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The purpose of this paper is to provide a guide through which the Zachman Framework can be used to address challenges and for successful implementation of enterprise architecture (EA) in an organisation that deploys it.

Qualitative research methods were followed, within which the case study approach was applied. The interpretive method was used in the analysis of the qualitative data.

Based on the findings, a method is proposed through which EA can be implemented in an organisation by using the Zachman Framework.

This is an original research work. Also, the paper has not been submitted to other journal for review and possible publication.

Business rules are statements that aim to influence or guide behavior and information in the organization. They are the business policies, the business practices, and business definitions that should be well known and treated as a valuable asset to the organization. They are in essence how the actual business is run. Yet so often these business rules are implicit, assumed in the development of information systems in an organization. They have been buried in code, lived in the business experts’ heads and sporadically been documented in system manuals. In this paper we examine the value of business rules, compare the thinking of business rule experts and provide guidelines on how to derive and store an organization’s business rules.

In an era of unprecedented technological innovation and evolving user expectations and information seeking behaviour, we are arguably now an online society, with digital services increasingly common and increasingly preferred. As a trusted information provider, libraries are in an advantageous position to respond, but this requires integrated strategic and enterprise architecture planning, for information technology (IT) has evolved from a support role to a strategic role, providing the core management systems, communication networks and delivery channels of the modern library. Furthermore, IT components do not function in isolation from one another but are interdependent elements of distributed and multidimensional systems encompassing people, processes and technologies, which must consider social, economic, legal, organisational and ergonomic requirements and relationships, as well as being logically sound from a technical perspective. Strategic planning provides direction, while enterprise architecture strategically aligns and holistically integrates business and information system architectures. While challenging, such integrated planning should be regarded as an opportunity for the library to evolve as an enterprise in the digital age, or at minimum, to simply keep pace with societal change and alternative service providers. Without strategy, a library risks being directed by outside forces with independent motivations and inadequate understanding of its broader societal role. Without enterprise architecture, it risks technological disparity, redundancy and obsolescence. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this conceptual chapter provides an integrated framework for strategic and architectural planning of digital library services. The concept of the library as an enterprise is also introduced.

Knowledge is perceived as very important asset for organizations and knowledge management is critical for organization competitiveness. Because the nature of knowledge is always represented as complex and varied, it is difficult to extend effectiveness of knowledge re‐use in organizations. In this article, an approach based on the Zachman’s Framework to externalize organizational knowledge into semi‐structured knowledge is developed, and eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is applied to transform the knowledge into documents. In addition, latent semantic indexing (LSI), which is capable of solving problems of synonyms and antonyms, as well as improving accuracy of document searches, is incorporated to facilitate search of semi‐structured knowledge (SSK) documents based on user demands. The SSK approach shows great promise for organizations to acquire, store, disseminate, and reuse knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a new benchmarking framework on the factors that influence digital library (DL) adoption by aligning them with the constructs of DL models to establish the likely critical success factors (CSFs) for DL implementation.

Concept mapping is used to illustrate the relationship between the information systems success model and DL frameworks. Technology organisation and environment (TOE) framework was chosen as the central theme and was mapped with the three DL frameworks reviewed (5S framework; the Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture and the DELOS DL reference model) to come up with the likely success dimensions for DLs. A set of possible success factors was assembled from the literature on previous studies relating to factors that are critical to the success of information systems and DLs. The description of each DL potential success factors was finally developed as an item statement with verification from the literature review.

A total of 53 success factors items were assembled from literature represented by the final ten constructs of the CSFs; 16 items characterise DL technology, 13 items denote DL organisation and 24 items symbolise DL environment. Findings show that these factors may be good determinants for an effective implementation of DLs.

The outcome can positively influence the implementation of DLs worldwide.

This is the first study in library science that incorporates TOE with DL frameworks to come up with the success factors of DL implementation.

In a technological age where and how does the health sector fit in? Have hospitals and other health agencies that are updated technologically also advanced in other areas of service and operation?

The application of agility principles and methodologies on Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a promising field. This paper aims to provide an in-depth study of the Agile Enterprise Architecture (AEA) by studying EA practitioners’ perspectives to propose a foundational framework for AEA.

The authors formulate a foundational framework that defines the AEA motivators, enablers and blockers using the agile manifesto as one of the AEA enablers where a total of 156 EA stakeholders with at least one year of experience in enterprise architecture were surveyed, and a set of hypotheses was analyzed and tested based on the proposed framework. The authors also develop a quantitative method to evaluate the agility index of the EA based on the introduced framework.

The research results show with significance that enterprise architects perceive positively the application of the agility methodologies on the enterprise architecture. This perception is primarily affected by the enterprise size, the EA dependency and the agile methodologies awareness. The findings also indicate that AEA is primarily motivated by the Business and IT Change Ready and Responsive EA. Finally, an EA Agility Index (EAAI) was designed to assess the agility application of the EA based on the three forces, i.e. motivators, enablers and blockers.

Because of the chosen research approach and the sample size, the research results may lack generalizability. Also, EAAI designed was not thoroughly tested.

The paper includes implications for the design and development of an EA Agility Index, and the need to increase the awareness of the agility methodologies to overcome the blocker of the unfamiliarity with the agile methodologies implying that the current business models in enterprise must be more aligned with the agile methodologies.

While there are efforts to develop AEA frameworks, one of the major findings of the literature review conducted is that there is evident research gap in the literature on the perception and associated factors of the EA stakeholders on having an agile enterprise architecture. This paper attempts to fill this gap.

Drawing on established alignment and architectural theory, this paper seeks to present the argument that an organisation's enterprise architecture can enable the alignment of business strategy and information systems and technology (IS/IT).

The paper presents a detailed case study of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), where a high degree of alignment and international recognition of excellence in business and enabling IS/IT performance are documented.

The ABS enterprise architecture was developed in 1999‐2001 and describes the organisation's physical business and IS/IT elements, and the connective relationships that inform the alignment condition. The ABS architecture is robustly holistic in form, and is characterised by a strong and equal focus on business operations, the deliberate inclusion of an IS/IT governance framework, the structuring and hosting of corporate information for business delivery, and the efficient reuse of IS/IT components.

The ABS case study also examined empirically the social aspects and formal mechanisms of organisational alignment, and shows how a formal enterprise architecture mechanism can integrate into a successful alignment process.

Smart city services are supported by information and communication technologies (ICT) referred to as digital technologies which increasingly promise huge opportunities for growth but are faced with system alignment and data integration issues when providing digital services. Therefore, this study aims to use enterprise architecture (EA) in digital transformation of cities by developing an architecture to address system alignment and data integration in digital transformation of cities.

Qualitative method is applied to evaluate the presented architecture based on electric-mobility (e-mobility) scenario, and data was collected using case study via interviews from a municipality in Norway to validate the applicability of EA for digital transformation of city services.

Findings from the interviews were represented in ArchiMate language to model the digital transformation of e-mobility in smart cities. Findings suggest that the architecture serves as a guide to recommend urban administrators of the potential of EA and digital transformation in addressing system alignment and data integration issues in smart cities.

Data used in this study is from a single case, hence there is a need to evaluate the application of EA for digital transformation of city services with data collected from multi-cases.

This study adopts enterprise architecture approach to support city transformation as it has been widely applied by institutions to align business and ICT components.

This study provides implication on how municipalities can use EA and digital transformations towards a sustainable smart city.

An architecture is presented that can be used as a guide to help urban developers and designers in deploying sustainable transport policies for smart cities. Additionally, EA is used to foster digitalization towards achieving system alignment and data integration in cities to support urban environment as they digitally transform services provided to citizens.

The purpose of this paper is to bridge the void in virtual teams’ (VTs) lived experiences on the high-performance work process theme by exploring process alignment best practices for the functioning of effective VTs in the software sector of the technology industry of South Africa.

A qualitative, interpretivist case study was used to gain insight into the lived experiences of VT members. A purposive sample was selected, and data were collected through an electronic questionnaire and analysed by means of content analysis.

International literature corpus informed the process theme. Empirical evidence suggests that a value-driven work orientation to combat cybercrime linked with the pre-existence to specific architecture effectively contribute to the practice of VT expertise by delivering innovative new paths instead of aligning to traditional processes.

The qualitative approach of this paper limits the replication possibilities beyond the information and communication technology (ICT) VTs who participated in the study. The themes, elements and the virtual nature of the study could be generalised across various technology-infused organisations in other VTs and within other knowledge working fields.

An exemplary questionnaire and method to obtain deep knowledge from the lived experiences of the virtually dispersed participants could be utilised for similar future studies.

ICT software organisations trading on the African, within VT environments and South Africa, people practitioners and risk managers would benefit from the process alignment practices suggested in this study.

This paper complements seminal VT theorists, and presents suggestions towards a practical implementable novel framework for the implementation of VT processes alignment.