure. From thisprocess the first phase in the transparency process was finished (the scope).Secondly we created per focus area an assessment sheet with concreteactions how certain elements would be changed to increase transparency. IT

funding was one of these focus areas and the figure below shows the sheetthat was created.


28/89


- 23 -

The Transparency Assessment and Actions for IT funding

The next step that was completed was the selection of applicable bestpractices and the design of a Norfolkline framework. This was finished in 2005and included in the IT strategy. The final stage was the implementation andmonitoring. Within Norfolkline this was approached in a pragmatic way. Wedidnt define a strict project plan; instead we listed the most important thingswe wanted to achieve and the people that should be involved in that.


29/89


- 24 -

Concrete results achieved between 2005 and 2007 stemming from thetransparency exercise are: Norfolkline IT Strategy: as a result of a strategy process, an official

documented IT strategy was delivered and communicated. New way of looking at IT cost: in 2006 a complete new way of reporting

and charging IT cost was introduced. IT Governance structure: with the business we defined how the

governance structure should look like and several governance bodies likean IT board were implemented.

IT Infrastructure: as a result of the transparency process a project wasinitiated to ensure the continuity and cost reduction of our infrastructure.

In general we can conclude that applying the transparency concept to theNorfolkline environment brought significant improvements and new insights inthe business / IT alignment domain. And although the findings were limited tothe Norfolkline environment, we argue that the same results can be achievedin other environments.


30/89


- 25 -

Reflection by Marit Struijk, Process and Information Manager NorfolklineLogistics

In the past three years the transparency between business and IT hasimproved. This is mostly due to closer involvement of business staff in IT-projects. Also including business people in the IT governance structure haslead to a better business/IT alignment and a better understanding on bothsides; IT is getting a better notion of what the business really needs and thebusiness gets a better grasp of what IT entails. It remains however a slowprocess where both parties will need to get used to.Communication between the two continues to be an important challenge andis still up for improvement. Especially since communication is not only aboutpassing on information, but also about how, when and what kind of

information is passed on.

Reflection by Johan Krijgsman, Enterprise Architect Norfolkline Group IT

In my experience, transparency starts with a transparent IT governancestructure. This makes clear who should be involved in decisions about IT andwhy, and what the decision taking process is. In Norfolkline, it has taken a lotof work to establish the right governance structure, and once it was agreedupon, it took some time until all the relevant people understood it, adopted itand made it work. And sometimes it is still a struggle. However, in the caseswhere people are starting to follow the agreed processes, you do see that thequality of the decision process, for instance around software selection, greatlyimproves, everyone feels more involved and more important aspects aretaken into account. You dont see decisions being pushed through by eitherbusiness or IT; you see the start of real cooperation.


31/89


- 26 -


32/89

Five years of IT management improvementGwan Kho; Improvement plan for ICT infrastructure for a new head quarters

- 27 -

IMPROVEMENT OF A HIGH RELIABLE AND SCALABLE ICT-INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE NEW OPG HEAD QUARTERS

Gwan Kho MITMis Chief Technology Officer at OPGGroup. An international retail and distribution com-pany for pharmaceuticals and medical supplies activein seven other European countries and the UnitedStates. OPG is listed on Euronext Amsterdam since1992. Gwan started in 1998 at OPG Groothandel, abusiness unit of OPG Group and worked before thatat BAM/HBG and Initial Hokatex. He is married andhas 2 children. He graduated in 2006.

OPG is developing a new headquarters and this provides the unique opportunity todesign a new infrastructure meeting the high requirements found in the business atOPG. In the past, infrastructure efforts were fragmented which resulted in highcosts for enabling an interoperable infrastructure and the risks of failure. Theresearch objective is to design an architecture for an uninterrupted and scalableICT-infrastructure. Reliability is necessary for ensuring business continuity and

scalability is necessary as all services will be built on top of the ICT-infrastructure.This architecture should support the business strategy and is driven by a newheadquarters. Based on the TOGAF architecture method, a blueprint for theinfrastructure based on generic building blocks has been developed.

Artistic impression Facet, new headquarters OPG


33/89


- 28 -

Background and drivers

OPG Group is a retail and distribution company for pharmaceuticals and medical

supplies. The Group is active in three channels: operating pharmacies andwholesaling (Pharmacies), providing medical supplies for home healthcare andrelated services (Direct), and marketing and distributing pharmaceuticals andmedical supplies to hospitals and nursing homes (Institutional). OPG focuses onthe consumer, supplying products through whatever channel the consumer wishes.As well as being the market leader in the Netherlands, OPG has operations inPoland, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Hungary and Switzerland. Thecompany employs approximately 7,700 people, about 3,500 of whom work outsidethe Netherlands. It was incorporated in 1899 and has been listed on EuronextAmsterdam since 1992.

OPG trade marks

OPG is an European enterprise which has changed from wholesale to retail overthe past five years and aims at doubling its revenue over the next two years bymeans of acquisition. At the moment OPG expanded the number of pharmacies

from none in 2001 to 218 pharmacies in the Netherlands and changed its focusfrom wholesale to retail.The OPG business strategy is customer-centric which is not common in thehealthcare industry because of the complex relation between GP (GeneralPractioner), insurers and patients. Synergy and economy of scale is generatedwithin OPG by pursuing a multi channel approach. This approach should lead tobetter service to patients and a more cost effective operation. ICT services must beable to support this business strategy. Desktop services, ERP (EnterpriseResource Planning) and ICT services like mechanical automation (robots in thepharmacy) are delivered and maintained by the central ICT department.

To reflect this new strategy with the proper housing facilities, a new headquartersis being built on a premier location (next to the A2 motorway in Utrecht). Thecurrent location which also was used as a national warehouse until 2002 is toolarge to be used as a headquarters only. The new location was selected due to itslocation in connection with the travelling distance of employees and theconcentration of the healthcare industry in this area. This already has resulted inthe cooperation between OPG and a new to be built hospital next to the new OPGheadquarters. In the hospital, a polytheek, a public pharmacy combined with ahospital pharmacy, will be built.


34/89


- 29 -

The relocation, geographically located a few kilometers from the current OPGheadquarters is planned for the fourth quarter of 2009. This new headquarters willaccommodate all current functions and a central Non-IT services and IT/HR-services departments. This relocation provides the opportunity to develop a newICT-infrastructure. At OPG the definition of ICT infrastructure is the physicalhardware used to interconnect computers and users. Infrastructure includes thetransmission media, including telecommunication lines, and also the routers,switches and other devices that control transmission paths. Infrastructure alsoincludes the software used to send, receive and manage the signals that aretransmitted.

Facet, OPG headquarters at night

Research objective

To manage the central infrastructure and ensure successful implementation of thestrategy there will be an ICT architecture suited to the needs of the infrastructurewhich will be determined in the research. The new ICT-infrastructure is thefoundation of the OPG ICT. The infrastructure should be very reliable and scalableto facilitate the development of new IT-services. The objective of this thesis is to

design an architecture for an uninterrupted and scalable ICT-infrastructure. Thisarchitecture should support the OPG business strategy and is enabled by therealisation of a new HQ.


35/89


36/89


- 31 -

TOGAF does not directly address the detailed representations and functioningenterprise viewpoints (bottom rows) of the Zachman Model but can be adjusted toinclude these components if necessary.

To answer the main question, it is not necessary to use all cells. Only relevant cellsare selected.

In conclusion, the two frameworks to choose from are TOGAF and Zachman sinceboth provide the needed structures.We will continue with the TOGAF model for two reasons: Material from The Open Group is easily available

Possibility to make use of the OpenGroup SIB

which is a database describing

standards.

The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) is a framework, a detailedmethod and a set of supporting tools, for developing the enterprise architecture. Itmay be used freely by any organization wishing to develop the enterprisearchitecture for use within that organization (see Conditions of Use athttp://www.opengroup.org/architecture/togaf).All references to TOGAF and The Open Group can be found at the TOGAF website http://www.opengroup.org/architecture/togaf

10Standards Information Base, the SIB provides the architect with a gateway to a uniquely powerful setof tools for defining the standards that the architecture is to mandate, and for checking the availability

in the market place of products guaranteed to conform to those standards.http://www.opengroup.org/sib.htm


37/89


- 32 -

Togaf ADM11 cycle as developed by The Open Group.

The current infrastructure has many building blocks that are very much alike. Abuilding block, according to TOGAF, is a package of functionality defined to meet

business needs. The way in which functionality, products, and customdevelopments are assembled into building blocks will vary widely betweenindividual architectures. Every organization must decide for itself what arrangement

11ADM = Architecture Development Method. The TOGAF ADM is the result of continuous contributions

from a large number of architecture practitioners. It describes a method for developing the enterprisearchitecture, and forms the core of TOGAF.


38/89


- 33 -

of building blocks works best for it. A good choice of building blocks can lead toimprovements in legacy system integration, interoperability, and flexibility in thecreation of new systems and applications.

Systems are built up from collections of building blocks and most building blockshave to interoperate with other building blocks. Wherever that is true, it is importantthat the interfaces to a building block are published and reasonably stable so futurere-use of that block can be done without much effort. For OPG almost all ICTbuilding blocks need data, power and cooling as can be seen in the figure below.

Generic ICT Building block

The relation

The more basic building blocks that will supply these needs are: 1) CablingSystem (data transport), 2) Network (data transport), 3) Power and 4) Cooling. Assimple as the use of these four building blocks might sound, the harder it is torepair mistakes in these areas because these building blocks are integrated in thebasic design of a building. Replacement or change of a building block will have animpact on all building blocks that depend on these building blocks. The more basicand widely used the building block is, the more impact replacement or a changehas on dependant building blocks.

Software

Generic ICT Building Block

Data in Data out

Hardware

PowerHeat/

CoolingData

transportData

transport


39/89


- 34 -

An example of the disfunctioning of the current ICT-infrastructure is the emergencypower generators (power building block) which provide power to all ICT systemsexcept from the cooling systems of the building. After 15 minutes without coolingsystems the ICT systems have to shut down due to the rise of the temperature.The business implication is that the POS (Point Of Sale) systems in a pharmacywill fail. The POS systems contain the cash register and as a result medicinescannot be sold anymore. Most of these ICT-systems need to be reliable due to thehigh implications of failure. Investigating the risk of failure is a joint problem ofbusiness, ICT and facilities management. Excluding one stakeholder might result insub optimizing and not in an overall increase of reliability.In the figure below an example of the new reliable and scalable architecture basedon the four generic building blocks is shown. At the top of the figure the two power

delivery building blocks are shown which are designed by means of the nowexisting architecture. The problem as described above the current infrastructure isovercome by the new design of the architecture.

Power delivery building blocks

The result of this assignment is the creation of reusable building blocks which areused to architect an infrastructure that can withstand problems that can occur in anICT environment. The use of the building blocks has resulted in a better ICT-

infrastructure that is more reliable and scalable. Nevertheless such aninfrastructure cannot deal with all possible risks. By using the TOGAF architecturalapproach, the problems it cannot withstand are at least mapped as potentialthreats (i.e. if an airplane crashes on the datacenter). Of course governance isnecessary to effectively handle these types of problems.


40/89


41/89


- 36 -


I started this programme to learn only about the modules. However during the

programme, somewhere in the second module, I found out that the true valueof this programme is not just knowledge about governance, architecture,finance etc. but the way you can use this knowledge and working togetherwith other highly motivated people.

The study load was high, especially if you have small children. Also notspending one or two days a week but ten full days per module makes a goodcombination between work and study for me. If I look back at the period ofalmost two years I dont regret my decision to enter the programme for amoment.

In my job people noticed me more and more. And I got involved more inbusiness issues, which nowadays almost always have an ICT component,rather then technical ICT issues. This made my work more attractive andgave me a view which I never had seen before.


42/89


43/89

Five years of IT management improvementCorn Pol; Closing the gap between enterprise architectures & IT governance

- 38 -

This study

This goal of this study is to explore how the effectiveness of IT-governance can be

increased through managing the use of EA-products as an instrument for decisionmaking. The research is based on the following assumptions:

Benefits of EA

Exploring the first assumption it becomes clear that several studies described thatEA products can have significant benefits as an IT-governance instrument,especially for business stakeholders. In short: complexity is reduced andinformation is presented in a timely and condensed way. An overview ofquantifiable and non-quantifiably benefits of EA is provided by Rijsenbrij et al.(2004) in table below.

1. EA can have benefitsfor business stakeholders

involved with IT-governance if EA are

actually used by them

However 2. Existing EA Managementframeworks do not cover the

use of EA by businessstakeholders, resulting in not

fully benefitting from EA

Therefore 3. An existing EAmanagement frameworkshould be extended with

management of the use ofEA as an IT-governance

instrument as well

To facilitate 4. The identification ofpossible improvements in

EAM in the case organizationby applying the extended

framework


44/89


- 39 -

Quantifiable Non-quantifiably

Financial Long term financial planning Lower costs (Risk mitigation,

Prevent disasters, Efficiency) Higher revenues (Shorter time-to-

market, New business models)

Non-Financial: Guarantees continuity in business

processes Guards the profitability

Stretches life-cycle Less errors Risk mitigation (security wise)

Business and IT better aligned Parallel transformation of business

and IT Agile business and IT Total overview (avoids sub-

optimalisation) Framework for innovation Determines collective vision Consistency

Overview of quantifiable and non-quantifiably benefits of EA

The US General Accounting Office (2003) EA is a tenet for an organisationssuccess in dealing with the complexity of IT-decisions.

EA-managementHowever, research on the second assumption shows that commonly known EA-frameworks

14seem to focus primarily on the development and maintenance of EA-

products itself (management OF architectures). These frameworks seem to coveronly the architecture domain and not the IT-governance domain in which the EA-products can be use by business management (management WITH architectures).As shown in the figure below, there seems to be a gap between the managementOF and management WITH architectures.

The gap between the management OF and management WITH architectures.

14Such as DYA (Dynamic Architectures) and TOGAF (The Open Group Architectural Framework),

EA-products

rchitecture domain IT-governance domain

Management& use of IT

Develop &maintain

IT-Decisions

Use as

Input?

Gap

Management WITHarchitectures

Management OFarchitectures

IT-governance

Feedback for maintenance purposes


45/89


- 40 -

Extending an existing framework

The basic premise for further research is that the issue described above should be

the concern of leading architects in an organisation as their added value is atstake. Therefore the issue is addressed from the point of view of the architecturedomain. The use of these products by business stakeholders is not part of the EA-management responsibility. Therefore the third assumption proves to be true: anexisting EA-framework should be extended to cover managing the use of EA as anIT-governance instrument as well. In search of a suitable framework, the studyintroduces the Enterprise Architecture Management Maturity Framework (EAMMF).This public domain framework has several advantages: It focuses primarily on EA-management; It is public domain, therefore accessible for anyone; It is based on maturity levels, therefore understandable for both business and

IT-stakeholders; It provides a ready to use tool to asses the current EAM-situation, therefore

easily applicable.

The EAMMF (see figure below) was introduced in 2003 by the US GeneralAccounting Office (version 1.1). Its purpose is to measure and control the EAMmaturity of government agencies in the US. In short the EAMMF consists of: Five stages of maturity: reflecting the collection of EA management practices

and conditions being undertaken by an enterprise: Stage 1: creating EA awareness; Stage 2: building the EA management foundation: Stage 3: developing EA products: Stage 4: completing EA products: Stage 5: leveraging the EA to manage change:

Four critical success attributes: representing a category of type of managementpractice and condition that is needed to effectively discharge any function. Anattribute determines the success of managing activities in general: Commitment; Capabilities; Results; Verification.

Thirty-one core-elements: reflecting the aspects practices and conditions thathave to be met to reach a certain stage of maturity. Each element is associatedwith one of the five stages of maturity.


46/89


- 41 -

The EAMMF

To close the gap between management OF architectures and management WITHarchitectures, the study chooses to extend the EAMMF with elements from the IT-governance domain. A well-known and widely used IT-governance framework isCOBIT. COBIT provides guidelines for an architecture process called PO2: Define

the information Architecture. The detailed control objectives for this processexplicitly refer to the use of architectures by business stakeholders. As the PO2process delivers output (= products) to other processes, these processes in turndeliver metrics for the use of this output. The analysis shows that the EAMMF canbe extended with seven useful additional elements from COBIT.

Applying the extended framework

In search for the validation of the final assumption, the extended EAMMF has been

applied to a large international financial organization. The survey was filled out bythe CIO, the chief architect, several business directors and managers and twoarchitects. The results of the survey show a very mature organisation on the EA-product level (level 4 = Completing EA products). This means that the EA-productsin this organisation are of high quality and that the management processes neededto achieve this are in place. However, the overall score on the extended EAMMFscale is level 1 (creating EA-awareness), primarily because EAM is focussed onmanagement OF architectures. In short, EAM in the case organisation is seen asan IT responsibility. However, it is not clear who the relevant business stakeholdersare, and on which occasions they could use EA-products for IT decision making. In

fact, business management stated that EA could be very important, but they arecurrently hardly using it, because it doesnt provide the information they need fortheir IT-decisions.


47/89


- 42 -

The case organisation can reach a higher level of maturity if it would correctly: Design, describe and implement structured processes (and responsibilities) for:

Identifying user communities for EA-products; Possible participation events for these user communities;

Execute these processes and: Monitor the participation of user communities; Calculate the return on investment of EA-products.

These improvements should be aimed at reaching the following objectives: EA-management includes managing the use of EA products by business

stakeholders; All possible business stakeholders know what the benefits of EA are and they

use EA products in the IT-decision making processes they are involved in; Business stakeholders are co-responsible for EA management.

Conclusions

The extension of the EAMMF described in this publication is just a first attempt tocome to a useable management model for managing the deployment of EA-products in IT-decision making. The ultimate goal is to make IT decision makingmore effective. The need for a model like this is proven by the results of theapplication of the extended EAMMF on the case organisation: the use of EA-

products by business stakeholders is insufficiently managed, resulting in justmanagement OF architectures and not in management WITH architectures. Boththe way in which the case organisation was surveyed as the results of the survey,were highly appreciated by senior management in the case organisation. Thesuggested improvements have lead to a change in the EAM-processes with theobjective that business management takes an explicit role in EAM as well. As aresult, both the cause and the message of this publication are legitimized: the useof EA-products is hardly managed; whilst in using EA-products in a proper way laythe biggest added value as an IT-governance instrument. Therefore EAM shouldinclude the management of use as well. Given the fact that IT and business are

becoming increasingly intertwined, it is perhaps time to let go of the term EA(M)and choose a more business like term that reflects its value for the business aswell.


48/89


- 43 -

List of references

Berg, M. van den, Steenbergen, M. van, (in Dutch) DYA: Stap voor stap naar

professionele enterprise-architectuur,Ten Hagen & Stam uitgevers, 2004. Brand, K., Boonen, H., IT-governance: a pocket guide based on COBIT, Van

Haren Publishing, 2004. Chief Information Officer Council, A practical guide to federal enterprise

architecture, Version 1.0, Springfield, February 2001. IT governance Institute, Cobit 4.0, Rolling Meadows, 2005. McGovern, J., Ambler, Scott W., Stevens, Michael E., Linn, James, Jo, Elias K.

Sharan, Vikas, The Practical Guide to Enterprise Architecture, Prentice HallPTR, 1st edition November 15, 2003.

Rijsenbrij, D., Schekkerman, J., Hendrickx, H., (in Dutch), Architectuur,

besturingsinstrument voor adaptieve organisaties: de rol van architectuur in hetbesluitvormingsproces en de vormgeving van de informatievoorziening, Tweededruk, uitgeverij Lemma bv., Utrecht, 2004.

Schekkerman, J., How to survive in the jungle of enterprise architectureframeworks: creating and choosing an enterprise architecture framework, 2

nd

edition, Trafford, Victoria, 2004. The Open Group, Version 8 enterprise edition, 2002. US General Accounting Office (GAO), A framework for assessing and improving

enterprise architecture management (version 1.1), April 2003. Weill, P., Ross, J.W., IT-governance on one page, in, CISR Working paper no.

349 andSloan Working paper No. 4516-04, Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology, 2004.


49/89


- 44 -


The cause for the study lay in the personal observation that many

stakeholders involved in IT-decision making are hardly using EnterpriseArchitecture (EA)-products as instruments for IT-governance. As IT isbecoming increasingly important for organisations, the stakes for businessstakeholders also increase. Therefore it seems fair to presume that there is allthe more reason to use EA-products as these can provide condensed andtimely information on the complex IT-matters to be dealt with.

I personally believe that: IT will become even more vital for reaching business goals, especially for

governmental, industrial and financial organisations; Effective IT-decision making will be increasingly important; Business stakeholders will become more and more involved in - and

responsible for IT-decision making; IT is becoming increasingly complex as new developments have to be

integrated/work together with existing IT; EA plays a crucial role in providing the correct and understandable

information to base IT-decisions on; The architecture domain should partly overlap the IT governance domain.

Based on these believes, architecture management should incorporate the

management of the use EA-products by business stakeholders as well. Thequestion arises if an architects responsibility only lies in construction of theright products or if he/she is also responsible for managing the process inwhich EA-products are actually used. If EA-products are not used: whatstheir added value and as a consequence: what the added value of anarchitect?

With the extended framework organisations are able to better recognize andmanage business stakeholders as the users of EA-products. This willcontribute to more effective IT-decision making. The framework encouragesarchitects to share the responsibility of EA-management with businessstakeholders in order to actually get them to use EA-products in their IT-decision making. Although the study didnt have the ambition to construct afull scientifically validated framework, it proved its value for the caseorganization.

Nowadays I still see many architects focusing mainly on EA as a product. Butshouldnt that be extended to the use of this product by business stakeholdersas well? The message of this study remains unchanged and still relevant,

especially for large organisations struggling with the balance betweensynergy and autonomy.


50/89

Five years of IT management improvementJan van de Pol; Command vehicle IT architecture: the challenge ahead

- 45 -

COMMAND VEHICLE IT ARCHITECTURE: THE CHALLENGE AHEAD

Lcol Jan van de Pol MSc MITM is an officer of theRoyal Netherlands Army (RNLA). He received hisbasic training at the Royal Netherlands DefenceAcademy and holds a Master of Science degree inelectrical engineering from Delft University ofTechnology. He worked from 2000-2008 at theCommand & Control Support Centre (C2SC). He hasbeen responsible for the development of the Armysexpeditionary ICT infrastructure (known as TITAAN) and was head ofthe Policy Support & Architecture department. Today, Jan is working atthe Research and Innovation Centre of the Dutch Defence ICT Agency.He received his Master of IT Management degree in 2006.

The Royal Netherlands Army (RNLA) has approximately 140 armoured CommandVehicles in service, which provide facilities to commanders and staff to commandand control their forces during military missions.The current Command Vehicle provides only a limited number of voice services,including intercom between crew members and access to combat net radio (CNR);data services such as automatic position reporting are not supported. A newgeneration of Command Vehicles will contain multiple, closely related informationtechnology (IT) systems such as communication -and sensor systems. The RNLAis planning to replace and enhance current capabilities in order to become a nearreal-time network-enabled force, which is one of the six strategic Defence goals.New capabilities include a Battlefield Management System (BMS), whichnecessitates integration with legacy and new IT systems inside a CommandVehicle. A BMS includes navigation and automatic positioning reporting of vehiclesover multiple transmission systems and situational awareness about friendly,

neutral and enemy parties on the battlefield. Increased situational awarenessshould result in faster and better decision-making and prevention of fratricide[Alberts 1999] [Alberts 2004].

An Architecture Approach is needed


51/89


- 46 -

It is unlikely that an interoperable solution can be achieved without thedevelopment of an overarching architecture that provides a framework within whichCommand Vehicle related projects can progress. The solution must be easilyadaptable to cope with business change and technology insertion. Thearchitectural approach should prevent a solution that is depicted in the figure andensure that separate components are integrated and act as a whole.

In the light of this background, the main research questions of this master thesisare:1. Which architectural approach can be used to realise the IT Architecture of a

Command Vehicle? This question should result in the identification of asuitable architectural approach, which ensures that business needs are the

primary starting point. The approach should also deliver fit for purposearchitectural artefacts, which is the subject of the second research question.2. How does the required IT Architecture of a Command Vehicle in its

environment look like? The developed architecture is necessary to preventstovepipe and short-term solutions. The architecture should be flexible enoughto incorporate new business and technology developments and scalable todeal with a large number of legacy systems.

The Architectural Approach

In the master thesis, architecture is defined as: Architecture is a set of products,including principles and models that direct the design and realization of businessprocesses, information services (application and data), and technical infrastructureof an organization.

The RNLA uses the Command, Control, Communications, and InformationArchitecture (C3IA) since 2000 as the framework for its architectural activities. TheC3IA is compared with (1) IEEE 1471-2000, (2) Zachman Framework, (3) SogetisDYA, and (4) ArchiMate.

15The comparison with these four well-known frameworks

shows that two major improvements to the C3IA are necessary:

The C3IA should explicitly address the concerns of relevant stakeholders of theCommand Vehicle IT Architecture by defining viewpoints and compiling views

16.

The C3IA should be extended with a limited number of architecture principles17

.The principles are arranged in a hierarchy, in that IT principles elaborate on thebusiness principles, in order to ensure business and IT alignment.

15These four frameworks were selected due to a number of reasons. The IEEE 1471-2000 architecture

meta model and the Zachman Framework [Zachman 1987] provide the foundation for most of todays

architecture frameworks and are globally known. The proprietary DYA [van den Berg 2004] wasselected because it explicitly addresses the relationship with projects and is well documented.

ArchiMate [Lankhorst 2005] is not a architecture framework is the pure sense; it is an architecturallanguage. It was chosen because it has a sound academic foundation but also practical due to theinvolvement of enterprises and governmental organizations.16The IEEE 1471-2000 definitions are used in the master thesis [IEEE 1471 2000]. A viewpoint is a

(collection of) templates and conventions for constructing one type of view (where are you looking

from). A view is a representation of a system from the perspective of a set of concerns of one or morestakeholders (what you see).17Principles are general guidelines, intended to be enduring and seldom amended, and that support theway in which an organization sets about fulfilling its mission.


52/89


- 47 -

Both improvements are combined in the architecture approach, as shown in thefigure below, which is based upon [Koning 2005]. The arrows show that there is alogical relation between these activities from left to right, but while progressing itmay be necessary to come back and review previous results. Steps 1 to 3 and step4 to 5 can be performed in parallel.

The Architecture Approach

The numbered arrows have the following meaning:

Arrow Explanation

1 This arrow represents the validation whether the views comply with thebusiness principles.

2 This arrow represents the idea to arrange principles in a hierarchy.

3 This arrow represents the validation whether the views comply with theIT principles.

4 This arrow represents the validation of the views by the stakeholders interms of content and commitment


53/89


- 48 -

Application of the Architectural Approach

The architecture approach is used to construct the Command Vehicle IT

Architecture. The result of step 1 (identification of relevant stakeholders) and step 2(compilation of stakeholder profiles) is presented in the figure below. The mostimportant stakeholders are the decision makers of the Defence Staff and the usersfrom the RNLA Operational Command.

Stakeholder Grid

In step 3 (definition of viewpoints), fixed viewpoints are developed that are needed

to address the concerns of all relevant stakeholders. The most importantviewpoints in the current stage of the Command Vehicle IT Architecturedevelopment are those that address the concerns of the decision makers and thebusiness users. These viewpoints are: The Overview and Context Viewpoint(OCV) to give a high-level overview of

the required IT services to the decision makers and users (focus is oninforming).

The Roadmap Viewpoint(RV) to present the technology roadmap for the next5 years including budget consequences to the decision makers as input toDefences policy and planning process (focus is on decision making).


54/89


55/89


- 50 -

On basis of the defined viewpoints and architecture principles, the Overview andRoadmap views are compiled in step 6 of the architecture approach.

The Architecture Views

The Overview & Context View (OCV) lists the high-level IT service requirements toinform the users about functional capabilities and decision makers about thecontribution to Defence strategic goals.

Command Vehicle IT Services

The service concept plays a central role in the OCV. A service can be thought of asan interface to a particular capability which can be used by other services orapplications

18. The Command Vehicle IT services are presented in a layered

model, as shown above. The upper layer describes the business services; thefocus of the vehicle architecture is on the command and control service category.In order to command and control forces, army commanders need a variety ofsystem services, the two most important being voice and BMS. The two bottomlayers provide connectivity over a collection of transmission media, where theInternet Protocol (IP) is used as the convergence layer for reliable, high bandwidthconnections and the Command & Control Framework

19 for unreliable, low

18The Ministry of Defense CIO Office has mandated that the concept of Service Oriented Architecture

(SOA) must be adopted. SOA is an architecture approach where systems are built by combining loosely

coupled and interoperable services. The aim is to increase interoperability and to decrease the time to

develop new capabilities.19The Command & Control Framework is a RNLA-developed middleware product that provides, among

others, data distribution and data synchronisation services over unreliable, low bandwidth (typically lessthan 4.8 kilobits per second) transport media such as military-grade combat net radio networks.


56/89


- 51 -

bandwidth connections. A layered approach is beneficial for achieving Defencesgoals of interoperability among disparate systems and technological extensibility ofthe IT architecture.

The Roadmap View (RV) presents the top-level technology roadmap of theCommand Vehicle IT services for the next 5 years. Decision makers need thisinformation for policy and planning (including budgeting) decisions. The top-levelroadmap is presented hereunder. It is beyond the scope of this article to describethe roadmap in more detail but it shows that the capabilities of a command vehiclewill be enhanced during its lifetime in an incremental approach.

Vehcile Architecture Top-level Roadmap


57/89


- 52 -

Conclusion

The aim of the thesis was to develop an architecture approach and a resulting

vehicle architecture able to integrate legacy and new system components. Thearchitecture approach improves the current C3IA in two ways. First, it explicitlyaddresses the concerns of relevant stakeholders by compiling architecture views.Second, in this way architectural development is driven by business and ITprinciples. In this thesis, a set of principles was developed. The mainrecommendation is to gain more experience with the architecture approach withreal-life cases in order to improve the viewpoint descriptions.

The architecture approach is used in a real-life case to compile the most importantviews in this stage of the Command Vehicle IT Architecture development. The

views that were developed in this thesis should be presented to the stakeholders toevaluate the usefulness and completeness. The remaining views of the CommandVehicle IT Architecture must be developed in the next stage of architecturaldevelopment.

In summary, a flexible architecture aligned with the business was created

References

[Alberts 1999] Alberts, David S, Garstka, John J & Stein, Fred P NetworkCentric Warfare, Developing and Leveraging Information Superiority, August1999, ISBN 1-57906-019-6, www.dodccrp.org

[Alberts 2004] Alberts, David S & Hayes, Richard E. Power to the Edge,Command and Control in the Information Age, June 2003, ISBN 1-893723-13-5,www.dodccrp.org

[van den Berg 2004] Van den Berg, Martin & van Steenbergen, Marlies, DYA,Stap voor stap naar professionele enterprise-architectuur, tenHagen Stam,ISBN 90-440-1121-9, November 2004

[IEEE 1471 2000] The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE

Recommended Practice for Architectural Description of Software-IntensiveSystems, September 2000 [Koning 2005] Koning, Henk & van Vliet, Hans, A method for defining IEEE Std

1471 viewpoints, The Journal of Systems and Software 79, page 120-131, April2005

[Lankhorst 2005] Lankhorst, Marc et al, Enterprise Architecture at Work,Springer, ISBN 3-540-24371-2, 2005.

[Zachman 1987] Zachman, John, A Framework for Information SystemsArchitetecture, IBM Systems Journal, Vol 26, No 3, 1987. IBM PublicationG321-5298.


58/89


- 53 -


Two years have passed since the thesis about the Command Vehicle IT

Architecture was written. Has the thesis ended on a book shelf gathering dustor have the ideas been implemented in practice?

The architecture principleshave been worked out in more detail in a separatebut brief document because thick documents will not be used in practice.Special attention was given to the visualisation of the principles. This wasdone with cartoons; f.i. Business Principle #2. All cartoons can be printed on asingle A4 and thus easily communicated. The target audience has recognizedthe principles and they are used in practice. Defence Staff has recently askedthe author to make a new collection of architecture principles, based upon the

current ones, that are not only applicable to the RNLA but to Defence as awhole, including the Air Force and Navy.

Business Architecture Principle Example

The Command Vehicle IT Architecturehas been worked out in more detail ina collection of design documents and is the foundation for the coordination ofmultiple Command Vehicle and IT procurement projects. The respectiveproject managers are now convinced that architecture products are neededand revisions are still in progress today.The architectural process has further matured e.g. by standardizing thetemplates for the different architec

Five Years of IT Management Improvement Eight Cases From the Master of IT Management

Documents