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

FIVE YEARS OF
IT MANAGEMENT
IMPROVEMENT
Eight cases from the
Master of IT Management
This page intentionally left blank

FIVE YEARS OF
IT MANAGEMENT
IMPROVEMENT
Eight cases from the Master of IT Management
Written by eight alumni
Edited by Guus de Mari

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 BV
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the Netherlands
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email: info@iospress.nl
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Master of IT Management
Delft TopTech
School of Executive Education
Delft University of Technology
P.O. Box 612, 2600 AP Delft,
the Netherlands
tel: +31 15 278 80 19
fax: +31 15 278 10 09
www.delft-toptech.nl
info@delft-toptech.nl
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The publisher is not responsible for the use which might be made of the following
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PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
Five years of IT management improvement
- 1 -
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface 3
Guus de Mari
Writing a thesis as part of the executive Master of IT management 5
Gerard Wijers
IT Governance in Europe 9
Kees Trommel
A structure creating transparency between Business and IT 17
Jacco Schonewille
Improvement of a high reliable and scalable ICT-infrastructure for
the new OPG head quarters 27
Gwan Kho
Making IT-Governance work with Enterprise Architecture 37
Corn Pol
Command Vehicle IT Architecture: The challenge ahead 45
Jan van de Pol
Right sourcing IT 55
Guus Keizer
Forecasting in retailing 61
Nico Wartenbergh
From Technology to Service 71
Paul Leenards
Academic View on the Master of IT Management 77
Anne Persson
We are in the midst of IT Management improvement 79
Udo Groen
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- 3 -
PREFACE
Guus de Mari MBA is senior project manager at Delft
TopTech, school of executive education of Delft
University of Technology and has his own consultancy
firm on HR development. In his career, he created
many development programmes; key words in all his
work are applied knowledge, creating innovation
power, combining internal and external expertise. He
is responsible for the Master of IT Management.

It has now been five years since the launch of the postgraduate Master of IT
Management at TU Delft. A host of students have now completed the programme.
This publication showcases the results of a handful of these graduates. It presents
summaries of eight theses written between 2003 and 2008, selected to provide an
excellent picture of the full range of graduation projects.
Since all of our theses focus on real-life management problems, they have gone on
to 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 other
words, it gives you a flavour of IT management improvement over the last five
years. All of the graduates personally reflect on their completed project, applying
the knowledge they have since acquired. In most cases, their colleagues and
managers also look back on developments.
The book ends by addressing two fundamental questions. The first question, What
is the academic value of this work?, is answered by Anne Persson, Professor at
the University of Skvde, Sweden. Udo Groen, member of the executive board of
ProRail in the Netherlands, answers the same question from a business
perspective. These two perspectives perfectly mirror the structure of the master
programme: bringing academic knowledge to business experience and vice versa.
The book as a whole is an outstanding example of cooperation between university
and industry. It not only demonstrates how an academic programme can initiate
successful projects within businesses but also shows how business experience
can enrich an academic programme. It is the ideal illustration of cooperation as the
dissemination 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 revisit
and reflect on their own thesis project. Most of them had little experience of writing
articles and had to take up the challenge of developing this competence.
- 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 their
skills 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 chapter
written by the programme director, Dr Gerard Wijers, provides an interesting insight
into the educational programme and the context in which the theses were
produced.
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 their
summaries. It was far from easy to capture the essence of their theses in texts that
were both readable and accessible. Furthermore, the need to remove all
confidential 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 nice
to have an assignment again. They received guidance and feedback on their
drafts from experts involved in the programme: Albert Plugge, Nico Brand, Marijn
Janssen and Frank Grift. The book you have in your hands is the result of fruitful
cooperation 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 and
those who supported the project in other ways.
Creating this book and compiling the various elements has been a fascinating
challenge. It was very rewarding to see the enthusiasm of the writers and the
learning process they underwent. If you enjoy reading this book as much as I
enjoyed producing it, you will not be disappointed.

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WRITING A THESIS AS PART OF THE EXECUTIVE MASTER
OF IT MANAGEMENT
An interesting and challenging journey
Dr.ir. Gerard Wijers began his career at TU Delft
where he gained a Masters degree in Computer
Science and a PhD in IT Management and Infor-
mation Planning Methodologies. At present, he has a
part-time senior research fellowship in Delft in the
field of IT management & Sourcing and he is
programme director of Delfts Executive Master of IT
Management. He is director of EquaTerras Gover-
nance and Sourcing Management practice in the
Benelux. He is an experienced advisor with an extensive background in
IT strategy and IT governance. Gerard Wijers has been concerned with
customer-supplier relationships in IT for more than 15 years and is
known as a committed, professional and entrepreneurial advisor. He
helped found ISPL, the Information Services Procurement Library, a
well-known contract management methodology. In the 90s he owned
an IT innovation consultancy firm, ID Research, which was later sold to
one of the large Dutch IT service providers. Gerard Wijers speaks
regularly at conferences and has produced a large number of
international publications.
Over a period of five years we have been supervising the participants of the
Executive Master of IT management programme in writing their master thesis. It is
therefore time for some observations and reflections and to share these with you
as a reader. The thesis in itself is a very important part of the executive programme
and it is the most essential element of the programme for guaranteeing the
academic quality of this programme.
In this reflection paper we first would like to highlight the role of the thesis in the
entire programme, secondly we discuss some typical assignments and the
character of the work and third we reflect on the process of supervision and
examination.
The thesis as part of the entire executive master programme
The thesis is the last part of the modular executive programme and participants
can start with their Master module and with writing their thesis as soon as they
have successfully completed five modules. Each module of the programme
consists of 8 days of interactive education by leading scientific and business
leaders and each module contains a specific assignment. These assignments have
to be carried out within the business context of the participant and have a visible
impact for these organisations. The assignments also prepare the students in
applying a (scientific) structured way of solving and analysing problems. The
executive master of IT management programme has (at the moment of writing) five
- 6 -
modules: IT Governance, Business & IT Architectures, IT Financials & Decision
Making, Strategic Sourcing and IT Service Delivery Management.
The thesis counts for about 25% of the study load of the whole programme and
has 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. These
criteria are:
- 7 -

In total a thesis will consist of around 25000 words plus appendices but of course
more important than just criteria and length is that we stimulate the students to
select a challenging problem within their own organisation.
Some typical assignments
As the executive programme has its focus on the business IT relationship and on
how to achieve an optimal fit between business and IT, many of the topics are
related to:
Decision making in IT;
Improving the way an organisation has organised its IT governance or its IT
organisation;
Introducing new technologies for new markets, products or services;
Creating a future architecture and roadmap for future IT developments;
Defining a sourcing strategy for their business;
Typically a thesis results in products such as a set of recommendations, a design,
an evaluation framework, an implementation plan, or a choice for a future scenario.
The process of supervision and examination
Though all participants enter into the programme at bachelor or master level, thesis
writing experience has to be (re)trained as part of the programme. We therefore
apply the same evaluation criteria for the module assignments as for the final
thesis so that participants get used to a consistent evaluation method. More
importantly, at the start of the Master module, specific training is given by the
Faculty on research methodology in which the students learn how to demarcate
their problem, how to define their research questions, how to find relevant
literature, etc. Through panel sessions and peer-to-peer reviews feedback is
generated. Every student has a personal supervisor from the Faculty and midway a
draft version of the thesis will be evaluated by members of the examination
committee.
- 8 -
With great respect we see an intensive thesis writing process going on in which the
participants combine this intensive process with their (ongoing) management
position and step-by-step improve and work on their business problem in a
scientific and structured way. Alas not all participants find the discipline and
inspiration to fulfil this challenging final task. As supervisors we always try to find a
good balance between giving active support and the personal responsibility of the
participant himself. The examination committee has the role to make the final
judgement.
Conclusions
Even though most participants find it difficult to get used to applying a scientific
approach to solving a business problem, many at the end succeed and learn that
such an approach leads to real understanding and thorough underpinning of
recommendations, conclusions and designs. For the university it is inspiring to
supervise these experienced participants and to learn about the bigger business-IT
concerns within the organisations of these students.
Kees Trommel; IT Governance in Europe
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IT GOVERNANCE IN EUROPE
Ir. Kees Trommel MITM studied Informatics at Delft
University of Technology. After his graduation, he
worked for Incontrol Management Consultants where
he executed several IT design, package selection
and implementation projects. In 1998, he started at
Yamaha Motor Europe N.V. as a project manager.
He led ERP implementations at national distributors
all over Europe and was involved in several business
improvement projects. Since 2006, he manages the
application maintenance, application support and IT infrastructure
teams of the company and is responsible for the availability and quality
of all Yamahas business applications and IT infrastructure. He graduated
in 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, marketing
and manufacturing of consumer goods in Europe. Throughout Europe and per
country the company has distributor organisations that are responsible for sales
and marketing in their country. The company has a 100% shareholding in the
majority of these distributor organisations.
In the last two decades, the companys role in the European market place is
changing 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 not
finished.
The global IT headquarters has indicated that the IS division (ISD) of the company
is responsible for European IT governance. As such, ISD and the entire European
IT organisation have been faced with the question in which manner IT governance
in 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 organisation
should be supportive in realising the companys business and IT strategy. As the
latter is currently not defined, several hypotheses have been formulated that could
describe 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 swiftly
and efficiently be enhanced to meet changing business requirements. This is
specifically important as the rate of business changes is increasing and quick
action and implementation are necessary. What is more, new developments are
almost never local anymore, but instead are pan-European in nature.
- 10 -
Derived from the hypotheses, the objectives for the IT governance organisation
comprise of:
ISD should assume the leading role in the formulation, planning and execution
of IT strategies on a European scale;
A truly European approach to IT should be realised to promote synergy and
cooperation;
The application portfolio should be managed on a European level;
Cost management should be introduced to increase cost transparency, to
detect efficiency gains and to realise economies of scale.
Based on these objectives, the European IT organisation was analysed. First of all,
ISD has an operational focus and little emphasis is placed on tactical and strategic
issues. What is more, the European IS organisation basically consists of six
separate entities, namely ISD and the IS departments of the five biggest national
distributors (so-called local ISDs or LISDs). There is little structural synergistic
behaviour between these entities. This leads to overall excessive costs.
Specifically, the companys ERP system exists in six completely different versions,
maintained by both ISD and the five LISDs. As a result, European wide projects
that require the headquarters changes encounter additional costs and more elapse
time. There is also little proactive IT cost management.
In summary, the role of ISD has been classified as one of Strategic Guidance, a
typification that is used for corporate IT functions that are less pro-active and
mainly focus on operational excellence
1
. The latter is amplified by the fact that ISD
is also responsible for IT within smaller distributors. The analysis therefore
concluded that the European IT organisation (and its current IT governance
structure) does not result in achieving the objectives set.

1
[Stephen L. Hodgkinson, 1996]
- 11 -
In the exhibit below, the position of the entities in the companys European IT
organisation in relation to typical IT organisations is shown.
Scale
economies
Control
of standards
Critical mass
of skills
Unresponsive
No BU ownership of systems
No BU control of central
overhead costs
Doesnt meet every BU needs
User control
IT priorities
BUs have
ownership
Responsive
To BU needs
Excessive overall
cost to group
Variable standard of
IS competence
Reinvention of wheels
No synergy
Pooled
experience
Synergy
Functional IT
leadership
Group-wide
perspective
Decentralised IT Centralised IT Federal IT
Smaller
distributors
LISDs ISD
Advantages and disadvantages of IT organisation types
2
At first glance, some of the objectives might be realised by also centralising LISDs
into ISD. From literature it can be concluded that centralisation of the IS function is
necessary to integrate applications and to realise economies of scale. Managing
information on a corporate level can result in value for money benefits as well.
However, decentralisation is required to respond quickly to real business
requirements
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 giving
them 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 to
centralise common IT activities.
To achieve the objectives, the company should realise a European IT governance
structure that attempts to capture both the benefits of the centralised and of the
decentralised IT organisation while mitigating the disadvantages thereof as much
as possible. The design of the new European IT governance organisation should
therefore take the federal IT structure as its foundation. The picture below indicates
in which manner the European IT organisation should shift towards a federal IT
organisation model. An assessment of eight factors that influence the IT
governance structure, such as organisational culture and corporate governance
structure supports this conclusion
4
.

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]
- 12 -
Re-positioning the European IS organisation
To implement the federal IT governance structure, the thesis first recommends to
reorganise ISD and to explicitly assign the mandate to ISD to proactively define the
companys corporate IT strategy. This reorganisation should specifically focus on
enforcing the planning department within ISD that is responsible for tactical and
strategic issues. Furthermore, the companys ERP system maintenance and
support should be centralised.
Also, it is recommended to use the CObIT framework, an international and
generally 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 be
made more explicit. The future responsibilities of ISD, LISDs and small distributors
can be identified in relation to these processes. What is more, the CObIT
processes already will cover issues such as cost management, definition and
monitoring of service level agreements and the like. Last but not least, using
CObIT will assure coverage of all IT governance areas defined by the IT
governance institute
6
.
Introducing the proposed European IT governance structure as sketched above will
be a sensitive and most likely gradual process, as it will change responsibilities and
activities of parties involved. This will not be an easy task as little guidelines are
available 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
Control
of standards
Critical mass
of skills
Unresponsive
No BU ownership of systems
No BU control of central
overhead costs
Doesnt meet every BU needs
User control
IT pri orities
BUs have
owner ship
Responsive
To BU needs
Excessive overall
cost to group
Variable standard of
IS competence
Reinvention of wheels
No synergy
Pooled
experience
Synergy
Functional IT
leadership
Group-wide
perspective
Decentralised IT Centralised IT Federal IT
LISDs
Smaller
distributors
ISD
- 13 -
Recommended phased approach towards the new IT governance structure
Once commitment has been granted, phase 1 should start with the re-organisation
of ISD, with the aim to shift focus from operational to tactical and strategic
activities, such as the formulation of the companys IT strategy. In parallel, quick
wins should realise obvious benefits. What is more, it should also prove the new IT
governance structure in which a number of IT activities can be safely handed over
to ISD.
The final phase entails the full-scale realisation of the new IT governance structure
in which numerous activities are to be executed. Obviously, the implementation of
CObIT is the most extensive and difficult task but, as argued above, also very
important as the oncoming business challenges require quite a different approach
towards the companys IT in Europe.
References
Stephen L. Hodgkinson, The role of the corporate IT function in the federal IT
organisation,
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 organisational
dimension, Oxford University Press, 1996
Joe Peppard, Information management in the global enterprise: an organising
framework,
In: European Journal of Information Systems (issue 8, pages 77-94), 1999
Anton Joha, The retained organisation after outsourcing (chapter 6), Master
thesis Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of
Technology, 2003
IT governance institute, CObIT framework (4
th
edition), www.isaca.org, 2007
IT governance institute, Board briefing on IT governance (2
nd
edition),
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 implement
IT governance structure
Promote synergistic
behaviour, cooperation
and standardisation
Centralise ERP of bigger
distributors
Phase 3
- full implementation -
Reorganise
ISD
Formulate
IT strategy
Communicate
IT strategy
Discuss IT services
smaller distributors
Centralise
Italian ERP
Define SLAs
with distributors
Build and explain
business case
Request approval
of top management
- 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 and
planning of European inventory and related logistic operations. This
transition was in many aspects very complex as longstanding business
rules were redefined and responsibilities shifted.
At the beginning of 2006, the companys Japanese headquarter was
subject to legal investigations, alleging that products were exported that
could be used for military purposes without proper authorizations. In the
aftermath 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 its
several legal entities into one
The first factor directly relates with one of the implementation issues
addressed in the thesis i.e. that the pace of the companys transition process
will have a knock-on effect on the pace of the implementation of the proposed
IT governance structure. This has proved to be right. The complex and slow
transformation 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 that
business procedures were made compliant with all existing rules and auditing
guidelines. Concluding, the third factor also had an obvious influence on the
activities on ISD. Both factors required activities having an internal and
operational focus.
When looking back, it must be concluded that only few recommendations
were partially executed. The implementation project never really took off as
the company and its top management clearly had different priorities. The
suggested reorganisation of ISD was only executed for the operational
activities and still ongoing. The planning department is not reinforced.
Furthermore, although generally accepted, the companys IT strategy
remained a set of hypotheses. The centralisation of the Italian ERP is also far
from finalised.
However, the climate is changing. The new companys business structure is
now stabilised with standardised business procedures and applications. This
situation, together with the fact that in the current economic downturn several
LISDs have requested ISD for extensive support and even central hosting of
their ERP application, could after all lay the foundation be to implement the
proposed governance structure.
- 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 get
buy-in and support from local management and LISDs for the proposed
direction for IT in Europe. Also, support of the global IT head quarters has
been 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 the
company is the most important trigger for IT activities of LISDs. European (IT)
projects initiated by the company are only actively supported when it
concerns F&A related issues.
Next to that, F&A management does not always share the companys target
with local (LISD) staff. There is much hesitation to do this as one is afraid that
experienced LISD staff might leave that will harm support to the local
business.
What is more, LISDs have started projects with the approval of local top
management. ISD was either not informed at all or at a very late stage.
Amongst others, this concerned a replacement of the companys DMS system
with 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 in
Europe and also world wide. The global head quarter therefore has instructed
all subsidiaries to cut expenses and postpone all investments, in the light of
the expected economy recession. This is obviously also influencing and
slowing down IT activities.
Without a doubt, the proposed IT governance structure is the right direction
for the companys IT in Europe. However, the above has sketched several
major obstacles in implementing the proposed IT governance structure in
Europe. The obstacles cannot all be removed instantly; this requires a step-
by-step approach that adheres to the companys culture when changes of this
magnitude are implemented. It does however not alter the fact that the
recommendations and the phased approach proposed in the thesis are valid.
On the contrary, they are still very much applicable.
- 16 -
Jacco Schonewille; A structure creating transparency between business and IT
- 17 -
A STRUCTURE CREATING TRANSPARENCY BETWEEN
BUSINESS AND IT
Jacco Schonewille MITM is CIO within Norfolkline
and member of the executive team. Before he worked
for Baan Company. Jacco got his Master of IT
Management in 2004. Currently he is responsible for
a major outsourcing project and an application
replacement programme. Outside Norfolkline he is
frequently asked to perform presentations and
training in the IT domain. He is maried, has 4 children
and loves to talk about IT Management. Finally he is
performing a PhD research via TU Delft.
The phenomenon business / IT alignment is on the agenda of business and IT
executives for many years; and for good reasons, because a proper alignment
between 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 a
description of a transparency structure that was developed as an attempt to make
business / IT alignment measurable and by increasing transparency also improve
the alignment itself. It offers a combination of existing theories and frameworks to
implement processes and best practices that will make it happen. We argue that
transparency will be increased within a company if the process is followed and the
framework 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, and
applicable to other enterprises and IT environments. So the initial consideration
behind this study was the question about the availability of a framework that could
help executives to start an IT governance improvement process. IT governance is
a term that is widely used, with many meanings and interpretations. To me, it is the
start of everything you do in IT: ensuring you know what to do (the goals should be
clear) and how to achieve it (the way should be clear). We argue that the mission
of an internal IT organisation should be to add value to the core business of an
enterprise. Being an internal IT provider and using that position to create an
isolated domain without aligning with the business is not acceptable. Thus an IT
department cannot work in isolation because in todays business IT is a
prerequisite to support and enhance the business operation demanding a proper
alignment between business and IT.
- 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 defined
as: The state of the Processes, People and Technology in the IT governance
domain, determined by the level of explicitness, openness, simplicity and clarity.
In our opinion very little can be done to improve the alignment process unless
transparency is increased. The proposed structure focuses on increasing
transparency by explaining what to do, and how to do it. It shows how IT
Governance can help IT to better align with the business at all levels, and how the
various theories and methodologies can be related to a specific enterprise. It also
identifies potential problems in achieving this alignment and explains what an
improvement in transparency would mean to the various stakeholders.
Recommendations are given based on various frameworks and public domain
models available like COBIT, IPW, ITIL and PRINCE2, and how they relate to
transparency. The transparency concept exists of two elements. First the
transparency framework, and secondly the transparency process steps. The two
elements will be discussed in the following paragraphs.
The Transparency Framework
The developed structure contains a process with predefined steps that should be
followed, and a framework to assess and increase transparency. An important
element in the concept of transparency is the question of how transparency can be
measured. Once answered, we also have guidelines on how transparency can be
increased, as the only way to determine if transparency is increasing or decreasing
is by measuring the current and new status based on predefined criteria. The six
transparency 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 is
also important to give that information at the right time. This is about planning
and allocation.
Simplicity (How?): Reducing complexity is an important step in increasing
transparency. This criterion will determine: how easy it is; is the message
simple; can it be explained in a clear way; is it easy to use etc.
Accessibility (Where?): The Accessibility criterion is about the ease of finding
the relevant information or resources. Is information accessible in a format and
language that the stakeholder can understand?
Responsibility (Who?): The Responsibility criterion is about who is involved
and who is responsible?
- 19 -
The figure below presents the transparency framework, using the 6 transparency
criteria that are applied to the Process, People and Technology angles.
Increasing transparency is first of all about determining the important drivers and
needs in the environment where you want to increase the transparency. This is
company specific and cannot be generalised. The next step is to determine the
characteristics of the environment and list the priorities that will determine success
or failure. The next step is how you can measure the transparency to assess
where you stand today, and where you want to be in the future. Based on the
previous steps we are ready to select models, frameworks and best practises that
are best suited to the specific enterprise context. Once the frameworks, models
and best practises are selected, and previous steps are completed, we can start
with the implementation plan. This takes all the findings into account, and puts
them in a structured plan, which also details the choices already made. Once the
project is finished, the transparency needs to be monitored, reviewed and
improved in a continuous cycle. It could be that because of a sweeping change in
strategy and environment, we need to go back to the first step and start all over
again. The following diagram shows the transparency process that should be
followed.
- 20 -
The Transparency Process Steps
Ultimately, just speaking about transparency will not add any value to an
enterprise. It should be about providing guidelines and direction for implementing
the transparency concept and communicating it to the business and IT stake-
holders. The study shows that there is a viable business case starting the
transparency process. It indeed shows that by increasing transparency, a better
business / IT alignment is achieved. Based on our findings this improvement is not
only realised because of just measuring the transparency, but also because
involving 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 have
achieved within Norfolkline by applying the transparency concept.
- 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.
- 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 designed
framework and process. In this exercise we have not actually implemented the
framework and process but it was more a theoretical exercise to apply
research findings. In this exercise we found sufficient evidence that the
assessment of transparency and the process steps included could be applied
to the Norfolkline environment. This was a valuable finding from a scientific
angle but not satisfactory from a Norfolkline angle. Therefore we decided as
second step to use concepts and elements of the transparency framework
and process to increase transparency and by that improve business / IT
alignment within Norfolkline. The Norfolkline context didnt allow for a full
implementation because the state of the business organisation and
cooperation with IT was such that we had to take a gentle and down-to-earth
approach, not even mentioning concepts like business / IT alignment. So, how
did we actually achieve more transparency and improved business / IT
alignment? First of all we performed a survey among business and IT
representatives. The domains that were mentioned as focus areas were: (1)
strategy; (2) finance; (3) organisation; and (4) infrastructure. From this
process the first phase in the transparency process was finished (the scope).
Secondly we created per focus area an assessment sheet with concrete
actions how certain elements would be changed to increase transparency. IT
funding was one of these focus areas and the figure below shows the sheet
that was created.
- 23 -
The Transparency Assessment and Actions for IT funding
The next step that was completed was the selection of applicable best
practices and the design of a Norfolkline framework. This was finished in 2005
and included in the IT strategy. The final stage was the implementation and
monitoring. Within Norfolkline this was approached in a pragmatic way. We
didnt define a strict project plan; instead we listed the most important things
we wanted to achieve and the people that should be involved in that.
- 24 -
Concrete results achieved between 2005 and 2007 stemming from the
transparency 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 like
an IT board were implemented.
IT Infrastructure: as a result of the transparency process a project was
initiated to ensure the continuity and cost reduction of our infrastructure.
In general we can conclude that applying the transparency concept to the
Norfolkline environment brought significant improvements and new insights in
the business / IT alignment domain. And although the findings were limited to
the Norfolkline environment, we argue that the same results can be achieved
in other environments.

- 25 -
Reflection by Marit Struijk, Process and Information Manager Norfolkline
Logistics
In the past three years the transparency between business and IT has
improved. This is mostly due to closer involvement of business staff in IT-
projects. Also including business people in the IT governance structure has
lead to a better business/IT alignment and a better understanding on both
sides; IT is getting a better notion of what the business really needs and the
business gets a better grasp of what IT entails. It remains however a slow
process where both parties will need to get used to.
Communication between the two continues to be an important challenge and
is still up for improvement. Especially since communication is not only about
passing 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 governance
structure. This makes clear who should be involved in decisions about IT and
why, and what the decision taking process is. In Norfolkline, it has taken a lot
of work to establish the right governance structure, and once it was agreed
upon, it took some time until all the relevant people understood it, adopted it
and made it work. And sometimes it is still a struggle. However, in the cases
where people are starting to follow the agreed processes, you do see that the
quality of the decision process, for instance around software selection, greatly
improves, everyone feels more involved and more important aspects are
taken into account. You dont see decisions being pushed through by either
business or IT; you see the start of real cooperation.
- 26 -
Gwan 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 MITM is Chief Technology Officer at OPG
Group. An international retail and distribution com-
pany for pharmaceuticals and medical supplies active
in seven other European countries and the United
States. OPG is listed on Euronext Amsterdam since
1992. Gwan started in 1998 at OPG Groothandel, a
business unit of OPG Group and worked before that
at BAM/HBG and Initial Hokatex. He is married and
has 2 children. He graduated in 2006.
OPG is developing a new headquarters and this provides the unique opportunity to
design a new infrastructure meeting the high requirements found in the business at
OPG. In the past, infrastructure efforts were fragmented which resulted in high
costs for enabling an interoperable infrastructure and the risks of failure. The
research objective is to design an architecture for an uninterrupted and scalable
ICT-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 new
headquarters. Based on the TOGAF architecture method, a blueprint for the
infrastructure based on generic building blocks has been developed.

Artistic impression Facet, new headquarters OPG
- 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 and
wholesaling (Pharmacies), providing medical supplies for home healthcare and
related services (Direct), and marketing and distributing pharmaceuticals and
medical supplies to hospitals and nursing homes (Institutional). OPG focuses on
the consumer, supplying products through whatever channel the consumer wishes.
As well as being the market leader in the Netherlands, OPG has operations in
Poland, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Hungary and Switzerland. The
company employs approximately 7,700 people, about 3,500 of whom work outside
the Netherlands. It was incorporated in 1899 and has been listed on Euronext
Amsterdam since 1992.

OPG trade marks

OPG is an European enterprise which has changed from wholesale to retail over
the past five years and aims at doubling its revenue over the next two years by
means of acquisition. At the moment OPG expanded the number of pharmacies
from none in 2001 to 218 pharmacies in the Netherlands and changed its focus
from wholesale to retail.
The OPG business strategy is customer-centric which is not common in the
healthcare industry because of the complex relation between GP (General
Practioner), insurers and patients. Synergy and economy of scale is generated
within OPG by pursuing a multi channel approach. This approach should lead to
better service to patients and a more cost effective operation. ICT services must be
able to support this business strategy. Desktop services, ERP (Enterprise
Resource Planning) and ICT services like mechanical automation (robots in the
pharmacy) are delivered and maintained by the central ICT department.

To reflect this new strategy with the proper housing facilities, a new headquarters
is being built on a premier location (next to the A2 motorway in Utrecht). The
current location which also was used as a national warehouse until 2002 is too
large to be used as a headquarters only. The new location was selected due to its
location in connection with the travelling distance of employees and the
concentration of the healthcare industry in this area. This already has resulted in
the cooperation between OPG and a new to be built hospital next to the new OPG
headquarters. In the hospital, a polytheek, a public pharmacy combined with a
hospital pharmacy, will be built.
- 29 -
The relocation, geographically located a few kilometers from the current OPG
headquarters is planned for the fourth quarter of 2009. This new headquarters will
accommodate all current functions and a central Non-IT services and IT/HR-
services departments. This relocation provides the opportunity to develop a new
ICT-infrastructure. At OPG the definition of ICT infrastructure is the physical
hardware used to interconnect computers and users. Infrastructure includes the
transmission media, including telecommunication lines, and also the routers,
switches and other devices that control transmission paths. Infrastructure also
includes the software used to send, receive and manage the signals that are
transmitted.

Facet, OPG headquarters at night
Research objective
To manage the central infrastructure and ensure successful implementation of the
strategy there will be an ICT architecture suited to the needs of the infrastructure
which will be determined in the research. The new ICT-infrastructure is the
foundation of the OPG ICT. The infrastructure should be very reliable and scalable
to facilitate the development of new IT-services. The objective of this thesis is to
design an architecture for an uninterrupted and scalable ICT-infrastructure. This
architecture should support the OPG business strategy and is enabled by the
realisation of a new HQ.
- 30 -
Architecture
Although defining the architecture for a generic ICT-infrastructure does not seem to
be a major assignment, it will be used as the solid basis for almost all IT-services
and is in this respect a key element to a successful implementation of OPG
strategy. OPG has misjudged issues in this area in the past, as a simple example
can illustrate. There are more than 20 different cabling systems in the current
building which cannot be easily connected to each other. In short the infrastructure
was developed independently from each other, which has resulted in a highly
fragmented infrastructure causing interoperability problems and not meeting the
requirements derived from the OPG business strategy.
For the development of this new architecture, the approach is an architecture
framework. IT supports the business, not the other way around. If IT supports the
business then IT should know what the business is about in order to be able to
support it appropriately.
Models (architecture) are faster and cheaper
and provide more structure in the

long term in comparison to delivering implementations without them.
If we look at the large number of projects OPG must do to implement its strategy
than the need for architecture is even bigger.
To use the architectural approach an enterprise architecture framework can be
used. A framework provides a road map, a set of constructs and a sense of
direction for architectural efforts and it organizes the roadmap to construct the
architecture. This ensures that everyone is using the same set of semantics.
A framework must be consistent, structured and enable a top-down approach to
architecture development that is easy to understand and use.
The framework should:
incorporate a variety of constructs at different levels of abstraction
enable a process for developing the architecture
define deliverables that need to be produced development.

Each framework has strengths and weaknesses. To find a framework that is most
suited a SWOT analysis was made.
The ISO standard was developed in 1996 and is not entirely free of charge while
the TOGAF framework
will be maintained regularly and is free of charge.

The Zachman Framework is probably the most comprehensive framework which
can be applied to the infrastructure. The Zachman Framework for Enterprise
Architecture has become a standard for classifying the artefacts developed in
enterprise architecture. It is a logical structure for classifying and organizing the
design artefacts of an enterprise that are significant to its management.

8
According to John Zachman
9
the current version of TOGAF is 8.1 and was released in 2003
- 31 -
TOGAF does not directly address the detailed representations and functioning
enterprise viewpoints (bottom rows) of the Zachman Model but can be adjusted to
include these components if necessary.
To answer the main question, it is not necessary to use all cells. Only relevant cells
are selected.
In conclusion, the two frameworks to choose from are TOGAF and Zachman since
both 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 detailed
method and a set of supporting tools, for developing the enterprise architecture. It
may be used freely by any organization wishing to develop the enterprise
architecture for use within that organization (see Conditions of Use at
http://www.opengroup.org/architecture/togaf).
All references to TOGAF and The Open Group can be found at the TOGAF web
site http://www.opengroup.org/architecture/togaf

10
Standards Information Base, the SIB provides the architect with a gateway to a uniquely powerful set
of 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
- 32 -

Togaf ADM11 cycle as developed by The Open Group.

The current infrastructure has many building blocks that are very much alike. A
building block, according to TOGAF, is a package of functionality defined to meet
business needs. The way in which functionality, products, and custom
developments are assembled into building blocks will vary widely between
individual architectures. Every organization must decide for itself what arrangement

11
ADM = 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 enterprise
architecture, and forms the core of TOGAF.
- 33 -
of building blocks works best for it. A good choice of building blocks can lead to
improvements in legacy system integration, interoperability, and flexibility in the
creation of new systems and applications.

Systems are built up from collections of building blocks and most building blocks
have to interoperate with other building blocks. Wherever that is true, it is important
that the interfaces to a building block are published and reasonably stable so future
re-use of that block can be done without much effort. For OPG almost all ICT
building 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) Cabling
System (data transport), 2) Network (data transport), 3) Power and 4) Cooling. As
simple as the use of these four building blocks might sound, the harder it is to
repair mistakes in these areas because these building blocks are integrated in the
basic design of a building. Replacement or change of a building block will have an
impact on all building blocks that depend on these building blocks. The more basic
and widely used the building block is, the more impact replacement or a change
has on dependant building blocks.

Software
Generic ICT Building Block
Data in Data out
Hardware
Power
Heat/
Cooling
Data
transport
Data
transport
- 34 -
An example of the disfunctioning of the current ICT-infrastructure is the emergency
power generators (power building block) which provide power to all ICT systems
except from the cooling systems of the building. After 15 minutes without cooling
systems 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 pharmacy
will fail. The POS systems contain the cash register and as a result medicines
cannot be sold anymore. Most of these ICT-systems need to be reliable due to the
high implications of failure. Investigating the risk of failure is a joint problem of
business, ICT and facilities management. Excluding one stakeholder might result in
sub optimizing and not in an overall increase of reliability.
In the figure below an example of the new reliable and scalable architecture based
on 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 now
existing architecture. The problem as described above the current infrastructure is
overcome by the new design of the architecture.

Power delivery building blocks

The result of this assignment is the creation of reusable building blocks which are
used to architect an infrastructure that can withstand problems that can occur in an
ICT environment. The use of the building blocks has resulted in a better ICT-
infrastructure that is more reliable and scalable. Nevertheless such an
infrastructure cannot deal with all possible risks. By using the TOGAF architectural
approach, the problems it cannot withstand are at least mapped as potential
threats (i.e. if an airplane crashes on the datacenter). Of course governance is
necessary to effectively handle these types of problems.

- 35 -
Conclusion
The aim of this research was to improve the current ICT-infrastructure. The method
used was the development of architectural building blocks satisfying the
requirements based on the TOGAF architecture framework. All of the defined
generic building blocks are developed for use in designing a new ICT-infrastructure
for the OPG headquarters. With some extra effort they can likely be made to fit the
other locations of OPG business units and sites and we recommend validating the
building blocks for these business units. Based on the results, the architecture for
the new headquarters is developed and documented. A continuous issue is the
architectural governance which should ensure that the architecture is kept up-to-
date, correctly reflecting the business architecture and provide mechanisms for
dealing with non-technical threats.
Although TOGAF/ADM was useful for delivering the desired architecture, the
expected advantages were not all automatically accomplished by using this
method. The selection of the ADM framework is still valid because it delivered the
model that was needed. If selection of the other architecture method would have
proven to be a better choice, in retrospect it cannot be answered and needs to be
further researched.

- 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 value
of this programme is not just knowledge about governance, architecture,
finance etc. but the way you can use this knowledge and working together
with other highly motivated people.
The study load was high, especially if you have small children. Also not
spending one or two days a week but ten full days per module makes a good
combination between work and study for me. If I look back at the period of
almost two years I dont regret my decision to enter the programme for a
moment.
In my job people noticed me more and more. And I got involved more in
business issues, which nowadays almost always have an ICT component,
rather then technical ICT issues. This made my work more attractive and
gave me a view which I never had seen before.
Corn Pol; Closing the gap between enterprise architectures & IT governance
- 37 -
MAKING IT-GOVERNANCE WORK WITH ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE
Drs. Corn Pol MITM studied public administration.
Since 1998 he has been working as a consultant for
several IT-companies and an international consul-
tancy firm. He successfully engaged in assignments
for different kinds of organisations, in both the profit
and non-profit sector. He wrote several publications
on IT related issues regarding strategy, planning,
policy and governance.
According to Weill and Ross (2004) Companies with effective IT-governance have
profits that are 20% higher than other companies pursuing similar strategies. Weill
and Ross specifically refer to IT-governance as IT-decision making. According to
Weill and Ross IT is becoming more and more vital to many enterprises. Therefore
the significance of IT-decision making and the role of business management will
only increase the coming years. As a result management is continuously
searching for condensed and timely information to make difficult decisions
12
.
According to McGovern et al. (2003) architectures are a way to capture knowledge
about IT and other enterprise components. By presenting this knowledge in
condensed and timely structure, the business stakeholders involved in IT-
governance will be able to take better founded and quicker IT-decisions. Yet
personal observations show that business stakeholders hardly use EA-products
13
.
Therefore the conclusion seems to be justified that IT-governance can be more
effective if architectures are actually used.

12
IT governance Institute, Cobit 4.0, Rolling Meadows, 2005, p. 6.
13
This observation is back-up by the results of the survey on the case-organisation.
- 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 decision
making. The research is based on the following assumptions:
Benefits of EA
Exploring the first assumption it becomes clear that several studies described that
EA products can have significant benefits as an IT-governance instrument,
especially for business stakeholders. In short: complexity is reduced and
information is presented in a timely and condensed way. An overview of
quantifiable and non-quantifiably benefits of EA is provided by Rijsenbrij et al.
(2004) in table below.
1. EA can have benefits
for business stakeholders
involved with IT-
governance if EA are
actually used by them
However 2. Existing EA Management
frameworks do not cover the
use of EA by business
stakeholders, resulting in not
fully benefitting from EA
Therefore 3. An existing EA
management framework
should be extended with
management of the use of
EA as an IT-governance
instrument as well
To facilitate 4. The identification of
possible improvements in
EAM in the case organization
by applying the extended
framework
- 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 organisations
success in dealing with the complexity of IT-decisions.
EA-management
However, research on the second assumption shows that commonly known EA-
frameworks
14
seem to focus primarily on the development and maintenance of EA-
products itself (management OF architectures). These frameworks seem to cover
only 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 management
OF and management WITH architectures.

The gap between the management OF and management WITH architectures.

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

EA-products
Architecture domain IT-governance domain
Management
& use of IT
Develop &
maintain
IT-
Decisions
Use as
Input?
Gap
Management WITH
architectures
Management OF
architectures
IT-governance
Feedback for maintenance purposes
- 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 at
stake. Therefore the issue is addressed from the point of view of the architecture
domain. The use of these products by business stakeholders is not part of the EA-
management responsibility. Therefore the third assumption proves to be true: an
existing EA-framework should be extended to cover managing the use of EA as an
IT-governance instrument as well. In search of a suitable framework, the study
introduces 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 General
Accounting Office (version 1.1). Its purpose is to measure and control the EAM
maturity 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 management
practice and condition that is needed to effectively discharge any function. An
attribute determines the success of managing activities in general:
Commitment;
Capabilities;
Results;
Verification.
Thirty-one core-elements: reflecting the aspects practices and conditions that
have to be met to reach a certain stage of maturity. Each element is associated
with one of the five stages of maturity.
- 41 -

The EAMMF
To close the gap between management OF architectures and management WITH
architectures, the study chooses to extend the EAMMF with elements from the IT-
governance domain. A well-known and widely used IT-governance framework is
COBIT. COBIT provides guidelines for an architecture process called PO2: Define
the information Architecture. The detailed control objectives for this process
explicitly refer to the use of architectures by business stakeholders. As the PO2
process delivers output (= products) to other processes, these processes in turn
deliver metrics for the use of this output. The analysis shows that the EAMMF can
be 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 by
the CIO, the chief architect, several business directors and managers and two
architects. 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-products
in this organisation are of high quality and that the management processes needed
to achieve this are in place. However, the overall score on the extended EAMMF
scale is level 1 (creating EA-awareness), primarily because EAM is focussed on
management OF architectures. In short, EAM in the case organisation is seen as
an IT responsibility. However, it is not clear who the relevant business stakeholders
are, 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 are
currently hardly using it, because it doesnt provide the information they need for
their IT-decisions.
- 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 to
come to a useable management model for managing the deployment of EA-
products in IT-decision making. The ultimate goal is to make IT decision making
more effective. The need for a model like this is proven by the results of the
application of the extended EAMMF on the case organisation: the use of EA-
products by business stakeholders is insufficiently managed, resulting in just
management OF architectures and not in management WITH architectures. Both
the way in which the case organisation was surveyed as the results of the survey,
were highly appreciated by senior management in the case organisation. The
suggested improvements have lead to a change in the EAM-processes with the
objective that business management takes an explicit role in EAM as well. As a
result, both the cause and the message of this publication are legitimized: the use
of EA-products is hardly managed; whilst in using EA-products in a proper way lay
the biggest added value as an IT-governance instrument. Therefore EAM should
include 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 as
well.
- 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 Hall
PTR, 1st edition November 15, 2003.
Rijsenbrij, D., Schekkerman, J., Hendrickx, H., (in Dutch), Architectuur,
besturingsinstrument voor adaptieve organisaties: de rol van architectuur in het
besluitvormingsproces en de vormgeving van de informatievoorziening, Tweede
druk, uitgeverij Lemma bv., Utrecht, 2004.
Schekkerman, J., How to survive in the jungle of enterprise architecture
frameworks: 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 and Sloan Working paper No. 4516-04, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, 2004.
- 44 -
The cause for the study lay in the personal observation that many
stakeholders involved in IT-decision making are hardly using Enterprise
Architecture (EA)-products as instruments for IT-governance. As IT is
becoming increasingly important for organisations, the stakes for business
stakeholders also increase. Therefore it seems fair to presume that there is all
the more reason to use EA-products as these can provide condensed and
timely 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. The
question arises if an architects responsibility only lies in construction of the
right products or if he/she is also responsible for managing the process in
which EA-products are actually used. If EA-products are not used: whats
their added value and as a consequence: what the added value of an
architect?
With the extended framework organisations are able to better recognize and
manage business stakeholders as the users of EA-products. This will
contribute to more effective IT-decision making. The framework encourages
architects to share the responsibility of EA-management with business
stakeholders in order to actually get them to use EA-products in their IT-
decision making. Although the study didnt have the ambition to construct a
full scientifically validated framework, it proved its value for the case
organization.
Nowadays I still see many architects focusing mainly on EA as a product. But
shouldnt that be extended to the use of this product by business stakeholders
as well? The message of this study remains unchanged and still relevant,
especially for large organisations struggling with the balance between
synergy and autonomy.
Jan 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 the
Royal Netherlands Army (RNLA). He received his
basic training at the Royal Netherlands Defence
Academy and holds a Master of Science degree in
electrical engineering from Delft University of
Technology. He worked from 2000-2008 at the
Command & Control Support Centre (C2SC). He has
been responsible for the development of the Armys
expeditionary ICT infrastructure (known as TITAAN) and was head of
the Policy Support & Architecture department. Today, Jan is working at
the 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 Command
Vehicles in service, which provide facilities to commanders and staff to command
and 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 new
generation of Command Vehicles will contain multiple, closely related information
technology (IT) systems such as communication -and sensor systems. The RNLA
is planning to replace and enhance current capabilities in order to become a near
real-time network-enabled force, which is one of the six strategic Defence goals.
New capabilities include a Battlefield Management System (BMS), which
necessitates integration with legacy and new IT systems inside a Command
Vehicle. A BMS includes navigation and automatic positioning reporting of vehicles
over multiple transmission systems and situational awareness about friendly,
neutral and enemy parties on the battlefield. Increased situational awareness
should result in faster and better decision-making and prevention of fratricide
[Alberts 1999] [Alberts 2004].

An Architecture Approach is needed

- 46 -
It is unlikely that an interoperable solution can be achieved without the
development of an overarching architecture that provides a framework within which
Command Vehicle related projects can progress. The solution must be easily
adaptable to cope with business change and technology insertion. The
architectural approach should prevent a solution that is depicted in the figure and
ensure that separate components are integrated and act as a whole.

In the light of this background, the main research questions of this master thesis
are:
1. Which architectural approach can be used to realise the IT Architecture of a
Command Vehicle? This question should result in the identification of a
suitable architectural approach, which ensures that business needs are the
primary starting point. The approach should also deliver fit for purpose
architectural 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 prevent
stovepipe and short-term solutions. The architecture should be flexible enough
to incorporate new business and technology developments and scalable to
deal 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 business
processes, information services (application and data), and technical infrastructure
of an organization.
The RNLA uses the Command, Control, Communications, and Information
Architecture (C3IA) since 2000 as the framework for its architectural activities. The
C3IA is compared with (1) IEEE 1471-2000, (2) Zachman Framework, (3) Sogetis
DYA, and (4) ArchiMate.
15
The 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 the
Command Vehicle IT Architecture by defining viewpoints and compiling views
16
.
The C3IA should be extended with a limited number of architecture principles
17
.
The principles are arranged in a hierarchy, in that IT principles elaborate on the
business principles, in order to ensure business and IT alignment.

15
These 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] was
selected 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 architectural
language. It was chosen because it has a sound academic foundation but also practical due to the
involvement of enterprises and governmental organizations.
16
The 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 more
stakeholders (what you see).
17
Principles are general guidelines, intended to be enduring and seldom amended, and that support the
way in which an organization sets about fulfilling its mission.
- 47 -
Both improvements are combined in the architecture approach, as shown in the
figure below, which is based upon [Koning 2005]. The arrows show that there is a
logical relation between these activities from left to right, but while progressing it
may be necessary to come back and review previous results. Steps 1 to 3 and step
4 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 the
business principles.
2 This arrow represents the idea to arrange principles in a hierarchy.
3 This arrow represents the validation whether the views comply with the
IT principles.
4 This arrow represents the validation of the views by the stakeholders in
terms of content and commitment

- 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 most
important stakeholders are the decision makers of the Defence Staff and the users
from 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 important
viewpoints in the current stage of the Command Vehicle IT Architecture
development are those that address the concerns of the decision makers and the
business 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 on
informing).
The Roadmap Viewpoint (RV) to present the technology roadmap for the next
5 years including budget consequences to the decision makers as input to
Defences policy and planning process (focus is on decision making).

- 49 -
The Command Vehicle IT Architecture is driven by a limited number of business
and IT principles. The goal was to define at most 10 principles so that they are
easy to communicate and use in practice. These principles are developed in step 4
and step 5 of the architecture approach and are listed below.
Business Principles
1 Command & Control (C2) systems are able to support all missions.
Rationale: The RNLA must be able to deploy its units on short notice without
additional acquisition and training. The mission spectrum varies from military
assistance in the homeland up to peace enforcement operations around the
world. This implies that C2 systems are easy to configure and operate under
time pressure and can used in all environmental conditions.
2 There is one seamless C2 chain.
Rationale: C2 systems must provide accurate information about friendly,
adversary, non-combatant entities and environmental conditions to all users
in the chain of command in near real-time. This implies seamless information
exchange between any two points in the mission through the use of systems
that support international interoperability standards.
3 Commanders need uninterrupted C2.
Rationale: On the battlefield it is essential that commanders can control and
command their forces any place, any time to ensure unity of effort. This
implies robust C2 systems that support graceful degradation.
4 Successful C2 systems depend on well-trained users.
Rationale: Optimal utilization of C2 systems requires that users and
administrators understand the procedures necessary to utilize fully the
systems capabilities. This implies that C2 systems are available in peace-
time headquarters (train-as-you-fight, fight as you train) and that standard
operating procedures are kept up-to-date.
IT Principles
1 C2 systems must conform to security policies.
Rationale: C2 systems must be accredited, otherwise the system is not
allowed to process, transport and store classified information. This implies the
use of military-grade security devices (e.g. encryption equipment).
2 Applications maximize the effectiveness of the user.
Rationale: Effective users can do their job better. This implies that C2
systems are driven by business requirements and user involvement during
the development process.
3 C2 systems are continuously improved.
Rationale: Army mission needs are unpredictable. C2 systems must be
adaptable to both business and technology changes. This implies a modular
design based upon building blocks, which have clearly defined functions and
interfaces and that support open standards and backwards compatability.
4 C2 systems adhere to transport media constraints
Rationale: Bandwidth is a scarce resource in mobile military networks. This
implies that application developers must take the limitations of wireless
networks (such as low bandwidth, poor channel quality, intermittent
connectivity) into account
- 50 -
On basis of the defined viewpoints and architecture principles, the Overview and
Roadmap 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 to
inform the users about functional capabilities and decision makers about the
contribution to Defence strategic goals.

Command Vehicle IT Services

The service concept plays a central role in the OCV. A service can be thought of as
an interface to a particular capability which can be used by other services or
applications
18
. The Command Vehicle IT services are presented in a layered
model, as shown above. The upper layer describes the business services; the
focus of the vehicle architecture is on the command and control service category.
In order to command and control forces, army commanders need a variety of
system services, the two most important being voice and BMS. The two bottom
layers provide connectivity over a collection of transmission media, where the
Internet Protocol (IP) is used as the convergence layer for reliable, high bandwidth
connections and the Command & Control Framework
19
for unreliable, low

18
The 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.
19
The Command & Control Framework is a RNLA-developed middleware product that provides, among
others, data distribution and data synchronisation services over unreliable, low bandwidth (typically less
than 4.8 kilobits per second) transport media such as military-grade combat net radio networks.
- 51 -
bandwidth connections. A layered approach is beneficial for achieving Defences
goals of interoperability among disparate systems and technological extensibility of
the IT architecture.

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

Vehcile Architecture Top-level Roadmap

- 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. The
architecture approach improves the current C3IA in two ways. First, it explicitly
addresses the concerns of relevant stakeholders by compiling architecture views.
Second, in this way architectural development is driven by business and IT
principles. In this thesis, a set of principles was developed. The main
recommendation is to gain more experience with the architecture approach with
real-life cases in order to improve the viewpoint descriptions.
The architecture approach is used in a real-life case to compile the most important
views in this stage of the Command Vehicle IT Architecture development. The
views that were developed in this thesis should be presented to the stakeholders to
evaluate the usefulness and completeness. The remaining views of the Command
Vehicle IT Architecture must be developed in the next stage of architectural
development.
In summary, a flexible architecture aligned with the business was created
References
[Alberts 1999] Alberts, David S, Garstka, John J & Stein, Fred P Network
Centric Warfare, Developing and Leveraging Information Superiority, August
1999, 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-Intensive
Systems, 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, April
2005
[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 Systems
Architetecture, IBM Systems Journal, Vol 26, No 3, 1987. IBM Publication
G321-5298.
- 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 dust
or have the ideas been implemented in practice?

The architecture principles have been worked out in more detail in a separate
but brief document because thick documents will not be used in practice.
Special attention was given to the visualisation of the principles. This was
done with cartoons; f.i. Business Principle #2. All cartoons can be printed on a
single A4 and thus easily communicated. The target audience has recognized
the principles and they are used in practice. Defence Staff has recently asked
the 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 a
whole, including the Air Force and Navy.

Business Architecture Principle Example

The Command Vehicle IT Architecture has been worked out in more detail in
a collection of design documents and is the foundation for the coordination of
multiple Command Vehicle and IT procurement projects. The respective
project managers are now convinced that architecture products are needed
and revisions are still in progress today.
The architectural process has further matured e.g. by standardizing the
templates for the different architectural views. On a project per project basis,
it is decided which views are needed to ensure that the approach remains
flexible (the so-called good is good enough approach).

- 54 -

Looking back, it can be stated that most ideas and products, although
adapted, have proven, practical value for the RNLA. Off course, there are
some lessons-learned, including:
It takes time to implement an architectural process. For instance,
architects have a tendency to develop perfect templates upfront instead of
adjusting good-enough templates on the basis of experiences.
It takes time to convince project managers and decision makers that
architecture artefacts are needed for inter-project governance.
Commitment can only be achieved by developing sound architecture
documents that have real-life value.
All in all, the master thesis has been a foundational document for the
improvement of the architecture approach in general and for the coordination
between command vehicles related projects and systems in particular. It has
helped me and various parts of the Defence organisation in real life to direct
and improve the development of architecture products.
In retrospect, the thesis has ended on a bookshelf but is still used now and
then by the author as a reference guide. The ideas about the architecture
process, principles and views are used in practice. My personal conclusion is
that I enjoy being involved in architecture work as long as long as it has real
life business value.
Guus Keizer; Right Sourcing IT
- 55 -
RIGHT SOURCING IT
IT sourcing model for the Informatie Beheer Groep
Guus Keizer MITM already has a long career in ICT.
The last 20 years he worked as a project and
programme manager. At the moment (since June
2008) he is working as a programme manager for the
RDW (the Dutch Road Administration Agency).
Reaching the age of 50, he thought the time was right
to do the master course, he wanted to do for a long
time. At that time he was in the employ of the
Informatie Beheer Groep. March 2005 he joined the
Master of IT Management course, passed the examination in May 2007
and graduated in October 2007.
The Informatie Beheer Groep (IB-Groep) is a public organization. It carries out
educational legislation and regulations by government order and provides services,
primarily but not exclusively in the field of education. Some tasks carried out by the
IB-Groep are provide scholarships, grants and loans, evaluation of domestic and
foreign diplomas, organize examinations and manage several registers. To
execute complex legislation and still provide high quality services to customers, the
IB-Groep needs a high degree of automation to support her business processes.
The internal IT department is responsible for IT infrastructure, operations and
development and maintenance of applications.
The IB-Groep faces some serious challenges such as cutbacks in funding, an
application portfolio with a large amount of legacy, too many IT platforms and a
substantial innovation programme. These challenges subvert the quality of service
of the IB-Groep. (Senior) management of the IB-Groep is becoming more and
more aware that a strategic reconsideration on sourcing is absolutely necessary to
withstand the actual and future challenges. Therefore, the objective of this master
thesis is to initiate a new sourcing model for the IB-Groep, by answering the
following research question: which sourcing model fits the application development
and maintenance of the IB-Groep and how does this sourcing model contribute to
the reduction of the IT costs and the realization of the innovation programme?
Analyzing the environment in which the IB-Groep acts identifies four important
developments.
First, cutbacks in funding, due to the political developments over the last years
(less regulations and bureaucracy and a more efficient government). Also over the
coming years, the funding of the structural costs of IB-Groep will subsequently
diminish. Therefore, reducing costs, both operational costs and IT costs, is
absolutely vital. The cut-backs effect the IT organization in two ways: for one thing
IT is required to put in an extra effort to support the business in realizing their
- 56 -
savings and secondly IT is faced with its own cutbacks, altogether mounting to
possibly 30-35% of the application development and maintenance budget in 2010.
Second, an application portfolio with a large amount of legacy. Many applications
do not adequately support the business processes, neither functionally nor
technically. This increases the vulnerability of the business process considerably.
Third, too many IT platforms. The internal IT department has to maintain
applications on four development IT platforms. Some engineers are skilled in two
development platforms, but most are dedicated engineers for one platform.
Consequently, the skills and expertise are scattered and more external staff is
needed (80% of the COBOL staff is external staff).
Finally, the innovation programme causes an increase of the IT development and
maintenance workload. The main objective of this programme is to modernize the
organization, processes and applications regarding the award and collect study
grants. This means replacement of WSF (the application for study grants), the
largest, oldest and costliest (COBOL) application.
Literature consulted on sourcing provides several sourcing decision frameworks
20
.
When developing a sourcing model, it is imperative to take notice of business,
economical and technical considerations. Whether or not processes or services are
differentiating in the marketplace or giving the organization competitive advantage
is crucial for the outsourcing decision. In addition, economies of scale and
organizational and technical maturity are important factors in this decision.
Evaluation of the documented frameworks and the results of the analysis above
lead to the choice to use for this research the analysis of Cronk and Sharp (1998)
to categorize the new IT services of the innovation programme and the analytical
frameworks of Lacity and Willcocks (2001), with their three-way approach
(business, economical and technical considerations) to identify within the IB-Group
which applications and IT services must remain in-house and which can be
outsourced.
Using the chosen analytical frameworks, the business, economic and technical
factors of processes and applications are considered, in order to develop an
appropriate sourcing approach for the IB-Groep.

20
Looff, 1998; Looff, 1996; Lacity, Willcocks, 2001; Perry, Stott and Smallwood, 1993; Cronk and
Sharp, 1998.
- 57 -
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Business considerations.
The comprehensive knowledge of legislation
is core competence and a differentiating
quality of the IB-Groep. A lot of this know-
ledge is frozen in applications supporting the
business processes. It is recommended to
maintain these applications in-house. This
also applies to the WSF application, being
the largest monolith of all. However, it will be
replaced (innovation programme) and
already external staff mostly does the
development and maintenance. One could
consider a transitional outsourcing.
The innovation programme will deliver a new
application or service architecture. The
present functionality of WSF will be broken
down in services. The mid-office services are
differentiating and critical and ought to be
developed in-house, but the back-office
services can be bought or outsourced, being
useful commodities.
Economical considerations.
In this area, consideration factors like cost
reduction, managerial maturity and economies
of scale are important. An analysis shows that
not only the development processes, also some
IT governance processes, especially portfolio
and demand management, are not yet mature.
This is a risk and cost-raising factor: portfolio
and demand management are important parts of
the retained organization and a qualifying factor
for the success of the outsourcing deal.
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i nstitutes
admini stration
Internet Internet
Entitlement
Loans
Entitlement
Loans
Entitlement
Grants
Entitlement
Grants
Entitlement
Public
Transport
Entitlement
Public
Transpor t
Convert Loans
To Grants
Convert Loans
To Grants
- 58 -
Technical considerations.
The technical maturity within the IB-Groep varies
with the different development platforms. Some,
like COBOL, are technical mature, some are not
(yet). The degree of technical integration is
generally low. Most (older) applications are
monoliths and support only one business
process. The technology maturity of the new
back-office services is high, because the
knowledge to describe the requirements is
already present.
Based on the analysis, two activities relate to a new sourcing approach and call for
further investigation.
First, the outsourcing of the COBOL application (transitional outsourcing) to an
external supplier will contribute to reduction of IT costs, because in the present
situation, external staff already mostly does maintenance.
Second, buying or outsourcing the development of new back-office applications
(deliverables of the innovation programme) will contribute to cost reduction of
development and maintenance, but also will contribute to a shorter time-to-market.
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Figure 4-7 Technical factors matrix
D
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Technology maturity
LOW HIGH
H
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Preferred Supplier
Buy-in Contract
Strategic Alliance
Fee-for-service Contract
WSF
ILS
WTS18- LCS
BRON
SSG
CIOP
BAK
Internet Internet
Entitlement
Loans
Entitlement
Loans
Entitlement
Grants
Entitlement
Grants
Entitlement
Public
Transport
Entitlement
Public
Transport
Convert Loans
To Grants
Convert Loans
To Grants
Financial
administration
Financial
administration
Personnel &
salary
administration
Personnel &
salary
administration
Customers
administration
Customers
administration
Educational
institutes
administration
Educational
institutes
administration
Figure 4-7 Technical factors matrix
D
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o
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r
a
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Technology maturity
LOW HIGH
H
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H
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Preferred Supplier
Buy-in Contract
Strategic Alliance
Fee-for-service Contract
WSF
ILS
WTS18- LCS
ILS
WTS18- LCS
BRON
SSG
BRON
SSG
CIOP
BAK
Internet Internet
Entitlement
Loans
Entitlement
Loans
Entitlement
Grants
Entitlement
Grants
Entitlement
Public
Transport
Entitlement
Public
Transport
Convert Loans
To Grants
Convert Loans
To Grants
Financial
administration
Financial
administration
Personnel &
salary
administration
Personnel &
salary
administration
Customers
administration
Customers
administration
Educational
institutes
administration
Educational
institutes
administration
- 59 -
At the time, I decided to join the course Master of IT Management, I hold the
position of manager Operations and Infrastructure within the IT Department of
the Informatie Beheer Groep. Shortly after the start of the course, my position
within the IB-Groep changed. I was appointed as programme manager for a
new programme with the objective to acquire, develop and implement new
assignments. As a consequence, I did not have the opportunity to keep up
with outsourcing activities of the IT department. I do know IT outsourcing is an
issue the IT department is working on.
To acquaint myself with the developments on IT outsourcing, I interviewed the
head of the IT department. The next paragraph, Reflection by the head of the
IT department, is the result of this interview.
Reflection by Bert Arkema, head of the IT department of the IB-Groep
The key-issues of the IB-Groep as mentioned above, still are valid. As a
result, the demand for IT development and maintenance is much bigger than
the IT department can manage and deliver and the IB-Groep can finance.
IT outsourcing really is seen as one of the feasible solutions to this problem.
An assessment of the IT organisation showed a maturity level insufficient to
fully implement IT outsourcing.
The thesis identified two activities where IT outsourcing seems to be an
interesting opportunity.
First, the outsourcing of the maintenance of the WSF application. Although
external staff does the maintenance of WSF already for a longer period and
the innovation programme carries out the development of new applications to
replace WSF, the business executive does not authorize the outsourcing of
this core business application.
Second, buying or outsourcing the development of new back-office
applications (deliverables of the innovation programme). The head of the IT
department initiated a number of activities to prepare the IT organization for
outsourcing the development of these applications, for instance:
improve contract management thru education and workshops;
consultation of the preferred suppliers on the subject of suppliers having
(more) responsibility for the result.
The IB-Groep and two preferred suppliers agreed upon a growth process for
the IB-Groep in association with these suppliers. The two suppliers each
provide a team of engineers (if necessary supplemented with engineers of the
IB-Groep) for the development of an exclusively assigned domain. This is a
win-win solution. The IB-Groep gets more committed suppliers and grows to a
maturity level, that it is sound to outsource such a domain. The supplier can
deliver a team, gets a domain exclusively and a future outsourcing deal.
So, IT outsourcing is an issue and will be an increasingly important factor for
the IB-Groep to deal with the current and future challenges.
- 60 -
Nico Wartenbergh; Forecasting in retailing
- 61 -
FORECASTING IN RETAILING
Nico Wartenbergh MITM has a rather traditional IT
career. He started as operator and had several
software development jobs. Nowadays, he is CIO at
De Bijenkorf. He notices that his wide experience
adds value to his present management position. De
Bijenkorf has outsourced all operational IT functions,
like system development and service management.
Managing supply and demand is easier with good
business and IT knowledge. In 2007 he obtained his
Master of IT Management degree.
De Bijenkorf is a Dutch, upmarket, department store. It is part of the Maxeda retail
group. The assortment of de Bijenkorf is a mixture of A-brands and private brands
in the premium segment.
The organization model is strongly centralized. The purchasing department at the
head office is responsible for the entire supply chain, from supplier to the shop
floor. The 12 stores are located in the centre of the main Dutch cities.
In 2006, when this thesis was written, profitability was the most important business
problem of de Bijenkorf department stores. Fulfilling customer demand was only
partly being achieved. Working capital was locked in old stock. Marking down is the
only instrument to sell old merchandise, but it creates pressure on the margin.
The main characteristics of the problem are:
High stock levels and low stock turns
Stock in the wrong place at the wrong time
High percentage of mark down
Obsolete stock
Lost sales
Forecasting in retail means buying the right products in the right quantities and
selling them at the right time in the right place.
- 62 -
G
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p
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Forecasting
A
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Accurate available
historical sales data
The right product
in the right place
at the right time
for the right price
A
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Forecasting in de Bijenkorf is a right brain function that relies on gut feeling and
experience of individuals.
There is no systematic use of historical sales data. After a product has been
launched it is no longer closely monitored. When early sales figures are promising
there is no trigger for additional purchasing and when a product turns out to be a
slow mover, it is waiting to be marked down at end-of-season sale.
The holy grail of retailing being able to offer the right product at the right time for
the right price remains frustratingly elusive. (Fisher, 2000)
To solve the profitability problems, de Bijenkorf approach is as follows:
To implement an organizational change in the buying department. The current
buyers perform the creative sourcing role together with the analytic planning
role. These two roles will be separated.
To introduce a demand forecasting functionality to support the buying and
assortment planning process by analyzing historical sales data.
Fulfilling customers demand
- 63 -
This master thesis examines an architectural approach for the implementation of
the demand forecasting tool in the existing IT infrastructure.
Consequently, the main research question is:
How can an architectural approach improve the implementation of the new
business functionality of forecasting?
Currently there is no coordinated, integrated architectural process in de Bijenkorf.
The first step to be taken is to define and select an architectural approach. The
outcome of that part of the study is a de Bijenkorf architectural approach,
composed by the principle definition guidelines from The Open Group Architecture
Framework (TOGAF) and the viewpoint and modeling language from ArchiMate.
The thesis describes the process of defining the forecasting architecture by
applying the Bijenkorf architectural approach. The result is a set of architectural
documents, built by architects in cooperation with the stakeholders. Alignment of
business and IT is achieved by the architectural process.
The architecture will be used to source the forecasting tool. The sourcing process
is beyond the scope of this thesis.
Embedding an architectural way of working into the existing organization of de
Bijenkorf means defining new roles and responsibilities. Applying architecture
includes the management of the architecture life cycle.
The conclusions of the study are:
There is a need for architecture to create an organization wherein IT enables de
Bijenkorf to respond to the rapidly changing retail business environment
The selected architectural approach meets the architectural requirements of de
Bijenkorf in terms of alignment and communication
The approach is successfully validated by applying it to the forecasting
functionality
The embedding of architecture in the organization requires new roles and
responsibilities.
The recommendations of the study are:
Working under architecture requires full support of the top management
The success of the forecasting program must be used to align other
stakeholders
Architecture trends must be watched and used where needed
Results of future projects must be evaluated to optimize de Bijenkorf
architectural approach.
- 64 -
The need for architecture
The need for a new forecasting functionality is the key inducement for this study.
The forecasting tool is important to support the organizational change and as such,
the overall business problems. It is a major change in the most important primarily
process. The complexity, the stakeholders and the contemplated time-to-market
increase the risk.
The last decade, IT in de Bijenkorf is to be characterised by a rapidly growth of IT
implementations to support business functionalities. All primarily processes are
covered by IT systems and therefore the dependency of IT is obvious. However,
coherence in the usage of IT resources and toolsets is a project-based IT
responsibility without any business involvement.
IT development methodologies such as prototyping and case tool development are
used to minimize the risk.
According to Rijsenbrij the following statements indicate the need for architecture
within companies:
New business strategies
Increasing complexity because of new take-overs, outsourcing programs,
internet, mobility, standard packages
Increasing IT-costs
Problems with the IT support for business processes
New skills and roles for IT staff
Time-to-market.
The Bijenkorf strategic business plan defines the following retail business trends.
Strong interaction with customers
Time to market and zero latency
Substantial organizational changes
Fast changing technology options
Intra-inter organizational cooperation.
- 65 -
New business strategies using IT
Increasing complexity in business and IT
New skills and roles of IT staff
Major change in system development
methodologies
Businesses
with separate
IT systems
Businesses
driven by and
supported
by integrated
information systems
1995 2000 2005
All business processes are covered by IT implementations and de Bijenkorf is on
the threshold of intensification of Information Technology. This will lead to big
transformations and architecture will give direction in that process. (Rijsenbrij,
2004).
Alignment is currently only covered by appointing a board member as chairman of
a projects steering committee. There is no integrated overall approach where IT
resources, technology and business goals are aligned.
This alignment issue is a priority in many companies. According to Schekkerman
the competitive and customer focused landscape in which all organizations now
operate, means that change is an ongoing process, not a number of one-off
events. There is a major concern with the sluggish reaction to both internal and
external events within most organizations. Businesses must be able to carry out
thoughtful analysis bases on readily available easily viewed and understood
information. Another area of unease is the failure of IT environments to deliver the
anticipated business value and to meet the speed of change required by the
business (Schekkerman, 2005).
Architectural approach
The thesis describes the use of two architectural frameworks, TOGAF and
ArchiMate. The combination of the frameworks proves to be succesful in de
Bijenkorf environment. It results in a consistant set of products, including principles,
views and viewpoint and models, which are used to align business and technology.
These products are delivered on business, application and technical level.
Transformation of the role of IT in the business (Rijsenbrij, 2004)
- 66 -
Sales
Information
Supplier
Customer
Replenishment
order Merchandising
Purchasing
Purchase
order
Warehousing
Invoice
Finance
Products
Marketing
Offers
Information
Sales
Products
Logistics
Replenishment policy
Min-max
levels
Business functions
Payment
Products
Sales Information
Card-
holder
Deliveries
The principle definition of TOGAF is more explicit than the one of ArchiMate.
Rather than providing a set of architecture principles, TOGAF explains the rules for
developing good principles. These rules are applied at the three levels:
Business: principles to support business decisions
Application: principles to guide the development and use of applications
Technical: principles to guide technical support direction. (Schekkerman, 2004)
The TOGAF principle definition helps to promote understanding and acceptance of
the principles themselves and to support their use in explaining and justifying why
specific decisions are made.
In clarifying an architectural approach to the stakeholders, the unambiguousness of
the modelling language is very important.
ArchiMate focuses on methods and techniques for making and using integrated
descriptions by means of architecture models and visualization of these models for
various stakeholders. The unambiguous specification and description of
components and especially their relationships in an architecture, requires a
coherent architecture modelling language. ArchiMate is a modelling language that
captures the complexity of architectural domains and their relations, which allow
the construction of integrated architecture models. Furthermore, ArchiMate
provides techniques and heuristics for communicating with all relevant
stakeholders about these architectures. Central to the communication of
architectures is the notation of viewpoint (Lankhorst, 2005).
Example of an ArchMate model of de Bijenkorf business functions
- 67 -
References
(Fischer, 2000)
Marshall L Fisher, Ananth Raman and Anna Sheen McClelland, Rocket Science
Retailing; Article Harvard Business School, 2000.
(Lankhorst, 2005)
Marc Lankhorst et al., Enterprise architecture at work, Springer, ISBN 3-540-
24371-2
(Schekkerman, 2004)
Jaap Schekkerman, How to survive in the jungle of Enterprise Architecture
Frameworks, Trafford, ISBN 1-4120-1607-x
(Schekkerman, 2005)
Jaap Schekkerman, The Economics Benefits of Enterprise Architecture,
Traffort, ISBN 1-4120-6729-4
- 68 -
The architecture process consists of the usual steps that take an initial idea
through design and implementation phases to an operational system, and
finally changing or replacing this system, closing the loop. In all of the phases
of the architecture process, clear communication with and between
stakeholders is indispensable.
Architecture is a process as well as a product. The product serves to guide
managers in designing business processes and system developers in building
applications that is in line with business objectives and policies. The effects of
the process reach further than the mere creation of the architecture project.
This thesis investigated the way how new business functionality should be
implemented into the existing IT infrastructure.
The business problem of profitability is to be solved by:
An organizational change of the leading process and
The implementation of forecasting functionality
The main research question of the thesis was defined as:
How can an architectural approach improve the implementation of the new
business functionality of forecasting?
Speed and consistency is the challenge for de Bijenkorf by solving this
business problem. Working under architecture is used to achieve both goals.
Although every first time is difficult, the results are encouraging. The following
improvements were established by the architectural approach:
Business and IT are better aligned because:
An integrated approach has been achieved to the business problem;
from business strategy to IT strategy
Communication between stakeholders increased the insight and
understanding in each others viewpoints
Communication between project members, stakeholders, external
suppliers has been improved by the unambiguous modeling language
and principles
The created architecture is a starting point for consistency in future
developments
Sourcing can be done with a consistent set of functional documentation.
- 69 -
Reflection by Giovanni Colauto, CFO de Bijenkorf
When the project started and architecture was introduced in de Bijenkorf, my
main concern was the introduction of the new roles and responsibilities. Untill
we started with the forecasting pilotproject, projects used to be executed
under responsibility of the IT department and business representatives were
involved on an informal base. Working under architecture forced to formalize
the roles and responsibilities, both business and IT.
The awareness of business management improved by communication via
architectural documents. Consequently, the implementation of the final
system into the business processes also improved.
The execution of the architectural process remains a IT responsibility and will
be in the future. There are two reasons to implement it that way:
the IT department is used to maintain documentation
the architectural documents are also used to communicate with the
external software suppliers.
From a risk management perspective, architecture improves the continuity
aspects of IT infrastructure. I believe that better documentation will improve
the quality of IT systems in the long run and will support business changes in
a more controlled process. Knowledge is no longer in the heads of
individuals.
Although this was a pilot and we still have a long way to go, I am impressed
by the results and convinced that working under architecture will lead us to a
better alignment between business and IT.
- 70 -
Paul Leenards; From technology to service
- 71 -
FROM TECHNOLOGY TO SERVICE
Paul Leenards MITM, principal consultant Getronics
Consulting. Practice Lead Service Strategy &
Transformation, facilitating and directing consultants
who help IT managers with the design and im-
provement of the IT organization. The approach is
centered around IT delivering results that directly
support the business goals. In this approach the IT
staff is crucial to accomplish these goals and we
focus on their development and behavior. Program
manager of the internal education streams in Service and Performance
management. Graduated in 2007.

In the past many organizations have struggled to implement the guidance from ITIL
to a sufficient degree. This has lead to a lot of frustration for managers and
employees. After 15 years it seems that only a few organizations have managed to
implement ITIL successfully and that ITIL has not delivered what has been
promised.
With the refresh of ITIL, introducing a third release, Getronics PinkRoccade (now
Getronics Consulting) want to investigate if a competitive offering can be
constructed that will help their customers to reach an higher level of service
management sooner. Customers are increasingly asking for faster results and for a
limited timeframe for implementation programs (like one year).
Revolution: IT departments need to change into an IT Service Provider.
According to the theory of Larry Greiner on how organizations grow every
organization will experience a fundamental crisis and will need a revolutionary
change before they can continue to grow again. The possible fundamental crisis
that IT departments can be dealing with, is a crisis in the relationship between
Business and IT.

Not every organization wants to grow. An implementation of IT service
management is therefore not for every IT organization a must. When the business
has low demands on IT (Support mode) then an IT department can suffice with
being mostly focused on the technology itself. Many IT departments in the past
were formed around operating of the IT infrastructure and application portfolio and
on improving the performance of the IT technology. These IT departments were not
directly involved in the development of IT strategy of the business.
Companies have started to develop different views on their IT department
depending on the importance of IT for their business processes and market
strategy. Based on the research done by Nolan and Warren several views of the
business on IT can be recognized. Based on the research by Nolan different roles
- 72 -
of IT can be recognized. See Table 1 for these categorizations. These different
business views mean that in a growing number of companies the business
demands an IT organization that is behaving more like an IT Service Provider, IT
partner or even an IT entrepreneur. When the IT role is not aligned with the
Business View then this can be considered a crisis. A crisis in Business IT
relationship that needs a revolution to deals with.

Business View IT Role
No strategic View IT Expert
Scattered View IT Department
Utility or Commodity View IT Service Provider (Supply)
Utility or Commodity View IT Service Provider (Demand)
Mission-Critical View IT Partner (co-maker)
Strategic View IT Entrepeneur (Creator)
Business View and IT Role
The success of the revolution can be measured by the ISO200000 criteria
The ISO20000 standard for service management can be used to determine where
an IT service provider needs to grow to in order to close the gap between IT and
Business. The standard provides guidance on using a management system,
implementing and controlling service management and planning and implementing
new services. Without specific documented customer requirements, senior IT
executive commitment and a proven continuous improvement cycle the
organization will not be able to comply to the standard. ITIL, specifically new
version 3, provides guidance to help implementing an ISO200000 compliant IT
Service Provider.
The revolution can be successful when all aspects of management of change
are applied
To implement the ISO20000 IT Service Provider in a revolutionary way, as
response to the crisis mentioned above, a change program needs to be started. To
be able to finish the change program within the limited timeframe a number of
change strategies are investigated. Kotters eight step process for transformation
helps to establish what needs to be done and in which sequence. Two important
steps are to empower employees by taking away barriers and to enable short-term
wins.
The barriers mentioned by Kotter correspond to four of the five change strategies
of De Caluw and Vermaak. These change strategies help to investigate all
elements that will either accelerate or block changes from happening. Based on
these theories a model is constructed of five elements:
Cooperation & Power
Structure & Planning
Culture & People
Development & Learning
Leadership & Performance
- 73 -
The ITIL3 core books provide guidance for implementing ITIL based service
management. Most of this guidance refers to measures in structure & planning and
in cooperation & power. There is considerable less guidance around the people
aspect of service management. Two proposals jump out:
Implement all processes at once (from a design point of view), do not implement
different processes at different times.
Take the value to the business the services delivers as starting point to create a
framework of control objectives as guideline.
When using this model and looking at previous implementations, specifically by
Getronics PinkRoccade consultants than it shows some of the reasons why ITIL
implementations were not as successful. In most cases the ITIL implementations
have been approached from a more evolutionary approach: the focus was mainly
on the design of processes, the documented procedures and role descriptions and
the tooling. Other important elements of a large change program, specifically
relating to the HR system, job descriptions, involving customers and linking to the
business strategy and objectives, were missing or only slightly touched. Involving
the employees in the ITIL initiative proves to be difficult resulting in about 75% of
the cases in the consultant making the designs of the processes by themselves.
The successful implementation cases were all conducted in a timeframe of 55 to
100 weeks.
The most accelerators in the past ITIL implementations mentioned had to do with
structure & planning and the most obstacles were in the cooperation & power
cluster. Showing that for external consultants it is easier to make interventions in
the structure or planning (design and project management) where they have most
difficulties dealing with the internal politics, difficult managers and not enough
management commitment.
Based on the experiences and the guidance from the ITIL a list of the most
valuable accelerators and obstacles can be created and this list has been given to
the ITIL experts for feedback. The following accelerators get the highest scores:
1. Create a shared view on the outcome and the performance objectives (based
on a
2. Compelling vision and strategy) (Cooperation & Power)
3. Inspect and reward, there should be consequences for the right and the wrong
actions (Culture & People)
4. Build confidence in the organization (employees) by showing on a regular
basis the
5. Improvements in performance that were made and empower them to take
initiatives on their own. Keep reducing fear. (Leadership & Performance)

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The two most important obstacles are:
Lack of funds, resources, time, etc. This connects with the weak leadership and
lack of commitment of senior management (Structure & Planning)
The level of learning capacity of the organization is insufficient to understand
quickly what is expected (Development & Learning)

It is possible to implement a IT Service Provider up to the ISO20000 standard in a
limited timeframe of about one year. There has to be a crisis in the relationship
between IT and Business to start of the change program. This implementation has
to be done with the full commitment and support of the IT executives, with the
cooperation of the HR department and the OR or workers council to alter the
employee performance system and job descriptions and with the possibility to
make changes in the staffing itself. The program should implement a management
system quickly: measuring and reporting on business related objectives to manage
improvements. Also the program should entail an intensive learning program for
both staff and management.
References
Caluw Lon de en Vermaak Hans Leren Veranderen - een handboek voor de
veranderkundige [Boek]. - Deventer, NL : Kluwer, 2006. - 2nd revised edition.
Greiner Larry E. Evolution and Revolution as organizations grow [Artikel] //
Harvard Business Review. - Boston : Harvard University, 1998. - May-June
1998.
Kotter John P. Leading Change [Boek]. - Boston, US : Harvard Business School
Press, 1996.
Nolan Richard en McFarlan F. Warren Information Technology and the board of
directors [Artikel] // Harvard Business Review. - Boston, Us : Harvard Business
Revieww, 2005. - 10 : Vol. 83.
Nolan Richard L. Managing the crisis in data processing [Artikel] // Harvard
Business Review. - Boston : Harvard Business Review, 1979. - 57 - March-
April.
- 75 -
After writing this thesis I had the opportunity to present my findings on the
annual congress of the ITSMF (IT Service Management Forum) Netherlands.
I focused in my presentation on the conclusion in my thesis: to implement ITIL
effectively there need to be a fundamental crisis in the IT organization and the
actual implementation program needs to address all aspects of the change.
Ive gotten a lot of positive feedback from the attendants and some send me
additional information on their ITIL change programs. The model to identify
the crisis in the relationship between business and IT was specially well
received. This model was not in the main objective of my thesis, and both in
the feedback of the exam commission and in the presentations of my findings
the model received the most positive attention.
Based on the feedback Ive revised the model and presented this as the
Business IT Integration Maturity Model.
Business View
The perception of the
importance of IT
IT Focues
What IT finds important
Strategy View Strategy Focus
Enabler View Business Focus
Commodity View Customer Focus
Scattered View Product Focus
No Strategic View Technology Focus
BITI Maturity Model

The BITI Maturity model is used to help IT organizations understand what role
the business is expecting them to take. Some IT organizations are trying to
become more than the business is expecting of them and therefore these
organizations fail to become effective. In most cases the IT organization is not
meeting the expectations of the business at all and are not growing to the
desired role. These IT organizations need to take more drastic actions to
accomplish the goals the business has set. By introducing ITIL based process
improvement alone they will not succeed. Ive found that organizations will
only transform when the IT workers choose a different behavior and attitude.
This demands strong leadership and willingness to change by the manager of
the IT department. The identified change accelerators and obstacles are a
useful tool to discuss this and to focus on what needs to be done.
- 76 -
Reflection by Drs. Hans Vriends MBA, Principal Consultant, Getronics
The thesis of Paul Leenards proved to be very useful in our practice for
service strategy and transformation. The first key question Paul will ask you is
what kind of service organization do you need? Instead of gradually trying to
improve your ITIL processes over time using a continuous service
improvement approach the content of the thesis forces you to think about the
maturity of the business you are serving. The IT organization is forced to
rethink its objectives and has to discuss with their customers how they can
get to a sound relationship.
Once you decide, using the BITI-model what maturity you want to attain the
thesis helps you with the strategy you need to get there. The thesis clearly
shows that not every approach will be successful and that there are sound
theoretical reasons, based on the organizational growth theory of Greiner, to
prefer a revolutionary or an incremental approach. This insight helps our
company in our advisory practice, when we discuss implementation
approaches with our customers. Especially to warn customers that some
changes in an IT organization cannot be done gradually, even if you have no
time constraint at all.
What also proved to be very useful are the findings on the commitment of the
line managers. Leadership is a dominant factor in realizing better services for
customers. That is an important conclusion because a lot of managers seem
to think that employees are intrinsically motivated to strive to a higher
maturity. From practice however we know that when the objective behind a
higher maturity, a perceived better service by the customer, is not clear to the
IT staff the quality of service tends to decline again. Consultants and
managers tend to see a revolutionary improvement as a career challenge and
tend to seek a new job afterwards. These are the kind of changes in the
guiding coalition that can be disastrous after a successful implementation.
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ACADEMIC VIEW ON THE MASTER OF IT MANAGEMENT
Professor dr. Anne Persson holds a chair in
computer science at the University of Skvde,
Sweden. She received a degree of Doctor of
Philosophy in Computer and Systems Sciences from
Stockholm University, Sweden (2001). Her main
research interest is development and use of or-
ganisational information systems. More specifically
her research interests include enterprise modelling
methods and tools, requirements engineering as well
as knowledge management and organisational patterns. Anne Persson
is an author or co-author of some 50 research reports and publications
and has participated in several EU financed research projects. She has
co-developed the EKP - Enterprise Knowledge Patterns and the EKD -
Enterprise Knowledge Development approaches.
IT has become a critical resource for organizations that strive for excellence. This
statement holds for private businesses as well as for public organizations.
However, governing this resource and tuning it so that it can live up to its potential
is a complex task that involves not only technology itself. One of the main
challenges is to align the provision of information technology services to ever
changing organizational processes and goals and at the same time provide
services that are cost effective. Another challenge is the dual role of IT in modern
organizations. On one hand it is a function that should support the enactment of
organizational processes. On the other hand it is an important component of
modern products and services.
The Master of IT Management at Delft Top Tech aims to make a contribution to the
practice of IT governance in private and public organizations by providing state of
the art education for practitioners that builds on research results as well as on
proven practice. Looking at the wide variety of Master thesis projects that have
been carried out by the students in the program, some of which are summarized in
this publication, it is clear that this ambition is fulfilled.
It is interesting to observe that the Master thesis projects cover a wide range of
topics. They show both the complexity of the area and also relate to some recent
research trends and theory developments, e.g. enterprise architecture and
outsourcing. The theses tell the stories of a number of IT management
improvement efforts carried out in organizations of various types and sizes, some
of which act within a country and some of which are multinational. The stories
describe progress made as well as challenges encountered when organizations
attempt to put strategy in action.
- 78 -
My task here is to reflect on the academic value of the Master of IT Management
program in general and the Master theses more specifically.
All academic education builds on research results and proven practice. Given that
the courses in the program reflect the state of the art of research as well as
practice, the Master thesis projects provides an opportunity for organizations to test
theories in practice and potentially implement them. The fact that the content of the
program is organized around an overall model for IT governance in this case the
COBIT model provides additional structure and focus. In addition to that, such a
model not only makes it possible to place the thesis projects in a theoretical
context. From a research perspective the use of an overall model becomes a
potential means of comparing the implementation in different cases of theories and
methods developed by researchers.
Several research issues can be raised based on the cases described in the theses,
e.g.:
Which theories and methods have been applied and what was the rationale
behind choosing them?
How were they applied and under which conditions?
What were the results?
Which factors influenced the results?
The last issue is particularly important since it is often difficult for researchers to
gain access to large and complicated settings where theories and methods can be
tested.
The fact that summaries of theses are published, like here, stating the name of the
organization is a value in itself. In research papers the case organization is often
anonymous. Identifiable organizations in case descriptions provide a richer
background and also open an opportunity for interested researchers to contact the
organization discuss collaborative research projects based on a thesis.
Cases like these are not only potentially valuable for research. They can also
function as teaching cases that reflect both the successful and the less successful
aspects of implementing theories and methods in practice. Such real life cases are
always appreciated by students as a basis for understanding theory and as a
source of inspiration for defining Bachelor and Master degree projects.
- 79 -
WE ARE IN THE MIDST OF IT MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT
Udo Groen is member of the Executive Board of
Directors of ProRail, the network infrastructure
manager for railways in the Netherlands. He is
responsible, among other responsibilities, for ICT.
Previous to that he worked for ten years as
management consultant for Ernst & Young, in which
period he acted as lecturer in Management of ICT
for the post graduate management consultancy
programme of the Free University Amsterdam. From
2001 till 2005 he was board member at the Sociale Verzekeringsbank
(Social Security Bank), with ICT in his portfolio.
In this chapter we reflect on 5 years of Master of IT Management at Delft Top Tech
from a business perspective. Every graduate delivered a thesis at the end of the
program as proof of their acquired ability. These theses are both scientifically
sound and relevant to the organisation of the graduate.
This reflection is based on the theses. How did the outcome help business with
their IT-performance? Did the personal professionalisation of the graduates
improve the performance of IT in their organisation?
We start with some of the biggest actual challenges that business faces in getting
results from IT. These challenges are:
How do we arrange responsibilities for IT (governance)?
How can we manage suppliers well (sourcing)?
How can we use IT-architectures in a practical way?
How do we align IT-efforts with business needs?
How can we get better results from projects in terms of results, time and cost?
Each of these questions will be addressed hereafter.

Many theses have IT governance as a subject. This shows that we are still
struggling with how to best govern IT. Management of IT is still a relatively young
profession. We are in the process of developing all kinds of models that arrange
responsibilities for IT in an effective way. Several recently developed governance
frameworks that include best practices show this. These models and frameworks
help to clarify responsibilities for IT.
- 80 -
This is very helpful, but more is needed. We need to analyse our experience with
these models in terms of how they really work in practice. In this analysis we need
to make more intensive use of literature already available on governance of
organisations and change management. Many underlying problems in the
governance of IT are normal organisational problems, like a lack of cooperation
and focus on delivering results. In this sense governance of IT has many
similarities with governance of organisations in general. We could gain
substantially by using the already available insights from the latter.
Several theses have IT sourcing as a subject. Often the central question is: which
capabilities do we buy from suppliers and which capabilities do we develop in our
own organisation? And in addition: how do we manage the new relationship with
the supplier?
These are all relevant issues. In addition, from a business perspective, the
following questions are also very relevant. How do we get a fair price, so that both
the supplier can make a normal profit and the project gets done? Competition is
harsh between IT-suppliers. This leads to lower prices. Normally a good thing, but
prices shouldnt go below the cost. Then we all lose, IT-suppliers because they
know they cant deliver at the agreed price. But also the client loses because the
desired result is not delivered. On this point the market is immature. We need a
contracting mechanism to prevent this situation from happening. It is not clear yet
how to achieve this.
Another relevant question is: how can we use the innovative expertise of suppliers
and at the same time maintain a level playing field for all suppliers? Organisations
never possess all relevant expertise themselves, so they want to use the expertise
of IT suppliers. The suppliers on the other hand, want to share their expertise in
order to acquire projects from clients. Hence the previous question. A possible
solution could be a so called unsolicited proposal. When IT suppliers have a truly
innovative solution, they can propose it to the organisation as an unsolicited
proposal. This proposal is still tendered on the market, therefore maintaining the
level playing field, but in such a way that the unique expertise of the offering IT
supplier is protected.
Several theses have methods for IT architectures as a subject. They help
selecting the right method for working with an IT architecture within the or-
ganisation of the graduate. The next step will be to analyse the practical ex-
perience in using the selected method.
The content of an IT-architecture hasnt been a frequent subject of a thesis. It
would be interesting to see examples of the content of IT-architectures as subject
for a thesis.

- 81 -
Several theses are about aligning IT-efforts with business needs. This involves
several steps. First of all, this requires deriving an IT plan from the business plan.
The design of a business process then delivers the functional needs for an IT
system. Then the IT system needs to be developed (mostly defined as a project)
and then exploited for day to day operations. The development and exploitation
need to be delivered at agreed service levels. This requires operational excellence.
Developing an IT plan and functional needs for an IT system is more complex
because this requires a common language between business and IT. This common
language has all the complexity of human interaction and is not yet available. It is
vital that this language will be developed. One thesis in particular is worth
mentioning in this perspective - the thesis of Jacco Schonewille named A structure
creating transparency between Business and IT. He states in his thesis:
A structure was developed to improve the alignment between Business and
IT by increasing the transparency, which is defined as: The state of the
Processes, People and Technology in the IT governance domain,
determined by the level of explicitness, openness, simplicity and clarity. The
basis of transparency is to be clear about what to achieve, how to execute,
who is responsible and about the means. Very little can be done to improve
the alignment process unless transparency is increased.
The transparency that he refers to is the basis of a common language between
business and IT. His thesis could be the first step on our way to a breakthrough of
achieving that common language.
A subject that, from a business perspective, is missing is getting better results from
projects in terms of results, time and cost. Management of complex projects is
always difficult. The same applies to IT projects. But what makes IT projects unique
that they have such a low success rate? We all use Prince2 but when we look at
the results, it is not enough. Several things could help us out here. Project
management as a profession is well known, project management of IT projects is
relatively new. We could learn from other disciplines where project management
has been practiced for many decades. In addition, IT management needs more
general management skills. Last but not least, the technology itself is not always
stable once released. Everybody has experience with the growing pains when a
new IT system is delivered. So we need extra measures to guarantee the proper
functioning of the technology, e.g. more testing and proofs of concept. These are
specific aspects of IT projects. So, getting better results from projects is another
important topic for a thesis.
For all graduates, following the Master of IT Management program is a very
intense effort. It puts a strain on both work and private life. It is quite an
achievement to complete the program in combination with work and family.
However, this effort is far from fruitless and generates a great result, the personal
professionalisation of the graduate. After the program, the graduate is significantly
better qualified to manage IT on a more senior management level.
- 82 -
In summary, from a business perspective the program Master of IT Management is
on the right track. It contributes to the professionalisation of the management of IT.
But this process is not finished, we are in the midst of it. This process could be
speeded up by infusing the subject management of IT with scientific management
literature that is already available eg. about governance of organisations in general
and change management.
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