The discipline of enterprise engineering

Abstract

A century ago, Taylor published a landmark in the organisational sciences: his Principles of Scientific Management. Many researchers have elaborated on Taylor's principles, or have been influenced otherwise. The authors of the current paper evaluate a century of enterprise development, and conclude that a paradigm shift is needed for dealing adequately with the challenges that modern enterprises face. Three generic goals are identified. The first one, intellectual manageability, is the basis for mastering complexity; current approaches fall short in assisting professionals to master the complexity of enterprises and enterprise changes. The second goal, organisational concinnity, is conditional for making strategic initiatives operational; current approaches do not, or inadequately, address this objective. The third goal, social devotion, is the basis for achieving employee empowerment as well as knowledgeable management and governance; modern employees are highly educated knowledge workers; yet, the mindset of managers has not evolved accordingly. The emerging discipline of Enterprise Engineering, as conceived by the authors, is considered to be a suitable vehicle for achieving these goals. It does so by providing new, powerful theories and effective methodologies. A theoretical framework is presented for positioning the theories, goals, and fundamentals of enterprise engineering in four classes: philosophical, ontological, ideological and technological.

Architecting the Enterprise Towards Enhanced Innovation Capability

“…It views the enterprise as a complex, integrated system that can be purposefully designed or re-designed [31], [90], [10]. It applies "systems theory and engineering techniques to the specification, analysis, design, and implementation of an enterprise for its life cycle" [75].…”

“…This combination of complexity and organisation makes it difficult to use analytical or statistical approaches for problem-solving. Dietz et al [31] therefore highlight the importance of design principles that will guide the (re-)design of an enterprise. According to Dietz et al [31], to "ensure that an enterprise operates in a unified and integrated manner, and in compliance with its strategic intentions and areas of concern, the development process of enterprises and of their supporting systems must be controlled by functional and constructional design principles, in addition to the applicable specific functional and constructional requirements".…”

“…They define architecture as "a coherent, consistent, and hierarchically ordered set of such principles". The collective architectures of an enterprise at any moment are called the enterprise architecture at that moment [31].…”

Employee Flourishing Strategic Framework

“…The discipline of enterprise engineering is described by Dietz, Hoogervorst and Albani [31] as the discipline of designing and redesigning enterprises in relation to both their business and their organisation. A modern trend is to view enterprises as organised complexities.…”

Enterprise interoperability: information, services and processes for the interoperable economy and society

“…enterprises (Dietz et al 2013). Much of the complexity involved arises from the combination of the inherently social and economic aspects of enterprises on one hand, and the inherently analytical and technical aspects of design on the other.…”