This research examines WHY and HOW a new approach to Enterprise Strategy and IT planning can be adopted in the European national financial sector by using Enterprise Architecture (EA). EA has been promoted as a key tool for transformation and modernisation of the enterprise. By following best practices from successful case studies and the European Central Bank (ECB), the claim is that the adoption of EA will ensure that IT resources and business processes are planned, leveraged, and coordinated better in national financial sectors. In our five supporting papers, several qualitative case studies in Europe were investigated by applying an interpretive perspective. According to common belief EA connects business and IT; it is an important tool for survival and growth. Many EA endeavours, however, fail. The question is how can risks of EA implementation failure be reduced at an early stage? Underlying questions concern: why would a particular organisation need EA, can implementation risks be identified and are solutions available to reduce the failure rate? In order to answer research questions a literature study is performed to build the Business Transformation Enablement Program framework (BTEP). It advocates deliberate motivation, active risk management and an iterative and incremental implementation of EA. Next to the literature, the framework is validated through the Small National Bank (SNB) implementation. Data was collected in both structured, semi-structured and ad-hoc methods. Grounded theory techniques were used to analyse the data logically, using existing theory only as prior constructs. The theoretical abstractions, generalisations and experience generated in the research process have been published and availed to specialised groups.

No / Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a system designed to bring processes and resource together by sharing data and information across functional areas. The use of ERP consultancy is becoming essential to the enterprises in China. However, many issues have risen in the process of ERP implementation. This paper aims to investigate the major obstacles in the way of ERP implementation among ERP consultancy and client organisations. It has found that the quality of Chinese consultancy is far from that expected as leading ERP products were not widely mastered by consulting firms. Efficient information system is essential for companies to stay in the competition. However, transparent information flow across functional areas is hard to achieve in China. A good understanding of ERP system and business processes can help Chinese enterprises to ease unrealistic expectations from ERP implementation.

The focus of this research questions the role of change management in successfully implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning solution in the retail industry. The importance of the study could reveal a change approach more useful and relevant to the retail industry and offer opportunities for further research in this industry. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBA

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are regarded as among the most innovative information technology products developed over the past two decades. Thus, they have become the backbone of management information systems in the organizations that have implemented them. The difficulties associated with their high failure rate, however, have been the subject of extensive studies. To expand on this knowledge, this study has two research objectives: to examine the relationship between corporate governance structures and implementation results and to investigate whether implementation outcomes vary by country. This study focuses on the project steering committee’s involvement, internal auditors’ participation, and the change management plan implementation. The results demonstrate that steering committee involvement is a primary factor that influenced the success of ERP implementation; and that institutional factors in country of deployment are important determinants of ERP project outcome.

Atenção especial tem sido dada às atividades de documentação e suporte a projetos em Engenharia de Software, principalmente quando estão relacionadas a sistemas complexos e equipes distribuídas. Geralmente apenas se registram as informações relativas às decisões finais de determinada fase. Não são documentadas as razões de cada decisão e nem as alternativas que foram consideradas e descartadas. A captura e recuperação, de maneira eficiente, deste tipo de informação é a finalidade do estudo do Design Rationale. O registro destas informações pode facilitar a manutenção, o reuso e também a própria fase de elaboração do projeto, na medida em que possibilita um melhor entendimento do sistema, por meio da disseminação de conhecimento, comunicação e integração entre a equipe de projeto. A questão é quando e como capturar estas informações sem muita interferência junto às atividades usuais dos projetistas, a fim de que os benefícios possam superar os custos envolvidos nesta tarefa. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo mostrar com razões plausíveis a grande utilidade da aplicação da técnica de Design Rationale em projetos de sistemas ERP, propondo um novo modelo de representação das decisões de projeto para estes sistemas. / Special attention has been given to documentation and support activities in Software Engineering design, mainly when they are related to complex systems and distributed teams. Usually, information related to the final decisions of each phase is registered. However, the reasons of each decision and the alternatives that were considered and discarded are not documented. Capture and recovery of this type of information, in an efficient way, are the purposes of the Design Rationale study. Recording this information can facilitates maintenance, reuse and even the design phase, providing a better understanding of the system, by knowledge spread, communication and integration among the project team. The main concern is when and how to capture this information with low interference in designers\' usual activities, so that benefits can overcome costs involved in this task. The purpose of the present work is to show with plausible reasons the great usefulness of the application of Design Rationale technique in ERP systems design, proposing a new representation model for recording design decisions in these system.

The focus of this research questions the role of change management in successfully implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning solution in the retail industry. The importance of the study could reveal a change approach more useful and relevant to the retail industry and offer opportunities for further research in this industry. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBA

Atenção especial tem sido dada às atividades de documentação e suporte a projetos em Engenharia de Software, principalmente quando estão relacionadas a sistemas complexos e equipes distribuídas. Geralmente apenas se registram as informações relativas às decisões finais de determinada fase. Não são documentadas as razões de cada decisão e nem as alternativas que foram consideradas e descartadas. A captura e recuperação, de maneira eficiente, deste tipo de informação é a finalidade do estudo do Design Rationale. O registro destas informações pode facilitar a manutenção, o reuso e também a própria fase de elaboração do projeto, na medida em que possibilita um melhor entendimento do sistema, por meio da disseminação de conhecimento, comunicação e integração entre a equipe de projeto. A questão é quando e como capturar estas informações sem muita interferência junto às atividades usuais dos projetistas, a fim de que os benefícios possam superar os custos envolvidos nesta tarefa. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo mostrar com razões plausíveis a grande utilidade da aplicação da técnica de Design Rationale em projetos de sistemas ERP, propondo um novo modelo de representação das decisões de projeto para estes sistemas. / Special attention has been given to documentation and support activities in Software Engineering design, mainly when they are related to complex systems and distributed teams. Usually, information related to the final decisions of each phase is registered. However, the reasons of each decision and the alternatives that were considered and discarded are not documented. Capture and recovery of this type of information, in an efficient way, are the purposes of the Design Rationale study. Recording this information can facilitates maintenance, reuse and even the design phase, providing a better understanding of the system, by knowledge spread, communication and integration among the project team. The main concern is when and how to capture this information with low interference in designers\' usual activities, so that benefits can overcome costs involved in this task. The purpose of the present work is to show with plausible reasons the great usefulness of the application of Design Rationale technique in ERP systems design, proposing a new representation model for recording design decisions in these system.

Während Open Source-Software wie etwa Linux, der Apace Webserver oder die OpenOffice-Suite eine grosse Verbreitung erfahren haben, sind Open Source-Lösungen zur Unterstützung betrieblicher Aufgaben weniger bekannt. Dieser Bericht unternimmt ausgehend von den funktionalen Anforderungen der Auftragsabwicklung eines Industrieunternehmens einen Vergleich bestehender Lösungen und diskutiert die Einsatzmöglichkeiten aus heutiger Sicht.

Univ., Diss.--Bayreuth, 2002. / Literaturverz. S. 224 - 239.

Zugl.: Oldenburg, Universiẗat, Diss., 2009.