Towards Designing Modular Structures forReducing Non-linear Effects of OrganizationalChange

Marien KrouwelMay 15th 2013EEWC 2013 DC

2

Proposition

Full-functional modules for organizations in which the impact of a given change is small, are a necessary addition to the field of Enterprise Engineering

I will not do this alone!

3

Small change, large impact

Context (supply)

DataInformationBusiness

Δ law

Δ customer needs

Context

(environment + demand)

Function

Construction / ontology

Construction /

implementation

people

means

system type

per

spec

tive

4

Even small changes in construction may have a high

impact

99900 99901

mary@acompany susan@acompany

IMPACTIMPACTIMPACTIMPACT

5

Example 2: Exam marks

IMPACTIMPACT IMPACT N

Change:

Procedure v2

N

6

Example 3: it starts with IT …

• Change of IT in e.g. financial department change of- Processes in department- Interfaces with department- Processes in other departments- IT in other departments- …

7

These effects need to be reduced in order to ease change

• Main question- Can non-linear effects of changes in the

construction of an enterprise be reduced?

• Non-linear effect: any effect of a change, besides the change itself- non-linear implies the effect could also be smaller

than the change itself; any other terminology?

8

Normalized Systems: for ITwithout combinatorial effects

• Combinatorial effects: special case of non-linear in which the impact of a change depends (also) on the size of the system

• Normalized Systems theory:- by adhering to four principles- embodied in 5 modular structures- a stable IS without CE’s can be created- with respect to 8 anticipated changes

12

Benefits of modularity *

• Complexity reduction• Comprehensibility• Easy-replacement• Reducing impact of a change

* (McIlroy, Parnas, Baldwin & Clark, Sanchez & Mahoney, Simon)

The key for enterprises to be able to deal with change is modularity!

14

Modularity in EE

• B/I/D• Production/coordination• Essence/implementation

- Essence: transaction and roles- Implementation: assignment

of technologies (human, ICT)

The ontological model of an enterprise is a better starting point for modularization than traditional process models (Terlouw)

Sub question 1:

What are the concerns in the implementation of

enterprises?

1b. And to what extent are they generic?

15

Ex. implementation concerns *

• Employees• Roles/departments/functionary types• Competences• Equipment, devices, applications, databases,

infrastructure, etc.• Channels• Workplace/office locations• …

* (Op ’t Land and Krouwel, 2013)

16

Organizational modular structures

…Info. object

…ActorRole

Trans-action

organization=

n Instances of Elements

ElementsElement

Sub question 2:

What modular structures can deal with

some of the generic concerns without

introducing NLE’s?

17

Example: European Patent OfficeDifferences in:• Order of working• Language(s) • Deparments• Law• Channels IT

Differences in:• Order of working• Language(s) • Deparments• Law• Channels IT

18

Example: European Patent Office

• Change- Internal structure of

core and GC’s changes indepedently

- Existence of and interactions between core and GC’s remain

19

Limitation: NLE’s within transactions

• Dealing with NLE’s between transactions is a totally different (and larger?)problem!

• In NS: how to avoid two action elements that do similar things

20

Conceptual model

21

Approach

22

Gathering implementation concerns

• Literature- Enterprise Architecture- Modularity- Organization design

• By looking for instabalities in current implementations- What happens if…- Comparing different implementations (e.g. EPO)

23

Inter-dependencies and change frequency

• Dimensions may have interdependencies, e.g.,- adding e-mail as sales channel, requires an e-mail

server, application, desktop, etc.- new application requires new competences

• Some dimensions change quickly, others much slower- Quick(er): employees- Slow(er): roles/departments, new channel to offer

services

24

Designing modular structures

1. Principles2. Guidelines3. Patterns4. Elements

25

Experiment (1)

• Five groups, randomly assigned, consisting of- enterprise (transformation) architects- IT architects- business analysts- IT managers

• Four groups will be given assignment to model the implementation of described enterprise- Group 1: implementation concerns- Group 2: modular structures- Group 3: modular structures + implementation concerns- Group 4: no additional aids

26

Experiment (2)

• Group 5 will rank implementations on presence of non-linear effects of some changes- First individually- Then together to reach consensus

28

Planning

29

Expected impact on theory

• Extension to/detailing of Framework of Enterprise Engineering (Hoogervorst, 2011)

• Applying Normalized Systems theory to the level of enterprises

• Clues for identifying non-linear effects- Concerns to look for- People to talk to

30

Expected impact on practice

• Implementation concerns enable- better understanding of current organization

implementation- to design future organization implementation(s)- to make informed change decisions- designing agile IT

• Modular structures enable- designing enterprises that are able to change quickly

• in which transformations are easy and successful

- TOGAF enterprise continuum

31

Questions

Marien.Krouwel@student.ua.ac.beMarien.Krouwel@capgemini.com